What's really scary is, I did this from memory.

------------

"Canard! Where've you been all these months?" Wildwing grinned, taking his friend by the

shoulders. He'd never been so relieved to see anyone in his life.

"I'm with what's left of the military, in the Resistance." Canard's response snapped Wildwing's

attention away from the armor and military-style uniform that looked so alien on the young duck.

"The Resistance? You mean it actually exists?" Wildwing stared. Canard barely acknowledged his

surprise.

"We're putting together a team of our best special forces. And a few civilians we've had our

eyes on. Like you." An almost feral grin spread over his face. "We're gonna take down

Dragaunus." The sparks of hope died in Wildwing's deep blue eyes. He turned away, sticking

his hands in his pockets.

"How?" He scoffed, despair and defeat in his face and posture. "Nobody's ever seen him."

"I found it, Wildwing." He turned and found an eager light in Canard's eyes to match his

hungry tone. "In an ancient tomb in the mountains they call Twin Beaks." He reached into his

pack and pulled out a white goalie mask. "The Mask. Drake DuCaine's Mask." Speechless,

Wildwing could only stare.

"Whoa! What'd I tell ya? Was Drake DuCaine the main duck or what?" Nosedive, silent up to

this point, reached eagerly for the ancient treasure. Canard pulled it out of his reach,

glaring.

"Beat it kid, before you get us all into trouble." *That* shocked Wildwing out of his stupor.

"No," he stepped forward defensively, putting an arm around Dive's shoulders. "If you want me,

then my brother's part of the deal." He glared defiantly at his best friend, the uniform

suddenly looking a lot less alien to Canard's powerful frame.

"We don't have time to argue, Canard." Wildwing turned, surprised, as a duck about their own

age hissed at them from where she was keeping watch. When she turned to look at Canard, Wildwing

noticed a Healer's Guild patch on a headband above her dark eyes. "Those drones are going to

come up two short on their next count," she warned, "and if we're not out of here by then--"

She didn't bother to finish, looking back out towards the line of prisoners marching by.

"Fine," Canard growled. "But you're responsible for the kid's safety."

"All right!" Nosedive smacked a fist into his palm gleefully. "This smacks of a serious

par-tee-tee-tai-tai!"

"Let's go." Canard turned, checking around the corner on the opposite side of the alley before

motioning them both forward. Wildwing and Nosedive followed him. Canard glanced back. "Lila!"

he hissed, "Move it!" Wildwing turned to see the girl cast a guilty glance at the other

prisoners before she headed after them.

"We need to get out of the city," Canard explained, "Then we'll get you two checked out."

"Can you make it?" Lila asked them, glancing with concern at the two brothers.

"If it means I won't have to wake up at dawn to drill ore out of solid rock," Wildwing growled,

"I can fly."

"Good." They snaked through and around the metropolis, avoiding patrols and chain gangs.

Canard's surprised cry was the only warning they had before they barreled around a corner,

straight into a guard drone. Wildwing was too stunned to react as the massive machine grabbed

Canard's wrist. Something whizzed by Wing's ear as his friend cried out in pain, and suddenly

electronics began sizzling and spitting. The drone reached to pull out the knife that was

embedded up to the hilt in his optical sensors, and Canard managed to get his gun free and fire

point-blank into the drone's processor. It fell with a thunk, releasing him.

Wing could only blink as Lila walked past him and calmly pulled her knife free from the mangled

metal. The brothers watched dumbly as she pressed a button that retracted the stilletto blade,

then inserted the hilt back into one of the metal cuffs on her forearm. Nosedive finally

recovered enough to cry, "Cool! How'd you do that?"

Lila held up her right arm and flicked her wrist. The knife hilt popped out, straight into her

waiting palm, and she triggered the blade with her thumb. It flashed out, and Lila flipped it

so that the tip was in her fingers. "Practice," she said shortly, throwing the knife into the

wall behind them. Wildwing pulled it out and handed it pack to her. She took it and returned

it to its place. Once she slid it back into her wristguard, it was all but invisible.

"Let's go," griped Canard, rubbing his forearm where he'd been grabbed.

"More carefully this time, please," Lila turned a disapproving frown on him. He glared at her

and spun on his heel, starting off again. Lila shook her head and sighed before following him.

Wildwing and Nosedive exchanged a wary glance as they continued after the other two.

Not more than three blocks later they were stopped again, but this time, Canard was able to warn

them. Pressed against the wall of a building, Wildwing wished desperately for a weapon or

*something* that would make him less of a liability. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lila

flick her left wrist, and a metal cylinder dropped into her palm. She touched a trigger and

the cylinder flashed and extended to a metal quarterstaff. Canard drew his pucklauncher.

