She woke shivering in horror. She couldn’t even begin to figure out where her mind actually came up with some of this stuff. Probably too many movies with Dive at the controls, she figured, but that wasn’t a very serious guess, and she knew it.

She looked at the little alarm clock beside her bed, squinting to see the numbers, because they didn’t glow in the dark, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to turn the lights on. It was three thirty-one. "What a disgusting hour," she growled to herself. "to early to get up and too late to crawl back into bed." The prospect of getting back into bed scared her, though, because she feared that the nightmare would come back in full force.

Sleepily, she reached into a closet and pulled out her usual day wear. Maybe someone else was up, and they could talk about something… anything but what had awakened the fear within her. She put on some slippers in respect to the early hour and left her room. She listened closely and thought she heard some sounds coming from past the lab, so she headed off that way.

The sounds were coming from the old storage room that Dreva had commandeered for her own. She knocked nervously on the door. "Dreva, you up in there?"

"Yeah, just hold on a sec," the brunette replied. A moment later, the door opened, and Dreva looked her teammate full in the eyes. "Mallory, what’s wrong?" she asked. "You look like you’ve been through Hell and back on the express train."

"You don’t look much better," Mallory answered tartly. Dreva’s long hair was tangled and mussed from bed, her face was worn, and her eyes looked haunted. "Couldn’t sleep either?"

"The problem wasn’t sleeping, it was in what I found while I was sleeping," the brunette replied. "And I’d hazard a guess that you had the same problem tonight, because otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Would you be willing to talk about it? It might help get it out of your head. Come on in, standing here talking at the door is just a silly way to do things." She took Mallory’s hand and pulled her into the room. "There, that’s better. Sit down, make yourself as comfortable as you can. I was just doing some katas to balance myself out, but I can hold off on those for a little while." It was only then that Mallory saw the dark sword Dreva was carrying.

"Funny, I came here not to think about what woke me up out of a deep sleep," the redhead remarked sarcastically. "I figured talking about something else would work just as well, or maybe even better."

Dreva shook her head. "It doesn’t work that way," she answered softly. "If it did, things would be a lot easier, trust me. Would you like me to start, maybe make you feel a little better about opening up?" She sat down on the cold metal floor, feeling its chill crawl up her spine. "It’s harder than I thought," she confessed. "Talking about my deepest fears with someone I hardly know, I mean. It’s one thing to have your back in a firefight, and something else to get down soul-deep. Do you get what I mean?"

"Yeah…" Mallory trailed off.

The brunette relaxed then. "But if there’s one thing I learned from the family shrink, it’s not to let that get you." She closed her eyes, the motion almost invisible in the darkness. "I flashed back to the worst time in my life, when the people I loved most were in the worst kind of danger. Back then, I was trapped, unable to do anything to save them. But in this version, I was free, unchained and unbound. So I could have saved them. I didn’t this time. I was trapped in another way, walking away from the dying screams of my husband and children and siblings, and I couldn’t turn myself around, as hard as I tried." She laughed bitterly. "I’ve had this nightmare for a long time now, but I never thought it could get any worse than the reality. I was so wrong." She was crying, the tears splashing quietly on the floor.

"Nothing so real as that," the redhead said abruptly. "It’s the fear I’ve always had down inside. That when we finished this fight, and we found a way home, that there was nothing left to come home to. That we had risked our lives day in and day out for a world that didn’t exist any more. And I can’t stand the idea of fighting without having something to fight for."

"I would not have thought you the idealistic sort," Dreva said quietly.

"Why, because I like to get into fights of all sorts? It doesn’t mean I don’t like to have a reason to fight at all. The worst thing for me is finding out that what I’ve done has no point." Mallory shifted anxiously on Dreva’s pile of bedding. Suddenly she pulled out the deck of cards. "You play a lot?" she inquired.

"Mostly solitaire in its millions of variations," Dreva answered. "You know any good two-player games?"

"Do I! Maybe this will help keep us awake until it’s time for us to be up and about. Do you play gin?"

Dreva nodded, and Mallory dealt the cards in the prologue to a long early morning’s worth of playing.

The next time anyone checked the clock, it was seven-thirty. As if that was the cue to quit playing, Dreva gathered up the cards and stashed them back in her stuff. She put on a bathrobe over her long pink nightgown in order to look decent and opened the door.

Tanya was stumbling around outside, looking confused. "Morning, Tani," Mallory said. "You slept in the lab again, didn’t you?"

"Yeah, and I’m wishing I didn’t," the blonde mumbled. "I woke up around eleven from my room, and I had this really good idea, you know how it is when you just have to do something the minute you think of it? So I went to the lab, and I started working. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and, well, I fell asleep. I had the freakiest dreams, and I thought I’d never wake up."

"We definitely need to talk to Wildwing about his cooking, then," Mallory laughed. "Dreva and I both had serious bad dreams last night. If all three of us did, something’s wrong."

The brunette got a dark look on her face. "Yes, something’s wrong," she echoed. "If all three of us had bad dreams, what about the rest of the team?" She ran for the kitchen, the horrible thought etched in her mind and showing in her features. The other two girls looked at each other and followed her.

Three of the guys were in there already. Wildwing stared morosely into a mug that no one for a second thought contained coffee. Duke was fiddling with the hilt of his saber, an odd action for that time of day, because he almost never wore it to bed. Grin was sitting at the table across from Wildwing with a mug of his own- and Grin wasn’t a coffee drinker, not most mornings. Almost simultaneously, they looked up to see Mallory, Tanya, and Dreva, and great pain was written on all their faces.

Looking at them, the trio of ladies winced, and to see them was to see the reflection of the pain the guys were wearing. Each of them felt for one of the guys, and they knew that much, but which girl felt connected to which guy was a question for a later date. "You had it too?" Mallory asked.

"Nightmares? Ya better believe that, Mally. I haven’t been in this bad since…" Duke trailed off and looked at the table. "How’s ‘bout I just say it’s been a real long time and leave it there at that."

"You look pretty good for this early," Wildwing said, almost accusingly.

"I’ve been up for the last four hours, playing cards with Dreva and trying not to think about last night. I had time to look halfway sane by the time I came in here," the hot-tempered young lady replied. She had nothing else to say- seeing her teammates so down made the joke about Wildwing’s cooking seem empty and hollow.

It’s almost like we’re under attack, Tanya thought. Like someone’s getting inside our heads and making us not think straight. She looked around, and something figuratively hit her in the face. She couldn’t believe that no one had noticed before. "Um, guys, has anyone, y’know, seen Nosedive? I mean, this morning."

That got Wildwing’s attention, along with the long and scared scream that came from down the hall. He leaped up from the table, spilling his mug of dark whatever all over the place. He didn’t even notice as he ran full tilt toward his brother’s room. "Nosedive!" he yelled. "Dive! Talk to me, little bro!"

The screaming didn’t stop. Wildwing hit the door running. It didn’t stand a chance. "That’s not going to be fun to fix," Tanya murmured from the hallway. By some unspoken agreement, the other five ducks remained outside while Wildwing went to check on his brother. Somehow, it just wouldn’t feel right butting in on the two of them.

The youngest of the team was lying curled up in his bunk, clinging to a wad of his blanket for dear life and crying in his sleep. Wildwing shook him gently. "Dive, it’s me, wake up," he said. "Come on, Dive, everything’s going to be all right, just snap out of it." His expression was plain to see, because he had left the Mask in his room when he woke up and went into the kitchen. Pure and simple, he was afraid, more so than he had been in a while.

Slowly Nosedive’s eyes fluttered open and he sat bolt upright in his bunk. He saw his brother sitting next to him and hugged him tightly. "Oh, man, I’m so glad you’re alive!" he exclaimed. "I had the worst dream, that- that…" He stopped, but the idea was clear.

"I think we’re going to need to sort this out," Wildwing said grimly. "We all had bad dreams last night. Mallory, what’s that military phrase about once, twice and three times?"

"Once is ___, twice is ____, and three times is enemy action," the redhead replied, before realizing the implications. "Hey, why did you ask me?" she said sharply.

"Hey, Mal-mal, what does that thing say about seven times?" Nosedive asked at a dangerous moment.

"Probably that we should’a done somethin’ ‘bout it a long while ‘go," Duke drawled slowly. Mallory glared daggers at both of them, unsure of which one to go after first.

Wildwing broke the tension. "We need to talk about this. If there’s a common factor in all our dreams, it might lead to who caused us all to have them. Let’s get somewhere where we can all sit down. The only place where there’s enough chairs is the kitchen table, so let’s go there. Besides, we could use some breakfast to get us settled down."

"Bro, you sound like someone’s nightmare of a kindergarten teacher. We’re big kids. We don’t need to be settled down." It was obvious that Nosedive was forcing the good humor; even for him, that was pathetic. That was how scared he was.

Everyone had dispersed for a few minutes to try to get themselves back in order, but they all came back to the table, where drinks were poured and breakfast was scrounged for all. "Who wants to start?" Wildwing asked, seemingly calm, collected, and in command of himself.

Dreva raised her hand and told again what she had said to Mallory that morning before they had begun to play cards. Her careful and almost emotionless tone was terrifying in its detachment. They could tell that she was holding something back- presumably the story behind the nightmare. No one was going to push, not that morning. It wasn’t the time for that.

Encouraged by Dreva’s confession, Wildwing spoke up. "It’s strange. We had similar dreams." He looked down at the table. Quietly, he continued, "I think you can guess the details." There was too much old pain there for him to go on.

"Canard," Duke breathed, both to clarify it for himself and to give Dreva a partial basis for understanding.

Wildwing nodded. "He was falling, and this time I could save him. But this time I had the Mask. And this time, like the last, I did nothing. I had the power to do something and I did nothing." He buried his head in his hands. His next comment was barely audible. "I even know why… it was the power, the love of power, that kept me from saving my best friend’s life. I knew that if I saved him, I would have to give up the Mask, and in my dream, I didn’t want to do that." His eyes, when he looked up, were pained. "That’s why I didn’t wear it this morning. I didn’t want to be reminded."

