As Derek lead Steelbeak to the jail, Steelbeak got his first look at the Waste of St. Canard

The Waste lay silent and people with the corpses of houses and the ruins of bones, grey and brown and dead.

"What’s that?"

"The East Garden." Derek responded sarcastically.

Skittering through this maze of death and clutter a motorcycle gunned loudly.

A strange thin suburbanite woman on a motorcycle drove into the shelter and veneer of civilization. The only inhabited camp for miles. Steelbeak was shocked at the sight of her. She must be little Mrs. Homemaker in his world.

"Don’t go anywhere." Derek said, poking him in the stomach

"I was thinking about heading down to do some early Christmas shopping."

Derek shrugged him off. He remembered that every time a person would punch him in the face they’d break their hand.

Derek wasn’t planning to see any clansmen today. The bike approached. It was Binkie of Muddlefoot, one of the lesser Muddlefoots got off her hog and threw down her side arm. The ultimate symbol of truce. He knew in the clan structure, Binkie was second only to Herb and then the Leader. She had a grudging respect for Derek, only cause he was considered the third highest official of FOWL, in the Muddlefoot clan’s strange system.

"Hello Binkie."

"Where is Big Jack?" she said, nearly storming past him. This was not normal Muddlefoot behavior. Despite everything indicated they did have decorum. Binkie wouldn’t dream of overstepping herself and possibly insulting higher level FOWL leaders. She always talked to Derek first, and Derek would give the message to Big Jack.

"He’s busy."

"I can’t be talking to you today. I’m not wasting my time on a third. This is too bad, too bad. I’ve got to go find the Big Man." Binkie said hysterically

"I thought only the Leader could talk to Jack." Derek wondered aloud.

"If you don’t get me in to see Jack now, I am the new Leader. And if I have to lose my own real boy to do it, the FOWL never talk to the Muddlefoot again. Outta my way."

Derek moved back startled "I’ll take you in."

Binkie didn’t sit down in the chair. She crossed her arms and stared. Derek sat in her chair.

"I’m coming to talk to Big Jack, on account I am leader of the Muddlefoots now, but not really. I need help from the Fowls." She said.

"What kind of help? We gave you guns only last week." Jack knew how to dealt with the Muddlefoots, indulge them, appease them. Make them less violent.

"It’s not the guns Big Jack. We still are using the guns. It’s bad, It’s bad… It’s badder than that." Binkie held her head

"What is wrong?"

"Honker was kidnapped." She said softly, and began to cry.

"Honker?" Derek said.

"That’s the Leaders name." Big Jack responded.

Derek laughed at that. The Leader of the Muddlefoots with such a silly timid name.

"I’m no leader. I ain’t got no brains. Herb thought he could do it, but he gots less than I do. Honker, he’s little but he’s the brains. He knows stuff. I always thought he was a strange kid. He was smart, real smart, he can find us water, and he knows how to plan for the turf wars with the Crabapples. The clans think so big of him. I can remember when he was just a baby."

It was hard to imagine The Leader as anything but the king of the Muddlefoots. They followed him, cowed by his temper and ability to manipulate people. Big Jack was the only one he ever talked to out of all of FOWL. Every time that they did, the Muddlefoots gained some new land or some new shipment of food. He was at least a persuasive little jerk.

Steelbeak sighed.

He hated being dirty.

His white suit was spattered with GryzliCop blood, his pants were covered in some in indescribable dust. And there was actually thin film of grime had collected on his feathers. Didn’t these people have showers in this place? No. They didn’t have anything. He hated poor people.

He sighed. This wasn’t an impossible situation to escape. One guard, steel bars, on the windows, your standard cell. He had been in worse jams. It would probably take him four seconds to break out.

But to what? St. Canard was a desert. He wouldn’t make it twenty feet without water and supplies. He would have to think out a very careful plan to escape. He laid back on the bed, tried as heck and yawned. Taking out some cigarettes. He really needed a smoke.

There was a presence at the door the cell opened.

The Bushroot like guy, Bane entered the cell. As Steelbeak smoked, he realized that Bane was much younger than Bushroot, much in the same way Derek seemed younger and stronger than he was. It made no sense. If this was the real Negaverse, wouldn’t they be the same age? If Derek and Bane were younger this would mean he really wasn’t in the Negaverse. He didn’t want to think about it. It made his head hurt.

Bane said in a loud voice, his greedy pink eyes swirling behind his sunglasses

"It is illegal to smoke in here."

"So arrest me, whoops. Already did." Steelbeak took another quick puff and blew a smoke ring in the air, which broke as it hit Bane in the face.

Bane smelled the smoke.

