A New Friend Written by Maria It was a quiet evening. Even Dragaunus didn't cause any disturbances whatsoever. It was so quiet, the Drake1's monitor went to a screen saver mode, and the screen saver was usually set for 86400 minutes. That's a whole day! The Ducks have just won another game, and having nothing to else to do, went to bed early. None, except Wildwing had any dreams. In his dream, he relived the death of Canard. It hurt much, much more this time. Then, he saw a face. He saw a face, with a neck, but nothing below that, right in the middle of the Dimensional Limbo, like a poster on the wall, right behind Canard… He woke up and looked at his watch. 4:28. Early, too early to get up. So, he just lay in his bed, trying to remember what he saw in his dream and the face. He didn't even remember whether the face belonged to a human or a duck, and whether it was… no, he knew it was a girl. The alarm sounded and in five minutes everybody was up and in the Ready room. The Drake1's screen was bursting with the image of a map with a huge red spot and circles coming out of it. "Okay, team, to the Migrator!" Wildwing's was the only voice in the room. The Ducks ran into the garage, into the Migrator and assumed their seats. They were happy to have something to do, but were not so happy, since there was a crime committed in Anaheim at 4:30 in the morning. The Migrator roared out of the garage, through the tunnel and out of the door, under the sign. As they arrived to the place of crime, they saw that it was an old and abandoned building. But, they couldn't be wrong; that's where the red dot was and it was still on. As they ran into the building, following the dot on their coms, they came to a large room, with a chair in the center. The chair was positioned so they couldn't see what was on it. "Whatever, is on or in that chair, uh, is the source of the alarm," said Tanya. "Okay, team, careful, that could be a bomb," cautioned Wildwing. It wasn't. It was just a transmitter, that was giving off an alarm signal. "Oh, please! The last thing we need as a false alarm!" exclaimed Wildwing. "Come on, guys, let's go." The team was feeling no so great. They woke up at 4:30 in the morning for a false alarm! As they were going back to the Pond, they heard someone scream. "Help! Somebody, help me!" it was a woman's voice. "What would somebody be doing out at this time?" asked Mallory. "It doesn't matter. We should help," replied Wildwing as he parked the Migrator. They ran into the alley and saw a girl of about 17 or 18 years old being attacked by a group of about five men, in ski masks carrying bats. "Hey, you, creeps! Why not you try to attack someone your own size!" yelled Wildwing. The men turned around and looked at the Ducks. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't think a bunch of turkeys would even add up to Skinny's weight," replied one of them, pointing at the thin one that was standing aside, watching. "That's Ducks, you creep!" screamed Nosedive, mad as hell. In thirty seconds, all six men were in the dumpster, including Skinny. The Ducks turned to the woman. She was very frightened, but otherwise, okay. But, still, Duke wanted to be sure. "Are you okay?" "I… I think so," when not screaming, the girl had one of the most beautiful and Muse-like voice they had ever heard. "What were you doing outside at such time?" asked Mallory. "I was going for a walk…" "At 5 in the morning?" "No, at 10 in the evening, yesterday. But, I forgot my keys inside and had nowhere to go, so I decided to spend the night walking around the empty city. You know, it's not every day you get to see this place without the four million cars moving in every direction." "And then, you were attacked?" "Ye… s…" she fainted. As she fell on the ground, the Ducks saw a huge cut in her stomach. The Ducks gasped at the sight. "We should bring her to the, uh, infirmary," stated Tanya. "But, it's inside our headquarters. No one, but us, Phil and Klegghorn are allowed in there," protested Wildwing. "If, we don't, she, uh, you know, already suffered from a blood loss, she will die." "Okay," he wasn't sure, it was the best idea. Back at the Pond, they learned that the girl was gonna be fine. But, her wound would take a long time to heal. "We'll have to, uh, leave her here, Wildwing" said Tanya, after she checked over all the number for the last time. "No, we can't have her learning of this place." "If we move her, she will die!" "Fine, but she will be confound to the infirmary, and constantly guarded." She woke up and looked around. She was lying in a warm bed, in a strange room, with a strange duck sitting, with his back against her and reading. He turned around and she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw his back again. He was wearing maroon clothes. "Would you stop staring at me, please," he said without even turning around. He had a Brooklyn accent. He closed his book and turned around. "Hi," she said. "Good evening." "I was here for a whole day?" "A whole four and a half days, actually." "Wow! Where am I?" "In the infirmary." "Am I still in Anaheim?" "Yes." "Am I in the Pond?" Duke tried to remain calm. "What made you think that?" "You." "What about me?" "You are a duck. The only ducks I know of are either the Mighty Ducks, a hockey team or th…" "Don't continue," interrupted Duke. "My name is Jessie. Actually my name is Jessique, but most people think it's too weird for them to say." "Oh. I'm Duke L'orange." "I know, I saw you on TV." At that