Tanya shuffled her chair closer to him and laid her hand on his trembling one, her touch surprisingly soft and gentle. "It was only a dream, Wildwing. You know you wouldn’t do that in real life," she reassured him carefully. "That’s what these were all about, at least that’s what I think from what I’ve heard and from what I know."

"So tell us about your dream, Tanya, since you seem to know it all," Nosedive said snappishly. "Enlighten us with your wisdom, oh brilliant mistress of the ponytail."

She gave him a dirty look, but there was no real venom in it. "I was fighting. I was all alone, and I didn’t know where you guys were. It was dark, and I was shooting like there was no tomorrow- guess there wouldn’t have been. Then the lights went on and I saw what I was fighting." She stopped there, unsure of how to go on. "This is going to sound really weird, but when the lights went on in my dream, my enemies were cyborgs… and they had once been you guys, except for Dreva, I don’t know why." Her voice shook suddenly, as the images from her imagination returned to her. "But that’s not all. Then I saw myself, don’t ask how. I was… I was… I was also half-robotic, shiny and purple." She forced a smile and a laugh. "Heh, I guess some things don’t change."

"Tani, ya said that ya knew that these things were ‘bout what we wouldn’t do. If that’s the truth, then why are ya so freaked ‘bout this? I think if we were dealin’ with crazy robo-creatures, we’d all start shootin’ too." Duke looked concerned as he spoke to Tanya.

She sighed. She didn’t want to tell them this part, but he had forced her hand. "Because I knew, the way you sort of know in dreams, that it was all my fault. I had been the one to do that to them, and I had been the one to take away my own life." She looked oddly at Duke, then spoke to the entire table. "Excuse me, but I think I’m going to make a run to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes." She rose from the table and ran out of the room with her hand clamped over her beak and a faintly green tinge around her feathers.

"Poor Tani," Mallory said. "Duke, why’d you have to be so hard on her? She’s not as tough as we are. She’s not used to any of this." Her eyes sparkled with desire for a challenge. "Why don’t you tell us what happened to you last night? I know it hit you just as hard as it hit the rest of us. How about you share?"

Duke stared at her, his one-eyed gaze more disconcerting than it had ever been before. "Ya really want to get ‘side my head, Mally?" he asked, his voice low. "Ya really want to know what I see when I close my eye? If ya do, ya either got more guts than I would’a thought’a anyone, or ya ain’t got the common sense not to ask. Which one is it, Mally?"

"We’re all fessing up here, Duke. Don’t try to scare us off," Nosedive said, pouring himself a large cup of coffee and dropping vast quantities of sugar into it. He took a gulp and shuddered at the taste of it. "How do you guys stand this stuff?" he wondered. But he gulped the coffee down anyway, needing the caffeine to wake himself up all the way.

Duke put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. "I ain’t real sure I want ta tell this story," he said baldly. "It don’t feel right, talkin’ ‘bout it after all’a these years, ‘specially on a whole ‘nother planet. Ya’d think that leavin’ the dimension would leave everythin’ else behind, but that ain’t the case, ‘cause if it belongs ta ya, ya got it for life.

"It all happened back home, leastways that’s where it all started. I came out’a the hardest and toughest section of the biggest city on the damned planet. Growin’ up’s tough when everyone ‘round ya wants anythin’ ya got, even if it ain’t nothin’ much at all. Ya see more there in a month than ya might see anywheres else in ten years. I started out with five brothers and sisters. By the time I was ten, two’a them weren’t there anymore. That’s when the worst started happenin’, and I know I ain’t ready to talk ‘bout that, not even with ya guys.

"But ya didn’t ask ‘bout most’a that, and I ain’t sure why I even said it. Ya wanted ta know what woke me up last night." He stared off into an infinite distance before continuing. "I was fifteen, and someone wanted me and my folks off the little piece’a street we lived on. I was the oldest, and I had ta defend the kiddies. So it came down ta a knife fight ‘tween me and the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest punk on the whole street. I kicked the crap out’a the bastard, too. I just ‘bout sliced him open for everyone ta see that he didn’t have a heart." Briefly, he brushed his eyepatch. "He’s the one that left me with this."

"How did it get worse in the nightmare?" Mallory asked softly.

"Ya got a lot of guts, Mally. Ya really do care, don’t you?" Before letting her go on, he said, "When I was gettin’ back from that, I ran into my ma and my sisters. While I was riskin’ my tail for their rights, that bastard had sent some’a his friends ‘long to kick them out’a their rightful space. At least I knew they were okay, least as okay as they could be, considerin’. But last night, I came on back to that spot on the ground, and they weren’t there. I spent that night searchin’ for them, trying ta find them, and I found squat." There was a bitterness in his face and his voice. "That’s how it got worse. Ya happy now? Why don’t ya tell us all just where ya went last night when ya were dreamin’?"

She looked at him with fire in her eyes, but he had a point. Even as she spoke of her horror, she also found herself exploring what he had said about the fight and why he had been in it. Just like me… he needs a cause, because otherwise it doesn’t make sense. She shied quickly away from that thought and tried to pay attention to her teammates. There was a look of horror on Nosedive’s face, and a faint echo of it on Grin’s. "What’s wrong?" she asked in gneral, willing to accept an answer from whoever could give her one.

"It reminded me far too much of my own dream," Grin replied. "I lost the Way. I returned to the goon I had once been. Only I had more power than I thought I could even dream of, and I laid waste to the world."

"Which world?" Dreva asked sharply.

He looked at her, his eyes strangely hooded. "Both worlds," he answered her. "Both the world I called home and this planet of our exile. Like in Mallory’s situation, I found myself back home in a world destroyed, only in my false vision I was the bringer of death and destruction. I had forsaken everything I once knew and loved and…" He stopped, with the long pause that had become common in that discussion. "I was getting to sort of like it," he finished in a long and very atypical rush.

"That’s all part of the nightmare," Wildwing said slowly, piecing some things together. "We feel what we don’t want to feel, we see what we don’t want to see, we do what we don’t want to do. That’s the essence of it all." He turned to his brother, who was now up to his third mug of heavily sugared coffee and still looking disgusted at it. "Dive? Do you want to open up? You’re the only one who hasn’t said anything. Baby bro, I’m not going to let you keep this inside until it eats you up. I’m not allowed, and you know that."

Nosedive turned the disgusted look on him. "Bro, has it been that long since you’ve been a teenager? We’re supposed to not tell anyone anything. Angst is part of my right as a teenager." He stirred his coffee as rebelliously as was possible, then looked at the drink and moaned. "It’s too late for me, isn’t it? I’m already growing up… and I don’t like it at all. Not one bit. Not even the part where I get to be my own boss."

"How do you know?" Wildwing said with a slight laugh. "You haven’t even gotten there yet."

"I’ve seen it," the younger brother snapped back. It was an interesting scene, almost a reversal of roles. "Last night, I was old and alone and there was no one there for me. I was losing my mind with the loneliness. It felt so real… Wing, you have no idea how bad it was. Make me not want to grow up at all. It seems to totally suck." He picked his coffee cup off the table, pushed his chair back, and headed for the sink. There, he dropped the mug in. Its crash resounded in the metal sink.

Wildwing got up, leaving his teammates at the table. Quietly, he took his brother aside and said to him, "Bro, you do know it was only a bad dream, right? We all had them last night."

Nosedive looked oddly at him and said, "Yeah, but you didn’t have mine, did you? Your worst thing was about Canard. Not about our world, not about our family, not about the rest of the team, but about your precious friend." He turned away. "Go away… before I do something really stupid… bro, I’m not feeling real good right now. Not about you and definitely not about me." The blond pounded his fist against the doorframe. "I hate this," he said softly to himself. "Honestly, I hate this."

"You think you’re the only one?" Wildwing countered. "But if you hide like this, we’re not going to get anywhere." He put a hand on Nosedive’s shoulder, and the younger brother did not move to shrug it off. Well, this is an improvement, Wildwing thought darkly. "We’re all in this together. You mean everything to me, baby bro, you’re the reason I’m still fighting. I mean, what’s to fight for if it’s not the people you hold dear?"

"Stop, I think I’m going to be sick," Nosedive said with a laugh. "I think we’ve got all the mushy dopey brotherly love stuff we’re going to need for a long time."

Wildwing laughed. "It’s good to know you’re back to normal, baby bro." He took him in a brotherly embrace and held him tight for just a second, long enough to be serious, not long enough to be embarrassing.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," the teenager said. Oh yeah, like I’m ever going to be anywhere near what you think is normal. You don’t know me the way you think you do, big bro, and I don’t even know if I want you to or not. He shrugged off his brother’s arm and said, "Hey, all you guys are still in there? Jeez, what kind of patience do you have?"

"We’re planning to try to figure out what’s going on with this nightmare thing, but we wanted to have, uh, input from both of you guys. It would make, y’know, more sense that way," Tanya explained, adjusting her glasses. She still seemed a little uneasy about discussing the events of the night that had just passed, but she knew it was something that had to be done, and her scientific mind relished the challenge of finding out what had caused it.

"So what did we all do over the last couple of days that might have caused us all to wake up in the middle of the night?" Dreva asked.

"It’s got ta be somethin’ that happened either Monday or Tuesday, ‘cause ya got caught too, and ya weren’t here for Dive tryin’ ta make triple-spicy tacos’a his own on Sunday night." Duke leaned his chair back, almost landing on the floor. "I’m thinkin’ there was somethin’ weird ‘bout Wildwing’s last batch’a pasta."

"Or maybe something from that giant Bernie," Mallory mused. "Maybe there was something in those beams it was shooting out that’s causing us to have these bad dreams."

Tanya shook her head. "Nuh-uh. I made sure that the Aerowing had a shield against radiation. Nothing can get in there unless we want it to."

"But can you keep out something you know nothing of?" Grin asked.

