#This is also unbetaed since I'm not sure my normal beta has time to read--so I'm sorry for mistakes!

[toonqueen]

Duckvember Day 1: Dead Duck (Part 1)

lololol Part 2 coming SOON hopefully.

Okay this story has OCs that are the adult kids of Mighty Ducks the Animated Series. HERE IS A CHEAT SHEET SINCE NOT MANY READ MY STORIES BACK IN HIGHSCHOOL. (Only One Many Here Has. lol) This story is very

Luke-  Duke’s son that pretty much looks exactly like him but has both eyes. Super smart but does not apply himself because of gifted child burnout. @fluxchix is responsible for him.

Maestro - Son of Canard and Luceria Decoy that fell out of a portal one day, like you do. Super sweet guy even though he has seen some shit. Also he's deaf so I'm writing SIGNED instead of SAID a lot.

Tayshia - Tanya and Wildwing daughter that someone while having loving parents turned out to be kinda a jerk man. Wtf is up with that?

Karma - Grin’s son, I really don’t have  much to explain here. 

Mercedes - Nosedive’s daughter. Everything you find annoying about Nosedive but then doubled. 

Molissa - Duke's daughter and Luke's younger sister.

Castor and Blaster - Mallory’s twins.  Funny story I can’t remember these two’s real names. These were their nicknames. I actually rarely ever wrote them so LOLOLOL. 

Rex - Dragaunus’ son that is good and working with the ducks because he’s the bad bitch Mercedes was able to pull by being autistic 

Tyrant - not related to Dragaunus in any way, just a new saurian from limbo that is the new bad guy or something.

THIS STORY IS LUKE AND MAESTRO CENTERED. 

Betaed by @cataradical but the next part may be unbetaed because I am unsupervised.

—-----------------------

 “Thank you for the ride. You do not have to stick around,” signed Maestro as he sat in the passenger seat. He had been excited all day to go to the bookstore. The book he wanted the author to sign was sitting in his lap.

“Ah, I’ll be in the area. There’s stuff on the other side of the street I’m going to check out,” replied Luke, signing as he spoke aloud.

“Cool. I will text you when I am done,” Maestro signed as he smiled, “I do not know how long the line is going to be. He is famous enough to draw a crowd.”

“Take your time. There’s no rush. Maybe we can have dinner afterwards,” Luke said and signed. Maestro put on the device that helped him hear. It was something Tanya had created a short while ago that easily wrapped around the back of his head and ended at a circular shape on each end. It wasn’t 100% helpful with hearing speech, but it was what he normally wore in battle mode so he could not be surprised and attacked from behind. 

“A quick dinner. I wanted to finish packing tonight,” Maestro signed, smile widening. He opened  the truck door to get out. He closed the door, tucked the book under his arm, and waved his friend off.. Luke snickered and waved in return before the other duck disappeared into the store.

Luke headed to the strip mall across the street. He was sure he could find something to waste his time on for a few hours. He didn’t want to go back to his empty apartment and for sure did not want to go back to the Pond and be forced to practice. 

Luke barely had a chance to park when he already received a text message from Maestro. He expected it to be a long paragraph explaining something that happened at the signing. Instead it was a short message: “Pick me up now. Please.”

Luke hopped back into the pickup, returned to the bookstore. Maestro was waiting outside with a very neutral expression. His copy of the book was no longer in his arms.

Luke parked the truck and Maestro got in without saying a word. Angrily buckled himself up.

“Uh, that was quick... How did it go?” Luke said as he signed, a little bit unsure about asking because it clearly did not go well. 

“Not good. Can we go to your apartment?” Maestro signed back as he dropped his messenger back onto his lap. The book didn’t appear to be inside, either.

“Okay…” Luke trailed off, replying with a simple “okay” in sign.

The drive was awkwardly quiet. Maestro stared out the window, hugging his bag. When they pulled off at an exit and stopped at a red light, he finally broke the silence. Without looking at Luke, he spoke aloud, “He didn’t even give me the chance to explain. He just said I was mocking his work.” Most of his enunciation and tone was clear but when it came to longer words they were more mumbled. Before Luke could say anything, he continued, “I mean. I knew better than to mention Limbo. I just said there is warring on our home planet and he just– just shot me down. I mean. It’s the elephant in the room that no one talks about, but it’s kinda common knowledge that alien ducks are here because our planet sucks right now. So wouldn’t it make sense there would be someone in my situation?” 

Luke nodded, not sure of what to say at that moment. He then realized Maestro wouldn’t see his nod so he reached over to give the upset duck a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. 

Maestro looked over at Luke; he wasn’t crying but his eyes were misty. 

