Purple Dragon Syndrome

Written by Zelda and Quacker Jax

 

                Wildwing finished his rant and walked stormily out of the room, rubbing his hands through his hair. Zelda smiled to herself as he exited. Another complaint about how inactive Dragaunus and his goons had been. Another reminder that none of their crimefighting efforts had been put towards the Saurians in over a month now. Although it was easy to get ruffled by Wildwing's temper on the subject, Zelda knew he only wanted to complete his mission as quickly as he could. Zelda sighed and trotted off, away from the group. These days, something had been making her feel weird at times. It wasn't a pain or sickness, just a feeling. Zelda knew it well. It was just a bad feeling. And it had been with her for a time now. She hadn't told anyone else, but the feeling had gotten worse nowadays, like a knot in her stomach. She shook it off, wheeling about and returning to the group.

                The day passed and night fell quickly on Anaheim. After a late night practice, the team separated and headed off to bed. But Zelda couldn't sleep. That feeling was bothering her again. Finally, she quietly got up and out of her hammock, to go out on her nightly rounds. Happy to be doing something, she

trotted out of the sleeping quarters. Suddenly, she looked up to see a huge green shadow erupting a few feet before her. She yelped and leapt backwards as Dragaunus loomed over her! He darted out and clapped her mouth shut. But as she struggled, she noted that there was no maliciousness at all in his grip.

                "Please just shut up and listen to me dragon." he asked, almost pleadingly. He released Zelda slowly, upon which she drew a good few feet back from him, ready to fight.

                "How did you get in here?" she snarled loudly. Dragaunus looked around nervously and signaled her to be quiet.

                "Zelda please listen. I... I need your help." Zelda eased off a bit. Somehow, she believed him. She hesitated.

                "What is it Saurian?" she snapped quietly. Dragaunus sighed. He held his head in his hand, covering his eyes.

                "Wraith contracted a disease about a month ago. He's been trying to fight it. We've been doing all we can but...." Dragaunus shivered. Was he crying? "Wraith is dying Zelda. On the name of your Saurian blood I plead you to try and help... maybe you can cure him..." Zelda stared hard. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Dragaunus looked up, waiting for an answer.

               

                Tanya yawned and turned over in bed. Blinking, she reached across a table next to her bed. Fumbling, her fingers finally curled around her pink-tinted goggles. She yawned again and put them on. There, now she could see better. She sniffed and slowly pulled back the sheets, sitting up and hopped clumsily out of bed. She stretched quickly and checked her watch. 8:30. Everyone was probably still asleep from practice last night.

                Tanya walked over to a mirror on her wall and slicked back her yellow hair, which immediately sprung up into its usual position. Tanya sighed and went over to her closet to pick out something to wear.

               

                Hours passed, and everyone got up and out. Just before practice, Wildwing walked into the Ready Room, looking around.

                "Hey, have any of you seen Zelda?" he asked. The others looked back at him with blank stares.

                "That's strange, she's usually up long before now," Quacker Jax said.

                "Yeah," agreed Nosedive, checking his Bernie the Bear watch. "It's almost noon." Wildwing rubbed his beak in thought. Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his signaling whistle. He blew on it sharply and waited. After a minute or so, a distant door opened. The team, standing by Drake 1, looked to see Zelda enter slowly. She stopped for a moment, surprised that she didn't see the flurry of activity an emergency would include from the team.

                "There you are." Grin said as Zelda came up to them.

                "Where were you? Sorry I had to blow the whistle, but I was getting worried." Wildwing said. "Is anything wrong?"

Zelda hesitated, then breathed in slowly. "Dragaunus came here last night." she started.

                "WHAT?!" the team interrupted.

                "No no, he wanted to talk to me. He needed my help..." Zelda said.

                "Well what on Puckworld did he want?" Duke demanded.

                "He told me... that Wraith was sick, he was dying." Zelda answered slowly. "He wanted my help to cure him."

                "And?" Mallory asked.

                "I refused." Zelda replied flatly.

                "Good. It was probably a trap." Wildwing said. He couldn't believe Zelda hadn't activated the alarms last night or something.

                "No." Zelda said.                

                "He was tellin' the truth?" Duke asked.