She shrugged. "I’m not perfect, y’know, but I think I did a good job reinforcing the Aerowing’s shielding."

Wildwing shook his head. "We’re still all shook up from last night. We’re probably not going to think very well about this. Let’s go practice for tomorrow’s game. If that can’t clear our heads, then we have other problems." He got up from the table, and the rest of the team followed suit. "Dive, clear the table."

"Why me?"

"Because you’re closest? Because you’re youngest? Or maybe because today’s your day to be scullery maid," Mallory teased him.

"You’re just still on a power trip from yesterday’s game," he accused her in the same tone of voice. There weren’t a lot of dishes to clear that morning, because the only thing most people had had was coffee. It took him less than a minute to clear and then hurry to the rink above.

During that brief time when Nosedive was stuck in the kitchen, something very strange happened. As Wildwing led the team down the hall, he was suddenly tackled by a happy blue creature. "Oh, you didn’t leave me, you’re still here, you’re wonderful, I love you!" Phil gasped.

"What is it with guys hugging me this morning?" Wildwing asked the ceiling. "Seriously. It’s not even eight in the morning, and two guys have already hugged me. Am I sending off some kind of weird vibe?"

"I thought you guys had gone away!" Phil whined. "I thought you had left me like the Frogs did!"

"Phil, could you please let go already?" Wildwing begged, just as Nosedive came around the hall. The younger brother let the smile he was feeling slip to his face and said, "So that’s why you haven’t been hitting on any of the girls…"

"Remind me to kill you later, Dive," the older brother replied with a deadly straight face.

"I’d rather kill Phil," Mallory answered, giving the manager a thoughtful look. He let go like he had just been bitten by a snake and ran down the hall screaming deliriously.

"I owe you one, Mal," Wildwing said in relief. "Seriously, I thought he was never going to go away. The man is impossible sometimes."

"Impossible he may be, but he had a bad dream last night too, which means we’ve got to rethink all the ideas we had before. He wasn’t involved in any of the things we we were thinking of over the kitchen table, so now we’ve got to figure out where we were all together and vulnerable to attack." Nothing obvious was different about Dreva, but her bearing had altered just slightly. She seemed hard, angry, almost military, even more so than Mallory the army brat. I have had it with being attacked in the mind wherever I go! I just wanted to find peace, and instead I’ve walked back into war! Is this my price for what I didn’t do? By all the gods, I hope not. Because if it is, then it’ll be too much for this world to stand…

"The only time we saw Phil in the last two days was when he showed up after Duke got injured- that was when he met you- and then with that weaselly photographer for the new team photo…" Nosedive trailed off.

"Of course!" everyone chimed in. "There was something freaky about that little twerp and we should’ve seen it right off," Mallory added irritatedly.

Tanya scrunched up her face in thought. "So there must have been something in the flash that caused us all to have nightmares last night," she mused, mumbling other things under her breath about the mechanics of the idea.

"Who could’a done it?" Duke wondered. "Probably ol’ Lizard Lips with Wraith, but they ain’t the only ones who want us down for the count. Savin’ the world gets ya an awful lot’a enemies, ya noticed?"

"Most people do not care when you save the world, and the only ones who notice are the ones who bear you ill will because you stopped their plans," Grin said sadly. "I doubt things would have been very different back home."

Wildwing sensed the darkening mood that was quickly forming. "Guys. Game tomorrow night, remember? Let’s get on the ice already and work things out there. Duke, do you think you’re ready to play?" He winced. "Let me rephrase that. Tanya, is he cleared to play?"

Tanya looked up in confusion. As he repeated the question, she smiled slightly and said, "I think so. I mean, he hasn’t come to me whining in pain, so that’s got to be, y’know, a good sign. Mal and Dive should make sure he doesn’t get checked too many times, but, ah, otherwise, he’s cleared to play." She looked at Duke. "Just let me know if you’re feeling ready to puke, okay?" Her eyes twinkled just a little bit. "Really… I liked playing offense that one night."

"I’ll keep that in mind," he replied sarcastically. They continued up to the locker rooms and changed into their practice gear- the Pond was probably the only arena that had three locker rooms: one for the away team, one for the home team’s men, and one for the home team’s women.

Duke skated a little gingerly and was very leery of playing near the boards, but otherwise seemed himself. Having seven players gave Wildwing an unaccustomed flexibility with the lineup, and he spent a good part of the practice experimenting with different arrangements of players on the ice. Of course the original worked best, but he wanted to see how things would happen if he needed or wanted to substitute. He was favorably impressed with the chemistry he saw developing. He liked their chances against the Cosmos the next night- of course, that was if they could all keep their heads together for the next day and a half.

"You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?" Tanya asked. "I don’t blame you, Wildwing. I haven’t been able to get it off my mind." Although it’s mostly because I can’t get an unsolved problem out of my head, but I don’t know if I should really tell him that… he might get annoyed if I’m thinking about that during practice- or the game, for that matter. Besides, there are other things I’d rather be thinking about, and would be if not for this puzzle.

"I don’t like people who mess with my team," he answered, absentmindedly deflecting an uncharacteristically weak shot from Mallory. "You can see it, Tanya, no one’s acting normally. It bothers me. It also gets me mad. Sounds silly, doesn’t it, but it just seems like we’re getting dumped on. When we’re not fighting Draggy, we’ve got all of Earth’s freaks and weirdos trying to get rid of us. I can’t stand it!"

A siren shrieked in the heavily silent air. "Dive, I thought you were supposed to turn off the sound system for practice," Mallory said.

"Wrong siren," Tanya told her grimly. "That’s from Drake 1, which means we’ve got other ob-oblig- ah, ice it, things to do. You know what I mean." Eyebrows were raised at her unusual use of expletive. "What? I’m on edge too, y’know, I have a right to get mad too."

"It just took us by surprise, that’s all," Duke said. "Ya know, just’a ‘bout all’a the time ya keep ya cool ta make sure we find out what’s goin’ on. It ain’t like ya to go nuts. With all’a the stuff goin’ on, though, we should’a figured ya’d go a little weird on us." He winked at her and then started running.

"Keep running! Maybe I won’t clear you to play after all!" she yelled at him, but they were both smiling. It was good to be able to unwind just a little bit. Everyone had been so tense the last couple of days, it was a wonder they hadn’t started snapping each other’s heads off yet. Dreva’s abrupt arrival, the nightmares- she had a horrible thought. What if they’re connected? What if she’s the one causing all this? Grin said she went a little crazy yesterday against Wraith. Maybe she’s not all together. Oh, man, it’s Wednesday, isn’t it?

"It’s where?!" she shrieked. "Tell me not!"

"Sorry, Tanners," Nosedive said mockingly. "Whoever this is, they got the same shopping tastes as you do. Maybe you’ll find a new buddy."

"Why is everyone dumping on me today?" Tanya asked the roof of the Migrator. Naturally, since it was only metal, it didn’t have an answer for her, and two of her teammates looked at her very strangely. "Tanya, are you all right?" Grin asked. "You seem disturbed."

"Just like everyone else," she tossed back. "I’m just, ah, uptight about what’s been going on the last couple of days, that’s all."

A few minutes passed in uncomfortable silence. Finally, they reached the mall. Fortunately, it was early in the morning, so few shops were open and fewer people were there. They ducks followed the sound of the screaming alarms to ‘Lectric Land, the only shop in the mall that Tanya spent serious amounts of time in.

Visible through the windows were several silvery shapes. The door was hanging crazily off its hinges and the robots inside were scopping computer equipment into large bins within their trunks. Quietly, with weapons drawn, the ducks entered the shop.

Nosedive shattered the silence. "Hey, folks, the clearance sales don’t start for another week yet, so how’s about you wait a while?" He fired a couple of pucks, which bounced off the unfamiliar robots.

Wildwing took a moment to glance to the heavens before giving the signal for the entire team to start firing- or slicing, if they so preferred. "Try to draw them out into the lobby!" he shouted as a last word of warning. "Less to destroy!"

Oh yeah, that’s going to be so easy to do, Mallory sneered mentally. She was very preoccupied with a trio of robots that were ignoring all of her considerable weaponry; she was reduced to using smoke pucks just to keep them from spotting her while she racked her brains for some way to knock the things off. She tried to look around, to see who was having success against the robots and try to either get their help or follow their example. What she saw wasn’t very inspiring.

Wildwing was being forced to use his shield to keep his enemies off his tail. Nosedive was down on the floor- she couldn’t see if he was unconscious, injured, dead, or just hiding. Tanya looked like she was trying to protect the computing gear more than herself, but at least the laser installed in her Omnitool was having some effect on the robots. Grin’s brute strength matched their enemies’ well, but he wasn’t metal, and he couldn’t take the battering they were giving him.

Oddly enough, the two most successful of them were the two who preferred blades. Both Duke and Dreva were winning against their metallic opponents. They were fighting on opposite sides of the store and working their ways towards the center, taking out any robots that happened to be in the way of them or of their teammates. But two ducks couldn’t take out the fifteen or so robots in the store- at least, not without more time than they had.

Tanya didn’t like the odds. Unfortunately, she could calculate them far too well for her liking. Nosedive was already out for the count- she had a better view than Mallory, although she would have preferred it otherwise. She could see Grin starting to falter under the ceaseless attack. Her own priority was that the battery in her Omnitool was wearing out, and while she could get together another one, that would require several parts, a large jolt of electricity, and an hour, none of which she had at the moment. She could also recharge it, but that would also require time and energy. To make matters worse, although she couldn’t see how they could be, she had gotten herself turned around, and instead of leading the robots towards the door, she was trapped near the back.

Wildwing was starting to feel a little scared, even if he would never admit it to anyone, except… but that wasn’t a thought for wartime. He didn’t like being in a purely defensive situation. Sure, as a goalie he couldn’t shoot at anyone, but there he had an offensive line on the other side of the ice, ready to give him a lead. Here, it seemed like all seven of them were playing defense, and they had already allowed the other side to score. He tried not to think about Nosedive lying there helpless. Other than beating these guys, there was very little he could do for his brother, or his team. Angrily, he fired off pucks, hoping that sometime, one of them would finally penetrate his adversary’s metallic hide.