Luke went to speak but was interrupted by an angry honk from the car behind him. The light had turned green. The gray duck grumbled to himself, annoyed, and resumed driving.

Maestro looked a little amused at Luke’s frustrated reaction to being honked at. He wiped a tear from his eye, chuckling, “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Luke added verbally. He then signed his response, forgetting a moment Maestro wouldn’t understand him. It was frustrating for him that he couldn’t communicate with his friend while driving. 

Maestro could tell Luke thought that he had missed the words. “Do not worry. I am watching your beak now,” he reassured softly with a light smile despite his watery eyes. 

“Did you still want to go out to eat?” asked Luke. 

“No,” Maestro replied verbally. He spoke softly because Luke had to keep his eyes on the road, but still signed a bit out of habit. “I am going to take a nap. I was up until 4 AM, so excited to meet this guy. I do not want to go back to the pond right now because Tanya would see I was upset and mom all up on me.”

Luke took a moment to process what Maestro said. “Yeah, it's fine,” he replied. “You can crash at my place. I have a few things to do so I’ll drop you off first.” 

----------- 

A Short Time Later

—---------

“What kind of dump did you send me to?” the gentleman spoke into his cellphone as he got off the elevator. He angrily dug into his pocket for the hotel room key. “I’m on the third floor. THIRD FLOOR.”

There was a pause as the man stopped in front of the door, finally retrieving the key card. “I don’t care if it's a five star hotel. I don’t care what actors stay here. This place is as bad as that so-called bookstore you sent me to. I’ll call you in the morning.”

The author shoved open the door, tossing the key and phone on the dresser. He took off his jacket, dumped it on the couch as he entered the small office space in the large, fancy hotel room. Before he could switch on the light, he heard an abrupt <i>click</i> from the desk. It was followed by the flicker of fire from a lighter. 

The author, confused, turned on the light.

Luke sat on the desk, lighting his cigarette clamped in his beak. He took a drag, held it between his fingers. In his other hand was a copy of the author’s book, opened about a third way through. “So here’s the shit I don’t get,” he said coldly. “Your book is like, 10% about this former child soldier in Uganda, and then the other 90% about telling others how to cope. You, a guy who has never experienced the horrors of war. Where’s this child soldier you spoke about? The boy who actually had to endure all this pain and misery?”

“How did you get in here! The security in this place is… how!” the human seemed rather stunned. 

The duck ignored his outburst, flipping through the book. “Not a word from the guy in here… It's like you’re making money off his trauma. Wow. Does he get any of the residuals off your book sales, because I mean, come on. Or is this some sorta ‘Memories of a Geisha’ bullshit?”

“What is this? I’m calling the police!” the man went back to the table he had left his phone. The grey feathered duck stayed on the desk as he flipped through to read the next page of the book. When the human picked up the phone he saw he had no signal. He tried calling out but just got a defunct noise in the return. He then picked up the hotel phone but it had no ring tone

“Don’t worry man. I’m her to just talk,” Luke called from the other room. The sound of him getting off the desk could be heard, “Comon, we just need to discuss a little situation.”

The author went to leave the hotel room, but the doorknob didn’t work. 

“You know, EMP shit isn’t just stuff for sci fi movies,” the grey duck added as he came to the office doorway, “Man, everything is fucking automated nowadays. Even that silly hotel room lock.” 

“What do you want?” The man glared at the gray duck. The human didn’t seem scared but knew he was in possible danger. 

“Heh, can’t you at least guess? Maybe?” He stood. “I mean, it's not that often you see two alien ducks in one day,” Luke said as he leaned against the office doorway. He took another puff from his cigarette.

“You’re threatening me because I called out that other duck’s publicity stunt?” the author snapped. 

“Alright, first of all, there was no one from ‘our media’ with him,” Luke gave finger quotations as he spoke, cigarette bouncing between a pair, “he came alone and stood in line with all the others. Why couldn’t you just sign his fucking book and let it go?”

“What kind of PTSD trauma do you ducks have? You play hockey, right? You’re celebrities. I don’t see anything about your experiences related to the contents in my book,” the human ranted, more annoyed than anything else.

“Look, you could &lt;;i>technically</i> say that about any of the other ducks around my age born on Earth.,” Luke explained irritably. “But Maestro wasn’t, okay? He came to this planet when he was fourteen. I think he’s only told me about half of the shit he went through before he got to Earth. He really, <i>really</i> liked your book.” He didn’t expect the author to understand, however. “And even though you’re an asshole, obviously, the book helped him a lot. I could tell.”

Luke stood up right, moving closer to the author. The human stood his ground. Completely unempathetic, just as the duck guessed. 

