Avery threw the frying pan down and collapsed in the corner, staring at the, the thing that was now unconscious on her bedroom floor. It was lizard like in appearance, with human characteristics. She realized quite suddenly that she may have killed it. She crawled over to it’s body. Avery sighed in relief to see it’s (‘his’ she told herself. ‘it’s a he’) chest moving up and down. He was hurt badly though. She’d have to bandage his head. She slowly stood up, not trusting her limbs not to take her running out of the room never coming back. But she was able to stand.
For about five seconds.
A series of blurry images raced through her head. Another lizard person. A sword. Blood. Avery screamed and fell to the floor, curling up into a fetal position.
‘What is happening to me?!’
******
Mallory kept her eyes on the on the road, not daring to look at anything, or, more to the point, anyone, else. She felt like a heel. For three days now, she’d been treating the rest of the team, her friends, hell, her family, like shit. They probably hated her by now. She wouldn’t blame them.
‘You know McMallard, you’re really screwed up. You’re forcing your problem on them.' In the back of her mind, a small voice cried out, ‘There is no problem’. But there was. She couldn’t deny it anymore. She smiled morbidly, remember one of Dive’s favorite sayings : Denial. It’s not a river in Egypt.
It started three years ago tomorrow. Her birthday. Not just her birthday, but the anniversary of Dragaunus attacking Puckworld. Three years ago, her father, General McMallard, had condemned her for having her birthday on that date. She still didn’t know why in the least. It was circumstance that dropped the attack then, but she’d been blamed and shunned by both her parents. And on that day, every year, they wouldn’t even look at her. Her sister would steal a glance, sometimes, but couldn’t disobey her father more than that. The only member of her family who still seemed to care was her brother, Kay, but he died in a raid.
Now it was coming again, and she didn’t know how her new family would react. They knew it was her birthday, it had been in her stats when they first were a team under Canard.
“We’re almost there, Mal. Pull in here.” She nodded, and turned the ducks vehicle into the condo parking lot.
******
It was dark and painless. Therefore, it was pleasant. Then, as was known to happen, he began to wake up.
‘Here comes consciousness, unmerciful’ Chameleon’s head hurt now. A lot. He really, really didn’t want to move. In fact, he wasn’t sure he could. He groaned, and, lifted up his hand to fell his head. Bandages. ‘I'm gonna open my eyes, find out I fell and smacked my a head, Siege fixed me up, and this was all a dream.’ He thought. Slowly he lifted his lids. The sudden light, however, made his head scream, and he shut them again.
He moved, using his fingers to see. He was laying on a bed. Three pillows behind him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of beds that were in the saurian infirmary, or even their rooms. He tried his eyes again, this time going slower. It still hurt, but he managed to finally get them open to the point where he could see.
He was laying on a bed in the same room he was attacked in. A large window that looked out on the city was to his left. A desk, TV, bookshelves, and various art supplies were scattered about the room in a ordered chaos. A bathroom to his right. Three doors. The closet, the door to the hall, and one that lead to somewhere undiscovered as of yet.
“Oh god. . .”
He snapped his head in the direction of the voice, but the quick movement made the pain seriously intense, bringing tears to his eyes and making him grit his teeth.
“Don’t move fast!” The voice said. “Here. Take these.” Someone moved into his line of vision. He couldn’t see more than their legs, but by now he determined the person the voice belonged to was female. She was holding out to him two small pills and a glass of water. He didn’t know if he could swallow the pills, every movement he made had him feeling like throwing up, but he took them anyway. The girl stepped back, and he could now fully see her.
He was struck by how attactive she was, but ignored the thought. She was human. An obviously frightened, and furious human, but a human. Or at least a human form. ‘The Kelph, I guess’ He thought.
“Now.” She said, and sat on the bed. Even that small jolt made him wince.
“Would you mind telling me: A. Who you are, B. What you are, and C. What are you doing in my home?” Her words dripped false honey, and he wondered if he would be in even more pain, if that was possible, if he didn’t answer.
“I’m. . Chm, Chameleon. A sarin. Saurin. Saurian.” He was having a hard time talking.
“Saurian?” She frowned. “I suppose that makes some sense. And the last question?”
He winced again. Her voice, though not unpleasant, was painfully loud. “I, uh...” He faltered, trying to think up an excuse. Her eyes narrowed, and her hand bunched into a fist.
“Well? I’m not above some senseless violence, you know.” She threatened.
He braced himself for a blow, but at that moment, there was a loud knocking on her front door. ‘Saved’ He thought in relief as she got up and looked out the window. Her expression turned from hardened fury into amazement.
“Hey, that’s the Mighty Ducks vehicle!” She exclaimed. Sending a last glance at Chameleon, she ran out of the room.
‘Shit! Shitshitshit!’ He thought. He had to get to her before she opened that door!