Suddenly one of the metal monsters turned toward him with malevolence in its featureless eyes. Before he could react, its huge hand swept into his head and knocked him unconscious. It picked him up, scooped him into the bin where it had been storing its stolen goods, and emitted a high-pitched whine. Its signaling nature was clear, but what it was signaling was another story. The team was about to find out the hard way, though.

With a sinking feeling, Duke realized that the robots hadn’t really been fighting before, just biding their time for one of them to get Wildwing in a bad place and capture him. Whoever had sent them knew that taking out the team leader would lower the team’s spirit to a dangerous level. Whoever this is, they like playin’ dangerous. For all they knew, we could’a gone lunatic on these tin cans and turned them into scrap. ‘Cept maybe they know ‘bout us, ‘bout how we think, and they know that we all fall ‘part when Wing ain’t ‘round. I still ‘member that time when he thought he couldn’t lead, and it turned out he was the only one who could.

His thoughts were interrupted by the inevitable blow from his enemy. As he fell, it came to him almost in slow motion that he had been the last one. He had been fighting a battle that he had already lost… again. Mally!

He woke up in pain. Everything in general ached. It seemed like the mantra had failed him once again. For an absolute philosophy, it didn’t seem to last very long. Contrary to all expectations, pain was not an illusion. He tried opening his eyes, but there was very little to see when he finally succeeded. Wherever he was, he was confined within it, and someone had neglected to put in windows. It was dark and more than a little disheartening. It was also very, very small for a prison. He could barely move around. This made him certain of one thing- he was alone. Of course, that didn’t help in trying to find the rest of his teammates. At least if someone had been in there with him, he would know that he wasn’t the only one alive. This way… he wasn’t sure.

"Hello?" he asked tentatively. He felt the sound vibrate through the walls of his prison, heard the faint echoes die, and felt his heart sink a little lower. He tried to calm himself, but it didn’t work for a while. Somewhere within him, he knew there was a well of inner peace, but he seemed to have lost the tools to reach it. He took a deep breath and tried to start back at the beginning, to use the simple rituals he had been taught so long ago.

But he couldn’t even imagine the sound of one hand clapping. Her face was floating in his mind. That beautiful woman from Serendip, the one who seemed to have been through a world of pain that she would not, or maybe could not, speak of- he knew now that she had stolen his heart. To say the least, this was a bad time to figure out that he was in love with Andy. The last thing he needed was to be distracted by thoughts of her. So why couldn’t he stop thinking about her? He pounded the wall briefly before finding a measure of his customary calm.

"Someone there?" The voice was faint- he could have easily imagined it. But it certainly sounded like Wildwing. "Answer me!"

Suddenly there was a loud crash. Not for the first time in the last five minutes, Grin wished that there was a window somewhere in the place. He wanted to see what was going on and where he was. He took a deep breath, and then another. Peace, he counseled himself. You have no control over the events that are going on outside. If you concern yourself with them, you will be unable to think about what you need to do to get out of here.

"Hello, duckies," a menacing voice said. "Guess who’s back in town? You foolish creatures of flesh keep thinking you have defeated me, but I always rise again! I am the ultimate culmination of the future! You cannot stop me!"

In her own cage of metal, Mallory groaned. "Oh no, not Droid again. He’s worse than cockroaches sometimes. Can’t we just knock off a wanna-be supervillain once and have done with him? Why do they always come back?"

The mad scientist cackled maniacally. "Because unlike you pathetic excuses for so-called heroes, I don’t give up after one or two battles. I continue to fight you because I know my way is the way the world must go."

Nosedive rolled his eyes. "Loser," he said sarcastically. "Everyone thinks they know everything. You’re just a wack job attached to a tin can. Get over yourself."

"Which one of us has been captured by whom? Face it, you feeble creature, you are obsolete," Dr. Droid sneered. "And I’m about to prove it to you."

Duke, who had just awakened from his hit upside the head, felt his arm being lifted up in the air, and everyone else abruptly got visual capabilities. "That’s right, you pathetic pests, you’re each inside one of my pet gladiator robots. By proxy, you’ll be fighting each other to the death!" The villain smirked arrogantly. "Oh, and don’t try calling for help or identifying yourself or anything like that. I’m the only one who can hear you."

Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse, someone makes sure it can, Tanya grumbled to herself. "Were you the one who made sure we had nightmares?" she asked suddenly.

"Finally, someone thinks. I see you ran into my friend Mr. Machine. Pathetic, really. You should have been able to figure out what he was just from that one sporting hint I gave you. But no, you were too stupid to understand. It makes me all the more certain that such weak creatures of flesh and blood must be destroyed. Enough of this talk-talk." His maddened grin grew wider and more obnoxious as he pushed a button and two of the gladiators stalked forward.

If I wasn’t trapped in here, I would think that this was pretty smart, Tanya thought, watching the battle begin. She could barely move any of her extremities because the metal casing was so painstakingly designed to cling. He must have had these ready for a while. Maybe that means he’s not prepared for Dreva, because she wasn’t with us when last we met. Except we can’t talk to each other. This is just such a Wednesday that it’s not even funny.

Dreva was in a panic. The conflict was back. She knew at least three ways she could get out of the situation she was in, and a half dozen to get her teammates out of trouble. But to do that, she would have to reveal herself. Besides the effect it would immediately have on her, she didn’t know what it would do to the time stream. She had been raised to make sure that if she traveled back in time, as she was sure she had done, she made no changes that would affect any major events. Letting the ducks in on her secrets would definitely do that. Of course, if she didn’t get them out of the mess, death would also just as definitely bollux the universe up. There’s got to be a right way to solve this problem!

If I could just reach my saber! But I don’t even know where it is, less how ta get ta it. ‘Less one’a the others can get out’a their tin can, this’s the end of the line. And I ain’t even told her how I feel. I don’t even know if that’s her out there or not. Man, Droid’s a real jerk, and he don’t know how much’a one he is. Duke wished he could do something, anything, other than just sit there and watch what was going on. But as hard as he had strained, he hadn’t been able to move a single inch. He was trapped. And he hated being trapped, had since the first time he got caught thieving. It went counter to his instincts to stay in one place, whether it was voluntary or not.

Suddenly Dreva’s eyes lit up, although no one could see it. There was a solution that could keep her cover good! It would take a little doing, but that was certainly something she was used to. The only question was time… heh, hasn’t that always been the question, though? Anyway, you don’t have time for familial philosophy. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

The tears were flowing from his eyes, irritating his face underneath the Mask. He didn’t even know which of his team members was receiving the battering from the gladiator in which he was imprisoned. All that mattered to him was the fact that one of his people was getting hurt, and he could do nothing to stop it. This was a hell the likes of which he could not have imagined, not even after the night that had preceded it.

He didn’t even care that the hurt was going both ways. His only concern was whoever was on the receiving end of the blows he felt the gladiator giving. He was the leader, so he was supposed to be strong, and able to handle anything that the world- or worlds- threw at him. Could he say the same of any of his teammates? Most likely not, except for Mallory and Duke.

He was scared, almost terrified. He had thought his way through this as best he could, and he could find no way out. They were doomed. He had failed the team and his world, because with the ducks out of the way, Dragaunus and his henchmen would be free to concoct whatever schemes they pleased.

The blows kept coming and going, and the tears kept flowing, and the ache inside kept on hurting.

He was aching all over, but the last thing he would do was admit it and let that slimebag have the pleasure of knowing that he had totally won. He felt like a fool for letting himself be caught. Powered down robot with its door wide open- so obvious even you should have figured it out. But no, you attacked first and thought later… much, much later. You screwed up again, the way you always do.

Sometimes I wonder why I’m even here. Correction: I know how I got here, I just wonder why he insisted so much. Didn’t he think for one second that this maybe might be more dangerous than staying home? Or did he just not want me out of his sight? He wanted to pull his hair in frustration, but he wasn’t even allowed that. He had already tried pulling his arms out of those of the gladiator robot, but it had been no use. They were held in surprisingly tight.

Not for the first time in the last couple of minutes, he wondered who was on the other side of the floor and what they were thinking. This insane plan of Droid’s had one evil little catch that he wasn’t sure that the mad scientist had thought of. There was far too much time to think and to ponder on the dark side. So not only do we get killed, we go crazy first. Oh well. At least the first won’t matter as much because of the second. I mean, if you’re stark raving nuts, are you really going to care that someone you know and trust is beating the crap out of you- or on the other side, that you’re beating the crap out of someone you know and trust?

He wished that there was something flip and sarcastic to say, but he just couldn’t think of a witty remark. It would have shocked his teammates if they had known that- after all, he was known for looking on the bright side of life. But what could he say about this?

Dreva was slightly grateful for the battle going on, although that wasn’t exactly a popular opinion to be holding at that moment. But she was the only one who needed a distraction. It would have been inconvenient for her if Dr. Droid had noticed her wandering around. However, he was engrossed in the barbarous spectacle he had orchestrated. She had all the time in the world to think of how she was going to work this. Who was she going to need to spring first? And how was she going to find him or her once she did figure out who? Well, the second’s not so hard as all that, but who do I need first? She snapped her fingers silently as she came to her conclusion.

Swift and silent, she moved along, hiding behind anything that she could. She brushed her fingers lightly along each of the gladiators, hoping that the person she was looking for wasn’t one of the ones fighting- if she was, then Dreva was going to need another plan, and quickly. Fortunately, on her second try, she found the telltale sign. She hastily drew her sword Hal and sliced carefully along the gladiator robot’s back. The famous blonde ponytail unfolded like an accordion once released from its bondage.

Tanya blinked as her eyes readjusted to the lighting. "How did you-"

"Smart sword," Dreva replied. "It has a bit of its own magic which allows it to sense when I need it. All I had to do was push it with my hip against the side of the stupid robot and it started slicing and dicing. You still have your Omnitool?"