moment, Tanya and Nosedive walked in. "Shift change," said Tanya. "You'll thank me later, for not assigning a permanent guard, Duke." "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Jessie was angry. "Oh, you are awake? I mean that sitting here, guarding a body that was sleeping for the past five days would kill anyone, especially, if you don't even know their name, but nothing mean," with those word she left. "Bye, uh, Jessique," said Duke and closed the door behind him. Nosedive didn't feel comfortable with sitting by a bed with a girl in it. It was his first time doing the guarding and he was the last of the team to do it. "So, your name is Jessique?" "Yeah, but people call me Jessie." "Cool, I'm Nosedive." "So I heard." "So what do you like to do for fun?" By the end of the day, Nosedive was actually happy he was "guarding" her. They had a lovely chat. For the next two times, he was looking forward to it, everyone did. They all liked her, even Wildwing and, as soon as she was able too, she was allowed to walk everywhere in the Pond. She went home, and everyone missed her. She missed them too, remembering how they saved her life and care for her while she was there. She bought a ticket and went to one of their games. The Ducks won, and, at the end of the game, when they went to the lockers, she approached them. She tapped Nosedive, who was the last on the shoulder. He turned around. "Hi," she said. At the sound of her melodic voice the others turned around too. "Jessie, we thought, you forgot about us," said Mallory. "How could I? I just didn't have enough money to buy a ticket and couldn't come up with a good enough excuse for the guards to let me in, during any other time." "You couldn't buy a ticket?" asked Nosedive, surprised. "Hey, not everyone has a carrier of 500,000 dollars a year? With my job, you won't have enough money to buy a bus ticket!" a tear appeared on her cheek. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I just thought that you are so beautiful, every magazine would want to hire you to star in an ad." "Magazines don't look at girls, like me, who live in the ghetto. They look at girl who live in Beverly Hills," Jessie was crying, quietly, and tears, rolling out of her eyes, dropping from her chin, turned into little spheres and fell, hitting the floor, and breaking into millions of pieces. She looked up at him, and he could see her eyes, like gemstones, catching the light and reflecting it, glittering like the first snow of the year. Behind him, Mallory gestured others to leave. Nosedive changed into battle gear and looked up at her again. Another tear fell off her beautiful face, and he caught it. To his surprise, it remained a sphere. She looked up at him, looking like she was begging for forgiveness. Then, her line of sight shifted, and now she was looking behind him. He turned around… only to be punched in the face by Lucretia DiCoy. She tripped him and started tying him up. Jessie stepped back, gasping. "Stop it!" she exclaimed, half-begging. Lucretia looked at her, and got back to what she was doing. Nosedive was too tied up now, to be able to do anything, except listen. "By the way," started Lucretia. "Good job. We couldn't have done it without you. Dragaunus will be proud." "Uh?" was the only thing Nosedive could say through the tape on his beak. "Why are you lying? I never helped you! Or, at least, not intentionally." "You took the ticket, didn't you?" "Yes, so?" "You followed the instructions, didn't you? Yes, you did. Did you tell the Ducks? Nope. That makes you a traitor. Therefore, one of us. 'Not intentionally' you helped us. Thanks, we needed that." "You…" "Relax, being traitor is the only way a girl gets into this team. I did, Tanya did, and Mallory… well, she got in via my bo… EX-boyfriend, so that makes her a traitor too, though she doesn't know it yet." "I can't let you do that!" "Listen, just because you name just happened to be the same as the most powerful being in this dimension, doesn't mean I have to listen to you. I have to bring this creep back to the Raptor, and you… well, you can go with me, if you want to get that grand, you were promised," she said, finishing tying up Nosedive. "Give me your hand if you are coming." After a second of deciding, Jessie gave the female Duck her hand. "Good girl," Lucretia took out her teleporter, punched in the code, and pressed the "Go" button. Just before she pushed the "Go" button, Jessie considered hitting Lucretia's wrist and taking her teleporter, hoping that Ducks would figure out something useful thing to do with it, but didn't do it. Maybe, she thought that Lucretia had a lot more fighting experience and she will end up the same way as Nosedive. Five ducks were in the Ready room. "Where's Dive?" Wildwing was worried. It has been over three hours, since his brother stopped by the lockers to talk to Jessie. He never came back. Knowing Nosedive, he wasn't worried for the first two and a half hours, simply because Dive, sometimes, left without telling anyone, for anywhere from ten minutes to five hours. But the last time he did that, they all were back on Puckworld and Dive was a kid. Wildwing checked his com for his brother's com's homing signal, but there was none. "It's strange that there is no signal," as usual, Tanya had a pretty good grasp on the situation, but all the data she had was as useless as the skates she used when she was three. "Unless there's a, um, malfunction, I'd say, he's in trouble." "But we can't help him, unless we