                "Yes. I... I could tell he was. And now I just have this... haunting feeling that Wraith is dead...." The team stood silently for a moment.

                "What did he do after you refused?" Tanya finally asked.

                "He got mad. I told him if he dared to try anything I'd set off every alarm in the place. Then he just teleported out." Zelda replied.

                "You don't look too happy about this..." Quacker Jax started.

                "Oh no, I'm relieved. One less Saurian to take care of." Zelda said quickly.

                "Well this is an interesting development." Grin said.

                "And there's the matter of how Draggy got in." Tanya said, sitting down at Drake 1. "Maybe there's a glitch in the teleportation shield... I'll check it out."

                "Good." said Wildwing. "Maybe we should get ready for practice." He started heading to the door, and was about to walk out when it suddenly flew open, to reveal Dragaunus and his henchmen. The huge red lizard was holding some kind of a gas gun. On his right, was no one else than Wraith! And looking in perfect health!

                "You're not going anywhere!" Dragaunus snarled, stepping quickly into the room as Wildwing backed away. Zelda's jaw hung open in horror.

                "Oh yes you little traitor." Wraith grinned. "I'm alive. And I'm surprised at you. You refused to help your own ancestor. But I had just enough strength left to whisper a spell of salvation. Something to draw that disease from my body and restore me. And so I live, no thanks to you." Dragaunus patted a canister on the back of his gun comfortably. Zelda growled loudly.

                "Don't be a fool dragon, you know your crime. You're a traitor to your own kind!"

                "By not saving the life of my enemy? Guess again, Lizard Lips," Zelda bit back. Dragaunus just smiled.

                "Very well then," he said. Quickly, he mounted the gun on his shoulder. But the team saw it coming, and quickly started to fire. Dragaunus ducked and rolled to the side, allowing his henchmen to step forwards and take the fight. He stood again. Wildwing spun around and fired at him. He dodged, laughed, and cloaked himself. Wildwing activated his Mask, when he suddenly felt something smash into his stomach. Siege slammed him aside with his tail club, knocking him away. Quacker Jax stepped immediately over the fallen duck, bringing up a ball of energy in his hands to hold Siege off until Wing could get up again.

               

                Zelda looked about in the flurry of fighting, trying to find an opportunistic spot to jump in. Suddenly, Dragaunus uncloaked himself right in front of her! She leapt back in alarm and tried to run, but he whipped out with his tail, catching her and knocking her to the ground. Dragaunus quickly cloaked himself, reshouldered the gun, and fired.

               

                Mallory spun around as a concentrated cloud of red gas erupted in a corner of the room. Something green glowed from the inside, and then faded quickly. As Mallory wasn't looking, Chameleon smacked her hard in the back with the butt of his laser. As she fell to the ground, she saw a green shadow thrown up behind her. The Saurians were gone. As the team got up, a few ran over to the dissipating gas cloud.

                "Zelda?" Duke called, halting about 10 feet away. Suddenly, Zelda stumbled out of the fading cloud, trailing wisps of red gas behind her. She collapsed a few feet away, coughing and wheezing. Wildwing ran to her and kneeled beside her, lifting her head up.

                "You okay?" he asked. Zelda coughed.

                "Yeah... yeah I think so." she choked, squinting her eyes. She tried to roll up but stumbled again.

                "Maybe we should get her to the infirmary." Tanya suggested. Wildwing nodded and scooped her up.

                "Let's go."

               

                Zelda sat up on the Medicom bed, looking alertly on as Tanya read the data being printed out from the computer.

                "Hmm, funny." Tanya said, scratching her head.

                "What is it?" asked Quacker Jax.

                "Well, according to the Medicom, that gas was a mixture of freon and red dye," Tanya said.

                "Of what?" Nosedive asked.

                "Harmless stuff." Tanya said with a sigh.

                "I told you I feel fine!" Zelda said.

                "So what was that whole attack bid for?" Duke asked. Zelda shrugged.

                "Maybe to put me on a guilt trip?" Zelda suggested.

                "But that doesn't make any sense, it's too much trouble." Wildwing argued.

                "Ahh, Saurians." Nosedive shrugged. "Can we ever figure out how their crazy little minds work?"

