A Duck when you need it

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In the atrium of the mansion, Adrien was banging his fist against the rail of the stairs. He stormed around in circles, punching the air, as Sebastien and the rest of the men watched on nervously, not knowing what to do, not being able to do. Adrien turned to Sebastien. His hair had frizzed up and his face was red. “How did they know? How-did-they-know?” He clutched Sebastien’s collar. He had to reach up to grab his collar. Sebastien straightened his posture, trying not to make eye contact with Adrien so he could calm down. Adrien’s arms slid off Sebastien and he slapped his own knees. For a few seconds he stared at the floor, breathing loudly, until he looked back up at Sebastien. “It had to be Ezra, he must have dreamt it before and left a sign or something.. it had to be! It couldn’t have been a spy, we ensured all our men had no communication with any outside area whatsoever, did we not?

Sebastien nodded. “Yes, sir. We queued them up and frisk searched them thoroughly.”Adrien turned towards the window. The fresh sunlight beamed onto his pale face. From the stairs behind, a tall, feminine figure descended. She glanced at all the mess outside, which was currently being cleaned up. She didn’t appear to be fazed.

“Adrien..” Hectate slowly strolled up behind him. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Adrien dear...”

“I suppose the rest of the city has been informed of Ezra’s escape?” He turned to Hectate. She looked blank.

“GAH!” Adrien pounded his fists.

“Calm down, Adrien. You’re forgetting one thing. The implant in the back of Muhammad’s neck.”

Adrien managed to pull the shame of losing Ezra in such a heavily guarded area away, and managed a soft smile.

“He may be staying in town longer, after all...” Adrien reached for a small controller in his pocket.

The previous night...

Dane woke. He heard footsteps crossing the planks in the room. He lifted himself up as he saw Ezra taking something out of the wardrobe. Tempted to ask him ‘what’s up’, he decided to stay quiet, as Muhammad could do with some peaceful rest, due to the ordeals he’d been through and the injuries. Ezra turned around, in Dane’s direction, holding a globe in both hands. He mumbled something, then placed the globe down on the floor at his feet. He then reached for a small box inside of the nearby chested drawer and pulled out a pin. Dane heard a gentle piercing sound, as Ezra marked an area on the globe, then put the globe and pin away, covering his steps, and went back to sleep. Dane rested his head back on the pillow, a little concerned. What was he planning? Was he sleepwalking? Is this just a strange dream? Dane went back to sleep and didn’t think about it the next morning...

End of flashback

Ezra pounded Campbell’s chest, but to no avail. He was dead. As well as Taylor. The evil men surrounded the car. He saw one of them insert a dart into a gun. A rock then hit the window in front of Ezra, shattering it. Ezra found a fold-out car screen protector from under the seat and tried to block one of the darts. The dart went straight through the protector, and just slipped past Ezra’s ear, bouncing off the window behind. Suddenly, Ezra felt a vibration from behind. The window shattered, and a dart hit his back. He felt his energy deteriorate. He also felt the car accelerating forward. But then he blacked out.

The Hydra men watched in confusion as the car accelerated forward in one straight direction, and gained momentum of over 150km/h. The car smashed straight through the gate of the mansion and drove right into a nearby stream. It landed with a great splash. Ezra was protected from impact thanks to an airbag inside. He lay as water began filling up the car.“We have to help Ezra!” Muhammad said to Sarah and Mrs. Tanen, who were hiding at the top of a building nearby.

“But there are too many of them!” Muhammad exclaimed.

“Well, we can’t just watch him drown!” said Sarah.

Mrs. Tanen’s expression turned from one of nonchalance to joy. She watched gleefully as a large object emerged in the water near the sinking car wreck. It looked like a giant duck. It was a giant duck. The head of the duck came off, and Dane emerged up from the inside. He waved towards Sarah and Mrs. Tanen. Mrs. Tanen frowned, suspecting if the Hyrdra men were to see him, they might figure out who he were waving to. Dane threw a magnetic cling over towards the car, and went back into the submarine, which tugged the car wreck up and towards it. Suddenly, small splashes of water were seen in the stream. The men were shooting at them.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“Let’s see how they like this!” Mrs. Tanen said boisterously, as she held up a small rocket launcher. “It contains high levels of toxic gas. This will teach them!”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“Can it reach Dane?” Sarah asked.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“No, the duck-marine’s been sealed specially,” assured Mrs. Tanen. “We knew this circumstance would occur!”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">What circumstance Mrs. Tanen did not know would occur was what happened the short time after. Muhammad punched Mrs. Tanen in the face, knocking her out, and aimed the launcher towards the submarine Dane was in. Suddenly the submarine alarm went off. The bullets had managed to puncture it, and water was reaching the inside. As it started to tip over, Dane jumped out and swam under the water, without being noticed by the puzzled henchmen. They shot at the water anyway, and Dane tried to dodge the bullets. One struck his elbow. The water started to turn to red.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">Adrien and Sebastien ran over towards the scene. They were confronted by the large explosion as the rocket hit the submarine. Adrien clung onto Sebastien as he was drawn back by surprise from the explosion. Sebastien remained still, withstanding the heat waves that came from the fire. Sebastien then pointed out the green smoke coming their way, and from behind ran up two guards with gas masks, in the nick of time. Adrien and Sebastien put them on without second thought, standing and watching as all of the men around them coughed and fell to the ground.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“Muhammad?!? What the-” Muhammad swung his fist at Sarah, and she dodged it, but didn’t dodge the kick to her stomach that came right after. Having no other weapon to use, he left the building and descended the stairs, to which he was greeted by Adrien and Sebastien.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“Good...” said Adrien. “Sebastien, collect Dane and Ezra, they couldn’t have gone far if anything, and I’ll finish off Muhammad before the chip loses control of him.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">Sebastien nodded and ran off, through the smoke and corpses, to the stream. Meanwhile, Ezra and Dane had made it to the top of a small cliff nearby. Dane was clutching his elbow and clenching his teeth in agony. Ezra had wrapped both of his extra-thick, and extra-wet socks around his elbow. It’s all he had. Ezra and Dane sat on the rocks, and through their breaths, spoke. “I’m so glad.. you’re okay..” said Ezra, putting his hand on Dane’s shoulder.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“Those breath-holding contests weren’t for nothing, it seems!” Dane then hugged Ezra. Suddenly, a Hydra minion ran in front of them, out through the thick shrubs. “ANDA TIDAK!” he yelled, holding his rifle up. Dane and Ezra closed their eyes, but when they opened them again, they found the guard on the ground, clutching what looked like a small green crocodile around his leg. Ezra and Dane looked at each other, and, recognising their luck, ran for it. They arrived at a small cave. Outside of the cave was a small post, with a cage sitting on top of it. Inside the cage was half of a human skull. A chill ran up Ezra’s spine, but seeing more men coming up in the distance, him and Dane had no choice but to descend into the cave.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“It’s perpetually dark in here.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">A bright flame lit up the cave. Dane dropped two rocks in his hands. “I picked these up before.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2">“Always at the right time,” said Ezra. “You’re a... Wait... can you hear that?” Dane and Ezra heard thumping, footsteps, but unusually louder, coming towards them from an unknown direction...