Not sure where this came from, other than I really like the oddball nature of these two personalities conversing with one another.
Also, I have only realized now that I was spelling Dragaunus' name wrong all this time. I do not know at what point I thought it was an 'a' on the end instead of a 'u', but my mind was blown when I finally noticed. Go me! (sigh)
Drake One duty.
The bane of his short-lived existence.
Nosedive tapped his fingers on the edge of the ridiculously large control panel, sitting in a computer chair next to it. Or, more aptly, sprawled like oozing slime in it. He was slouched so far down in the chair he might as well have been classified as liquid. His other hand was elbowed against the chair's armrest, barely holding his tilted head. His eyes languidly blinked up at the even more ridiculously large monitor, a map of Anaheim and its surrounding counties covering its expanse. In the corner, a picture-in-picture of the Pond's schematics was visible, occasionally blinking from the continual scans the security system did. Six distinct dots could be seen within the Pond's map, indicating his and his team members' whereabouts.
It was Saturday night. There was no scheduled hockey game, no publicity stunt, and no Dragaunus. And yet, every single one of his teammates were hanging out inside the Pond while Nosedive sat in a stupid chair, staring at a stupid computer.
They didn't always do Drake One duty. In fact, they rarely needed to do it anymore. Most of the time Drake One was linked to their COMs, so any alarms or telltale energy signatures of teleportation would be automatically sent to their devices. Or it would just blare the alarm through the Pond's intercom system. That was usually a great wake-up call in the middle of the night.
So, that of course begged the million-dollar question: Why was he here? Because, dear friends, Tanya decided that tonight, of all nights, was a great time to update that automatic system, which meant it would be offline for a couple hours. And that meant, if a Saurian decided to attack and set off an alarm, no one would be notified if they weren't sitting in front of the computer and monitoring the readouts.
And guess who drew the short straw of that aforementioned monitoring?
Nosedive could've been partying it up downtown, or cruising the Pacific Coast Highway on a duckcycle, but nooooo. His team consisted of a bunch of homebody ducks not doing anything anyways, and yet the outgoing, sociable, loveable, handsome youngster of the group got ordered to stare mindlessly at a map for hours on end.
But he wasn't bitter.
Nosedive sighed, his hundredth sigh of the evening, and flicked his eyes to the tiny clock on the control panel. He had two more hours until Grin relieved him, unless Tanya happened to finish the updates before then.
And, well, he would bet the Stanley Cup that it would be the former.
Another sigh released itself and he checked the clock again. In an effort to be prepared, he had brought a stack of comics with him prior to his shift. That same stack of comics had already been read through, front to back. Twice.
Annoyed, he pressed a couple buttons and brought up another picture-in-picture, hoping that he could at least browse the internet.
Nope. Tanya blocked it, as well as any external plugins. She had gone off on Nosedive about the security of Drake One and its vulnerabilities to outside viruses, and had completely locked down the system so outside browsing or utilization of the computer for anything but security was a no-go.
And all because he had decided to play an online game during his last shift. It wasn't like a virus infected the computer or anything…
Well, there had been a virus, but Drake One totally annihilated it without issue.
With nothing to do, Nosedive went to close the extra popup window. He paused, however, when he saw a shortcut folder on the desktop labeled Tanya.
"Oh, what, she gets to use the computer for personal stuff?" Nosedive muttered, clicking on it to see if she had any games. At this point he'd even take Minesweeper. The folder opened up to a massive number of files, most labeled as blueprints to various weapons and equipment.
"UGH, boring," Nosedive bellyached. He scrolled through the list and slowed at a document titled Lucretia.
He raised a brow at it. "Why would Tanya have a file on that traitor?" the blonde teenager mumbled to himself. After only a moment's hesitation, he clicked on it.
The link opened up an extensive profile on Lucretia Decoy, including a more recent picture of her that came from what looked like the Pond's security cameras. Nosedive sat up in his computer chair, curiously scrolling through the information.
