Chapter 4: A Daily Annoyance
" PAPA!!"
A human man jolted in his seat when he heard the cry. With quick reflexes, he immediately stopped a can of paint from spilling onto the animation cel he was working on before turning his attention to the tiny black duckling who came running into the room.
" Daffy, no running inside the studio. You know how hard it is to clean up paint", the man scolded before eventually picking up the distressed duck," What's the matter, champ".
" He won't leave me alone!", Daffy said pouting angrily as he pointed towards the doorway. The man looked in the direction Daffy was pointing in and saw two eyes peeking curiously into the office. The owner of the eyes attempted to hide, but his long gray ears tend to leave a little slower than the rest of him. The man chuckled softly," Come in, Kit. You know you're welcome here anytime just like Daffy".
The eyes peeked in again, his long ears slightly floppy. This time he tentatively stepped inside before sprinting into the man's arm, who chuckled at the little rabbit toon's sudden eagerness to be close to him.
" He keepsth following me everywhere. And he keepsth making a fool of himself in front of my friendsth! Do you know how embarrassthing it isth to brag about how talented your new sthibling is but your friendsth sthee he can't even accessth his hammersthpace yet!", Daffy huffed," Donald'sth never going to let thisth go".
" He's only two weeks old, Daffy. He still needs to develop his powers. And what did I tell you about playin' with Disney toons?!", the man scolded.
Daffy pouted," But he getsth to play with Mickey all the time! Why can't I play with Donald", he complained.
" Because I don't trust any Disney toon that wasn't disciplined by Ub Iwerks. Mickey's Ub's kid. I know Mickey won't hurt Kit over here. Ain't that right, Kit?", the man said as he looked at the rabbit who nodded eagerly along to what the man said.
Daffy huffed," Fine. But I don't want him following me around", he said," It's annoying".
The man chuckled," Oh that's normal. Little siblings always follow the oldest around because they like you and wanna be like them", he said before turning to the rabbit," Is that it, bud? Is that why you're following Daffy around? Because you wanna be like him", he asked curiously
.
The rabbit paused before nodding shyly. He averted his gaze downward in embarrassment and Daffy couldn't help but feel foolish for getting angry.
" See? Now you know he likes ya" , the man said grinning.
The rabbit tried to speak but was silent, only able to mouth out the words 'Sorry Daffy' to apologise.
" Oh its fine. I'm over it. But if ya follow me around when I'm with my friends again, I'll pummel ya-"
" Daffy"
" Pummel ya gently. Besides, you clearly are doing this in good taste. I mean... you wanna be like me. I'm the best toon to be like! Obviously!", Daffy said confidently," You have good taste, Kit!".
The rabbit laughed, but still no sound escaped him.
" Well I'm very glad for one that you two are getting along again", the man said with a smile.
Kit smiled and then his mouth began to move rapidly, not a single sound escaping him as he 'spoke', forgetting he couldn't speak yet.
" Uncle Mel will have to get him a voice soon".
" We might have to get him a new name as well", the man said thoughtfully.
" What's wrong with his name?", Daffy asked.
" Leon thinks his name's a little too... childish for him. We're gonna have to come up with a new name for him", the man sighed before the sound of someone clearing their throat was heard.
A young man stood in the doorway looking in," Mr Avery, Mr Schlesinger is looking for you" , he said.
" Thanks Charles", Tex said kindly before lowering Daffy and Kit onto the floor," Now run along you two. And don't cause too much trouble!".
" We won't!", Daffy yelled before retreating outside, his little brother's hand in his.
Duck Dodgers leaned against the wall as captains sat around their table like they were part of King Arthur and his knights at the round table. He wasn't a massive fan of the monthly captain's meetings held at the Protectorate base. It forced him to interact with people he didn't like.
People who didn't understand him.
Though this meeting was rather different than others. Rather off script, Dodgers would say. Then again, the last few days had been weird as well.
It was as if there was a disturbance in the routine. An improvised act on stage. A surprise character. A new challenger on the platform.
For the first time in 3 centuries, Dodgers felt watched.
It was a feeling well acquainted with toons, having to always be on camera and always entertaining an audience. There was a whole spectrum to it, ranging from normal audience watching to intense watching bordering on stalking.
For Dodgers, it was definitely the latter.
He was being stalked. By who? He didn't know... yet.
Though the prospect of being stalked by something unknown terrified him, Duck Dodgers, or more so Daffy Duck, while being a space agent was an actor first and foremost. All he had to do was play oblivious while figuring out how to catch his stalker in the act. It was simple and a near effective plan, though not quite thought out.
But Dodgers was nothing if not a master of improv. All his best successes came from him thinking on the spot.