“And what, praytell, did you want me to do about your friend’s problem?” the author demanded, crossing his arms. 

Luke rubbed his own forehead. God, this man was dense. “You wrote a book to help people, and your attitude is like… <i>this</i>?” he sighed. “Look, how about this. Wait a few days, and then send him a signed copy of your book with a nice short note apologizing.”

“And what if I don’t?” the human replied, unfazed. 

“How bad would it look if the advocate against child soldiers was taking blood diamond money this whole time?” Luke threatened, biting down on the cigarette. He took out his phone and opened up a search.

“I’ve done no such thing,” the author grumbled as he loosened the tie from his collar a bit.

“Oh, I can probably find connections in half an hour. If not, I can make a few up, all 100% believable,” Luke stated as he typed on his smartphone, “I might even have it done in fifteen minutes.”

“Impossible. Get out of here now,” the human said sternly, but it also had a slight tone of worry.

“You really want to try me? I’ve already shown that our advanced alien technology just blocked all the electronics in your room. Don’t you think that I could do more?” Luke asked rhetorically.   The other paused and let out a defeated sigh.

“All this because I hurt your friend’s feelings?” the human replied.

“Yep!” Luke could only reply as he gave what could only be described as  a sarcastic ‘buddy buddy’ patting on the back to the author, “I’ll check up on you and make sure you do as I said. Alright?”

“I will,” the author grumbled, reluctantly taking Luke’s threat seriously. Luke was heading away from the author and to the nearby window.

“Then, I’ll catch you later,” Luke replied before opening the window, “and if you breathe a word of this to the cops, I’ll know.”

“Uh.... alright,” the author said unsure as he saw the duck disappear out the window and probably take the fire escape down. Before the human could say anything else he was gone. 

As Luke was walking to the maroon truck he was borrowing he received a text. 

Mae: Where are you at? I just woke up. 

Mae: Not asking because I expect you to come back. 

Mae: Just asking. No rush. 

Luke saw the messages as he got into the maroon pickup. He replied back.

Luke:  I was just picking up your favorite donuts, from that little place across town. 

Mae: Oh geez. You didn’t have to!

Mae: Thank you! <3

Mae: I’m actually hungry for real food now but I’ll eat one on the way to real food or something. Ha.

Luke: Alright. I’ll come pick you up. :)

After he replied he put the phone in the passenger's seat with the box of donuts he really did get before his meeting with the author.

[jflashandclash]

Tales From Mount Othrys

Ajax: Birth of the Triple A Chimera II

           Upon hearing they were surrounded by Romans, Alabaster put on music. If Pax had to guess, this meant the Witch Boy had conceited defeat and wanted Axel and Pax to be comfortable in their last minutes. The phones lines were already down. The Romans must have cut those first while getting into position. Might as well relax to music before they cut the power too.

         “I won’t be able to hear—” Axel protested over Pax’s metal mix.

         “And they won’t either,” Alabaster hissed. His fingers rifled through the boxes, refrigeration tanks, and crates. He didn’t look down while he searched, trusting—unwisely—that Pax and Matt hadn’t boobytrapped anything.

         While Alabaster sought ingredients and pre-rendered runes, Axel tore through their supplies for weapons. He found an antique harpoon gun from Alabaster’s private stash of awesome, several lengths of electrical cord for the band equipment, actual rope, dissection equipment, spikes, and a few crowbars.

         They already counted Axel’s sword and Pax’s utility belt. There weren’t many weapons attached on the belt, but Pax had taken to hoarding smoke bombs from their band supplies and darts from the lounge. When they didn’t think Dr. Thorn was paying attention, Pax and Matt liked to throw darts at his spikes and use the smoke bombs as cover in their retreat.  

         Alabaster cursed, withdrawing his gloved hand from a Styrofoam box of dry ice. “Do they know you that you spotted them—”

         “No. I don’t think anyone saw me, or they didn’t indicate if they did. On our hopeless exit options: the back door is locked and barricaded with boxes from when Matt unloaded earlier,” Pax said. Alabaster had been frustrated that Matthias completely blocked the back exit; however, Matt’s impertinence might buy them a few more minutes of cowering and pathetic farewells. “The windows are still shut and locked since you think fresh air is evil or something—”

         “It’s to their benefit to charge us from more than one angle,” Axel said, dumping a box of artifacts on the floor. A PVC pipe rolled out beside some naked, wooden statues. Leave it to Alabaster to have porn in the form of long-dead people doing some kind of mud dance. Axel tossed the PVC pipe to Pax. Pax caught it, feeling along the holes. Not the best make-shift blow dart gun, but it would do. “If we can funnel them, their numbers mean nothing. Ajax, did you see explosives or a Bear Cat?”