The confrontation was avoided, however, when the drone suddenly changed direction and headed

down a side street. A blaster shot and a cry of pain told them why. Lila started to move but

Canard stopped her with an outstretched hand and a warning look. She glared at him, then

stopped and looked to Wing and Dive, then back where the drone had gone. For a moment she

hesitated. Finally, with a look of pain and guilt in her eyes, she deactivated her staff and

put it away. Canard started moving again as soon as he was sure she wasn't going to run off.

Wildwing was surprised how easily they made it out of the city. "It'll be worse getting back

in," Canard warned.

"Where are we going?" Wildwing wanted to know.

"We're going to head through these trees to the north end of the city; then we'll sneak back

in. It's too dangerous to go straight to base after an escape like that one. I want to make

sure we aren't followed." Canard shifted the pack on his shoulder. "Let's get moving."

"No."

Canard turned and glared at the young doctor, who faced him with her arms crossed and defiance

written in every feature. He opened his mouth but she beat him to the punch. "They're too

weak," she insisted. "We'll have to camp somewhere near here tonight, if you want them to be

of any use at all in the morning. They're tired and malnourished. At the very least, they have

to eat something. And so do you, as a matter of fact. You *are* mortal, Canard." Canard was

visibly seething by the time she was finished. Wildwing knew his friend well enough to guess

it was her stance and attitude rather than her advice that he had a problem with. Still, she

was right, and Canard growled an agreement before plunging a little deeper into the woods. He

threw himself down in a glade where they would be sheltered from Saurian sensors and prying

eyes. Wildwing lowered himself to the ground with a grimace, aching muscles protesting loudly.

The pain had become commonplace, and while he couldn't say he hardly noticed it, he was able to

bear it. He heard soft voices off to his left and looked over to see the young doctor examining

his brother. Wildwing watched out of the corner of his eye, protective instinct welling up

inside him. Lila glanced over at him and offered a small smile. She tilted her head in

invitation, and Wildiwng gratefully moved to her side.

"Ok, well it doesn't look like you're in any immediate danger," she was saying, reaching for the

pack around her waist. "But I'd like to do a scan just to be sure." She pulled a small case

out of her leather pouch and opened it. "Take off your vest, please. How old are you?"

"What is that?" Wildwing demanded.

"It's a minimedicom," she answered. "Nosedive, how old are you?"

"Uh, eighteen."

Lila picked up a glove with no fingers and mechanical wires tracing through and around the

fabric. "This is the scanning glove," she explained, slipping it on to her left hand. "It'll

basically take inventory of your body, and compare it with the baseline for someone your age.

Under ideal circumstances, I'd be able to compare it with your own norms, but given the number

of people I have to work with, and the fact that I've never taken readings to make a baseline,

this will have to do." She pulled a couple of cables out of the case and selected one,

connecting one end to a port in the glove, and the other to a piece of machinery that resembled

a calculator. "This is the analysis unit," she explained, reaching for the other cable.

"It connects to the scanner and the diagnostic visor, like this," she plugged the cable into

the analysis unit and the visor. She set the visor on her beak and the fingers of her ungloved

hand sped nimbly across the keys on the analysis unit. "Now, when I activate this, the scanning

field will take the readings, the anlysis unit will interpret them, and the diagnostic visor

will show me the results. What I need for you to do, is to lay down and stretch out. It won't

hurt; you shouldn't feel anything. Just stay still for me, ok?" Nosedive did as she asked,

glancing at his older brother. Wildwing gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile as she

knelt beside the boy's prone form and activated the scanning field. A blue triangle extended

from the scanning glove, its point at Lila's palm and its base just above Nosedive's head. Lila

passed her hand the length of his body and back again. Blue numbers and calculations scrolled

across her diagnostic visor, and she manipulated the analysis unit with her free hand, her

forehead creased in concentration. Wildwing held his breath.

After a moment, Lila shut off the scanning field and smiled. "Well, you seem to be in good

health, all things considered. You've not been eating enough, but we'll see to that. You were

in good condition when you went in, Canard told me, and that's definately helped keep you

stable." Wildwing sighed in relief. "Now, just let me take care of Wildwing, and I'll find us

all something to eat." She turned to the older brother. "Age?"

"Twenty-two."

"Same as me. Ok, lose the jacket and lay down." She rapped him on the shoulder and he streched

out on the cold ground. Wildwing held perfectly still as she passed the scanner over him. Not

until Lila had pronounced him in 'as good a shape as can be expected,' did he think to ask,

"Aren't you a little young to be a doctor?"

"Normally, yes," Lila answered as she packed up her equipment. "I've had some unique

opportunities."

"She's a golden egg," Canard said shortly. Lila shot a venomous glance over her shoulder at him.

"That's not true, Canard. My father worked hard for what we had--"

"Your father," he pointed out coldly. "Not you." Lila's face clouded in anger for a moment, but

she covered it quickly and turned wordlessly back to her work.