He sat up and put his feet on the floor. Almost blind from pain, and dizzy, he hurried out
of the room, running to where she was almost at the door. He was having a quite a time
trying to stay conscious. She was grabbing the doorknob when he reached her. He
wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed the teleport button, taking them away in a
flash of green light.
******
Wildwing knocked again.
“Uh, bro, shouldn’t we just knock the door down or something?”
Wildwing shook his head. “We don’t know what it was. Could be something to be used for good.”
At that moment, a confused face appeared in front of the window. Nosedive felt his heart skip a beat. ‘Dear god’ he thought, and mentally crossed himself. The face in the window was a extremely hot human girl. Big blue eyes. Curly brown hair with hints of red. Lips to die for. He glanced at the other Ducks. The only one seemingly fazed by this angel of beauty was Duke. His mind flashed back to Lucretia Decoy for a second, but he pushed the thought away. ‘Live for the moment, Divey-boy’ He told himself, then prepared his most winning smile.
He never got to use it.
The girl reached for the knob, but before she could open the door, surprise flashed across her features. And she disappeared.
Apparently, Wildwing decided that this was a reason to knock down the door, because he kicked it in. The ducks, weapons drawn and loaded- ‘Set phasers to kill’- burst into the room. “They’re he-eere” crowed Nosedive.
Wildwing shook his head, and, lowering the pucklauncher, sighed.“Tanya? Any way you can find out where she disappeared to?”
Tanya tapped at the small keyboard on her Omnitool, then used a very explicit 4 letter word. “I’ve got some residual traces, but you know, I can’t pin-point where she went to!” Tanya frowned. “Definitely Saurian teleportation, though.” She frowned harder and pushed her glasses up her beak. “Hmm. This shows there’s enough energy to transport two people.” She closed the cover the protected the keypad. “Sorry. Doesn’t look like I can find her, or the saurian that teleported them.”
Wildwing nodded. “Well, we’d better search the house. Nobody knows who she is, right? Try and find something to identify her.”
The other ducks nodded and began their search.
******
Siege and Wraith were arguing when the green light that accompanied a teleport filled the room. Siege turned, growling, to the spot where Chameleon had appeared. He was late. Very late.
“Boy, are you gonna get it when Dragaunus gets a hold of you.” Seige remarked.
Chameleon turned around, and Siege realized he had a human girl around the waist. She looked like any other human Siege had seen, except her features were plastered with shock. Chameleon let go and backed away. He seemed wobbly on his feet.
The girl didn’t move an inch. Wraith smiled at Siege, then approached the girl.
“Ahem. Um, Miss? Miss?” She continued to stare strait ahead. “My Lady?” He asked again.
“eeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAUUUGGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!” She screamed, and pulling back her fist, punched Wraith. The old Saurian fell on his butt in surprise, and the girl took off running down one of the corridors.
“Chameleon! Get her!” Siege spared a glance at him, only to find Chameleon on the ground passed out. Siege noticed the bandages around his head for the first time.“Damn it!!”
Wraith appeared behind him rubbing his nose. Siege jerked his thumb at Chameleon. “You take care of him.” He cracked his knuckles, moving off down the hall. “And I’ll take care of her...”
******
Tanya carefully pushed aside a small pile of paints and brushes to get to the papers that were trapped under the art supplies. She scanned the pages, looking for a clue. Nothing.
The papers seemed to be a stack of poems, creepy ones. Reading a selection, a line jumped out at her. “In the shadow by my door, lies a puddle on the floor.” Weird.
“Wing, I found something.”
Tanya straitened up and followed Grin’s voice to the living room. The rest of the team, minus Mallory, had gathered in the kitchen. She, too, found her way into the room a second later, so Grin handed a piece of paper to Wing.
“Drawing.” He said, and pointed to an area on the page. “Signed and dated.”
Wing nodded, and read the for mentioned signature. “Avery A. Lyle.” He frowned, then set the paper on the desk. “So what now?”
“Nothing we can really do, is there?” Commented Duke. “The best we can achieve is sitting and waiting till Dragaunus makes his next move.”
Wildwing sighed, and rubbed his forehead. “You’re right. Anyone got any other suggestions?”
The others shook their heads.
******
Avery ran blindly, panic driving her. Don’t look back find a way out run run RUN.
She tore around a corner, and skidded to a stop. Dead end! She was trapped. Trying to calm her self, she turned to head back in the other direction, when she heard footsteps, and a disgruntled grumbling. She returned to the room behind her.
‘Infirmary’ she thought, vaguely surprised, then found what she was looking for. A small crack between a large computer and the red walls. Just enough to wedge her body into. Avery stuck her feet into the hole and then squirmed al the way inside. She had a fair view of the room around her, to watch for the person. The footsteps had been heading in this direction, and she hadn’t seen many halls leading off from the main corridor.
She choked back her fear, and shifted into another position, waiting for the owner of the noises to come and go.
