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After what felt like hours of arguing, Drake had to sit down. "Your really not going to give this up are you?" He watched her.
"Nope." She looked as tired as him but unwilling to bend. Her arm was still patched up and healing from the shoulder wound and despite this, she was still going to go after the Saurians. Beautiful, smart, and stubborn. Way did she have to be stubborn.
"Alright..." He covered his eyes with his hands. "I can't believe I'm doing this." He mumbled to himself. His heart pounding in his chest at the thought was what he was about to do. Did he really like her this much that he was doing this? He looked up at her and his jaw dropped, her green eyes were shining in admiration of him and the smile directed at him was blindingly beautiful. Yeah he did. Besides what she said made sense. Once the Saurian striped this planet of it's natural resources they would leave them to die and move on to the next unsuspecting planet. If they didn't fight then they were dead anyway. So what choice did he really have in the end.
"Your joking right!" Mallory and Drake both jumped and looked to the doorway into the house. William was standing there with a horrified expression on his face. "I mean this has got to be a joke. You both can't be serious!" He marched out to them, wanting to knock some sense into his friend. "If you want to go on some suicidal mission then feel free lady but don't pull my friend into it with you." He angrily pointed at Mallory.
"This has to be done."
"Your going to get him killed!" William yelled, while Drake tried to calm his friend. "Mara tell them!"
Everyone turned to Mara who was standing in the doorway, she had been there as long as William had. She looked back and forth between Mallory and Drake, really processing what Mallory had said. "I think Mallory's right." William's jaw dropped.
"Your defending her!?" William growled in outrage. "I can't believe you agree! She's going to get him killed!"
"Maybe but if we don't do something then eventually we will all be killed. I think she's right and I can help." William stared at her slack jawed, Drake's eyes were large with surprise and Mallory watched her curiously.
"How?" Mallory asked.
"Well I'm an excellent healer and you'll need one of those on hand. Also I know people and some happen to know people with certain skill sets that could help us." Mara placed her hands together in front of herself.
"When did this all happen Mara?" Drake asked.
"I grew up on the streets Drake. I may have gone straight but plenty of friends I used to run with haven't. So, I could ask around for help."
"No Mara!" Drake surprised them all with his tone. "It's too dangerous. You could get hurt."
Mara smiled affectionately at Drake, liking how protective he was of her. "It's my choice and I know how to disappear in a crowd, unlike you." She giggled to herself remembering a couple of times that Drake had tripped and caused a scene in the market place when she was with him.
Drake blushed at little when he saw Mallory raise an eyebrow at that. "Mara please don't mention those embarrassing moments in front of Mallory." Drake thought. Mallory was graceful and moved with confidence like someone powerful would. He wanted to be able to move like that, it's one of the reasons why he accepted training with her. That and because he wanted to spend more time with her.
"Alright. If you think you can handle it but I'm going to want to see the list of candidates and a list of their credentials. If you can get me that then that would be helpful." For the time being, Mallory was going to be in charge until Drake was ready to take over. "We're going to need to find a secret place to meet. Some place that the Saurians wouldn't think to look. Once we establish a hideout we can start recruiting but never bring them too the hideout until they've been fully checked out. They could be a Saurian spy, so we'll need to investigate them before bringing them in." Mallory looked to Drake and Mara, who both nodded in agreement. Everyone looked to William, wanting to see where he stood on this.
"What are you looking at me for. There's no way that I'm going to be apart of this." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from everyone. He at least thought Mara would back him up but she was all for it!
"You don't have to be. Just please keep this a secret. If anyone finds out it could get us all killed." Mallory wanted William to understand that if he told the wrong person, then he might accidentally get his friends killed. Drake and Mara tensed at this but waited on bated breath for William's answer. The duck sighed and dropped his arms to his sides in defeat.
"Fine. But only because I want to protect them. You I don't care about." The tan duck glared at Mallory.
