Chapter 2: Living Nightmare
They all stared, dumb founded. Duck started to shake. He had to be dreaming. The Evil Kenevil gang had all died (with theexception of Dare) in that cave months ago. He had, since then, feared that they would come back for him; to finish the job of iliminating him permanently. But, they were dead, they couldn't come back, right? He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see it was Ace. The leader had noticed him starting to go into a break down, great.
"You're fine, Duck." He whispered, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly.
"Are you sure?" asked Tech, a look of pale terror on his face. Zedavia nodded.
"There's nothing you can do about Dare, he's gone. But if it is them, if they are still alive, they will want revenge. They may even recruit a few more enimies to replace the ones they lost. I prayed this day would never come, but it has. You all are in serious trouble if they're out for blood."
They all nodded as she vanished from the hologram. Ace helped a still shaking Duck into a chair and then took one beside him, reaching over to take Lexi's hand. They all were slumbed around the table, too stunned to speak. It was Rev who broke the silence.
"Massive." He gulped. "He'll-be-wanting-you-Lexi."
They all stared at him.
"Weather-Vein-obviously-didn't-survive-and-you-wer e-the-one-who-shot-her-to-the-wall-in-the-last-bat tle."
Ace glared at Rev as Lexi turned even pailler.
"(I was positive I killed him.)" Slam growled. "(If he comes for you, Lexi, I will.)" his red, devilish eyes seemed to be lit on purple fire.
Lexi gave a weak smile.
"Mastermind will most likely want to finish me off." Tech sighed, gripping Rev's hand tightly under the table. "She was really close the last time. Her ego would've been bruised if she really survived and there's nothing in this world she hates more than a bruised ego." He snorted the last part as if he thought if funny. "And as for Sypher-"
"Me." Duck whispered. "Fucking me. I stole my powers back from him while he was out cold, and that's not mentioning the damage I made before hand. It wasn't a lot, but enough for him to try and choke me to death."
No one said anything, they just stared at him sadly.
"They'll all want to kill you, Duck." Lexi whispered, tears starting to over flow her huge green eyes. "You were the one who prevented them from really winning. They would have had us ifyou hadn't taken that heat blast for us."
He gulped but was filled with a stubbern defiance as he saw the tears on her pink furr. He looked around at the others. He hadn't remembered saving them. They had all told him the story when he had woken up from the two week coma he had been in. At first he had thought they were just saying it to make him feel better for getting knocked out so early in the fight and forcing them to worry about protecting him as well as themselves, but after a while he started to believe it had actually happened the way they told it. Especially now, with them looking so worried. He gritted his teeth. He was still shaking and still sccared, but determined to reassure them the best he could.
"Come on." He said. "I'm Danger Duck for crying out loud!" he shouted, hoping to jult them all out of this stupid fear fest. "A molecular energy beam couldn't even kill me. Do you think I'm going to let them even come close to coming near me? I'm a hell of a lot better then that, you guys. Besides, let's look on the bright side of things, we keep saying 'if' because we don't know for sure or not if they even are back. And if they were, do ya really think they'd have Sypher with them? Even if he did survive the cave in, they would have killed him too for loosing to Slam and I, right?" he was giving them, what he hoped, was a reassuring grin. But he was stil trembling, badly, from his own terror.
"Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll up our security system." Said Tech standing up and pulling Rev with him. "You can never be to safe, ya know?"
Slam and Lexi looked a little more calm, but Ace didn't. He still kept a firm grip on Lexi's hand as he glared at the table. He was the leader, but none of the kreeps had a personal vendetta against him, just the majority of his team. He had almost lost them once, he couldn't live if he truly lost them this time.
"Tech,-it'll-be-alright." Rev said soothingly. Tech had just finished upgrading their security cameras and alarm and defense system and now was fiddling with a small tinker invention, his hands moving but his eyes destracted, while Rev sat next to him, looking anxiously at his coyote lover. Not being able to take it anymore, Tech took the metal device and threw it off the table and then put his head in his hands, helplessly gripping his fur. Rev reached out and gripped his arm gently.
"Look-at-me." He said calmly. Tech did, his caramel eyes wild with worry. "You-know-we-won't-let-her-or-anyone-else-touch-yo u." He whispered, still in his rapped fire tone. "I'll-race-you-to-the-moon-if-she-even-takes-one-s tep-towards-you. Of-corse-we'd-need-to-stop-for-space-suits-on-the- way. And-I'm-not-to-sure-what-we-can-do-on-the-moon-onc e-we-get-there. I-suppose-it-would-be-interesting-to-try-space-sex . But-with-no-gravity-or-insilation-on-the-moon-that -would-be-kind-of-uncomfortable-I'd-imagine. Plus-we-wouldn't-be-able-to-take-our-suits-off-so- yeah,-now-that-I'm-thinking-this-through,-it-doesn 't-sound-so-romantic. But-nontheless-I'd-still-fly-you-there-to-keep-you -safe-Tech-I-swear-it."