         Despite everything, Pax almost dropped the pipe in his delight. His mouth slipped open and he giggled with—

         Axel paused in his rifling to glare at Pax. “The armored vehicle. The kind that rams down walls.”

         “Though, also a species in Southeast Asia that I promise to turn you into if we get out of this alive,” Alabaster muttered.

         From the name of that animal, it must have been cute. Pax tried not to tremble at the words “if we get out of this alive.”

         “No Bearcat,” Pax said. He wracked his brain. “I didn’t see any vehicles.” Which made Pax wonder if the Romans had taxied here with all of their weapons or if there was a flock of eagles perched atop the building like the most overloaded phone line. Knowing how big they were, Pax guessed the ceiling would be sagging if that were the case. “Just that Mr. Friendly Bryce and his Done-With-This-Shirt Centurion, Ari and their gang.”

         “Ari,” Axel echoed. He froze. His gaze unfocused as his tufted ears sank into his hairline. “Ari? Julian’s girlfriend? She’s supposed to be in university—unless… she came back to the military to avenge him…” His fingers sank to his chest, where a single medal—Julian’s praetorian badge—hung from a strip of leather.

         Pax hadn’t meant to say her name and hadn’t meant for Axel to put together who she was. He puffed up his cheeks and popped them. After the air left his lungs, Pax jumped to his feet, waving his hands towards the ceiling. "Axel! Earth to fucking, badass Axel! We. Here. Going to die. Not just you. We probably only have minutes left. You can feel guilty about Julian’s death on your own time!”

         Sure, Axel woke up screaming from the shame and trauma or whatever, but this wasn’t the place for Pax’s brother to stare off into the distance and soliloquize about his sins.

         Axel shook his head. The hand near his chest clenched into a fist. “Fifteen, you said?” His ears shot up as he scowled at the “weapons” in front of him. “That’s too many for me. We can’t just pick them off. They’re Romans. They’ll group and we’ll get swarmed. Alabaster?”

         Alabaster’s posture looked so rigid that he could have been a statue. A frown tugged his lip in a way Pax normally found cute. “If they were all in one area and none of us where in that area, I might be able to take them out with an elemental explosion of sorts, but I would need time that we don’t have for ritual casting and their utmost cooperation to die”

         “Cho,” Axel said. His eyes darted to the entrance of the inner laboratory. If this were anyone other than Pax’s badass, infallible brother, Pax might have guessed panic was setting in. “Think. Think. There’s too many to fight.” Axel unsheathed his sword, stalking between the narrows labyrinth of boxes in the world’s shortest bout of pacing. “We can’t channel them so their numbers don’t matter; we might get flanked if they break through a window. We don’t have enough supplies to barricade all the doors effectively and they could just set the building on fire if we did. We don’t know what individual powers they have. What did older generals do when they were outnumbered and out maneuvered?”

         The idea struck Pax so hard that he thought it must have come from some divine source. He would thank his mother (or maybe Prometheus) later. For proper dramatic effect, he snapped his fingers. “The Romans don’t know that we’re outnumbered and outmaneuvered. Not for sure.”

         Alabaster’s lip quivered. His emerald gaze danced to Pax. “Didn’t Mercedes’ reports say they weren’t sure if Axel was a monster? And me, a mad scientist?”

         “That’s it!” Axel inhaled deeply. “We’ll Zhuge Liang[1] it, or at least a variation of Empty Fort strategy.” He pivoted to their scattered band equipment. “They’re prepared for witchcraft. Not stage performance.” There was a plan formulating in Axel’s head—Pax could tell since he was no longer saying things that would incur a sand-and-soap mouth washing from their Chiich.

         Alabaster hesitated, his gloved hand squeezing the lid to the Styrofoam case. He mumbled something in Latin: a prayer, an incantation, or a final request for McDonald? Pax wasn’t sure. When his eyes opened, they blazed. “I’ll get the vat of dried ice in the back. Hecate bless us, I can’t believe I’m leaving things up to luck with you two. It’s like betting against loaded dice.”

         Pax, who hadn’t gambled much, resented this comment; he and Axel would most likely be using loaded dice. This almost not-suicidal plan and Alabaster’s cynical “hurrah” made Pax swallow. Now, they just needed to pull the plan off and have nothing go wrong, something that definitely wasn’t in their track record.  

 ***

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Tune in next week to see Pax’s fanfiction of the events. I hope you guys are staying safe and healthy!

 Footnote:

[1] In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang opened all the gates of the city he defended and sat atop a platform, where he played his guqin. The enemy leader, Sima Yi, ordered a retreat since this looked too much like a set up for ambush.