"Yeah, but it’s out of power," Tanya said. "Or just about, anyway. There’s not a whole lot I can, y’know, do with it right now."

"Would you trust me with it for a second?"

The blonde looked skeptically at the brunette, her suspicions of earlier that morning still in mind. "What can you do with it?"

"Would you trust me?" Dreva repeated. She met Tanya’s eyes with a gaze that was so calm, self-assured, and open that Tanya felt she had no other choice. Reluctantly, she detached her all-purpose invention and handed it to Dreva, then started rubbing her wrist nervously. She felt almost naked, although she was wearing all her clothes. She hardly ever removed the tool in public, and she was completely unused to handing it to anyone for maintenance, since she was the techie. People came to her and gave her stuff to fix, not the other way around. If she needed to fix something, she sat there and thought about it until she could figure it out.

Dreva balanced her sword in one hand, and it flickered into another shape. Although it kept its color, it had transformed into a recharging device. "Something my sister designed a long time ago," she explained softly. "She found the best ways to combine magic and science, then shared them with us. This is her masterwork." A small buzz was heard, but that was all. Tanya took the Omnitool back with more than a little doubt in her eyes, but the power gauge read full.

"Let’s save the day," they said together. The blonde took a second and fired an experimental shot into the casing of the nearest gladiator, testing to see how long it took for the laser to penetrate. She nodded at the results. "Got it," she whispered.

Ah, I guess this is why she’s the scientist and I’m just the lady with the sword. I don’t think I would have considered that, no matter how long I spent learning. Dreva shrugged, both mentally and physically, before following Tanya along the line, helping to release their fellow ducks. After a few minutes of quiet work, they had everyone but Wildwing and Nosedive.

Five sets of haunted eyes turned to the battle raging in the mini-arena. "Too cruel," Grin whispered in his deep, rumbling voice. "To pit brother against brother, to create such chaos within a team and a family- this cannot be condoned, not in any way."

"Major tail-kicking is called for," Mallory agreed. She flexed her fingers and stretched her hands, acutely aware of her weaponless status. Granted, she was a remarkable bare-hands fighter, but she wasn’t expecting to have any effect on robots with that.

"We got ta get our stuff," Duke added. "Don’t know ‘bout you, but I ain’t one ta go ‘gainst a bunch’a thin’s that our weapons can’t beat with nothin’ but our hands and a bad temper." The redhead shot him a glare, but nothing else.

"He speaks the truth, and I think I know where our weaponry is," Dreva said. She pointed a low finger to the raised platform upon which Dr. Droid was watching the carnage of his little battle. "Trophies," she added in disgust. I hate trophy keepers, she added to herself, suppressing a shudder at the wounds she thought she had finally healed.

She knew what she had to do. Quietly, calmly, she handed Duke her sword and motioned him in front. "You’re our best sneak. Hal’s a good blade, use it well. I can handle myself well if trouble comes, and you’re more comfortable with a sword in your hand."

He was more than a little surprised by how well she had read him, but he knew that she was right. He took the lead, moving with a grace and silence that was enviable. That just covered his nervousness. The situation might have improved, but that didn’t mean that he liked it any better than he had before.

He had to admit that she was right about the sword, though, both about his comfort level and about its quality. He could feel its perfect balance and its excellent make. It surprised him that she had entrusted him with it- reasoning aside, he knew how attached someone could become to their sword. He had other things to worry about, though, such as saving the day. Fun.

He was almost there. Reflexively, he looked back to make sure that everyone was still there- unnecessary because they were. Mallory winked at him and reached her hand in the direction of her puck launcher- she wanted her weapon back and enough of this thinking. He returned the gesture, leaped up with an incredible silence, and snatched away the pile of armanent before anyone had a chance to notice.

Mallory cradled her favorite gun like a long-lost friend or family member. "It feels so good to have this back again," she purred happily. "I’m whole again."

"You take your weapons waay too seriously," Tanya told her. While the comment would normally have been accompanied by a wry smile, this just didn’t seem like the right moment for that.

No one would ever be certain what happened next. Perhaps someone made too much noise, or the bad doctor got somewhat more attentive. Whatever the case may have been, Dr. Droid suddenly turned away from the battle below and saw the small group of ducks. His anger was incredible. "How did you?- it’s not possible, you can’t have escaped from my diabolical plan!"

"Think again, sleazeoid," Mallory spat. She let fly a couple of shots- they went far wide, but her point was made. She wasn’t in the mood to be messed with, even less so than usual.

Suddenly, Droid smiled even more evilly than was his wont. He snaked out a metallic tentacle and pushed some buttons on a console out of everyone’s reach. With a squeaking that had to be more for effect than from maintenance- or lack thereof- the gladiators that still imprisoned Wildwing and Nosedive turned towards the team. "So what do you do now? Do you die or do you kill? Or do both end up happening?" He cackled, a sound that was guaranteed to get on anyone’s nerves. Then he took off, taking full advantage of the rockets he had installed in the bottom of his latest body.

Oh no oh no oh no, this isn’t happening, this can’t be happening, this is just another one of those nightmares, any minute now I’m going to wake up and be in bed with the blankets all wrapped around me. Seriously, this is totally the worst thing I’ve ever been through- I want out of this so bad that it’s not even funny. And no one knows it, because I’ve never ever let anyone know how I feel- smooth, Tanya, real smart of you. Fear paralyzed not only her, but the entire team. If they didn’t shoot, then they would be defeated and destroyed. If they did shoot- two of their own were in there. The dilemma seemed impossible to solve.

Wildwing wanted to scream, to yell to his team, to tell them to do what they had to do- except for the fact that his brother was in the same situation that he was. He was willing to take the risk for himself, but not for Nosedive. It wasn’t his right. His choice would have been an impossible one, one that no one should ever have been forced to make- did he let his brother get killed to protect the ducks he had been given charge of, or did he allow his team to die for the sake of his brother? No wonder Canard didn’t want Dive to come along… but I couldn’t leave him there, and we all knew it.

Of course it didn’t matter what he wanted to do, because he was powerless. He could speak, but none would hear. He couldn’t move, and he couldn’t escape. The only way out was through the sheerest of luck- or through the final way out, from which no one came back. He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to watch.

Mallory was the first to break out of their mutual brain freeze. Slowly, her reluctance evident in every centimeter, she raised her launcher and started firing. Her teammates looked at her in shock. "Do you have any other ideas?" she asked sharply. "I know what I’m doing."

Duke saw it quickly. The pucks she was shooting would distract the gladiators long enough for her to load bola pucks into her launcher. He grabbed the spare that Nosedive had been carrying and followed her example. It turned out that the kid had a couple of smoke pucks left in his stock, which Duke put to good advantage. A minute or so later, the two robots were felled. The few shots that they had managed to get off had missed widely, so no one was hurt beyond some bumps, bruises, and scratches.

The group congregated around their foes/friends. "Well, who’s got the can opener?" Duke asked sarcastically.

He received a dirty look in reply from his three female teammates. Grin, however, was too busy to do the same. Barehanded and with a controlled anger that would have stunned everyone who knew him, he ripped the back off the robot nearest him. He then tore off the arms and helped Nosedive out of his confinement. "Miss me?" the blond asked weakly.

"Immensely, my little friend," Grin replied. He continued on his work, even as the ladies continued to harangue Duke. A couple of minutes later, he had gotten Wildwing out. Only when he saw the whole team safe did he feel better. The problem had been resolved without anyone dying.

Nosedive cleared his throat. "Be afraid. Be very afraid," he said. "I’m baaack!"

The abusive language being piled on Duke immediately stopped as Mallory, Tanya, and Dreva turned around. The joy on their faces was nearly identical and rather pleasant to see. But somehow all the words they could muster up between them were "Glad to, ah, see that you guys are, ah, all right," and they were spoken by Tanya.

"What, we spend the best part of the battle stuck in these tin cans and that’s all you have to say to me and my bro? Yeesh, you guys are impossible." Nosedive shook his head in mock pity.

Mallory gave him her usual look of exasperation, then pounded her fist into her open hand. "I wish we’d been able to get that sleazeoid freak!" she yelled angrily. "I hate losing!"

A hand placed firmly on her shoulder calmed her momentarily. She didn’t look to see who it was, because there were only two guys on the team with that much audacity, and she could see Grin in front of her. Her idea was confirmed when Duke said, "Ya got ta relax, Mally. He’s gone, ain’t no complainin’ goin’ ta brin’ him back for a fair fight."

"You’re right," she admitted grudgingly. "So what do we do next, Wildwing? Do we hit the ice or do I get to hit the mall?"

"I think you’ll end up doing both, Mallory," Wildwing replied thoughtfully. "Unless of course you don’t want to…"

"Now I know where your brother gets it from," she remarked in disgust.

"In any case, we finish that practice from this morning first, then everyone does as they wish to. There’s always another game, and this is no exception. I want everyone to be ready for the Cosmos tomorrow."

"Honestly, bro, you’re impossible," Nosedive said, throwing his hands up in the air. "We just come out of something like this and all you can think about is practice?"

What would you rather I think about? Wildwing wondered, but did not say. That would lead everyone into some dark places, and they had spent enough time there that morning. Curtly, without addressing his brother’s comment, he led the team back to the Migrator and got into the driver’s seat.

The ride to their home base was unusually quiet- there wasn’t even a hint of the ordinary banter between the team. He wondered about that- it had been a strange and hard battle, but they had seen worse. He was worried about his team, and himself.

A voice was raised in song. He wasn’t particularly surprised to find that it was Dreva- none of the others had ever been inclined to start warbling at random moments. "Flip the coin," she suggested tunefully. "When you’re looking on the bad side, flip the coin. When everything don’t seem all right, flip the coin. The glass that seemed so half-empty’s going to look full as can be. Once that tail turns into a head, you’ll forget all those tears you shed. All you’ve got to do’s toss it up, just throw that coin all the way up. Flip the coin, oh flip the coin."