It was a mark of how distracted Tech was that he let the avian run on that long without clamping his beak shut. He allowed Rev to wrap his arms around his waist. Rev rested his forehead against Tech's shoulder as Tech wrapped his bushy tail around theroadrunner's slim figure and an arm around his shoulders. He buried his face into Rev's dawn as he spoke.
"I know you would, Love, but it's not me I'm worried about. She saw me hold you when she and the others were pointing the guns at us. I hadn't thought it would matter because we were gonners anyhow, and then she was buried under a pile of thick igneous rock that should have crushed her. If she comes for me, she's going to grab you. She's going to try and get to me through you and I can't bare the thought of her anywhere near you. Not to mention all three, not just Sypher, will be after Duck. He wont like it but I think we need to keep him here until they're all cought and jailed or killed. If we loose him again…" here Tech trailed off, his voice getting thick with emotion. He and Duck had never gotten along like bosom pals, but there was no question the mallard was one of his closest friends. He wouldn't be able to handle it if he was really gone for good. Rev understood whithout explanation. He squeezed Tech's waist and looked up at him, his large emerald eyes soft with compassion and love.
"We're-not-going-to-loose-him,-Tech. He-can-fight-again,-remember? And-like-he-said,-he-wont-let-them-get-anywhere-ne ar-him. He'll-teleport-out-of-there-so-fast-they-wont-even -know-he-was-there-to-begin-with." He smiled. "And-as-for-me,-well,-I'm-not-the-easiest-bird-to- cage-you-know."
"Believe me, I know." Sighed Tech, his face relaxing at his love's words. "How I managed, I'll never know." Rev grinned.
"Good,-it's-healthy-to-not-know-everything-in-the- world." Tech tickled him gently, just enough to get a giggle out of him. He gently kissed him.
"I love you." He said softly. His eyes still held worry, but they were defenately more eased. Rev looked into those caramel orbs he'd never get enough of.
"You're-going-to-be-okay-Tech,-we-all-will." He leaned his face upward and kissed him passionately. He then untangled himself from Tech's protective embrace and walked over to the invention that had been furiously shoved aside. He bent down, picked it up and returned it to Tech. "Theis," he said softly, "however-will-not-if-you-don't-doctor-it-up."
Tech took it lovingly from the bird and laid it gently on top of the table infront of himself. He looked down at it as if it was a sick child and quickly started making repairs while Rev took his rightful spot next to him, handing him tools and enjoying the comforting weight of Tech's tail once again wrapped around his body.
Duck clutched the feathers on top of his head with both hands. He was curled up into a ball under his covers. He could remember when he had been number one on Otto the Od's hit list for turn'n him in. On that occasion, he and Tech had had to team up after the stupid coyote fought him for credit of the bust. Both had had to camp out in the suewer. That is after a cow had landed in Duck's room, nearly squashing him to death. He had had a whole arsenal right there at the foot of his bed and it had done no good whatsoever. Now he was trying to figure out how to protect himself against a diabolical woman who could make a deadly robot out of a pen and who had an unhealthy obsession with a coyote; a vengeful boyfriend who could pull Duck down through the bed and straight through all four floors and then continue pushing him straight through either to the center of the earth or right down to the other side pushing him into space; and a psychotic, power stealing bafoon who for some reason hated his guts right from the first time they fought each other. It could have been because Duck's powers were the hardest to take, or just Duck's charming personality.
He jumped when he heard his bedroom door open. He quacked out of bed and appeared at the window side, his back to the wall facing the door, the sword he had had by his side in one hand and an energy egg in the other ready to be launched.
"(Hold your fire, it's me!)" exclaimed Slam through his usual inaudible grumbles. Duck blinked then igstinquished the egg and tossed his sword back onto his orange blankets.
"You moron." He snarled. "You came this close to being speared at the end of a katana."
"(I just wanted to make sure you were okay.)" Slam said uneasily. "(You know we won't let those asses get their hands on you, right? You know we'll do our best, right?)" the poor guy was so unsure of what Duck was feeling, Duck couldn't help but feel guilty, just slightly.
"Course." He whispered, turning his eyes to his floor that was littered with candy wrappers and action figures.
"(Good.)" Slam nodded, looking reassured. "(Ya wanna watch TV?)"