"William!" Drake scolded. Not liking the way his friend was acting. Mara choose to say nothing against or in support of William. She agreed with him for the most part, she kind of liked Mallory but at the same time wanted her gone but it was only because of the selfish part of her didn't want Drake's affections to go to Mallory. It really was the only thing she didn't like about Mallory. She had Drake's attention and she didn't even notice him. Drake had known her for all of two days and he was more interested in the red head then he had ever show towards herself. She was jealous and she knew it but she couldn't help it.
"That's good enough for me." Mallory nodded to him. He didn't have to like her. She didn't particularly care, what she cared about the winning the war and making sure Drake DuCaine became the heroic DuCaine that everyone knows in the modern day Puckworld. She glanced back over at Drake from the corner of her eye. He didn't even stand like a soldier, if anything he seemed even less confident then Wildwing when he first started.
Mallory sighed to herself. "This isn't going to be fun."
…..
It was perfect. This was going to be their hideout.
In some old underground tunnels that were abandoned long ago, was a maze of passages that lead to a central area, housing multiple large rooms. It would be perfect. The right wing could be the infirmary where Mara would be in charge, the left wing would be for training. The central would be where everyone gathered for meetings and planning. Side rooms could be used for sleeping and storage. Finally the north wing would be for the kitchens and dinning. It was perfect. Finally it was far underground away from any form of detection that the Saurian's could use and it had may escape routes that led to exit's all over the city above. Allowing them to strike from different positions and disappear quickly. They would need to learn the tunnels in order not to get lost and set traps for any hunter drones that follow. This was it, this was exactly what they needed.
"How did you find this place Drake?" Mara asked wondering around it.
"I used to come play down here with friends when I was young. William knows about it. He played down here as well. We know these tunnels like the back of out hands." Drake smiled looking around the giant room that stood in the center of this underground fortress.
"It's perfect. Well done Drake." Mallory complemented. Drake nodded to her, trying not to beam with too much pride at her complement. "Now we can begin."
Mara turned to look at Mallory. "With what?"
"Training and recruitment."
…..
Mara had provided Mallory with an impressive list of potential candidates. The only thing was, she wanted to meet her source but Mara's source was unwilling to meet. Which was understandable but in order for Mallory to completely trust this list of candidates then she needed to know if she could trust person who recommended them. Mara was still trying to convince her source to meet with Mallory, otherwise they could not move forward.
Mallory wasn't willing to risk Puckworld's future on a promise from an unknown party. Call her paranoid but she preferred to see when and if she was going to be stabbed in the back. It was hard to gain her trust but once you did, then you were in and if you broke it then stars help you cause she never would.
Focusing her mind back on Drake's training she side stepped a fist, aimed at her. Grabbing his arm she used his own weight against him to throw him over her shoulder on to the ground. Drake grunted out in pain when he landed on his back. "Ouch." He groaned, slowly sitting up. Mallory offered her hand to help him up which he gratefully took.
"Your style of fighting right now is an outright brawler and you can take a hit and keep on coming but if you come across an opponent that really can fight, then their going to be dancing around you like I just did." She turned around and walked back across the room, letting Drake compose himself. "This training is not only going to help you learn to fight like me but be good enough to be able to predict what your enemy's moves are going to be before he even makes them."
"How could I possibly learn and know that?" Drake asked, his hands on his hips.
"By their body language and watching where their eyes go. It's going to feel awkward at first but once you get use to it, then it will become second nature. Every good fighter knows this." Mallory turned to face him again now that she was on the other side of the room.
"If every good fighter knows this then how am I supposed to beat someone who can do the same thing?"
"By tricking them with your body language and never letting your eyes show where your going to go next."
"That sounds impossible!" Drake threw his arms up in frustration.
"It's not but you need to focus on what I'm teaching you now. We'll take this one step at a time until your ready to learn more advanced moves and techniques. Learning to trick an experience opponent with body language is a whole other level of training. So don't even worry about that right now." Mallory reassured him. He nodded but got back into stance. "Alright this time I'll tell you how to attack and what to do."
…..