She had the grace to blush when everyone looked at her- except Wildwing, but he was driving. "Sorry about that. It was something that my sister wrote. We saw a lot of bad times, but she was always the optimist, and tried to convert the rest of the family to her happy little viewpoint. Look who won."

"You’ve got a nice voice," Nosedive said abruptly, turning the subject around a bit.

She laughed then. "You only say that because you don’t know how the tune’s really supposed to go," she accused him lightly. "My sister sang it so beautifully that even the most hard-bitten cynic would, at least for five or ten minutes, believe that maybe there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, that it hadn’t been stolen. We turned out a lot of different talents in my family, and rarely did they overlap. In other words, I can’t sing worth a damn."

"Could’a fooled me," Duke muttered, just loudly enough for Dreva to hear- which, of course, had been his plan all along. Slowly, the mood inside the Migrator improved. The good humor lasted into the Pond, and onto the ice.

Wildwing decided to keep the practice relatively short. "I think that if we skate any more, our feet are going to fall off. It’s been a long morning, so let’s call it."

"Oh yeah, that’s the best idea I’ve heard you have in a long long time," Nosedive laughed. Before anyone could finish a blink, the ice was cleared, except for Wildwing and Dreva. He turned to her and said simply, "Quickwing?"

"I thought you’d catch it- you struck me as being better read than the rest of the team. I thought Dive would recognize the reference, though."

"Baby bro doesn’t have the patience for a full-length novel, not even one that’s packed with action, adventure, and pretty girls. I used to read him little bits of it, though. He ate those up, every daring exploit of Quickwing the hero." Wildwing smiled with the fond memories. "So why don’t you want your real name known?"

Dreva traced circles in the ice with the toe of her skate. "There might be folks after me. Bad ones. I don’t want to give them any more hints than I have to. My surname- my true name, that is- would be a red flag to them. I don’t want to get you guys involved in something that has nothing to do with you, so more I dare not say." She departed quickly, so swiftly that he thought she had just vanished.

"I think I’m going to swing by the bookstore, see what I can find out about this strange planet. Does anyone want anything while I’m up that way?"

Tanya raised her hand, scribbled something on a piece of paper, and handed it with a bill of uncertain denomination to Dreva. "I can’t get out of the Pond- there’s an, ah, experiment going that I have to, uh, keep an eye on, so things don’t, y’know, get out of hand. Thanks so much, you’re great."

"So I’ve been told," the brunette replied with a wicked gleam in her amber eyes. "No evidence has been found to back up the claim, though. Hey, where’s Mallory?"

"She’s too tired to hit the mall," Nosedive answered. "Yeah, I already checked her for a fever, nothing doing. Hey, are you going by the computer store? I so totally wanted to get a couple of new games for my hand-held. Who knows, Tani might actually show me how to use it sometime when she forgives me for blowing up the lab last month."

"That ain’t goin’ ta happen, kiddo, and ya know it," Duke told him. "She still won’t let ya near her stuff when ain’t no one nearby to keep ya from gettin’ int’a trouble with it."

Nosedive stuck his tongue out at him. Dreva said, "Give me money and a shopping list and I’ll see what I can do for you. I make no promises, because… well, I don’t like to make promises." She cracked a small smile. "Anyone else want to load the pack animal before she leaves?"

"Nah, we’ll wait til ya come back, then come at ya with a whole new list’a stuff. It’s more fun that way."

Dreva shook her head, thinking about the foolishness of some guys, and headed out the door. One of the cycles was already gone, so either Wildwing or Grin had left, and she was fairly certain of who it was. She mounted the cycle, put on the helmet, and got ready to take off, but paused. Would she… nah, I don’t think so. Let him wonder for a little while. Besides, I’ve got errands to run and obligations to keep. Having gotten that settled, she gunned the cycle and sped off down the road in a cloud of smoke. Let’s see, where have I gotten myself into? The bookstore, the computer place, and you need supplies. Girly-girl, you’re too nice for your own good sometimes.

She wondered what was going on elsewhere with the team. She could guess what Nosedive was up to, and she knew where Tanya was, but what about everyone else? She especially wanted to know what was up with Mallory not wanting to mall-crawl.

She looked in her wallet one more time. All she found was dust and old receipts. There was a very simple reason she wasn’t shopping. She was flat broke. Even window-shopping would have been too tempting. And after the last time she had gone wild with her credit card, she wasn’t allowed to have one any more. She was still a bit annoyed at Wildwing for that.

Mallory sighed wistfully, longing for the mall, but knowing that to go there would be folly. So instead, she looked under her bunk until she found the pile that she sought and pulled it out. The magazines she had found would have earned the derisive laughter of most of the team- after all, what self-respecting young warrior woman would be caught dead with teen magazines? But she loved them for their shopping tips, their makeup advice (although some of it was little or no use to her), and even the occasional tidbit on how to get the right guy.

It was the shopping pages she flipped to now. Hey, if I can’t get to the mall, this is the next best thing, she figured. She got as comfortable as she could and started to read and envy.

"And another one bites the dust! And another! And another! Yee-haw!" Nosedive whooped joyfully, punching his fist in the air. The mass destruction on the screen was of a scale he’d only seen in reality, never in the game. Sheesh, for most people it’s the other way around, he thought wryly.

He had the music up loud enough for him to be happy, but just under the threshold that would have caused someone to storm into his room and scream for him to turn off that racket. The bag of nachos was open and ready to be dipped into at any convenient break, such as the one between levels which he was currently enjoying. He slurped the last of his soda with an air of triumph, then tossed the can into a random corner of his room.

The game resumed, and so did he, his fingers seemingly glued to the controls and his eyes seeing nothing but the space battle depicted on his screen. Now if only this was the only way I could fight the bad guys… he pondered briefly.

He looked out the spot where a window would have been if this was a normal room aboveground. It was just an old reflex, one that was only aided by the poster of a sunny day he had put up there just a couple of weeks ago. It had been a silly little thing, an impulse purchase like the ones his brother or Mallory sometimes made without even knowing why.

He reopened his book a bit before the point where he had left off. With Shakespeare, it was always best to read a little bit before to get himself back into the flow of the beautiful but archaic language. He smiled at the lines of the innocent Miranda from The Tempest. "O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in’t!"

Somehow- Wildwing couldn’t remember how- a copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream had wandered into the Pond, and he had picked it up. Immediately he was drawn to the beauty of the language and the sheer power of some of the words. His interest had grown, and he now had about a half-dozen plays on his bookshelf. The Tempest was the most recent addition to his collection. He had bought it two or three weeks ago, but the events that had passed in those weeks had left him little time to appreciate the works of the Bard.

He settled back down against the cushions, stopped trying to look out the window, and immersed himself in the world that revolved around a tiny island.

There was nothing on. It seemed impossible, with all the cable channels that Tanya had hooked the team up with, but there was absolutely nothing on. No matter how many times he clicked the remote control, not a single show caught his eye. There wasn’t even any hockey on!

"What kind’a world is this where ya can have every channel on the face’a the planet and there still ain’t nothin’ ta watch?" Duke asked the television. Fortunately for his sanity, the television didn’t answer. He gave it a dirty look and headed into the kitchen for a drink of water and maybe some snack food, if Nosedive hadn’t taken it all into his den.

He found some pretzels that hadn’t interested the teenager and came back into the rec room. Once again, he channel-surfed aimlessly. He wasn’t in the mood to go out, and he didn’t know why. It wasn’t the wound he had gotten from Chameleon- that just itched madly. He just felt tired and content to stay in one place that he could call home. Funny that I found it here, the last place I would’a thought I’d find it, he mused.

He looked up just in time to see Mallory racing out of her room like she was being chased by a monster. "What did the kid do now?" he asked her with a note of resignation in his voice.

"Bugs," she replied sharply. "Tons of bugs in my stuff. You didn’t help him this time, did you?" she added suspiciously. "Because if you did…"

"Would I do that this time? After ya went nuts on me when he put them in yer boots? I ain’t stupid, Mally. I didn’t make it in the Brotherhood by bein’ stupid." He shook his head. "That kid is some kind’a crazy."

"I’m going to kill the little brat," Mallory declared, clenching her fists. She broke away from Duke and stormed off down the hallway. He followed her to make sure that she didn’t do anything foolish and irrevocable.

"NOSEDIVE!" He heard someone calling his name in the distance but had no fear. That was his mistake. He continued to play his game, unaware of the firestorm coming his way- until she started pounding at the door.

"Yo," he called back. "Come in."

Mallory accepted the invitation, strode into his room, and started kicking things. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn’t just coming by to say hello and challenge him to a game. She was steamed. "Whoa, girly-girl, what’s the matter with you?" he asked calmly.

"I told you to stay out of my room! I warned you not to pull any more pranks on me! Did you listen? Do you ever listen?" She advanced on him menacingly, her wrath abundantly clear to the trembling blond.

He looked at her in confusion. "Whaddya mean? I haven’t done anything in your room since the stink bombs."

"Don’t lie to me, Dive, not after the infestation of insects I found in my magazine collection. I know you did it. If you fess up now, I might actually-"

Mallory’s definition of mercy was interrupted by more screaming, this from the direction of Tanya’s lab. "Fire and ice, Dive, you cause more trouble in a single day than Draggy and his goons can in an entire month! It’s hard to believe that you and Wing are even brothers sometimes!" The redhead ran out of Nosedive’s room, seeking the reason for Tanya’s fear. When she came through the doorway, she almost crashed into Duke. "Not you too! Can’t I get rid of you troublesome two?"

He was given no chance to answer the rhetorical question, because Mallory was already off down the hall even before he could fully comprehend what she meant. He raced off after her, with Nosedive following.

At the lab door, there was a notice posted: "Experiment in Progress. Entering will disturb the experiment and really bother the experimenter. So please don’t enter. Thank you." Mallory was ready to ignore that and blow the door off its hinges when Tanya’s voice came over the coms. "Don’t open the door! Guys, I’m serious, don’t open the door."