                So the team went on with their normal day, fading again into a normal night, and again into a normal sleep. All the time they pondered the events of the day, to come to no real conclusion. Zelda snuggled down into her hammock that night feeling completely normal, and so the team went to sleep.

               

                Wildwing yawned and blinked himself awake. 7:30. It was late enough for him. He rolled quickly out of his bunk and shook himself thoroughly. Now he was up. He stretched his arms.

                "Hey Zel, wake up." he called. She snorted in response. "Come on." He grinned. "Still woozy from the action yesterday 'eh?" He went over and looked at her. She lay tightly curled up, with a moss blanket over her head. He lifted the blanket off gently. Zelda whined and curled up tighter. "What's wrong Zel?" he asked, more serious now. He shook her on the shoulder, but quickly withdrew his hand. "Jeez, you're burning up!" he said. Zelda opened her eyes and whined again. "Come on," he said, scooping her up. "Let's get you off to the infirmary."

               

                "I don't believe this!" Tanya said, reading the data feedout. "That 'gas' seems to have developed into some kind of a disease... it's like nothing I've ever seen before. But Zelda's got a 105 temperature!" Wildwing cocked his head.

                "So what do we do now?" Mallory asked. Wildwing went forwards to pet Zelda, but Tanya suddenly stopped him, grabbing him by the arm.

                "Don't you dare! That disease is becoming more and more contagious by the minute. Touch her and you may get it too!"

                "Well how are we not going to get contaminated?" Nosedive asked in alarm, jumping behind Grin for protection. Tanya went over to a panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons. In one corner, two panels of thick glass, one with a sort of a door, the other with a pair of white gloves glued sticking inwards, rose up from the floor and sealed on the ceiling. A vent opened up in the ceiling as well.

                "We put her in a clean room," Tanya said simply. "It's designed so air can only flow in, not out. We can feed her and everything with no risk."

                "Perfect." said Wildwing. "But now to get her in..."

                Quacker Jax raised his hands and waved them about, uttering something to himself. Suddenly, a transparent blue ball of light formed around Zelda.

                "That should do it," he said. "You can touch her now." Wildwing nodded and picked her up.

                "Don't worry Zel, you're going to be fine." he assured, as he carried her over and slipped her through the small door. Nosedive brought over her moss blanket and dropped it on the floor. Wildwing placed it beside Zelda, shutting the door behind him. Zelda blinked drowsily and dragged the blanket over her.

                "Thanks." she whispered.

                "You get some sleep." Mallory ordered gently. Zelda smiled faintly and dragged the blanket over her head. The team stood up quietly and walked out to let her rest.

                "So what do we know about this thing?" Wildwing asked Tanya, who was sitting at Drake 1.

                "Well it's constantly changing. What was a harmless gas has now given Zelda a fever. I'm studying a sample of it, but there's almost no way to know what it'll do next."

                "Any antidote?" Duke asked.

                "I'll let you know when I find out." Tanya sighed. Grin cocked his head.

                "This is the disease Wraith had." he said.

                "How do you know?" asked Nosedive.

                "Because it's revenge. When Wraith said he got rid of the disease, Dragaunus somehow gave it to Zelda because she refused to help." Grin stated.

                "Yeah, Wraith said he used a spell to cure himself...." Quacker Jax started.

                "A spell you might know?" Wildwing asked.

                "Ah, I have to think." Quacker Jax replied, frustrated. He sat down and tried to remember. "There are hundreds of thousands of spells out there, and many kinds of magic and healing... Wraith could have used anything... I just have to find it... has anyone seen my spellbook? Nosedive, if you used it for a coaster again I'll..."

                The duck wizard didn't bother to finish his sentence. He simply got up and growled in frustration. "I need the raccoon for this one!" he declared.  "Now where is that two-toned rainbow?"

                "What can Majzq do in this situation?" Nosedive asked.

                Quacker Jax slapped a hand on his forehead.                 "Hello! Are all the lights out in there or just some?! The guy can make painkillers out of Cherry Cola! And right now, Zelda needs it, cuz she's suffering big-time!"

                He got up and stormed out of the room, not bothering to look back at any of the other ducks. He had an angry scowl on his face. Nosedive crossed his arms.          