Duck smiled and walked out of his room, following the devil to the lounge area.
Ace slashed at an on coming disc with his sword. He jumped up and summer saulted over a huge robotic thing, slicing it in two as he fell on the other side of it, landing squarely on his feet. Lexi observed him from the door to the simulator room. Her green eyes were fixed on his moving figure with concern filling them. He was pissed. She knew he was and she couldn't blame him. When they were fighting the Evil Kenevil gang, he had had to kill Sykes. Ace had sworn he would never kill for as long as he lived, his fighting skills and his powers (including the Guardian Strike Sword that had been intrusted to him) were not tools of murder but tools of protection. Even though at the time he believed he had been avenging Duck, when it came out that Duck was alive Ace had felt guilty to the point where he had wanted to take his own life as pentence for killing Sykes. Lexi had managed to talk him out of it with help from Tech and Duck, but every now and then she still saw signs that he wanted it all to just end. And now, with it coming out that the others might still be alive, she knew he was afraid of loosing control again and killimg more of them.
Ace kicked the last robot onto its back and twisted the sword in his hands, jabbing the tip of the blade straight down, pinning the metal head to the floor. Sparks flew up from broken wires as the sword stood still, embedded into the steal floor, waiting patiently for the bunny to regain his breath and then reclaim it.
Lexi walked slowly up to him, holding out a towl and bottle of water. He whiped his sweating face and guzzled half the water before finally sitting down on a larger hunk of metal he had torn apart. Lexi brushed a hand over the top of his bent head and he closed his eyes at her touch, not wanting it to leave him. He was so scared and confused and angry and felt so helpless. How was he supposed to protect his team? They didn't even know where the pricks were hiding. If Dare was dead, then he knew they were really back no matter what Duck said. He knew it because Dare diserved it. He had abandoned them in the cave, tried to save his own useless hide while they were (supposedly) getting crushed beneath pounds of rock. His eyes started to sting, though weather that was from more dripping sweat or unshead tears, Ace didn't know. He put the cool cloth to his face once more.
Lexi looked down at her boyfriend. She had never seen him so torn up.
"You know it'll be okay, Ace." She whispered.
"No, I dunna know d'at." He hissed, muffled a little by the towl. He looked up and glared at her. "I dunna know what'll happen, Lex, and nie'd'a da ya."
"You can't loose faith that it will." She retorted, trying to stop just a tiny bit of his worrying. "Your confidence as a leader, as a friend, is the number one thing that will keep the others calm and their wits about them. If you loose hope, they will too and that's just more of the fight those lamebrains have won. Do you really want to losse before we even start fighting?" she glared at him.
"T'IS IS A LIVI'N NIGHTMARE!" he roared, getting up, pushing her hand away and started pasing around. "HOW CAN YA SAY YA CALM? MAST'A MIND WANTS TECH'S HEAD ON A DAMN PLATT'A! ALL A D'EM WANT TA SERVE DUCK UP FER LUNCH! AND MASSIVE WANTS TA FLATT'N YA INTA BUNNY PANCAKES! AND WHERE AM I IN ALL A D'IS? I CAN'T EVEN TELL YA WHERE D'EY ARE TA LOCK 'EM UP AND KEEP D'EM FROM YA GUYS! I CAN'T PROTECT YAS! ALL I CAN DO IS WAIT TILL ONE A YA GETS ATTACKED D'EN COME IN WHEN IT'S TA LATE TA HELP!"
He lowered his arms which he had been waving above his head and stared at the ground. "I'm a fail'a, Lex." He whispered. "I couldn't save yas in d'a cave; I broke my word 'n killed a man; 'n now…when ya need me d'a most…I can't do anyti'n ta help." He looked lost, standing there in the middle of the simulator, robot parts cluttered around him like some mass junk yard pile. Lexi walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing the side of her face against his chest, not taking any notice of his damp grey fur or soaked white wife-beater.
"There's more to being a leader than fighting our battles for us, Ace. You know that. It is a nightmare. But the thing about nightmares, is that you always wake up from them."
"What will happen when we wake up from d'is d'ough?" he asked, sqeezing her tightly to him. She couldn't find an answer that didn't have a happy ending.
Okay, a note or two to clear up any confusion…
Tech and Rev originally had a hot scene in this chapter but I decided to cut it and I'm glad I did. This gives a more general feel of their true love with them just being comforted and not rolling around…though that image I'll admit is more appealing to the imagination ;)
Also you may have noticed I used 'had had' a lot…hehe I never knew word allowed those two words to be next to each other without yelling at you with a red or green line…I got a little carried away sorry XD
R&R PLEASE AND THANK YOU!