#steelbeak | answer

[thefriendlyfour]

Do you have negaverse design of steelbeak How do you write him ?

I do have a general design idea for Nega Steelbeak to go alongside Nega Domino, buuut there isn't a whole lot I can say about them right now outside of "they're far more casual" lol

[askdarkwingduck]

Did Steelbeak or any other villain ever capture you for interrogation?

There was one time Steelbeak captured me for interrogation... he wanted to know more about Gosalyn... But I took him down in a flash...

With my family helping me through... I won't let anything happen to them... I swear on my life!!

[mai-fanblog]

Answer for duo (soon)

I already have some sketches…

Choose

If you don't remember who the women "De Spell" or Abner are, here are some links to some drawings for reference.

LINK DE SPELL

LINK ABNER

[junior-woodchuck-huey]

Do you think Steelbeak is still scared of you? Would you consider him his worst enemy?

I haven't encountered him personally since we retrieved the Sword of Swanstantine, but I think he'd either be too dumb and cocky to think I can't beat him again, or he's a little smarter than that (which isn't saying much) and would try to run away.

I'm not sure if there's a typo in the second question, so I'll just answer both interpretations.

Would I consider him his worst enemy? Definitely. Everything he does sabotages himself and other people.

Would I consider him my worst enemy? I consider Bradford my worst enemy. He infiltrated my family, tried to destroy us from the inside, and stood against the Junior Woodchucks while trying to take advantage of my love for them. Steelbeak assisted Bradford, so he's just as bad.

[psychosistr]

Snake in the Grass- Chapter 4

Summary: Steelbeak, separated from his partner, tries to find a way to reunite with Domino and get the mission back on track, but running into a certain serpent derails his plans completely.

Notes: Time for Steelbeak's perspective on what's been going on. Prepare for some pain >xD

-First Chapter-

~Twenty Minutes Earlier~

Steelbeak kept his revolver drawn while navigating the halls as silently as possible. Knowing his partner was safe on the other side of the building and had backup put him somewhat at ease, but he hadn’t forgotten that he was now the one on his own with an elusive enemy sneaking about. While he kept an ear out and eyes peeled for any signs of movement, the eerie silence of the building made him feel tense.

Everything about this mission had him on edge. He couldn’t quite place it, but something was setting off that feeling in his gut that told him something bad was coming. The chief officer had made it as far as he had in life by listening to his gut and following his instincts, so he saw no reason to stop now.

That feeling only got worse when his partner called him on his communicator. “Steelbeak? Come in, Steelbeak.”

After taking a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear, Steelbeak stopped and leaned his back against a nearby wall (best to be careful and not leave his back open to sneak attacks) then answered. “Steelbeak here. How’s it lookin’ on your end, stripes?”

Despite hearing the loon clearly, he seemed to have trouble doing the same. “Steelbeak? Hello? What’s wrong with this thing?”

“Might be a ssssignal jammer.” A voice with a slight hiss to it- the snake guy, Steelbeak assumed- was audible in the background. “Ourssss haven’t been working either.”

“Damn it..” Domino cursed under his breath before speaking to his partner again. “Steelbeak, if you can hear me, the doorway over here is blocked off, too. We’ll try to meet you on the next floor up. Domino out.”

The communicator cut off and Steelbeak was left confused and more than a little anxious. If there was a signal jammer somewhere in the building, then how could he hear his partner so clearly? He’d dealt with those things before and usually there’d be some sort of choppiness or static interference- if the calls even got through at all to begin with. That feeling in his gut was telling him that things weren’t adding up and he agreed with it.

As he searched for the nearest staircase, Steelbeak’s guard was up and his senses were hyper aware of even the tiniest sounds around him. By the time he found an unlocked stairwell, he was more than a little tense and ready to shoot something.

Luckily, fate finally seemed to be on the chief officer’s side for once when he reached the next floor- he could hear muttered curses coming from a room that's door had been left slightly ajar. The voice definitely wasn’t his boyfriend’s and didn’t sound like the guy he’d heard behind the door or the one who’d been in the background of the call earlier, so that left only one option. A voice in the back of his head told him to wait for his partner and the others to show up like they’d agreed, but another- one that came from years of solo missions and survival experience- told him he might not get another chance to pin down the elusive enemy. He HAD to take the opportunity before it slipped away.