                "Hmph! Somebody's cranky today!"

                "It's alright Nosedive," said Tanya. "He just gets irritable when he's especially worried about something."

                "Doesn't help that he stayed up until midnight last night so he could coat me with silly string," Nosedive snorted.

                "Hey, these kind of things get him really stressed out! I am pretty sure that I know my own boyfriend!" Tanya shot back.

                "Oh yeah? Well I dunno what he sees in you anyway!"

                "Stop this petty argument now!" Wildwing ordered. "Look, this whole situation has us totally freaked out. I think we need to go our separate ways for today, to cool off."

                "Yeah, besides, how are QJ and Tanya supposed to find somethin' for Zelda's virus if we don't let 'em concentrate eh?" said Duke.

                The ducks separated and went their own ways for that day.

               

                Quacker Jax sat down in his room and called up Majzq on his com. Within seconds, the static gave way to the face of a raccoon.

                "Hello, you've reached 1-800-RACCOON," Majzq said from the other side. "This is the one-and-only Majzq Fleetpaw speaking."

                "Can it with the smartass introduction," the duck ordered.

                "Whoa, you sound mad. Somethin' wrong?"

                "Somethin' wrong? Oh yes, QUITE WRONG!!!"

                "What is it?"

                "Zelda's... oh God, I don't even know what she's got, but she has some weird virus and it's killing her! Had you been here last night instead of out partying, you would have known that Dragaunus and his flunkies got in! Then Dragaunus sprayed her with this weird gas crud, and a little later, she was feverish, hot to the touch even."

                "You need help?" Majzq asked.

                "That's the whole reason I called you, M-Coon. Now get your striped behind home! The longer we wait, the worse she gets!"

                Quacker Jax shut off his com and banged the top of his desk. He got up and looked underneath his bed, where he found his super-thick spellbook. He flung open the pages and started looking for any sort of healing spell, if not something that could cure her, at least deter the pain or keep her temperature from rising any more.

               

                He heard a knock on the outside of his bedroom door. He sighed in aggravation and rolled his eyes.                               

                "Come in." he said. The door slid open, and Tanya walked into the room. Quacker Jax, who could usually just see Tanya and cheer up, didn't even bother to move his eyes from the tome. He was almost in a trance.

                "Hey boy," she greeted. "I know what you're doing. Can I help?" Without looking over at her, QJ answered.

                "Right now Tanya, I can use all the help I can get. So can Zelda." Tanya knelt down next to the sorcerer duck and kissed him on the cheek.

                "It'll be alright," she assured him. "Let's go to the lab and work on this thing together."

                "Go ahead," said Quacker Jax. "I'll meet you there in a minute." Tanya nodded and got up, walking out of the room.

               

                Majzq ran into the Ready Room, where Nosedive was sitting at Drake 1 playing Duke Nukem 3D, Grin was meditating, and Wildwing was looking at a set of blueprints Tanya had drawn up for something or other.

                Wildwing looked up at the 5'9" raccoon and glared.

                "Where in the HELL have you been???!!!" he demanded.

                "Screw you Wildwing, I don't need your authoritarian bullcrap right now!" Majzq snapped. "Where's Zelda?"

                "She's in the infirmary." Nosedive said, without removing his attention from the video game. He pointed with one hand and played with the other.

                "Thanks Dive. I'm glad SOME of us wanna be useful around here!" Majzq glared at Wildwing for a second before running up to the infirmary.

               

                Majzq walked into the infirmary in a worried state. He saw, encased in a glass pod, Zelda the dragon, sleeping silently with her moss blanket laying on top of her. He went up to get a closer look.

                This is what scared him.

                Sweat was pouring down her face, dripping into her nostrils and eyes but still not stirring her. Her chest heaved with every breath. She grimaced every couple of seconds. The raccoon could have sworn that her normally purple scales were now a shade of purplish-brown! The very sight of Zelda in so much pain was excruciating.