"Why?" Duke asked.

On the other side of the door, the blonde laughed nervously. "Well, heh, I kind of got a little careless with my experiment, and, er, I dropped it on the floor. Some of them got loose already through the air ducts, and I don’t want to, y’know, let any more of them out. Just give me a sec, and I’ll have what’s left in here cleaned up." A few tense minutes passed, then the door slid open.

Tanya looked an absolute wreck. Her hair was mussed, long streaks of grease and dust ran down her face, and her clothes were ripped. The last was hard to see, though, because she was wearing what looked like a runaway piece of mosquito netting. Along with that, she had on a helmet with a clear visor. She looked crestfallen, exhausted, and only slightly relieved at the cessation of whatever it was that had had her worried. "Yeesh, Tanners, what happened in there?" Nosedive asked.

Tanya winced. "Well, um, I was working on a new and improved bug spray, so I had some flies and other bugs in a bunch of, ah, is-iso- isolation domes so I could test different combos. But the table, was, er, unsteady, so I had to move the whole setup. I kind of tripped. I lost two things of flies, a thing of silverfish, and all my composure."

"Are silverfish those freaky crawly ones?" Mallory asked.

"Um, yeah, they like paper and stuff like that," the blonde answered.

Mallory nodded. "Something very strange is about to happen," she announced. She turned to Nosedive and said, "I’m sorry for blaming you for the bugs in my stuff."

"You’re right, that is weird," Nosedive said to her. "But thanks. Now, are you in the mood for some serious cyber-butt-kicking?"

Battle-light came into her eyes. "Bring it on, blondie, bring it on," she taunted. "You really think you can beat me? I do this for a living, remember? I’m going to leave you plastered all over space."

"In your dreams, carrot top," he replied in kind. "You can’t deal with me, girly-girl. I know this game upside and inside out."

"Oh, for that I’m going to leave you wishing you’d never challenged me," she declared. "You’re so dead, Nosedive."

"Don’t kill my brother," Wildwing said mildly, having only just then gotten out of his book and joined the group outside the lab. "I really like having him around, at least most of the time."

What took him so long to get here? Tanya wondered. I mean, his room’s pretty far from my lab, but he still should have been here before that. This definitely doesn’t bode well for you, Tanya. "Oh, they’re just, y’know, talking video games and stuff like that. I think. Are you?"

"Of course. Where else do I have a chance of beating up on Mallory?" Nosedive inquired of his brother before wandering back in the direction of his room. "Whoa, bro, you really need to loosen up. Try reading something a little lighter, ‘kay?"

Wildwing just shook his head. "Is everything all right in here, Tanya?" he asked the techie.

"Oh, yeah, everything’s fine, peachy, y’know?" Smooth, Tanya, when was the last time you actually used the word peachy? For that matter, when was the last time any duck ever used the word peachy? "I just dropped some stuff, and it, ah, broke, and some of the ex-ex-exper- uh, stuff, got out of the things I had them in, that’s all, really."

"Good, I’m glad it’s nothing to worry about," he responded. "Is there anything else you need, like replacement supplies or anything like that?"

"Uh, not really, not that I can think of, anyway." She laughed nervously. "My luck, y’know, I’ll remember something in half an hour or something like that, though."

She was fully aware of the flush in her face and the unsteadiness of her words. To her, they screamed louder than words ever could the emotional tangle that she was holding inside. It didn’t really surprise her, though, when Wildwing turned away without another word. Even though he wore the Mask of Drake DuCaine, which was supposed to penetrate to the truth at the heart of every matter, he could be maddeningly blind in some instances.

She sighed inside, so that no one would know it, and headed back into the lab, hoping that she could actually get some work done on a couple of nifty little things she had been keeping on the back burner while she designed the super-bug spray.

While the madness ensued at the Pond, Grin was sitting in the nearby stand of trees that was the Anaheim equivalent of a forest. He had tried to find Andy at Serendip, but Teresa had given him the runaround until she finally admitted that she had no idea where the older woman was. ‘She keeps her own hours,’ the Hispanic teenager had informed him. ‘Dios en el cielo is the only one who can ever be certain where she is at any time of the day or the night. And I’m not sure he’s always sure of her, either.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ he had asked Teresa intently.

Teresa had been unusually serious when she had answered, he recalled. ‘I see her, and she’s strange. She knows things that there’s no way she should know, she does things that don’t reconcile with her being blind, she says things that seem outlandish. There is something about her, her aura, if you will- and I know you will- that seems to come from somewhere beyond our ken.’

‘Maybe she has found a more profound state of being,’ he had suggested. ‘Such is possible, even to be hoped for.’

He would never forget the look on that striking face. ‘If she has found a deeper meaning, then I pray that none of us ever find the same level, because she is beyond uncanny.’

He sighed. There were no deep insights to be had that day, nor any additional modicum of peace to be found. He had come there to sort out his thoughts on Andy, but thinking about her only served to confuse him further. He would have to go with his instincts on her, and he felt that she was a good person. Yes, as Teresa had noted, there was something otherworldly about her, but what was that to him? He wasn’t from that world either. Deep down inside, he felt something he had never felt before- completion. It seemed like she was the fabled other half he had heard about in his spiritual education: yin to his yang, as the Chinese of Earth put it.

He had always thought he had it together- even through his training, he had retained some of his old arrogance, although it was greatly lessened. He never knew until now just what feeling complete really meant. It was something beyond the ordinary definition of love that he felt for Andy, and that sensation of completion was only a part of it.

So he would ignore what Teresa had suspected. He would go with his own first impression of Andy. This being settled, he felt much more at peace with himself and the world. He stood up slowly and took a couple of steps out onto the road that would lead him back to the Pond and the occasional madness that was contained within its walls.

On the road, he heard a hello. He saw Dreva come to a halt on the cycle. "Hey there, Grin," she greeted him. "Finished with your weighty ponderings?" There was a teasing glint in her amber eyes as she tilted her head. The sunlight showed up the rich highlights in her long brown hair.

"I have found the answers I was seeking," he replied, feeling but not showing a rising irritation. How could she be so flip about the core of his being? What did she know about him? He forced himself to be calm. After all, she had no way to know him- she had only arrived two days earlier.

"Glad to hear it," she remarked. "Is there anything you want? I’m just going back to drop off Tanya’s books and Nosedive’s games, then I’m heading out again, somewhere or other. I don’t know where yet. I’ll just follow the wind, I guess. I’ve got a com, so in case I’m needed, you can get in touch with me." She smiled briefly before hopping back on the cycle and roaring off slowly.

He looked at her as she disappeared in the distance. She was such a bundle of confusion, by turns as mysterious as possible and at others shallow and casually uncaring. His newest teammate would be interesting to learn about if time permitted. He hoped she would be willing to open up to them in time.

But Dreva wasn’t the lady on his mind… it was Andy, always Andy. He decided to try Serendip again, to see if she had arrived. He had an idea that might, if all went well, advance his chances with Andy and her chances with his teammates. He hoped she was there!

Andy looked at her watch, the long wait chafing her. All she needed was to get rid of her burden and she could get going. She waited in the dark, counting under her breath in various languages. She was ready to lose her temper- that is, if she still had a temper to lose.

"Sorry, I got caught up in something, you know how it is with me," her friend said. "You’re absolutely wonderful, you know that, right? If you didn’t, you do now."

"In a hurry? It’s okay, so am I. I’m going to the mall, see what there is to see." If she had been willing and able, she would have winked at her friend, but she didn’t speak that particular language.

"’Kay then. I’ll see you later, right?"

"Unless something happens to you," Andy agreed sweetly. "Peace out." She headed out, humming a little tune as she did. She knew the way by heart to Serendip, in more ways than one.

As soon as she arrived in the store she owned, she felt warm and comforted. "Hello, Grin," she said warmly. "It’s nice to have you here. Quite a surprise though. Teresa told me you have a game tomorrow, so I thought you would be in practice all day. I would not complain of this good fortune though, because it might well fade away if I do."

"I would never fade away on you, Andy." He hesitated. "Is Teresa here?"

"Not at the moment, dear one. No one will know of your true feelings except you, and me if you wish to tell me." She smiled, her face lighting up beautifully.

"I think I love you," he considered saying. But even after the conclusions he had reached, the words seemed awkward and hard to say. So instead, he asked her, "Would you like to come to dinner tomorrow night?"

She hesitated, which he didn’t think was a good sign. "I’m sorry, but I’m already committed for tomorrow night- Yamato’s coming back west to see if Teresa and I are handling the store the way he wants us to, and Teresa’s folks asked him and me to dinner." Andy sighed. "But what about Friday? I’m free on Friday."

"That would be wonderful. Be warned, though. Friday is Duke’s turn to cook, and the spices he likes to use are almost certain to disrupt your inner peace."

"He likes it spicy? Good, so do I." She laughed. "Surprised? My sister was an experimental sort of cook, so I got used to all sorts of tastes. What time would you like me to be ready?"

"I think six-thirty would give us enough time to get there and introduce you to my teammates." He glanced at her, although he knew that she couldn’t see him. "Would that be all right with you? It gives you enough time to either close up the shop or turn it over to Teresa for the night?"

"Plenty," she agreed. "I don’t think I should tell her where I’m going, though. She might do something silly like try to follow us." Andy giggled slightly. "I think you should go. You’ve spent far too much time tarrying with me. You may be here in a human world, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore your teammates for our sake. I’ll meet you Friday night, okay?"

"Of course, although I do hope to be able to see you tomorrow."

"Que será será- in English, what will be will be. That doesn’t stop me from hoping, too." Suddenly, before either of them had time to really think about it, she got up on her tiptoes, reached up, and kissed him on the side of his beak. He was amazed almost as much by the fact that she knew exactly where to go as by the kiss itself. She pushed him towards the door lightly, more in play than in seriousness.