Steelbeak approached the room as quickly & quietly as possible, noting briefly that it was a first aid station, and peeked in through the gap in the door. There wasn’t much he could make out through the tiny opening, but he could at least see a long shadow moving along the wall. Using the angle and direction of the shadow’s movement, the metal-mouthed fowl got a good estimate of where its owner was and, with his trigger-finger ready to fire at a moment’s notice, he opened the door and stormed in.

“Alright, ya slippery li’l-!” The threats, insults, and declarations that the life of the room’s inhabitant was officially over died before they even left Steelbeak’s mouth. Huddled in the far corner of the room was a green snake wearing a red shirt- one that looked exactly like the profile picture he’d been shown during his earlier impromptu mission debriefing. “Wait…you’re agent Adders, right?”

The shivering serpent looked more than a little worse for wear, covered in bruises and burns with his damaged but still attached mechanical arm frozen in its attempt at wrapping a bandage around what looked like a scorch mark on his lower body, but he was most definitely the same snake from the picture. “Uhhhh yeeeeah..? Who’re you??”

Okay, that definitely didn’t sound like the voice Steelbeak heard when Domino called him earlier. “Chief officer Steelbeak- Domino’s partner.”

Adders perked up considerably, his head craning in an attempt to peek out of the now open door. “Wait- the bossss’ss here?”

After glancing out to make sure no one else was in the hall, Steelbeak closed the door and moved closer to the serpent. “Yeah, an’ accordin’ t’ him, he’s with you an’ your partner right now, but I don’t see or hear either of ‘em.”

Whatever relief the snake felt knowing his team’s former leader was in the building turned into pure terror in an instant- the emotions easily readable on his overly expressive face. “Oh crud, he got the bossss too?!”

Dark gray eyes instantly narrowed, not liking the sound of that one bit. “Who’s got him? I need some answers, stretch. NOW.” Steelbeak’s voice held no traces of his usual snark or cocky confidence, it was all cold-hard seriousness and unspoken promises of violence.

Adders flinched slightly, but the fact that he wasn’t the target of the chief officer’s anger helped him swallow his fears and answer as expected. “I-I don’t know who he issss. Ssssome other ssssnake. He got Shootssss alone and did ssssome weird thing with hissss eyessss- they were changing colorssss and sssspinning really fast. Nexxxxt thing I know, he’ssss shooting at me and calling that creep my name!” Looking down at the burn marks- laser blaster shots, Steelbeak assumed now that he had the full story- the serpent frowned slightly and went back to wrapping the bandage around his body. “I keep trying to talk to him, but it’ssss like he can’t hear or ssssee me- he jusssst keepssss attacking. I’ve barely been able to sssstay alive...”

Steelbeak’s scowl deepened and, ever the paragon of anger management, he slammed his fist into the nearest wall. The dent and chipped paint did little to help his temper, so his next attempt was to take a breath- that only helped marginally, but it was better than nothing. “Alright. Let’s go get our partners back and take care of this creep.”

After receiving a nod from Adders- and after the other man was finished patching his wounds (as best as he could, anyway)- the two agents snuck through the halls as quietly as possible. According to Domino’s call, the three of them should be looking for him somewhere on the same floor. With any luck, they could get the loon alone and find a way to undo whatever was done to him & Shoots. If they weren’t lucky…well, thankfully both of them were good at running (slithering, in Adders’ case) away when the situation called for it.

They searched for a while before, in the distance down the small hallway the two were currently in, they heard footsteps and slithering. Steelbeak pressed himself against the wall and inched as close to the corner as he could, Adders following suit. Once they were close enough, the metal-mouthed fowl pulled a small compact out of his pocket (no one would be surprised that he was vain enough to carry a mirror with him- had to make sure he always looked good, after all) and used the mirror to see around the corner.

In the reflection, he could see his partner leading the group with the cardinal from the pictures he’d seen earlier trailing behind him. Both birds had a weird look in their eyes that reminded Steelbeak of the few times he’d been around people who’d made the dumb decision to eat the wrong mushrooms while lost in the woods then started screaming about things that weren’t there less than an hour later. Then, bringing up the rear, he saw another snake- a black one bigger than Adders who was dressed in a modified SHUSH suit (there were no arms on it and it was closer to a dress since there was a hole at the bottom instead of pants).