                "Good God," he whispered to himself. "Quacker Jax was right, this requires immediate attention!" Majzq flung the infirmary door open and ran out. "Alright," he said to himself, "QJ's in love with Tanya, right? And they're both really smart, geniuses actually. They'd both rather die than see one of their pals hurt. That would mean that they're both working on something for Zelda, and they're probably doing this in..." Majzq stomped down the stairs that led into the Pond's main hallway, "... the lab!"

               

                Quacker Jax pounded his feet as he sprinted down the hallway, grimoire in one hand, long brown hair flailing, the spherical golden bells on his red jester hat jingling as they bounced. He turned the corner and felt his beak smash up as he bumped into something and fell. The spellbook went flying and banged into a wall, then fell to the floor. As Quacker Jax rubbed the front of his beak, he opened his eyes and saw the shorter Majzq grimacing with a hand on his forehead.

                "Ow!" Majzq yelled. "That hurt!"

                "Then watch where you're going you mutant loser!" QJ shot back.

                "I'm going to the lab to help your girlfriend, I dunno where you thought you were going!" said Majzq.

                "I was going to the lab too!" Quacker Jax said.

                "Then get that Cameroonian dictionary, and let's go!" ordered Majzq.

                "Fine!" the duck yelled, getting right in Majzq's face.

                "Fine!" the raccoon snapped.

                "Fine!" Quacker Jax retorted.

                "Fine!" Majzq challenged.

                "Fine!" they finished simultaneously.

                Quacker Jax and Majzq got up, and QJ picked up his spellbook. They walked to the laboratory and Quacker Jax punched in a code. The metallic doors slid open to reveal Tanya sitting at a microscope. She looked up.

                "Come on in guys, we need to uh, get cracking!" she said.

                "Hey Taunny," said Quacker Jax. He walked over and kissed her briefly before sitting down and flipping open his spellbook. Majzq reached into his pocket and produced...

                "A cherry cola?" asked Tanya.

                "Yep. I saw Zelda, and lemme tell you, she's in terrible shape. I gotta get cracking on some painkillers, cuz she's suffering. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to use your chemistry set, as well as a couple of chemicals and stuff from the rack." Majzq pointed to a wooden plank, nailed to the wall, that had vials and bottles and beakers upon beakers resting.

                "Go ahead, use whatever you need." said Tanya, peering back into the microscope. "Do whatever it takes to keep her alive."

                "I can't bear the thought of losing Zelda." said Quacker Jax. He  clenched his teeth and growled. "Dragaunus! That hell-spawned Gila monster is gonna pay for this!"

                "Don't worry QJ, we'll get Big Red," Majzq assured.

                "But right now, we need to concentrate on finding out what it is that Zelda has, and getting rid of it," said Tanya.

                "Right." said Quacker Jax as he flipped a page.

                "Hey Tanya, Quacker said that Dragaunus sprayed Zelda with some weird gassy junk. What was it made of?"

                "Uh, just freon and red dye." Tanya answered. Majzq looked up.

                "Freon and red dye? That stuff is harmless." the raccoon said.

                "But you saw her! She's totally sick!" said Tanya.

                "There must be something else in that gas, because those two substances can't do a damn thing to you," said Quacker Jax. "Tanya, trying magnifying that image a little bit more."

                "Right." Tanya made the microscope image bigger and slightly blurrier. She still saw nothing. "Quacker, freon and red dye are the only chemicals I'm seeing here."

                "Tsssss..." Quacker Jax sighed. "I dunno what Draggy did to make that stuff so lethal, but I'm starting to wish that Zelda HAD helped Wraith after all."

                "What about your rule Quacker Jax?" asked Majzq. "You know, the one where anybody affiliated with the Saurians dies by your hand?"

                "The hell with my rule! If she had cured Wraith, she wouldn't be..."  The duck stopped in mid-sentence as his eyes graced a set of symbols that would have been uninterpretable by any other duck. "Wait a second. Tanya, did Wraith say he drew that disease from his body with a spell?"

                "Um, yeah. Why?" asked Tanya.

                "Because, it says here that all things brought about by magic can be destroyed the same way. All I have to do is figure out what it is that Wraith used on himself, and Zelda's as good as saved!"

                "Seriously?" asked Majzq. He got a beaker to catch the results of his Cherry Cola experiment. He slammed a cork in the mouth.

