Chapter Eight

Author's note: I literally have to ask myself what chapter I'm on every time. Good news is that I'm close to breaking 10,000 words with this little gem. I have two problems though, one is this cold that came out of nowhere. The other is I am now bullshitting this story. I really need to sit down and decide where this baby is going. Also, I think I've been spoiled with loose leaf teas. Lipton teas just don't do it for me anymore and that's all we have at work. I do not own MDAS

Mallory and Nosedive cornered Duke in the kitchen. It was his turn to make lunch and knowing him it wasn't going to be extravagant, but simple. Tuna sandwiches and whatever giant bags of chips they had lying around. Rhynie wasn't with him, which meant she was probably taking a shower.

"So, Duke, how was your game?" Nosedive asked.

"It looked like a lot of fun." Mallory pretended to be hurt by the fact that they hadn't asked either of them to join their obstacle course.

"Alright, what do you two mooks want?" Duke asked, glaring suspiciously at the two.

"Us?" Nosedive asked dramatically, "We don't want anything. Do we Mal?"

"Nope, sure don't." Mallory shook her head.

"You know, we just want to know where Rhynie picked up those sweet moves." Nosedive quickly asked.

Duke sighed, turned his back to the counter and leaned against it. "This is something you should really be askin' Rhynie."

"Yea well we don't really know her and she's not here." Nosedive nudged Duke in the ribs, "So c'mon tell us! Tell us! Tell us!"

Mallory bluntly asked, crossing her arms over her chest she bluntly stated, "You know he won't stop until you spill, right?"

"Grab those chips and I'll tell you a story." Duke pointed at the top of the fridge where their multiple choices sat.

They gathered around the kitchen table and waited after Duke tore through the first few bites of his sandwich. Nosedive was on the verge of rocketing out of his chair with anticipation and Mallory was getting annoyed that their friend was taking forever.

"Before Rhynie and I got together it took me awhile to get her to tell me anything about herself. I knew the basic stuff about her, but I never knew why or how she joined The Brotherhood of the Blades. Our leader treated her a little better than most and protected her from the ones that would have done some pretty horrible stuff to her. One night, after a successful heist, we were celebrating and Rhynie got a little too drunk."

"What a shocker." Mallory rolled her eyes.

Duke glared at her, "Anyway. She started to open up a little. Turns out Rhynie is from one of the wealthiest families on Puke World."

The two straightened and asked in unison: "How wealthy?"

"Like she's related to one of generals who took out the first wave Saurians one hundred years ago wealthy. And maybe a few politicians and hockey players in the midst."

"Get. Out." Mallory's beak practically dropped to the floor.

Duke smirked, "It gets better. Now her parents were very strict with her. Controlled every aspect of her life. What she ate, wore, hung out with, where she went to school and what she could do in her free time. The only time she actually enjoyed herself was when she was on the ice, as a very talented figure skater."

"Pay up." Nosedive held out his hand to Mallory with a smug smirk tugging at his beak.

Duke ignored their bet, "Rhynie wanted to become a professional ice skater and she was good enough to become one. Her parents, however, wouldn't let her. They took away her skates, cancelled all of her lessons and kept her away from ice rinks all together."

"That's terrible." Mallory muttered. "Why'd they do that to her?"

"Apparently they had her whole life planned for her. They wanted her to become the new leader of Puck World or something." Duke waved off stupid notion and took another hand full of chips. "And of course Rhynie was devastated. She became depressed. Refused to eat, hardly slept and couldn't function. She wanted to be on the ice more than anything and when her parents took that away they basically cut off her legs."

The hockey players knew the feeling well. Besides fighting evil and wanting to get home, they were obsessed with hockey. Taking that away was like signing their death sentence.

"So what'd she do?" Nosedive asked impatiently.

"She did whatever suffocated kid would do in her situation. She ran away. I don't know how she found The Brotherhood of the Blades, but I guess she bought her way in. Gave a sack of her parent's valuables to our leader and he let her join. Smart move on her part."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because if hadn't I'm sure our boss would have taken her for ransom. A girl like Rhynie, back then before we were invaded, was worth a lot. She bought herself protection and as soon as she hit the ice she went back to normal. The hockey stuff came later."

Mallory and Nosedive sat back in their chair and soaked in the new information. Their lunch was left untouched, while Duke had started on his fourth sandwich by the time he finished his story.

"But like I said, you should really ask her this." Duke said smugly.

"Especially since you left out the parts where I constantly beat you at every test." They turned towards the door to see a refreshed Rhynie with Wildwing, Tanya and Grin behind her.

"Oh yea there's that too." Duke added sarcastically.

"How long have you been standing there?" Mallory asked.

"Long enough to hear the whole story." Rhynie giggled and picked up a sandwich. She examined it, "What the hell is this?"

"The only meat we can eat on this planet. It's sort of fish. It taste like those things we had on planet Guerrero, minus the live bugs." Duke explained, standing and pushed Rhynie down in the chair. He leaned against the wall, listening to Rhynie tell the story of how Duke got stuck in a rope trap. They were miles away from their recent heist and their chasers had lost their trail hours ago. So they could afford to stand underneath Duke to laugh at him. Rhynie was the one who threw her knife to cut him down. The only thing Rhynie didn't know was that was the moment that Duke fell for her.

Author's note: Everything is wonderful when you can tell embarrassing stories. Please review.