Seeing the shadowy serpent and the state his boyfriend was in made Steelbeak’s blood boil. The fact that he didn’t immediately go in guns blazing and shoot the manipulative snake right in the face was nothing short of a miracle, but the rational part of his mind won out (a rare occurrence when he was that angry) and convinced him that getting his partner away from the immediate threat was more important. He tried everything he could think of to get the loon’s attention without being noticed by the others- calling him on his communicator, quietly calling out to him, and even using his mirror to reflect some light in a subtle signal- but he didn’t react to any of it.

In a last ditch effort, Steelbeak searched his pockets for something he could throw to his partner. He didn’t have much that would be significant and recognizable without being noticeable right away to the intruder, so he settled for a spare bullet from his ammo stash; to make it even more distinct, the metal-mouthed fowl even used his prosthesis to bite into the bullet ever so slightly. It wasn’t as good as a paper plane with a message written on the wings, but since he wasn’t artistic or coordinated enough to pull something like that off without missing by a mile, it would have to do.

Taking aim as best he could without revealing himself, Steelbeak took his metaphorical shot and tossed the bullet at his boyfriend before ducking back behind the corner. To his relieved surprise, Domino did in fact react when the bullet bounced off of his chest before dropping down onto his leg and foot. The loon seemed confused at first, like he wasn’t sure what hit him, then looked down and noticed the bullet. It was working! Now he just needed to-

“Enemiessss!” The darker snake suddenly hissed out, rising up into a defensive stance.

“!!” Both birds followed the shady serpent’s line of sight and stared right at Steelbeak & Adders, much to the pair's shock and horror. Apparently, in their excitement to see their plan finally working, they didn’t notice they were now slightly visible around the corner of the hall.

Domino had his gun drawn, but didn’t fire right away- looking confused by the sight of his partner and former teammate (or whatever he saw them as). “How..?”

“Get ‘em!!” Shoots, however, didn’t hesitate and immediately opened fire on his allies while charging straight at them.

“Crud!” Steelbeak bolted down the hallway, Adders close behind him.

The two of them dodged as best they could in the narrow hallway, now having to avoid shots from the cardinal’s blaster as well as Domino’s own gun. Along the way, Steelbeak knocked over filing cabinets & whatever other office furniture he came across once they left the hall and entered a room full of desks and chairs in an attempt to slow their pursuers down. It became clear pretty quickly, however, that the shorter two birds were faster than the rooster & adder snake and they were gaining on them quickly.

Recognizing where they were, the chief officer got an idea. “Head for the stairs!” Steelbeak grabbed a steel chair he spotted by a desk and the two men ran for the stairwell. He reached it first and managed to get it open, but noticed something that was definitely not a bullet hitting the area around the door. By the time he saw the frost spreading around the door and his brain put two and two together, it was too late for the information to do him any good. One shot hit him in the arm and a pained shout tore itself from his beak as he felt the bone chilling sting of the freezing compound spread across his arm. “AAAAAAAH!” Fighting through the pain, he managed to get the door open. “Go!”

Adders rushed in ahead of him and, the instant his long body was clear of the door, Steelbeak hurried in after him and slammed the door shut- bracing the chair he’d grabbed against the handle and door jamb the instant it was closed. “That wassss too closssse..”

The chief officer grunted a reply, too busy pulling off his suit coat with his still-warm arm. He managed to get the fabric off, breaking the ice that had formed on his coat along the way, and was relieved both from the change in temperature as well as the fact that his shirt had far less ice on it. Steelbeak spent some time rubbing his arm, chasing away the sting of pins and needles that had settled into his muscles and wincing at the frostbite-induced bruises he could already feel forming under his feathers.

While both agents caught their breath and treated their wounds, they caught bits and pieces of their partners’ conversation through the heavy metal door. They couldn’t hear much, but Steelbeak caught the word “roof” from the SHUSH agent and what sounded like Domino agreeing to it before all three men left.

