Chapter 2

Grace Elloch, for that was the outsider's name, called her boss from the Aerowing and announced that she was quitting immediately as they flew out of New Haven. Wildwing listened in surprise, and when she finished her call with her outraged boss, he said,

"You could have waited until after we reached Anaheim to do that. What if this doesn't work out?"

"It will," she said confidently. "You're going to be glad you left with me instead one of those cheats from upstairs."

"So you're Grace. I'm Wildwing," he said. "But I guess you knew that."

She smiled and nodded.

"You watch hockey?"

"I did, but your team hasn't played for over a month. I'm sorry you had to forfeit some of your games."

Wildwing gripped the control wheel of the Aerowing a bit tighter.

"It was not what we wanted. But I couldn't ask my teammates to play in their condition. They were starting to get seriously injured during our last games."

Grace listened quietly. She remembered seeing the other teams begin to take out the ducks too easily on the ice.

"How have you managed to keep going?"

"I'm not sure why it affected the others more than me at first, but soon I was the only one well enough to travel and look for a cure. I've been to see so many doctors, but when I described the symptoms, they all said that they've only known their patients to recover after seeing a healer from OtherEarth, Inc."

His passenger sat in silence and for a few moments neither of them spoke. Eventually. Wildwing glanced at her again and asked,

"You just like hockey in general, or was there some other reason you watched our games?"

A little color came into her face.

"I'm mostly a fan of your team," she admitted. "I really don't know that much about hockey. I started watching your games here, because I watched your show in my world."

"Oh, you caught that? I got the feeling most outsiders hadn't seen it."

"Some of them know next to nothing about this world anyway," she scoffed.

"So why do you want to stay at the Pond after you help us?" Wildwing asked. "And why are your powers a secret?"

She smiled.

"You're still doubting that I have powers, aren't you?"

Wildwing didn't answer.

"Do you know what it means for one of us to get a position like those jerks in the offices?"

"Registration," Wildwing answered with a shrug.

She watched him and said, "You say that like it's just signing a few forms."

"You're saying there's a reason why they have to charge all of that money for services?"

"No, there's no justification for that. But I am saying that they have to go through tests. Their powers have to meet a certain criteria, and if they don't, then usually things do not end well."

"The government and the Off-World Agency just wants to make sure their powers are safe," Wildwing said. "I'll tell you right now that I've got some concerns about letting you near my teammates. Even if you do have powers, they might not be something you can control. My friends could end up worse than they are now."

He expected her to take offense, but her gaze appeared sympathetic.

"I understand your concerns, but that won't happen. I can help your friends."


When Wildwing landed the Aerowing inside the Pond, he felt a renewed sense of urgency to go and find his teammates. This whole trip had taken longer than he had expected. Grace followed him without needing any urging. She appeared to understand how serious this was to him.

As they walked through the halls of the Pond, Grin found them. He appeared weary himself. His shoulders sagged, and his face looked drawn.

"How are the others?" Wildwing asked quickly.

"Everyone's in their bunks. Nosedive and Tanya won't wake, and Duke and Mallory are almost too weak to stand."

Grin put his hand to the wall to steady himself. Wildwing reached out to him.

"You're struggling too, Grin."

"Yes, but help is here," Grin said hopefully, turning to the stranger beside Wildwing.

Grace shot a smile at him, but then she turned to Wildwing.

"I would prefer to have everyone in one room. If I help you, can we get them moved?"

Wildwing nodded.

"Can you get to the infirmary, Grin?"

The big duck nodded.

"We'll get the others and meet you there."

Grin began to slowly make his way down the hall.

"I can carry my brother and Tanya to the infirmary in a couple of trips. But maybe you can help Duke and Mallory walk there?"

He showed her quickly how to get to their rooms and then the infirmary. He also passed a device to her that would allow her to open the doors to their rooms.

"I got it. See you there," she said.

Grace went first to Mallory's room, and she found the redhead lying on her bunk.