Wildwing cleared his throat and went to join his friend. "A little hard on her, aren't you,

pal?" he said softly as he lowered himself to the grass. Glancing down, he ran a hand over the

damp green strands. It was far too early in the year for grass. The Saurian pollution was

changing the climate, their massive factories spouting clouds of insulating carbon dioxide into

the atmosphere. Puckworld was going to be a long time in healing if this war ever ended.

"Maybe," Canard conceded, looking up at the angry red sky through the crowns of the trees.

"I don't know, Wildwing. I used to respect and admire her father, once. But now," he sighed.

"Every time I look at her all I can see is my sisters being hauled away for one of those awful

chain gangs. She had friends, connections, ways to get out, to get away. We didn't have that.

Sylvan and Glinda didn't have anyone to help them. I couldn't do anything for them. If I had

been in the city when the attack came, I couldn't have saved them. It makes me so angry to

think that--it's just so unfair." Wildwing looked at him for a moment, silent, and then

looked back at the young doctor. Would he feel that way, he wondered, if Nosedive . . .

"Does that make me any different?" Wildwing asked softly. Canard frowned at him.

"What?"

"Does that make me any different?" Wing repeated, meeting his friend's gaze. "Connections are

all that got us out of there, Canard. My connections with you, and Nosedive's with me. That's

the only way anyone can get out of that place." He nodded back to the city that had once been

his home.

"You *earned* your friendship with me, Wildwing," Canard shot back harshly. "Political

connections, that's all it was that got her out. Those people cared more about her station and

her father's station than they did her. She's never had to work for what she's gotten."

"Does it really matter now? She's lost all that, Canard, just like you and me. Even the people

in the mines know that Ambassador LaGlace was captured during the invasion with the other

high-ranking government officials, and no one's even sure he's still alive."

"There's more to it than that," Canard grumbled, turning away. Seeing that his friend would

not be dissuaded, Wildwing leaned back and sighed, too tired to argue with the stubborn duck.

He jumped at a soft footstep behind him and twisted around. Lila stopped.

"Easy," she smiled. "Here. You need to eat." She set a piece of cloth on the ground in front

of him with food wrapped in it, and handed the other package she held out to Canard. Wildwing

pushed the food away.

"Dive needs it more than I do," he began, but Lila cut him off.

"You'll eat it, or I'll have Canard hold you down and force it down your throat. Nosedive will

have his share, I promise you. If he eats too much after having so little for so long, he'll be

sick, anyway. Now eat." She smiled. "Please."

Reluctantly, Wildwing picked up the cold food and forced some of it past his dry beak. He'd

learned to eat almost anything in the work camps. If you turned food down, there was no telling

when you'd eat again. He glanced across the glade to where his brother was sitting, hungrily

wolfing down the stale bread. Lila admonished him to eat more slowly, and with a guilty smile,

he tried not to be so eager. Wildiwng turned with a grin to Canard, intending to make a

light-hearted remark to lift his friend's spirits, but the expression on Canard's face as he

gazed off towards the city made him hesitate. He forgot all about what he had been intending

to say when something else caught his eye. He frowned and looked down at the food in front of

him, and over at Dive, and then finally brought his eyes to rest on Lila.

She was stretched out on the ground, staring up into the trees without seeing them. She sighed

and turned her head, just in time to catch Wildwing's frowning gaze. Lila gave him a questioning

look. Wildwing looked purposefully down at his food, then back up again. She understood what

he meant and shook her head, nodding towards Dive. Then she rolled over so that her back was

to him, forestalling any argument he might have made.

Wildwing sighed and swallowed another mouthful. Canard had already finished, which wasn't

surprising since Wildwing and Nosedive each had half again Canard's share. Lila had split her

food between the two ex-prisoners, forfeiting her own meal for their sakes.

Nosedive caughed, and Wildwing winced at the dry rattle in his brother's chest. Lila got to

him first, pulling a cantine of water from her pack and offering the teenager a drink. Nosedive

took it gratefully, lifting it for a long draught before handing it back to Lila. She put the

cap back on it and carried it to Wildwing.

"Thank you," he muttered as he took it. Lila nodded.

"We should all get some sleep," she said quietly. "Canard will want to get started first thing

in the morning."

The other duck had apparently come to the same conclusion, pulling a couple of blankets out of

his own pack. He tossed one to Wildwing. "We've only got two," Canard said grimly. "We're all

going to have to get cozy tonight."

After a minimum of debate, Canard and Wildwing took the ends, with Lila and Dive in the middle,

where most of the heat would stay. Wildwing was asleep within minutes of laying down, in spite

of the hard ground beneath him. The prison bunks hadn't been much better, anyway, and

Nosedive's warm body was a reassuring presence curled against his side. Lila lay next to Dive, back to back with Canard, and the whole party slept under the branches of the evergreens whose deep roots had survived even the invasion.