“Damn it..” Steelbeak didn’t know what exactly that sneaky snake wanted with his partner and Shoots on the roof, but he knew instantly that it couldn’t be good. Best case scenario, he’d escape; worst case, he’d push them over the edge when they weren’t paying attention. “We gotta get ‘em away from that bastard before they get up there.”

“How?” Adders frowned. “If we get too closssse, they’ll attack ussss again! They can’t ssssee or hear ussss assss long assss that guy’ssss around, and he won’t let ussss get closssse enough to try anything elsssse.”

He knew the other man was right- it wouldn’t be easy getting through to their partners as long as that SHUSH snake was near them. From what Steelbeak had witnessed, his boyfriend definitely didn’t recognize him or react to his voice whatsoever, so trying to reason with him was out of the question. The only thing he seemed to react to was-

Steelbeak was struck by an idea, feeling like a lightbulb just lit up over his head. “That’s it!” A grin spread across the metal-mouthed fowl’s beak. “Listen up, stretch, I’ve got a plan. It’s gonna be dangerous, but it’s somethin’ only guys like you an’ me can pull off.”

They’d only have one shot, so they’d have to get it right or go down fighting.

End Notes: For anyone who's not a long-time follower of my DWD work and OC's, the culprit behind everything is the sneaky SHUSH snake, Agent Kadin S.- AKA, "the Serpent's Shadow".

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

Character Opinions: Steelbeak (DT17)

Not going to lie, Steelbeak might be the hardest character from that show to do this for? Because he's probably among the characters I think the least about.

First impression: "Oh, hey, isn't that the guy from the old Darkwing Duck show? Yeah, I think I remember seeing him in a few episodes. Wonder what he's going to end up doing with FOWL next season?"

Impression now: "Oh, I don't like you. You just scream 'bully' to me, and even once you became smarter, you just became a bully that knew how to use a more advanced vocabulary. Still, might have been interested to see you in the Darkwing reboot...if they'd actually let the two shows be connected."

Favorite moment: I guess when he makes himself smarter in the finale? Even if ultimately the scene ended up being more about the other villains he had attack the heroes, and then about Launchpad having his "big" hero moment.

Idea for a story: Something taking place after the events of the finale, with him actually becoming the leader of a rebuilt FOWL (or whatever he ends up calling it, since I feel like with his new intelligence, he'd realize that using the same name would just get the heroes to come and shut things down before things can actually get going with the rebuilt organization.

Unpopular opinion: I actually can't really answer this one? Because I genuinely don't know enough about the general opinions of this character to know what's a popular opinion. And I already mentioned the lack of shipping him and Fethry when I did this meme for Fethry.

Favorite relationship: He has canon relationships? I think the favorite by default has to be him and Black Heron, not because I particularly think they work well together, but just because she's basically the only character he actually interacts with in any real significant way in basically the whole series.

Favorite headcanon: Alluded to in my idea for a story, but I like to imagine that he ends up becoming the head of a new FOWL post-finale, taking advantage of both his new intelligence and the fact that the Duck-McDuck family and their allies all presumably think the organization is gone to start putting plans into action without any opposition.

[pidayforpi]

(Thank you so much @lonely-clover26 ! And you have old Ducktales magazine??? Oh my god??? 👀✨

Hope you've had a wonderful dinner that night!)

● 3 Ships (how do i even just choose 3???)

→ Fethsteel [Fethry x Steelbeak] (DT17)

→ Yax [Yakko x Max] (Animaniacs x Disney's Goof Family)

→ Mort x Me Maynard (Bluey)

● First Ship

(This is tricky, cause...I don't remember...

Since I could remember, I think it should be...)

→ The Three Caballeros [Donald x José x Panchito]

● Last Song (uh...let me see...)

→ Okay, it's the Higurashi Main Theme XD

● Last Movie

(Alright. The true answer is a movie you definitely don't and won't know. The next latest movie is...)

→ The FNAF Movie (on Halloween Day exactly)

● Currently Reading

→ My school notes _(:3 」∠)_ Nil.

● Currently Watching

→ My lecture videos _(:3 」∠)_ Nil, but on-and-off watching Amphibia and some Paw Patrol

Was aggressively steamrolling Higurashi Gou and Sotsu about a month ago

● Currently Consuming

→ Air??? Nil.

● Currently Craving

→ Water? Maybe.