"All right, here is the deal, Evil Derek. I’ll give you 10 bucks for the rest of that stoge." He held up a ten-dollar bill.

"I don’t know I might be here a long time. Besides I don’t like sharing." Steelbeak shrugged.

Bane sighed.

"50 bucks for a new one?"

"Solid." He handed him the cigarette. Bane handed him the cash. He held the cigarette in his mouth.

"Light?" Steelbeak chuckled. Bane smacked himself in the head

"How much?"

"10 seems fair."

Bane growled and handed him the cash. Steelbeak lit the cigarette.

"Aren’t you worried you’ll set yourself on fire?" Steelbeak asked the Plant duck.

Bane took a long drag.

"Yeah. Good old friend, Americanus Tobaccus. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I even tried smoking my root clippings."

They sat in silence.

"Thanks, Steelbeak." Bane laughed at that.

"Eh Fuhget about it, Dr. Bushroot."

"Dr. Bushroot?" Bane laughed at that idea.

They both took another drag

"You’re so not him." They said at the same time.

"Who?" they said again.

Bane lifted his head "Derek. He never thinks about money. He certainly would sell his stoges. Not that he smokes or drinks or anything at all. He’s Mr. Goody Two Shoes."

"Now that is just weird."

"Hey pal, it’s a given in the Negaverse. Don’t like it, you can go back to Paradise."

"I mean if you were really him, and there was an evil enemy agent in the camp, you’d start whining, and trembling and wanting a new friend, or something. Not bum stoges off of him and threaten him with a 9mm."

Bane smiled "Nice doesn’t work. Especially when I have to defeat the forces of Negaduck by myself. Derek is getting old, he’s good but I don’t think he can handle the stress. You saw how he cracked up over GryzliCop. I don’t think we can trust him anymore. Captain Megawatt has been off line since the Bomb and Big Jack doesn’t have any powers anyway. But I don’t get old, and I got flower power kid."

The smoke rose so Bane beat it down, away from the smoke detector with his right leaf.

"It was when Derek came that everything changed. Derek fresh out of the Waste, dear little Derek. We all assumed he was deaf at first. We didn’t realize he was just protecting himself. I guess having your eye drilled out of your head makes you a little unfriendly."

Steelbeak winced at the gruesome description.

"Turned out that guy could really fight. I was amazed. So we were rescuing Captain Megawatt again. And after we got Daddy out of prison, Jack was just standing there. And he whispered something about Dolly or someone. He looked at each one of us, really closely, as if he’s never seen us before. And he took off his jester mask and says ‘We should start over.’"

Steelbeak blinked

"Wait you’re telling me that guy is…You mean that guy is QUACKER JACK?"

"Can you even compare them? We don’t even think that name now. He changed that day. And it was Derek that did it. We couldn't just call our selves the Friendly Four. It was going to take more than a bunch of Darkwing wannabees to stop the will of Negaduck, to Stop SHUSH from conquering Old Canard. We needed to get organized. So we get ourselves a few clans to send us operatives. Before you knew it we got a Federation of World Liberation. We didn’t even realize it was a clever name until we wrote our constitution. It worked. I mean we all we of the avian persuasion, except Sparques and no one knows what he is. The name stuck."

"So that is how Derek became an agent of FOWL." Steelbeak said frustrated "How come my opposite has to be such a big putz? Working for the wrong side. Probably doesn’t even get paid good."

"Oh trust me, Steelbeak" Bane gritted his teeth "We don’t get paid at all."

Bane was obviously bitter about that.

"Not that money means anything on the Waste. Not a lot of 24-hour convenience stores now that 93.9% of the population died off."

"So SHUSH is like all the smart guys?"

"One smart girl Dolittle. SHUSH normally recruits the vicious. GryzliCop, NecroDuk, Stegmatron. Real lovelies that crew. They still have the powers they did when they were alive."

"Only what…"

"They aren’t no more."

"That might cost you another stoge." He cupped his leaf.

Steelbeak handed him the pack, knowing this was going to be a long story.

"Agent 3. I trust you are ready for your next assignment."

"What about Steelbeak? Am I just supposed to stick him in some meat locker?"

"Bane and Agent 7 will be taking care of him."

"Great he and Chad can swap fashion tips. ‘Oh what lapels can I wear with this suit.’ Joik. I don’t like leaving him alone."

"We wouldn’t have had this-"

"Jack you are too intelligent to waste your time with "I told you so"."

"I need another man inside of SHUSH. A one man mission. The objective is very simple."

"I don’t like that term. It usually involves me and some death machine that is going to kill me."

"Search and Rescue, Canardberg border."

"Who are we going to rescue? It isn’t like you to turn altruistic, Jack."

