Ruby woke up feeling like death warmed over. She could still taste the remains of what she last ate after it came back up in her beak. The smell of vomit permeated the room, despite how hard she had tried to clean it up. She had hoped the brownies would have helped, but she hadn't seen them for a couple days. A little strange, but it wasn't unheard of an Elemental getting bored and leaving an area.
With great care, she slowly sat up and did her best to quell her upset tummy. She felt dizzy and her feathers became wet with sweat. Her entire body trembled and it took several minutes to get to the point where she could even put her feet on the floor.
It was at least another ten minutes before she could stumble into the bathroom because her muscles felt like they were made of jelly. Just getting into the tub was a whole new challenge. She had to sit while she took a shower because her legs just couldn't hold her. She shook from the effort of getting clean and by the time she was done, she felt like she needed another shower, but that was more effort than she had the energy for.
When she came staggering back out into the bedroom, she was dizzy again and exhausted. She was confused and disoriented, not sure where she was or what was going on. She collapsed back into bed in tears, befuddled by why she felt so horrible. She had never been this sick before in her life.
Was there something on this planet that was making her feel this way? Was it something she ate? Did the Mighty Ducks go through something similar when they first came to Earth?
When she woke up again, she only felt slightly better. She still didn't understand why she felt so badly, but she knew that there would be no help for her. The human doctors wouldn't have a clue how to diagnose what was wrong with her and they most certainly wouldn't have medicines that she could take. As for the Mighty Ducks, considering they'd sooner pluck her than look at her, there would be no assistance from that quarter.
Ruby slowly got up again and stumbled over to the dresser. Despite being so sick, she knew she needed to eat and drink something to survive. She sincerely doubted Wildwing would show up and save her this time.
It took her over half an hour just to get ready. By the time she was done, she was shaking again and desperately hungry and thirsty. She knew of a nearby grocery store where she could get ginger ale and crackers to help deal with her queasy stomach. She carefully made sure she had money and her room key in her pocket before leaving. She doubted she could concentrate enough to open the door with magic, so her key had to come with her.
The moment she was past her shields, she had an intense need to go to the music store. She knew they were closed for some holiday, but it didn't matter. She had to go to the music store.
She heard marching bands and people cheering not too far away as she made her way to the Anaheim Mall. She didn't care about the humans and their celebrations. All that mattered to her was getting to the music store.
She was tripping over her own feet by the time she got to the door of the shop and grabbed the handle. The instant her fingers wrapped around the metal bar, she was hit with a wave of nausea so intense it brought her to her knees. She dry heaved, never letting go of the handle.
"It's about time you got around to dying," a voice grumbled from above her.
The Forest Lord climbed to the top of the ridge and looked down on the large village the humans lived in. He mentally corrected himself. Anaheim was a city.
He couldn't understand how humans could live with so much of the ground covered by their fake stone. They poisoned the land, air and water with their ways. If the humans didn't change and soon, it wouldn't matter how many magic users were awakened by Ruby.
Speaking of the alien duck, she was the reason he had returned to the area. After she released the magic, the earth Elemental decided to explore and see how much of the wild areas were left. However, he didn't get far as a couple days ago he felt a disturbance with his connection with the mage, so he came back.
Something was very wrong with the magic wielding mortal, but he couldn't tell what it was. He flicked his ears, pawed the ground and sniffed the air. He didn't like not knowing what was going on.
Then he was hit with a jolt of fear and he finally understood. He reared up, pawing the air. Someone had poisoned Ruby and she was dying!
With a bugle of anger, the Forest Lord dropped the magic that concealed him from mortals and bolted down the hillside. No one was killing his mage without a fight!
Ruby turned to look up at the owner of the voice and felt her cramping stomach drop. Wraith towered over her and she couldn't even summon the energy to spit on him. She tried to find The Phoenix, but She was nothing more than a distant ember that Ruby couldn't reach.
She is mine! another voice screeched.
Ruby twisted around just in time to see a black shape dive out of the sky. She could feel the heat of Wraith's fireball as the wizard threw it at the dark thing. It took Ruby a few seconds to recognize the creature as a harpy.
The mage knew she had to get out of there, but she couldn't seem to let go of the door handle. With all of her might, little that it was, she tried to yank herself free. She grabbed the wrist of her trapped hand with her free one and pulled with everything she had.
"You are mine," Wraith snarled.
Ruby cringed away from his outstretched claws. Wraith barely managed to pull his arm back as the harpy dove down, her talons extended. The gouges left in the door and wall would have been impressive if Ruby hadn't been scared out of her wits.
The harpy flapped out of the way as the Saurian wizard threw another fireball at her. Wraith pushed a button on his teleporter while the harpy circled above them. A moment later, hunter drones started to appear out of thin air. Ruby whimpered as she continued to struggle to get free.