(Only if you want to do this and/or haven't done this!)

@sheepmouse @shellyochunks @shychick-52 @sikyurame

9 people you would like to get to know better

tysm for the tag @alexmey-does-an-arts!

1. 3 ships; bowuigi, metadede, heavy/medic(I forget the name lol)

2. first ever ship; alphyne

3. last song; Ghost Cowboys by Louie Zong

4. last movie; Midsommar. That was…something

5. currently reading; Dante and Aristotle discover the secrets of the universe. Pretty fire

6. currently watching; JCS criminal psychology

7. currently consuming; nothing

8. currently craving; Iced Cream. About to go get it. I know there’s mind chip in my freezer (:

9 people to tag; @littlegreenwyvy, @garf-official, @d1nosaurpower, @tractor-inside-joke-fucker, @junkydoodlez, @seacrown, @neldu-nak, @darkcanid19, @stormyykat

[askagentsteelbeak17]

Hi Steelbeak, this is a personal question. Can you Tap Dance for me? The reason I ask this is because when I see you wearing your fancy black and white wingtip shoes, I personally think they look like fancy Tap Dancing shoes.

Oh, my shoes? (Looking down at his shoes) tap dance?

I Don’t dance, not even tap dance, sorry I wish I could but the only dance I knew was: salsa dancing.

As for the shoes, I only wear the finest clothes there is, only the luxurious clothes for me

So to answer your question: no I don’t do tap dancing but I do know salsa dancing but I haven’t done salsa since….Ann

[lettheladylead]

What are Nega Back Heron and Steelbeak like?

these were cursed to draw

NegaSteelbeak is like. NegaHeron's little tech guy who helps her save the world. He's the Gyro to her Duck Avenger

[thefriendlyfour]

If you were to work on a CANONICAL character from Darkwing Duck, which one would you write? Like, rewrite the history, the personality and among other things?

Oh gosh that'd be a lot of responsibility and pressure for one thing lol Uh, my instinct wants to say that I'd love to write for one of the female villains since while a lot of them have interesting starting points to them, their execution sometimes fell a little flat. Ngl I would've loved a cliché "girls night out" sort of episode of the female villains coming together for their own sort of Fearsome Five crime spree.

If I'm only going to pin myself down to writing for one character though, I think my heart is leaning towards Ammonia Pine. She's fun, strong and a very capable FOWL agent already- if anything I'd just want to be able to let her have more presence in the series. Lean in a bit on things like insecurities she might have (coughcough looking at you laughing at her proposal Steelbeak coughcough) as well as the fact she also has a sister she cares about in FOWL. Idk! I'd probably want to have her be more up there when people first think about FOWL.

[writebackatya]

@yourmusicmuse

Absolutely LOVE all these answers dunking on Mark Beaks and Waddle! Seriously, everyone has been delivering on the Mark Beaks answers and I’m proud of you all

And yeah. Everyone in Scrooge’s family is queer. These are facts

F.O.W.L.’s rainbow cake may be the bare minimum but it’s still enough to outrage Rockerduck (he’s from another time) who rants about it in the conference room and states that no one in F.O.W.L. is queer in anyway. During the rant Gandra and Steelbeak make eye contact with one another and don’t say anything

Now let’s see what’s Opera Gx is doing for Pride so I can see what’s Louie doing…

…Oh

Cool!

Happy Pride Month, DuckTales Fandom!

In honor of Pride, I have one question for ya: How do you think the businesses/organizations of DuckTales profit off of give lip service celebrate Pride month!?

[askdarkwingduck]

I have a question about the photos from the space question, the first photo is just you getting hit by some laser beam what was that laser beam and what would happen if you failed to stop Steelbeak's plan?

That's a very interesting question. Truth be told, I don't really remember how deadly that laser beam was originally designed to be, but it didn't really affect me anyway. If anything, it ticked a bit...

[big-chicken-man]

“Steelbeak, are you crying?😢Would you like to talk about it? I promise I won’t tell anyone because I enjoy living! But do you wanna sit down and talk?

Anonymous is a brave soul, approaching a lethal danger without the necessary caution to stay out of striking distance. Though, the rooster in the midst of his sobbing doesn't seem to present much of a threat. Perhaps extending their heart for a broken man could do wonders for the world. After all, even villains like Steelbeak deserve a kind touch, right? Go for it, Anonymous, he’s hunched over, shoulders bouncing with every short gasp. 