" Dodgers?"
" Yeah", Dodgers said looking up to meet his fellow comrade's gazes.
He was at best civil with his comrades, but at worst, he was downright cold. Sometimes even uncharacteristically cold. Which was something that was occurring more often the deeper he fell. It baffled his fellow captains but they shrugged off the weird behaviour, assuming Dodgers had a bad morning.
The one who called him was Captain Star Johnson, Dodgers'... rival in a weird sense. Nothing like the rivalry between him and Commander X-2. Johnson and him worked together but often butt heads.
" How's everything in your sector?", Star Johnson asked, sending Dodgers a not so subtle glare at the duck for his inattention.
" All'sth clear. Peaceful even", Dodgers said nonchalantly about his patrol sector, which was the Earth-Mars borders.
" Are you absolutely certain?", Johnson stressed.
" Yesth, I'm sure. Tyr'ahnee hadn't sthent a sthingle fleet of war ships out sthince a couple of monthsth ago. There was only a sthingle time a sthip left Martian atmosphere but that was a cargo sthip heading for Gordovia, sthince thosthe two planetsth stharted trading recently", Dodgers explained.
" First name bases with the enemy, especially a Martian. How disgusting", a captain muttered with a sneer.
" Wanna sthpeak up Dargisth. I don't think the entire room heard you fully", Dodgers said annoyed.
If there was one person who angered him him the most, it would Captain Solarin Dargis. Since their first meeting Solarin rubbed him wrong with his higher-than-thou, pretentious behaviour and his rather bigoted views. And Solarin seemed to have had it out for him ever since he was dubbed Captain, similarly to Star Johnson except Dodgers had some respect for Johnson. Dodgers if he weren't holding back 99.8% of his strength would have clobbered Dargis out of the Milky Way if he weren't to trying to not out himself as a 'reality warper' in a loose sense.
He could, hypothetically, erase their memories if it came to that but that required a large amount of energy. And Dodgers, in his state of finally sobering up from his daily inhalation of nicotine, was in no position for forceful mindwiping, even if it was as simple as deleting a file from storage (which is exactly what it looked like).
To keep it simple, Dargis is an idiot and Dodgers wants to hurt him SO BADLY.
Dargis scoffed," It's just quite interesting how you refer to the Martian Queen by her name. Without her title to add on...", he said glaring at the duck.
Aurora Soleil, a lieutenant turned captain who Dodgers was attracted to for a short time, spoke up," Dodgers does tend to refer to his foes rather casually. There's nothing too special with his treatment of Queen Tyr'ahnee of Mars", she said factually.
" Ah, but that's with incessant nicknames and insults. He never refers to them by their first names", Dargis pointed out.
" What are you implyin' here, bub?", Dodgers growled, a sound that came out a little too animalistic than he intended and he could tell by how the silent captains closest to him flinched.
" You know exactly what I'm implying, Dodgers", Dargis sneered.
" Dargis-", Johnson warned, knowing where the conversation was going.
" Johnson, we all know what's going on! It's all so fucking clear as glass, you can practically tell what's going on. It's obvious those two have an arrangement and are in cahoots with each other", Dargis said irritated.
Dodgers froze. Arrangement? Did this fool just imply he and Tyr'ahnee were...
" Sthpreadin' rumoursth, Dargisth? Pretty low even for you. Tyr'ahnee and I ain't together stho get off your high horsThe and remove that sthick up your assth. You might learn sthome humility and tact after you get it out", Dodgers spat out venomously.
" Then explain your recent visit to Mars, Dodgers", Dargis said smugly.
Dodgers cursed. He should have known Dargis would have kept track of his teleportations just to find dirt on him. That had been a careless oversight on Dodgers' part.
" I was just checking out the local places on Mars. I hardly ever get to see it. It's quite lovely but you wouldn't know that, would you?", Dodgers said calmly.
" Your location database says you were in the Martian palace for hours", Dargis argued, never relenting, never backing down.
It would have been an admirable trait on anyone else had it been Dargis.
" Look here bub, what I do in my break time is my busthiness!", Dodgers growled.
" So you are with her!"
" I never sthaid that", Dodgers argued.
" You didn't have to say anything to make my statement correct", Dargis said smugly.
" I AM-"
Sirens blared and the room was only illuminated by red flashing lights signalling an emergency.
Dodgers sneered as he looked at Dargis," Thisth isthn't over, bub", he growled as he and other captains ran out the room, weapons ready to take on the threat.
End of Chapter 4
Very short and filler chapter-like, I know. But next chapter will be interesting, I promise. Hope you all had a good Christmas and will have a good New Year too. Remember to review and I wish you all a good day/night and a very happy holiday.