know where he is." Suddenly, the screen started beeping and displaying two words "New Mail". Tanya walked over and pressed some buttons, only she knew the functions of. A screen turned into a huge TV. A picture appeared on it. A picture, that made Wildwing look another way. It was Nosedive, tied to a chair, with a few bruises on his face and Jessie in the background. The picture disappeared, replaced by a letter. It said: " Hi, there! Nice pic, huh? Well, I want you to surrender all your weapons, including the vehicles and the headquarters, and go to the Moon. Signed, Dragaunus, Lucretia, Jessie and the rest of the gang." The letter turned off and the screen went back to the regular, blank screen mode. "Who sent that?" asked Wildwing. "I thought that part was obvious: Dragaunus, uh, Lucretia, Jessie, Chame…" "No, I meant, the address." "Oh, well, that part is not so obvious. It self-deleted and the address on the Internet, uh, it could be anyone, you know, it's completely untraceable. I guess, we just have to, uh, wait for the next message." "Or, until they kill my brother?" "They won't." "How do you know that? Did you see what they already did to him? How can you be so calm?" "Experience." "What?" "Uh, nothing, I mean, I don't think that was real. He was probably put at a gunpoint to look like that, and then they added blood and bruises after they took the picture. Don't forget that Lucretia is a pro at computer." "You mean that all that ugly stuff was generated by a computer?" asked Duke. "Yes." "What about Jessie? Is she fake too?" asked Mallory. "It would seem, um, logical, to put fake her there, to make us think she's a traitor, but, uh, judging from the quality, she is, you know, real." "You mean, she's really a traitor?" "Isn't it odd," started Duke. "How every girl except, you two, has turned out to be a traitor?" A strange smile appeared on Mallory's face. "What makes you think, that one of us is not a traitor, sent here by Dragaunus, and is still giving Dragaunus precious information about the team?" "Just the fact, that you two were fighting Hunter Drones, when we asked you to participate in the destruction of the Master Tower." "True." "Wait a sec," said Wildwing. "Did that note say 'Lucretia' on it by any chance?" "I, um, I think so," replied Tanya. "Isn't she in the Dimensional Limbo?" "She must have got out somehow." "But how?" "I think, I can answer that one!" a very familiar voice sounded in that moment of silence, after the leader's question. Everyone turned around and saw Lucretia DiCoy in the doorway. "Luc… Lucretia!" Tanya couldn't believe it. "Nice to see you too, sis." "SIS?!" everyone's faces were turned towards Tanya. "Oh, she didn't tell you? Her name is Tanya DiCoy, and she is my older sister." The next second, Duke's sword was next to Mallory's neck. "Hey Duke," said Wildwing. "She said Tanya, not Mallory." Duke didn't pay any attention. "How did you know?" he asked looking at Mallory. "Duke, chill out! How did I know what?" "That one of you was a traitor." "I was just joking. You said all, but us, so I thought, that you have no proof, except the fact that you tru…." "Wait a sec!" Interrupted Lucretia. "She said one girl's a traitor? You don't mean both, do you, hon?" Duke lowered his sword and turned to Lucretia, totally confused, now. "What do you mean?" "Oh, you weren't there, when I told it to Jessie. Oh, well, guess I have to say it again. Mallory got in via my bo… why do a say that a second time today?… my EX-boyfriend." "And who would that be?" asked Wildwing. "One, who assembled the team," with those words, she disappeared. " How'd she get in?" asked Duke. Lucretia appeared again. "I thought, you wanted to know how I got out." "We want to know both, plus where are Nosedive and Jessie," Wildwing was on verge of ordering the team to capture her. "Okay, listen. By the way, if you try to attack me, I will teleport out of here, and you friend is going to be teleported to the Moon. So I suggest against it. Okay, I got out via Dragaunus' dimensional gateway generator. I got in, because, when I was here, last, I programmed Drake1 to let me in without any alarms. Nosedive we captured thanks to Jessie, and he's kept somewhere safe." "Why are you telling us all this?" asked Duke. "Because I'm mad at Tanya." She disappeared again and the guys turned to girls. "Okay, how much of that was true?" asked Wildwing in a cold tone. "All of it for me," said Tanya. "And I don't know about Mallory, but I think all, too." "That's right," agreed Mallory. "And what have you got to say for yourselves, before we beat you up, throw you out and change the passwords?" "I should have told you," started Mallory. "I was on Dragaunus' team, true, but that was only before they attacked, after that I was fighting against them. Canard didn't know that and put me on the team anyway." "Canard?!!" yelled Wildwing. "Don't yell at me, please. Yes, Canard. Listen, Wildwing, I have seen more criminals and traitors in a month, before the attack, than you have in your entire life, okay? You were lured into a trap, and I thought, I could stop it, and turn it in the actual mission. Canard thought, that Tanya will set that bomb in the Aerowing and bury you all, but she and I really set it in the Tower." "Why did he risk his life to save us if he was against us?" "He didn't. He is still in the limbo, plotting to kill you." Wildwing couldn't stand it any more. "You're lying!!" he slapped her on the face. "Am I?" she answered in pain. To Be Continued