"Are you the healer?" Mallory asked.

"Yeah, come on, we're getting everyone together," Grace explained as she helped pull Mallory up.

As Grace's hands held onto Mallory's arms, the duck's head lifted a little higher.

"I almost felt slightly better there for a moment," Mallory said.

"Good, 'cause I'm not carrying you," Grace said with a smile as she let Mallory lean on her.

They made their way to the infirmary as Wildwing carried Tanya down the hall. Then Grace went to find Duke. When she entered his bunk, she found him sitting against the wall on the floor.

"Wing found someone," he said faintly when he saw her.

"Yes, he did," Grace said as she drew him up.

She wrapped an arm around him and let him lean against her for support. Duke's good eye opened a little wider.

"My head's a little clearer now. Did you do that?"

"I do what I can," she said. "But I'll do more when everyone's in the same room."

By the time Grace reached the infirmary with Duke, Wildwing was laying Nosedive down on a bed. All of the other ducks were there, and Grace had Duke sit in one of the chairs.

Wildwing stepped back from them and watched her with a cautious gaze. He had heard of healings before, but he had never seen one happen. And he still wasn't sure if he had made the right decision.

Grace noted his gaze, but she walked forward and raised her hands with the palms facing out and up towards the ducks. She closed her eyes for a moment, and Wildwing saw light begin to visibly appear above her palms in strange wisps. When Grace opened her eyes again, they shone with a bright light, and the power above her hands began to radiate out towards the ducks. At first, it seemed to expand slowly, and then Wildwing saw it burst forth with intense speed. It surrounded his teammates, and the brightness of it felt blinding to him.

But when the light cleared, Grace had lowered her hands, and her eyes had returned to their normal appearance. Wildwing moved quickly to his teammates, but Duke and Mallory stood up at once. Grin also rose, and Nosedive and Tanya sat up from the beds.

"Talk about a boost of energy!" Nosedive said with a grin as he pushed himself off of the bed and embraced his brother. "That was awesome!"

"I had no idea humans could do something like this so quickly," Tanya said as she saw Grace.

"Weeks of struggling, and I finally feel like myself again!" Mallory said.

Wildwing looked around at his teammates, and his spirits lifted as he saw how well they looked.

"How did you find this girl, Wing?" Duke said as he walked over and shook Grace's hand gratefully.

"Actually, she found me," Wildwing said smiling.

Mallory's smile faded.

"How much does this cost? I mean, it's not that I'm not grateful, but well, I've heard things."

Wildwing walked back to Grace.

"So your terms. You want to stay here for two weeks, and we're not allowed to tell anyone about your powers. That was our agreement."

"Wait, what?" Duke asked in surprise, but Wildwing motioned for him to hold off on asking questions.

"Yes, that is what I asked for," Grace said. "But if you don't want me here, I can leave in a few days. I'm just asking you to keep my secret."

Wildwing shook his head.

"Don't you realize that if you asked for money, I'd pay you what I could?"

"I don't want your money," Grace said firmly. "I did this to help you."

Wildwing smiled and reached out his hand. As he was not dressed in his armor, it was uncovered, and Grace took it with both of her hands and closed her eyes as she held onto him. Light briefly passed from her hands into him, and then she released his hand.

"You may not have faded as far as your teammates, but I could see you needed some help too."

Wildwing looked down at his hand, feeling much stronger and clear-headed than he had felt in days.

"Thank you."

She nodded.

"As I said, I'll go if you don't want me to stay."

"Of course, we want you to stay," Duke interjected. "Wing, we're not gonna let her leave, are we?"

Wildwing looked from his teammates to Grace.

"You could always stay longer than two weeks," he said. "But I'm going to hold you to the two weeks, since that was our agreement."

Grace smiled.

"All right, then we'll talk. You may be tired of me by that point."

"Not likely!" Nosedive scoffed.