"Honker Muddlefoot"

Derek laughed.

"I think at this rate SHUSH would need to be saved from him. Why would Canardberg bother with him?"

"He is an extraordinary young man. Too extraordinary."

"So he’s young. When you’re starving you grow up fast."

"He’s not just hard lived. Why do you think there is anything at all in the Suburbs? After the wall went up after the plague most of the suburban population died from exposure and starvation. Heck even the Muddlefoots were down to under ten. They were starving, brutal angry. Then Binkie had kids, Honker and Tank, and everything started to change."

Derek picked up the dossier, it was a badly shot Polaroid.. Honker "playing" with his brother, holding him in a headlock. Pictures of him on his first motor bike. His brother looked strangely familiar. The low brow, the glasses

"Agent 5 is the Leader’s brother?"

"He will be accompanying you to the complex. I don’t think we should try to stop him on this one. He is adamant."

"Why all this trouble? It is just Muddlefoot business. They’ll live on."

"Binkie and Herb cannot manage their son’s Empire. They won’t be able to find food or shelter. Our whole alliance will collapse."

"We can take back Old Canard then. Without the Muddlefoots to contend with we can clean up the suburbs. No more clan wars, no more crime."

"No more people. The clans do serve a purpose, Derek. We are only as strong as our alliances. We are a Federation."

"They’ll live through it." Derek said.

"Agent 3, do want to know why I chose you for this assignment? Not Sparques or Bane or anyone else. Do you want to know why?"

"No."

"Because I knew you’d take this personally."

Derek fumed "He’s a Muddlefoot. He is the guy who always sends bikers after us. He is the guy who always gets on our back whenever we do make headway with SHUSH."
"Derek, he is a human being."

"I can’t say I agree with that. You seen what he did to some of our best agents."

" It’s a war to stay alive here, you of all people should know that. He still sees us as the enemy. I haven’t been busting my chops all these years talking with him, just so that he can continue hating us."

"What is the big deal? You want some bleeding heart, call Sparques. I am not in the mood-"

"Derek you are going on this mission."

"I can always resign."

"You are going on this mission."

"Why?"

Jack sat down

"Because if you don’t they are going to send that poor kid to the Re-Education Center."

Steelbeak sat in the cell with Bane smoking.

"Hello old chaps. Can I come in for a bit a chatter?" a strange piping little British voice said.

"Oh no it’s Daddy." Bane put out the cigarette and waved his leaf around frantically to get rid of the smoke. He panicked and ended up shoving the cigarette ash first in Steelbeak’s mouth. He spat it out. Good thing most of his taste buds were destroyed.

"See I told you? You shouldn’t smoke in here." Bane said strangely.

"Right." Steelbeak wiped the ash of his tongue.

Professor Sparques entered the room. Steelbeak could almost see a halo over his head. He smiled and looked at the strange little man in a Darkwing size purple fedora.

"Bane is right. Smoking is detrimental to your lungs. Detrimental, just detrimental."

"Hi Daddy." Bane said.

"Megavolt? Steelbeak wished that he still had his cigarette. The surprises were going to kill him eventually "When is Megavolt your dad?"

"Hello Bane. How is the research going?"

"Just fine, Daddy."

"They’re ghoulish enslavement of those poor men will never cease. Hmm." Sparque’s voice dipped.

"Yes Bane I’ve come across a right clever little foible in the Stegmatron’s design, a chink in the old armor if you will. Now I want you to remind me to talk to Jack about this. I’m afraid I’ve gone a bit dotty."

But it couldn’t be him… Megavolt wasn’t British, was he?

"Hello, and you must be the enchanting Mr. Boo."

"Will youse just call me Steelbeak? Geesh. Is everybody crazy in this world?"

"Yes quite." He pulled Bane aside "Poor waste rat is suffering delusions, I take it." He made the swirly crazy motion.

"What if he’s telling the truth Daddy?"

"Hmm. I doubt that is necessary these days. Every fourth wastrel we pick up claims to be from the Paradise. Besides he doesn’t take me as an evil chap. He seems quite fine to me. Aside from the annoying accent."

Steelbeak rolled his eyes. "Look whose talking?"

"Now I am going to be in the room with all of the things and the rot and the... the... things."

"The Library?" Bane commented as if it was the only place in the world it could be.

"Quite right. Well Cheerio then."

"Froot loops to you to." Steelbeak said.

Steelbeak stared at Bane.

"Okay, I can accept some things. But how is Megavolt your dad?" Steelbeak shrieked.

"He’s not my real dad. I just call him that. He likes to think of me as his son sometimes. Poor old guy never could find a woman."

"Hmm."