"Blast that wretched thing," Wraith instructed the robots, pointing to the nasty air Elemental.
As the drones opened fire on the harpy, Wraith turned back to the helpless mage. Ruby pulled as hard as she could and felt something in her shoulder give. In her blind panic, she didn't notice the pain.
"I will have what is rightfully mine," Wraith growled.
Just as he was about to grab her, something large and white appeared out of nowhere and slammed into him. Wraith flew through the plate glass window of a high end dress shop across the way with a resounding crash.
"Who do we shoot?" Mallory asked as they took in the scene before them.
Ruby was on the ground, clinging to the handle of the door to the music shop. The Forest Lord was standing between her and the hunter drones, ready to destroy anything that got to close to the mage. The robots were shooting at a harpy that was dodging their attacks, but wasn't able to get any closer to the prone mage.
Wraith was picking himself up from the front display where the Forest Lord had thrown him. Angrily, the Saurian tossed one of the mannequins out of the window before stalking out of the ruined display. The Mighty Ducks had never seen the wizard so mad.
"I will not leave empty handed," Wraith snarled as he drew back his hand and a fireball appeared.
The Forest Lord let out a bugle that shook the ground. Seconds later, gnomes popped out of the flower beds. They swarmed the drones, causing the robots to stagger and making their shots go wide. The surrounding buildings started to bear the brunt of those shots and Wraith barely managed to avoid being shot by his own drones.
"Put those drones out of commission," Wildwing ordered.
"Why are we trying to help her?" Mallory demanded while she started turning drones into scrap metal.
"What possible good could come of Wraith getting his scaly mitts on her?" Duke countered as his blade made short work of the walking tin cans.
Wildwing briefly worried about hitting the gnomes, but the small Elementals seemed to sense a puck coming and got out of the way. They would jump from one drone to the next, upsetting the robot's balance. While it meant the drones weren't hitting their target, it did mean that the mall was going to be rubble soon if they didn't destroy those things.
An angry scream from above them made him look up. He had forgotten about the harpy and it seemed a bunch of fairies had joined the party. They were harassing the dark Elemental which, thankfully, was keeping the harpy busy.
Wildwing, a voice spoke in the goalie's head and he recognized it as the Forest Lord's. Come get Ruby. She can't get free on her own.
"Cover me!" Wildwing ordered as he activated his shield. "I'm going to go get Ruby."
Not bothering to see what his team thought of that, Wildwing took off into the mass of hunter drones. He smashed and blasted his way through the robots. Normally, he would be making witty little quips about the walking garbage cans, but his mind was too occupied with getting to Ruby.
The first thing Wildwing noticed when he finally reached her was the smell. Something reeked to high heaven. It smelled like something had died nearby.
The next thing that got his attention was Ruby's appearance. In the few days since he had last seen her, she had lost a lot of weight and her clothes looked to be a couple sizes too big on her. Her eyes were sunk into her head and her hair and feathers looked like they hadn't seen soap and water in a week.
"I can't let go," Ruby whimpered and he could feel her fear.
"Hold on," he said as he stepped up to the door.
"I believe that's part of my problem," she tried to joke through the tears.
He had to smile a little. Here she sat, her life was in danger and she was cracking jokes. He felt his heart do its strange little lurch that it tended to do when she was around, but he ignored it like always.
Afraid that he would snap her fragile looking wing if he grabbed it, he tried to peel her fingers off of the door handle. The gauntlets of his armor made it impossible to pry her fingers loose unless he wanted to break them. Reluctantly, he deactivated his armor, putting him back into his gaudy street clothes.
Wildwing kept an ear open to the battle going on behind him as he carefully started to pull Ruby's fingers free. The harpy's scream and Ruby's gasp was all the warning he had. Instinctively, he dropped to his knees and shielded Ruby with his body just as something slammed into his back.
The shriek the harpy let out when the Forest Lord came after the air Elemental left Wildwing's ears ringing. He shook his head trying to clear it and then went back to freeing Ruby. He quickly got her fingers loose and the looked down to see her staring at his chest.
"Did you lose a bet?" she asked and he realized she was staring at the hideous top Phil had made him wear.
"Just stay down," Wildwing grumbled as he activated his armor.
"Not a problem," she softly replied as she cradled her injured wing and curled up into a ball.
Wildwing turned around to face the battle. Wraith, surprisingly, was still in it and Chameleon and Siege were now with him. They were trying to get past the Forest Lord and having no luck. It was amazing how a being of that size was so fast and nimble.
The harpy was also trying to get to Ruby, but the fairies were surrounding her like a swarm of gnats. His team was gleefully turning drones into scrap metal while the gnomes continued to trip the walking tin cans. Wildwing started to shoot at the Saurians, not liking the fact that the battle seemed to be at a standstill.