And that's when Steelbeak turns around, giving Anonymous a full view of his broken visage. Tears coming from pinked eyes have messed up the soft fluff on his reddened cheeks. His metallic beak isn't frowning, but beaming the widest, toothiest grin he had ever blessed the world with.

Crying indeed.

"Talk!? B-Buddy, I..." He slaps knee, collapsing and putting on his best impression of a steaming kettle. Behind him lies the aftermath of a Calisotan-branded accident: a heap of groaning bodies buried beneath a mountain of assorted boxed goods and shopping carts. Wallets, dollar bills, and cards of all sorts litter the area like mocking confetti.

A tragedy. A tragedy to the few workers in matching uniforms and pained frowns who'll have to clean up the remarkable mess. To Steelbeak, however, it is the perfect comedy, one he'd gladly cheer "encore!" for if his sides weren’t splitting like a fault line.

[starsfic]

Poe: I understand why you kidnapped me, Phanny here has beef with my sister. But what does Heron want with Young Brad?

Steelbeak: Trust me on this: you don't wanna know. Pepper, don't tell him. You shouldn't've told me, but you did, and now I'm telling you, you don't wanna know!

Poe: Know what?

Pepper: Director Heron has a crush on Director Buzzard and it got worse after he tried to throw her into the vortex. So, after we figure out how to reverse him back to his actual age...

Poe: *starts gagging*

Steelbeak: I know!

[lunarspearedarchive]

               "Hey there pretty lady." (SB eyyy) / @tunnagan​ | unprompted.

▬▬▬ ☾☆      She could feel the  smile  tugging  at  her  face  when  she  heard  his  voice.  He  was  too  sweet  &&  that  nickname  never   failed  to  make  her  feel  warm.  Well,  maybe  she  was  getting  ahead  of  herself.  They’d  only  been  on  two  official dates.  But  she  was  enjoying  the  time  spent  with  him --  that  was  what  really  mattered,  right?  Right.  

                                  ❛  Hey, Sydney. Fancy meeting you here. You following me? You know you can just call if you wanna see me.  ❜

            She joked with him,  the  grin  making  that  obvious.  

[psychosistr]

Snake in the Grass- Chapter 3

Summary: Things go from strange to stranger for Dominic and his little team as they deal with broken doors, faulty communicators, and, worst of all- not one, but two enemy agents appearing.

Notes: Poor Dominic is just NOT having a good day, lol x3

-First Chapter-

Well, today just seemed determined to go from bad to worse, didn’t it? The flicker of hope that things would finally start going well for Dominic now that he was reunited with part of his old team was thoroughly stomped out when they came to a jammed door similar to the one that had separated him from his partner. Both him and Shoots tried their best to pry it open, but with its control panel smashed it was just as stuck as the last one.

“They really need to put in an emergency override for these things..” The loon muttered to himself while activating his communicator. “Steelbeak? Come in, Steelbeak.” The only answer he got was static, prompting him to tap a few buttons and move the device around in an attempt to clear it up. “Steelbeak? Hello?” All he got was more static. “What’s wrong with this thing?”

“Might be a ssssignal jammer. Ourssss haven’t been working either.” Adders suggested, his partner nodding in agreement.

“Damn it..” Dominic cursed under his breath before speaking into the communicator again. “Steelbeak, if you can hear me, the doorway over here is blocked off, too. We’ll try to meet you on the next floor up. Domino out.” He ended the call and led his former subordinates to the stairwell with a notable scowl. “I swear, I’m half-tempted just to burn this building to the ground and call it a day.”

“You and me both, boss.” Shoots fell in line behind the darker fowl, his partner taking up the rear as they looked for the stairs. “We’ve been chasing this guy for hours now- I wanna go home already!”

“With any luck, we’ll be out of here soon.” Dominic wished he could actually believe his own words, but their cumulative luck seemed pretty dismal so far. Still, the trio pressed on and made their way upstairs to the third floor- it wasn’t the first time they’d dealt with missions gone wrong and likely wouldn’t be the last, so no point letting it bring them down.