He was very introspective on his walk back to the Pond.

When the door opened, there was a lot of screaming going on. "Ya goin’ ta die, honey, ya goin’ ta die on this field’a play tonight or my name’s not Duke L’Orange!"

"Eat my puck," Duke’s opponent over the air hockey table replied. She coolly flicked her paddle and watched the puck slip smoothly into the goal slot. "Admit it, I know this game better than you do."

"I ain’t got ta admit nothin’ ta ya," Duke said stubbornly. "Ya think ya so smart, don’t ya? Just ‘cause you’re up five to two-"

"Seven to one, Dukester," Nosedive corrected. "Trust me, folks, the scorer doesn’t lie."

"Whaddya mean, seven to one! I scored twice, I tell ya!"

Nosedive shook his head. "You do not get points for knocking the puck into your own goal, Duke," Wildwing informed him. "That’s just silly."

"Oh, hey, Grin, pull up a seat," Mallory said, looking over from the ferocious game. "Duke challenged Tanya again. He’s losing again. He’s not admitting it again. You think they’d all figure it out by now, right?"

The big duck shrugged and took a seat behind Mallory- he could easily see over her, and he wanted to be out of everyone’s line of sight. Watching Tanya dismantle Duke at air hockey was a sight to see. Although they knew that the blonde was the best player they had, it still came as a surprise every time she beat the crap out of any of them at that miniature version of the game they held so dear. She seemed so peaceful and calm off the ice!

Slowly it occurred to him that perhaps he should have asked his fellow ducks if he could bring a stranger into their sanctuary. He winced, the movement very visible to everyone in the room. "Grin, what’s wrong?" Wildwing asked.

"Is there something on your mind that we can actually comprende?" Nosedive specified. "Come on, Grinster, open up."

The moment of truth. "I invited someone to come here on Friday night for dinner," he confessed. "The woman who owns and runs Serendip, the mystic store in the mall. We are good friends."

"Is that all?" Nosedive drawled slowly and rudely. "Are you sure that’s all?"

"Nosedive!" Wildwing yelled, embarrassed at his brother’s behavior.

"Did you leave your manners in Limbo maybe?" Mallory snapped, before looking over at Wildwing’s suddenly stricken face. "Honestly, Dive, you have the tact of a ton of bricks sometimes, you really do."

"Although he is perhaps discourteous in his way of saying it, he is right," Grin admitted. "Andy is unlike anyone I have ever met before. I would like you to meet her and give me your opinions on her. I know that I may be blinded by my emotions, so I would like to get impartial thoughts from you."

"So is she pretty?" Nosedive asked.

Mallory rolled her eyes. "Nosedive, you have got to have the worst case of foot-in-beak disease that any drake has ever known. Why should you care if she’s pretty or not? What does he care if she’s pretty or not? You’re impossible, I swear. Wildwing, how did you put up with him for so many years?"

"A lot of patience and the fact that we were both out of the house a lot," the older brother replied.

Duke suddenly threw his arms in the air. "I give. I surrender. Ya got ta fifteen, and that’s enough for one game. But that don’t mean I ain’t goin’ ta come back ‘gain and beat ya." He slammed the paddle down on the board and walked out in a huff.

Tanya adjusted her glasses a little bit with a quick jerky movement. "I’m slipping," she said to no one in particular. "I only beat him fifteen to four this time. He hasn’t gotten that close in a long time." She looked down at her watch and did some mental calculations. "Oh no, I gotta get going!" she announced and dashed away.

That left four ducks in the room. Wildwing turned to Grin and said, "Would you like to tell us about this woman you want to bring to dinner?"

"Just the most basic information. I would not want you to form opinions even before you meet her. Her name is Andy, and she is the owner of Serendip. The rest I think it is her decision to share or to withhold."

"All right then. Should we warn Duke not to go as crazy as he usually does with the spices?" Nosedive groaned at his brother’s suggestion- he enjoyed Duke’s almost Cajun-style cooking.

"She claims to enjoy spicy food, although I do not know if she just spoke out of politeness."

"Okay. Just make sure that she understands the whole secret headquarters thing, please. It just wouldn’t work well if she told everyone on the planet where we hide out, right?"

"I think beyond any doubt, Andy would never reveal our headquarters to anyone else, no matter what happens."

Later that night, the team gathered around the dinner table, minus Tanya, who was patching herself up after a small explosion in the lab. "Ah, it was supposed to happen," she had explained over the com. "It just wasn’t supposed to get as far as it did. When I get it done right, it’ll be really cool, promise. Don’t worry about me, I’ll grab some leftovers from the fridge later."

And it’s just coincidence that Tanya can’t stand tofu, right? Hah! She’s smart, after all, Nosedive thought darkly. She knows that that means we all end up with extra, because none of us can stand having this… stuff… in the house any longer than we have to, and Grin absolutely refuses to throw it out, even if there is some of it left. Man, this stinks majorly bad! With a look of complete disgust on his face, he poked the sides of his dinner, as if he expected it to grow claws and leap for him.

"Too healthy for you, baby bro?" Wildwing teased, as was his wont every time it was Grin’s turn to cook and Nosedive’s turn to freak out. "Don’t worry, we’ll be eating junk food any day now… isn’t Mallory cooking on Saturday?"

The redhead shot the team captain a dirty look. Apparently she hadn’t been forgiven for her cracks about his cooking earlier in the day. But even the hottest-tempered member of the team knew when was and wasn’t a good time to erupt. After the seemingly eternal day they’d had, it probably wasn’t a good idea to get on anyone’s case, although Wildwing could have followed that advice, she thought a bit angrily.

"So do we want ta know what ya makin’ for dinner ta’morrow night?" Duke asked Dreva.

"Yes, I’m sure you do, but I like to keep my secrets. You’ll find out tomorrow night. All I can guarantee is that it’s not going to kill anybody, not that I know of anyway." She smiled. "It’s an old family recipe perfected by my sister, a master chef. So if it’s not good, the problem was hers and not mine."

"Was?" Wildwing noted.

Dreva’s face suddenly seemed to shut down. "She is in the past tense," she said tersely, and suddenly gave her food a remarkable amount of attention. That screamed louder than words that she would definitely not take any duck asking anything else about her past, since there was nothing to be determined about the tofu that could not have been discovered within five seconds of having served it.

Other conversations were going on at the table: Wildwing was discussing the next night’s game with Mallory and Duke, and Grin and Nosedive were having an odd debate on superheroic philosophies. ("Dude, Radioactive Man does not meditate!" "Perhaps he needs to.") Somehow, that turned into a table-wide brainstorming session on the nature of what Tanya was working on that required her to skip dinner. "’Course, ya know that she don’t care ‘bout little things like food and sleep when she’s on the trail’a an idea. Times, she’s so fixed that it’s scary, it really is, sort’a."

"Would someone pass the salt this way?" Nosedive asked impatiently.

"Dive, what are you doing to that tofu?" Wildwing inquired. "Never mind. I don’t want to know."

"Aw, come on, don’t tell me that you don’t miss the snow and stuff back home!"

"Yeah, but making a snowman out of salt is not the way to remember the kiddie days. Now scrape off that pile and eat up."

Nosedive made a face at his brother. In a little-kid sort of voice, he asked Dreva, "You’re not making healthy food tomorrow, are you?"

A wan smile fluttered over her face. "I already said that that’s my secret, Dive," she said lightly. "Don’t panic, I said it wouldn’t kill you, and I meant it. You need to relax just a little bit, okay?" Something about her bearing that moment declared her to be an older sister, without any other hints. Almost automatically, Nosedive subsided.

"Whoa," Mallory said. "I’ve never known anyone to shut the kid up that fast without having a weapon pointed at his head."

"Long practice. You never met my baby brother." Dreva shrugged uncomfortably, not happy about being the center of attention. Fortunately for her, the conversation soon turned back to Tanya’s theoretical whatever.

Dinner was finished quickly; tofu was not something to linger over and relish among this team. Wildwing disappeared into his room with the playbook in one hand, the scouting reports in the other, and The Tempest balanced somewhere in between. Dreva vanished down the hall to her so-called room, solitaire on her mind.

As for the rest of the team, the television summoned them with its siren call of peaceful mindless bliss. Only two-thirds of that description turned out to be completely accurate as the nightly battle for the remote control began. For about fifteen minutes, Duke had complete control before Mallory ambushed him during a particularly funny joke and snatched it out of his hands. She didn’t have it for much longer, because Nosedive tackled her to the floor during a commercial break and emerged triumphant as the show rolled once again. Fortunately for all involved, his tastes in comedy were basic enough for all of them to at least tolerate, if not enjoy with the same gusto as he did.

One by one, they all drifted away, falling asleep either in chairs or claiming fatigue and shuffling off to their rooms. Eventually, only one duck was left in the room. Grin’s strategy of waiting patiently had worked once again. As the night wore into the next day, he sat and watched the supposedly mythical Fish Channel, which enabled him to focus more clearly than he usually did. At last, even he felt tired and went to his room to catch some z’s, leaving the normally busy central part of the headquarters disturbingly quiet.

Sweet Spot: And so it continues… I meant to bring in a battle with Droid, I really did, but it just didn’t happen that way. Again, I’m sorry that these chapters keep getting longer and longer. I’m trying to curb that with Thursday chapter. {Oh, and Radioactive Man is a homage to the Simpsons.}

Coming up: What is Dreva planning for tomorrow night? What will happen with Andy and Grin? And will there ever be a consensus over who gets the remote?

Shoutout: Just in general, to the masters of the fansites that I frequent- that is, Zelda of The Dragon’s Den, Missie of Haven, James Anatidae of Wildwing’s Storage Room, Calista of Cool as Ice, and Jadestar of Beyond the Gateway. You guys and gals rock!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters (although I wish I did). I don't make any money off them (although I wish I did). I just like 'em a lot. So please, don't sue me. BUT anyone strange you run across is mine, so don't get comfy with them.