"Real name: Lucy Vanderflock?" Nosedive read out loud, shocked. "Lucretia DeCoy was her chosen name after she deflected from her position in the Puckworld Intelligence Agency," he continued reading and paused. "What in Drake DuCaine—"
He scrolled through the rest of the information. She was some sort of agent for the government, a former engineering graduate that interned at Metro-Guard Industries, and apparently used the information she obtained there (regarding the government's systems) to bring down the entire resistance group housed under PIA's headquarters.
A host of other files were attached to the profile. Some were newspaper articles, detailing the downfall of PIA during the early days of the Saurian War. Other files were communication transcripts between government officials on Lucretia being the cause of that downfall. She had coordinated with the Saurians and brought the PIA's security systems offline, allowing the PIA holding to be infiltrated. They were the leaders of the Resistance at the time, and their annihilation left the rest of the strongholds scrambling for organization.
"What a nutcase," Nosedive commented, shaking his head and closing the file.
"If you're gonna snoop, you should be more-uh, thorough."
The blonde teenager yelped and jumped, simultaneously falling out of his computer chair. He glared at Tanya, who was standing behind him.
"Stars, Tanya, I'm seventeen. I don't need a flippin' stroke." The teenager struggled back into a standing position, brushing off his pants as he did so. Tanya crossed her arms and stared at him expectantly.
The older duck had a glare like no other, however, and Nosedive almost instinctively rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "It wasn't like it was well-hidden or anything," he argued back finally. "Why didn't you tell us she was your sister?"
Tanya snorted. "Because she wasn't."
"But it said Vanderflock—?"
The engineer rolled her eyes at him. "Dive, she was, uh, my cousin. My dad's brother's d-daughter."
"Ooooh," Nosedive innocently responded. "Okay, but you were still related."
"Yeah."
"I mean, seems like there was some bad blood there," Nosedive offered again.
"Mm-hmm."
"Obviously having to do with her being a traitor," the young duck added, having a hard time accepting the silence between them when he wasn't speaking.
She didn't answer.
"Taunny, come on, dish. What the heck happened?" Nosedive finally asked, sitting back in the computer chair. "Why'd your cousin go cuckoo?"
She sighed, walking around Nosedive and reaching for the control panel. She opened the file back up and clicked on one of the links that Nosedive hadn't looked at.
"Like I said, snoop-uh, better," Tanya answered, motioning to the file that was opened on the monitor. Nosedive followed her hands with his eyes and looked up at the information on the screen.
It was an electronic communication thread between Lucy and Tanya, saved before the War had even started. As Nosedive started skimming it, his expression deepened into a fierce frown.
"She was attacked?" he finally asked.
Tanya nodded. "When I was, uh, doing my fellowship, she opted to join the agency. She was smart, but she got bored designing. She enjoyed the f-fight." Tanya closed the file and opened up another one, showing more conversation between the two cousins.
"She barely got away from the, uh, assailant. It wasn't until l-later that she found out he was, uh, a p-part of the Council."
Nosedive was continuing to read silently as Tanya spoke. "Whoa, they said she fabricated evidence?"
Tanya hummed sadly. "She was de-devastated. They were sweeping everything u-under the rug, and throwing her under the b-bus while they were, uh, at it."
"Wow," Nosedive breathed. "What happened?"
Tanya closed the conversation file and pulled up a confidential psychiatric note. "They made her go through rehabil-rehabili-um, rehab." The blonde scientist frowned at the information presented on the screen. "This is false info that they put into her file, stating she was de-delusional. Possibly schi-schizophrenic."
"Taunny, this is insane," Nosedive said and shook his head. He glanced at the blonde scientist. "Why would they do this to her?"
The older duck sighed and shrugged. "She was a, um, new agent. It was easier to put the bl-blame on her then to deal with a high Council member being, uh, caught in a s-sex tra-trafficking ring."
"Stars," the teenager exclaimed quietly. "You think that's why she snapped?"
The engineer took a moment as she stared at the computer, her hands absently crossing in front of her. Eventually she shook her head, closing the file and turning to lean against the control panel. "I think t-they did something to her d-during rehab."