As they explored the upper floor, Dominic noted that it had been spared the chaos that had thoroughly wrecked the lower two but still held that same eerie silence that permeated the rest of the building. Although he would have liked to call out for his partner and find the rooster as quickly as possible, the idea of alerting their enemy to their location and opening themselves up to an ambush encouraged the loon to hold his tongue.

By the time they’d explored more than half the level and found no trace of either their enemy or his boyfriend, however, Dominic had become extremely worried. Did his call not go through? What if Steelbeak was still on the second floor looking for him? Was there even a staircase on his side of the building? What if he was trapped in the corridors without a way out? What if he was stuck down there with the enemy? What if he was hurt-?

Something cool and metallic hit the loon’s chest, bumped his leg on the way down, and dropped onto his webbed foot before rolling onto the floor, startling him a little. “Huh?” Looking down, Dominic found a bullet- the same kind that Steelbeak used, he noticed- with a tiny, scratchy dent that looked like someone had tried to pierce it without breaking it completely. Where had it come from? He hadn’t seen it coming or even heard it hit the ground. “What-?”

“Enemiessss!” Adders suddenly hissed, rising up a bit to get into a more defensive position.

“!!” Dominic and Shoots instantly looked in the same direction as the serpent, both birds drawing their guns.

There was a moment where the lights flickered again and the colors around him seemed to shift but then, to the loon’s surprise, he saw not one but TWO unfamiliar men watching them from around the corner of a small hallway the trio hadn’t reached yet. One of the strangers was a dark green asian grass lizard with an extremely long tail and small body while the other was a tall and buff white-furred wolf- both dressed in standard SHUSH uniform suits.

“How..?” Dominic hesitated to fire at the pair straight away- mostly because he was confused about why there was a pair of them to begin with. All the reports he’d heard- even from Shoots himself about his pursuit of the enemy- indicated that only one intruder had gotten in and the building had been on strict lockdown since then. So why were there now two SHUSH agents in here with them? Something about this wasn’t right.

“Get ‘em!!” Not surprisingly, Shoots didn’t put as much thought into the situation as his former boss did and instead lived up to his namesake by charging in & opening fire with his laser blaster.

Fortunately, Dominic was used to dealing with the recklessness of both Shoots & Adders in combat situations, so he easily fell into the role of providing cover fire for the cardinal. Without his arms, there wasn’t much Adders could do to help, so he followed behind the pair of sharp shooters.

The enemy agents ran almost instantly, dodging as best they could in the cramped hall. Dominic saw a silver revolver tucked into the waistband of the wolf’s pants but, surprisingly, he didn’t fire back despite the obvious danger. Instead, he knocked over filing cabinets, desks, and any other large office furniture the two ran past to slow down the trio pursuing them. When that didn’t work quite as effectively as he intended, the wolf grabbed a steel chair and said something to his partner.

By the time Dominic figured out they were heading for the stairwell on the opposite side of the building, it was a few seconds too late to stop them. He switched to his pistol loaded with ice rounds and tried firing ahead of the enemy agents, hoping to seal the doorway before they reached it. The only things he managed to hit were the door frame and the back of the wolf’s arm, causing him to let out a pained howl. Despite the freezing solution spreading across the larger man’s arm, he managed to get the door open and, as soon as the lizard’s long tail was clear of the entrance, he slammed it shut.

Shoots reached the door first and tried bashing his shoulder into it. It didn’t budge. “Damn it!”

Dominic glared at the door. It was reinforced steel with no glass panes- shooting at it wouldn’t do any good. Damn it all. “This isn’t good..” Taking charge of the situation as he often did, the loon looked at his comrades with a serious expression. “The situation’s changed: There are more enemies than we thought and there could be more hiding out or finding a way in. We need to contact FOWL and get more reinforcements.”

“But what about the signal jammer?” Shoots raised a good point.

“We could try the roof.” His partner suggested. “If we get up there, maybe we could get a clear ssssignal?”

Dominic thought the option over before giving the snake a nod. “It’s worth a shot.” Leading the other two back to the stairs they entered through, he could only hope his partner was safe and would stay that way until reinforcements arrived.

End Notes: Short and suspenseful chapter- next one will be from Steelbeak's point of view and will shed some light on things.

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