Despite the fairies harrying her, the harpy kept dive bombing Ruby. Wildwing would get a couple shots off before having to bring his shield up to block the creature. After a couple failed passes, the harpy came at Wildwing, driving him back, step by slow step.
He glanced back to see where Ruby was so he didn't step on her. A small part of his mind noted how she was curled up against the wall, cradling one of her wings. As much as he would like to see to her injuries, first they had to win the battle.
Wildwing couldn't get a clear shot at the Elemental harassing him because he had to keep his shield up. He soon found himself backed against the wall, standing directly over Ruby. He couldn't get the harpy to back off; all he could do was keep her at bay.
The fairies tried to drive the harpy off, but the evil creature was having none of it. She let out an ear piercing shriek that dropped Wildwing to his knees. He twisted around and covered Ruby with his body, hoping his armor would stand up to those wicked talons.
An angry roar preceded a searing heat. The scream of anger and pain that the harpy let out was so loud it made Wildwing's eyes cross. Before the drake could figure out what happened, something large and hot passed behind him.
Wildwing looked around and came beak to tail with the dragon. Holy mother of ducks, the fire Elemental was nearly as big as the Migrator now! With another angry roar, the flaming beast swung his tail around and decimated the hunter drones as if they were nothing. The gnomes went diving back into the planters to escape the spikes and flames of that appendage.
The dragon turned his attention to the Saurians. The fire Elemental's spikes bristled and the flames got bigger as a low growl emanated from the large beast.
"No duck is worth all this," Siege grumbled just before he disappeared.
"Right with you, buddy," Chameleon stated as he teleported out of there.
"Know this, the Phoenix will be mine," Wraith snarled just before he made his escape too.
The dragon let out a roar as the Forest Lord bugled in triumph. The combined sounds caused the windows in the nearby shops that weren't broken to rattle worrisomely.
"Bro!" Nosedive yelled as he ran over to his brother. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Wildwing assured the worried drake as he got to his feet. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Maybe because that overgrown buzzard tried to turn you into shredded duck," Duke replied as he pointed toward where the air Elemental had gone down.
The ducks watched in fascinated horror as the dragon picked up the smoldering remains of the harpy in his mouth. With a toss of his head, the dragon swallowed the harpy in one go. All of the ducks cringed at the sight.
"Ok, I could have gone the rest of my life not seeing that," Wildwing muttered before turning back to his team. "I had my shield to protect me. The harpy couldn't get through it."
"Before that," Mallory irritably retorted. "When your armor was deactivated, she attacked you from behind. Why in the world would you deactivate your armor in the middle of a battle?"
"Ruby's hand was stuck to the door handle and I couldn't get her free with my gauntlets on," Wildwing answered. "The harpy must have misjudged her attack. She slammed into me, but her talons missed."
"Missed my tail feathers," Mallory snapped back.
"We saw her strike you with her talons," Duke added. "How in the world are you not filet of duck?"
"Maybe she wasn't as strong as we thought," Wildwing suggested.
"Then I suggest you take a look at the wall above Ruby," Tanya put in.
Wildwing turned and saw the gouges in the wall. Wildwing went and took a closer look. He poked at the marks and swallowed nervously.
"That's cinder block, in case you're, like, wondering," Tanya stated.
"She must have missed," Wildwing not so bravely stated. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be standing here."
"What's that smell?" Nosedive asked as he got closer to Ruby. "And what's with her wing?"
They looked at the mage who hadn't moved from her spot. Her eyes had glazed over and her entire body was shaking. Was this the same duck who had trounced them time and again?
"I think someone left the lid off one of the garbage bins," Wildwing answered as he looked down at the mage.
"She must have, you know, dislocated her wing when she tried to get herself free," Tanya said as she moved closer and then she stopped dead in her tracks with a look of worry on her face. "I know that smell. It's no open garbage can."
"I know it, too," Duke stated as he stepped up to them, a look of sadness on his face. "This isn't good."
"What's the big deal about that smell?" Nosedive asked.
"I had hoped they hadn't brought any with them," Tanya softly sighed. "It's not like they tried using it on us, so I didn't think they had any. Not that I don't have the antidote, but still…It's too late now."
"What are you talking about?" Wildwing nearly growled.
He wasn't happy about the cryptic talk and Ruby didn't look good. In fact, she seemed to be getting worse as they watched.
"It's merlenic poison," Tanya explained. "It's horrible greasy stuff that the Saurians liked to use back on Puckworld."
"It's nasty work," Duke added. "It's subtle at first and then WHAM! Before you know it, you're dead."
"You said you have the antidote," Wildwing said forcefully, turning to his tech.
"I would have had to have given it her back when she was first exposed to it," Tanya told her captain with a helpless shrug. "As it is right now, it's, you know, too late. From the looks of her, I'd say she doesn't have long to live."
Author's Notes: Why yes, as a matter of fact, I am evil.