During the first couple of days, some of the ducks watched Grace, waiting for something to go wrong. Her deal had just been too good. There has to be some kind of catch, Mallory thought to herself. But she never saw anything to concern her. Grace was never demanding or troublesome. She seemed to truly admire the ducks, and if she had other powers beside healing, there was no sign of them.

On the fourth day of her time with the ducks, Tanya drew Wildwing and Mallory aside to talk with them in her lab.

"I'm really glad you found Grace, Wildwing, so don't take this the wrong way. But there is something that worries me about her."

"And what is that?"

"Well, I did some research on outsiders using their powers. And in all of the cases documented, it seems to take quite a bit out of them. It can depend on what the situation is. But think about it. She healed five of us at the same time! She didn't even seem a little tired afterwards. And didn't I even hear her offering to go out and help other people in Anaheim?"

Wildwing remembered Grace's conversation with him from yesterday where she expressed a desire to find a way to secretly use her power to help the rest of the town.

"Why is it again that she wants us to keep her powers a secret?" Mallory asked, turning to Wildwing.

"She didn't seem to like the registration requirements from the Off-World Agency. But maybe I should talk to her about it again."

"What requirements concerned her?" Tanya asked.

"She said that powers had to meet 'certain criteria'. It sounded like she knew hers wouldn't, and she didn't want to punished for it."

Tanya grew quiet and thoughtful.

"What is it?" Mallory asked.

"I know you told us that you doubted that she had any powers at first, Wildwing, but now I'm thinking it's the opposite," Tanya said. "It sounds like she has too much power. She wants her abilities kept a secret because something could happen to her if anyone found it."

"Like what?" Wildwing asked.

"Well, if people think she's a threat, they'll…" Tanya broke off.

"They'll try to eliminate the threat," Mallory finished grimly.


An hour later, Grace sat quietly in the rec room as she listened to Wildwing explain his prior conversation with Tanya and Mallory. The other ducks sat silently around her.

"We agreed to keep your powers a secret," Wildwing said. "And we will. You've been a good friend to us, Grace. But I want you to be honest with us. Is this the reason you want your powers to be a secret?"

She remained still for a few moments and did not answer, and Nosedive interjected,

"Bro, what are you saying would happen to her?"

"I don't know exactly what would happen," Wildwing answered.

"They'd kill me," Grace said bluntly. "Or at least try to kill me. And keep me imprisoned until they could figure it out."

"That might not be their first move," Tanya said, trying to be a bit more optimistic.

Grace shook her head.

"They can't just execute you," Duke protested.

"You guys are aware of a character named Superman that we have comics and movies about in the world I come from, right?" Grace asked.

"Sure, yeah, we know about that guy. We just can't mention him unless we wanna get sued for trademark infringement," Nosedive said with a wink and smile.

Grace laughed and continued, "Well, everyone knows Superman's reputation as a hero, but that doesn't mean people never freaked out about his powers. And kind of like me, he got his powers from living in another world. I think the reason given was the Earth's sun or something like that, but anyway, the amount of power he had scared people in some of the stories I heard."

"That doesn't mean they jumped right to trying to kill him," Mallory said.

Grace shrugged.

"Depends on which story you've heard. But my point is, if the Off-World Agency knew how much power I had, there's no question they would try to destroy me."

"How much power do you have?" Duke asked hesitantly. "I thought you were just a good healer."

Grace stretched out her hand towards the tv remote on the table in front of them. It was lifted up in the air by an invisible force, and suddenly, it contorted into a different black shape. Then it transformed from a solid to a liquid, the black substance flowing in strange shapes in the air. It changed from black to blue and then to yellow. It became a sphere and then completely flat. Finally, it shifted back into its original form and landed back on the table, a regular tv remote again.

Looking at the surprised gazes of the ducks, Grace answered with a soft, yet honest tone,

"I can do just about anything I want."


Please leave reviews! Even if you don't have much to say, I enjoy the comments, and I like to know what readers are thinking.

I already have the next chapters almost completed, so it won't take long to publish more. I'm planning to try to post more each week until it's finished.