                "Yes, seriously. But before I do that I need to figure out WHY this mixture of freon and dye is so deadly."

                "Maybe it reacts to a dragon's blood sugar." Tanya suggested.

                "Naw, can't be," said Quacker Jax. "Me and Zelda nailed Dive with some red silly string a week ago. That has red dye in it."

                "And as revenge, I recall that he shoved it down both of your throats the next day." Majzq noted.

                "Very good." Quacker Jax said through clenched teeth. "I'm glad you remember. You see, if red dye did have a bad mixture with dragons, Zelda would have thrown up or something after she was forced to--" the wizard duck shuddered, "eat it."

                "By the way, how did that taste?" asked Majzq.

                "I'll deal with you later, inferior mortal." said QJ. He looked at Tanya. "Mind if I have a look at that slide?"

                "Sure, go ahead." said Tanya. She got up and moved as Quacker Jax sat down at the chair and peered into the microscope.

                "Just red dye and freon. It's true," said Quacker Jax. He looked down and sighed. But then the word "true" rang something in his mind. "True... true...true." he repeated.

                "Quacker Jax, you are really starting to freak me out." said Majzq.

                "Silence Majzq, I need to find something. Zelda's life may depend on it!" Quacker Jax got up and looked through his spellbook until he came to a page about halfway through the book. "There it is!" he exclaimed, pointing at a page full of ancient symbols.

                "What did you find?" asked Tayna.

                "A spell I haven't used in a couple of years." said Quacker Jax.

                Majzq made motions with his hands. "And that would be..."

                "Truesight!" he declared. His eyes were flung wide open, and he had a huge smile on his face.

                "What does that do?" asked Tanya.

                "Truesight! It eats cloaking devices and illusion spells for breakfast! This is the break we've been looking for!"

                "So basically, it does the same thing as Wildwing's Mask." the raccoon said.

                "Excellent guess!" Quacker Jax declared. He grinned at the ceiling and threw his elbows back.

                "Jeez dude, you look like you just got some from Tanya. Ow!"

                Majzq held the side of his muzzle after Tanya slapped him. She glared at him, hands on her hips.

                QJ did a quick incantation that only he understood, and a pair of green charges appeared on each forefinger. He closed and pressed on his eyelids, and when they opened again, his irises and pupils and whites had disappeared. His eyes were glowing a bright fluorescent green.

                "Holy crap!" Majzq exclaimed. Tanya shrieked.

                "Chill you two, this is just part of the spell." the green-eyed mage assured. He sat back down at the microscope and looked into it.

                What he saw was totally different than before.

                "Well, see anything?" asked Majzq, holding the now-fainted Tanya.

                "I don't know how he did it, but one thing's for damn sure, and that is he did it." said Quacker Jax.

                "What in the HELL are you TALKING about?" Majzq demanded.

                "Wraith somehow managed to cast an illusion spell on about 33% of the molecules in that cloud."

                "So it's not freon and red dye?"

                Quacker Jax's voice started to tremble uncontrollably. "No, there's  freon and red dye in there. TO GO ALONG WITH INFLUENZA, A FEVER, LEUKEMIA, PNEUMONIA, POLIO, SICKLE-CELL ANEMIA, AND A TOUCH OF THE BLACK PLAGUE!!!!!!!!"

                "You know EVERYTHING that's IN THERE?!" Majzq screamed.

                "As a red mage, I'm trained in both black magic AND the healing arts. Which means being able to know a virus when I see one! And--" The trembling started again. Tears formed in both eyes. "What I know is that Zelda has some of the most deadly diseases ever known, and she has them all at the same time. It's amazing that Zelda's still alive."

                Majzq sat down next to Tanya's unconscious form and stared at the ground. He was beginning to cry too.                    

                "Can you save her?" he whispered. QJ was practically gagging on his own Adam's apple.

                "I don't know," he blubbered. "I seriously don't know." He wiped the tears out of his eyes and sniffed. He gulped. "But I'm gonna give it my best shot!" Majzq sat down next to Quacker Jax and said,

                "I wanna help. Zelda is as much my friend as she is yours."

                "Good. Get those painkillers of yours ready. I think we should go pay a little visit to Zelda and break the news."

 

To be continued....