She didn’t have to wait long. The older saurian, the one that had first approached her
once she was transported here, floated into the room. For a moment, Avery’s thoughts
drifted to the fact that he was floating, but she pushed them away. Transporters,
recovered memories, visits by famous hockey teams, why not floating lizard people?
Still grumbling, he dumped something on one of the infirmary beds. With not a little guilt, she realized it was the one that she’d found sneaking in her apartment earlier, and knocked out.
“There. Now to find the Kelph.”
The what? Was there two people trapped in this place? And what in the hell was a
Kelph? The word was almost familiar. She didn’t dare voice her queriy’s, though. If she
knew only one thing, it's that she didn’t want to be found. Huh uh.
Then something
clicked in her mind. Oldie sounded like all he was going to do for the other one
('Chameleon, he’d said his name was) was drop him on that bed. Avery watched,
horrified, as the old one left the room. They were just going to leave him there?!
‘GoodLord’She thought. ‘What are these saurians if they’ll leave one of their own without at least changing his bandages?’ She shook her head, forgetting where she was a rapping it sharply against the wall. She froze, watching Chameleon. Had he heard? No, he wasn’t moving. Not moving?
In spite of herself,concern washed over her, and, without thinking of the danger, she slipped out of her hiding place and approached the bedside. He was unconscious. ‘More than that’ Avery thought, a chill going up her spine. ‘He’s barely breathing.’
She scanned the shelves quickly. While she was no doctor, she still had to do something. She couldn’t let him just die.
Frustrated and frightened, she realized there wasn't anything, and she placed her hand on his head to try and staunch the fresh blood that was seeping out between the bandages.
A shock ran through her. She suddenly instinctly knew what to do, and did it, without consciously knowing just what it was she was doing. Her hand glowed, a faint green, like the color you sometimes catch in a grand sunset. And she remembered.
‘Jogate, how are you feeling?’ she asked, resting her palms on his bloodied chest. He laughed weakly. ‘As good as can as can be expected, Eoi Avina.’ He raised his hand to touch the jagged gash above his collarbone. The cut had missed his twin hearts, luckily, but he would die. Would, if Avina weren’t here. She concentrated on the healing, and the steady flow of dark green blood began to stanch. Moment’s later, she removed he hands, and he smiled, flashing three rows of sharp teeth. ‘Thank You, Eoi Avina.’
Avery jerked out of her trance, and fell to the floor, hitting her head and passing out for a moment.
******
Siege was passing by the hallway that lead to the infiramary, still searching for the girl, when he heard something fall to the ground. Bingo!
He considered calling Wraith, but what did he want with him? This whole thing was getting to Siege. Magick? Who needed it? Brute force worked just as well.
With that on his mind, he began down the hall, taking his time. There was no where for her to go now.
******
Chameleon awoke to the girl standing over him, eyes closed, her hand on his head. Her glowing hand on his head. Suddenly, she jerked back, her eyes going wide, and hit the floor, head stricking the metal. Knocked her out.
Chameleon sat up quickly, totally amazed. The pain, the wound, was gone. Completely.
He jumped off the bed and leaned over her. ‘It must be true’ He thought. ‘She really is powerful.’ He considered how ironic it would be if she fell and killed herself right after healing him. But no, she was alive, just knocked out for a sec.
He realized, quite suddenly, her eyes were opening. One glance at him, and she’d shoved herself away. Her eyes were wild, and for a moment he thought he could understand just how scared she was.
“Hey.” He said. Her eyes darted in between his head and his eyes.
“It’s, your head...” She made a wild gesture toward her forehead. “How...how’d you do that?”
He frowned, puzzeled. What was she talking about? “But, I didn’t. You did this.”
“No! I mean, I couldn’t have. It’s impossible. I can’t do those kind of things! I don’t even know why I’m here!” Tears of fright and frustration were building up in her eyes.
Chameleon was very unsettled. Truly. She was really scared, shaking even. He knew he should take her to Dragaunus,but for some reason,he couldn’t bring himself to open his com.
‘It’s almost like she doesn’t remember...’
He hesitated, and then moved a little closer, hoping she wouldn’t attack him. “You, you really don’t know, do you?”
“No!!”
“Hah! Got you now!”
Chameleon jumped. Siege loomed up behind him and grabbed the girl before he could protest. He clapped a hand over her mouth and picked her up, then grinned at him.
“Good work, Chameleon!” He paused,as if searching his tiny brain for something. “For once.”
Chameleon just nodded,and shrugged noncalantly, giving Siege the impression he had it planned.
But he was troubled. The girl had healed him, saving his life, probably, and he was repaying her like this? And, more than that, he was bothered by the fact that he should even care how he was repaying her. And why had he hesitated to call the others?
“C’mon, stupid, you gonna sit there all day?”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Chameleon pushed himself to his feet. He’d worry about it some other time. Right now he had Dragaunus to deal with.
To be continued...