Nosedive tilted his head slightly. "Like … like torture?"
"Mm-hmm," Tanya agreed. "I think t-they tried to make her crazy." The older duck cleared her throat, bringing her eyes downcast momentarily to collect her emotions. When she looked back up at Nosedive, her eyes were glassy, despite her best efforts. "She wasn't like h-how she is, er, was. She was a-actually, um, a lot like Mallory. W-well trained, all about j-justice. She was in rehab w-when the War started."
"How did she get back into the PIA?"
"Cre-credentials were a, uh, lot easier to fake during the War. Most, um, networks were r-really limited, y'know? She ch-changed her name and a-appearance, in-infil—ugh, got into the PIA, and took them down a few weeks later."
The teenager watched her momentarily, oddly quiet. When Tanya noticed, he quickly looked back at the screen and at Lucretia's profile.
"Taun, how come you never told us?" he finally asked, looking back at her.
To her credit, Tanya just shrugged. "I wasn't, uh, super close with her. I d-did her a favor and got her the, uh, internship at MGI, but—"
Nosedive shook his head. "Nuh-uh, Taun, that's hockey pucks. You got all those messages saved when all this stuff went down; she obviously trusted you."
The two blonde members of the team stared at one another for a couple long seconds, before Tanya finally broke eye contact and shrugged again. "She's not, y'know, w-who she used to be. Or wasn't who she used to be, I guess. I d-don't know."
The youngest member of the team stood up, glancing once more at the profile on the screen. "Doesn't mean she didn't mean something to you, before." Tanya had followed his gaze upwards, towards the electronic information.
"Maybe. But she sn-snapped. I tried getting in contact with her, but n-never had success. She was a ghost afterwards, her n-name only coming up after the damage had been done."
Silence filled the air between them, Tanya opting to stare off into the distance and Nosedive glancing between the monitor and the scientist. Then, in one fell swoop, Nosedive walked over and gave Tanya a quick hug. She startled at the gesture, but returned the hug after a couple seconds.
"Sorry I tried to work the Flashblade magic on your cousin."
Tanya snickered. "We a-all know how well th-that went."
Nosedive released the hug, waving the older duck off with a wave of his hand. "Pssh, like Duke did any better."
He took a few steps away from the desk before Tanya interrupted him. "Dive?"
The teenager looked back at her. "Yeah?"
"Th-thanks for listening."
Nosedive smiled and nodded, before starting to turn back around.
"D-dive?"
"Hmm?" he answered again.
"Your shift isn't over."
The teenager visibly flinched. "I thought you came up here because the updates were done."
Tanya grinned and shook her head. "Nah, s-still got a few a more restarts b-before they're ready."
"But-but, come on Tanya, we had a moment!"
The blonde engineer raised a brow at him, her hands coming to rest on her hips. "And?"
Without a proper rebuttal, Nosedive deflated and dejectedly returned to his computer chair. "I just thought—"
"Mm-hmm," Tanya preemptively agreed as she tapped a few commands into the control panel.
"I mean—"
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm."
"Ugh, Tanya, come on—"
"There!"
She smiled at him, pointing at the computer. "I downloaded some, uh, card games for you while you wait."
Nosedive stared at her, then at the computer, and then back to her. "Gee. Thanks."
Tanya beamed. "You're welcome!" She made her way back to the door on the other side of Drake One. "I should be done before Grin's shift. Hopefully."
"Okay," Nosedive lamely replied.
"See y-you later!"
"Yeah, okay," Nosedive replied again, vacantly.
The side door hissed open and hissed shut, leaving Nosedive alone once more. He groaned and banged his head against the control panel, before slowly looking back up at the computer.
Tanya had installed Crazy Eights and Solitaire on the system.
The teenager blinked blankly at the screen. After a long, tense silence, he took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles. "All right, Mr. Drake One, let's see how well you handle Nosedive Flashblade and his AH-mazing skills."
He clicked the Crazy Eights link and smirked evilly.