"My Dad died when Drake Mallard dropped the neutron bomb. Everyone in my family was wiped out, except me."

Steelbeak was shocked he wasn’t bawling his eyes out by now.

"I mean Sparques did give me my powers. I guess he is my Daddy if you will."

"That is a pretty liberal interpretation of the word."

"He did educate me. You’d never guess it but he does get a little brilliant now and again. If he wants me to call him daddy, I got no problem with that."

Bane unrolled the blueprint and read the schematic.

"Look at that. Looks like Daddy found a way to circumvent the bivalve of the lower quadrantory piston. And the poor guy can’t even remember to match his socks." Bane rolled up the blueprint.

"What are dese things? Dey look like robots."

"Hum. Look like robots technical schematics. Let me see they are fish yes. Fish." Bane twisted his eyes "They are the Necrobots. What do you think we’ve been talking about?"

"Didn’t Derek killed that guy?"

"That one. GryzliCop was only one. And they might bring him back yet unless Derek did his job this time and took out the bear’s damn spinal chord. I’ve tried to shoot him 17 times." Bane held up his gun.

"Whoa put dat thing down?" Steelbeak ducked.

"Come on it’s just a gun. Oh look at me scared of a gun." Bane mocked him.

"Just not in your hands. I’m not used to worry about getting shot by a six foot tall ficus."

"Nyceum Lycanthropus, more like a fern."

"My bad. Why do you have a gun?"

"What am I going to do hit someone with flower petals? Goff. You get a 9 millimeter in your hand and talk to me about power."

"Don’t you have any powers? I mean Bushroot, he like could get like all the trees and stuff to like beat people up. Can’t you do that?"

"I’ve never seen two trees together. It’d be wigged out though." Fake aiming his gun.

Bane pocketed his gun.

"I’m heading out to do more research on the Old Morgue. Chad will be here any minute."

Steelbeak sat on the bed.

"I’m friggin beat anyway."

"Catch you around metal mouth." Bane waved and walked out of the cell.

Derek fell down in his chair. Jack leaned forward.

Jack let it sink in.

"Are you lying to me?"

Jack stared at him "You can ask me this?"

Derek turned around

"I sometimes wonder if I should have told that to ya."

"Derek, you might think of him as just another brainless idiot barbarian. But that boy is going to help us save the world. I knew it from the first time we met. They said he was young and short. It was after we started FOWL. I had ran into him once before. He almost killed Darkwing Duck by himself. I was ready to run, I mean really. He was a sick little puppy. But it was too late. He saw me. I nearly got brown in the pants, let me tell ya." Jack got a look in his eye.

"He recognized me. Without the motley. He just took a long look at me. He asked me why I wasn’t crazy anymore. Just out of the blue. I said I got over it, cause I had a job to do. He laughed at that. I mean I was so scared. This little tiny thirteen year-old kid had me scared. What’s more everyone around him was scared. His laugh went so much deeper then. The Muddlefoots around him began to laugh not even sure what they were laughing at. He asked me what job do I have to do. I told him, to get rid of Negaduck and protect old Canard from SHUSH. He nodded and left. Saying the water here was for Jack’s clan, the FOWLs. We dug there, three days later. The sensors hadn’t picked it up, but he did. It was rich with 500 gallons of water."

Derek wasn’t keen on hearing this story. "What about the de-education?"

"I know he’s smarter than me, Derek. And he’s messed with our minds so many times I can’t even count. I’m not even sure you can measure this kind of genius. It’s not the kind of thing you can measure IQ 167 or something. His brain is just completely different."

"So you’re saying he’s smarter than us. He don’t act it."

"He couldn’t. You knew how badly you were held back by your lack of education, he’s had less. He is a child of the Waste, no books, and no teachers. All he needs is a gun and a canteen to survive. I wouldn’t say you are a slouch just because you can’t diagram a sentence."

"So he’s just smarter than me then?"

Jack rolled his eyes, and continued speaking.

"He is the new man. He grew up in this world. This is more his world. Not ours, not even Canardberg's. And we aren’t going to able to do shit without him."

"But you are not kidding me about the De-Education center."

Jack put in a VHS tape. "This is the last known recording of Honker of Muddlefoot"

The tape was very bad. His head was in darkness.

The tape skipped

"This is Honker, the leader of the Muddlefoots. To all FOWL allies and to my clan. When I was picking up the gun shipment for the yearly tributes from the School side of the Clan. I was kidnapped by two of the Necrobots. They took me back to this place. It is very boring here. I think that I can hold out for a few more days. I can read the title but it’s not really a word. Re-education or something. No such word, something like Tank used to make up, thinking it was a word that meant something. Because it’s like a word but changed.

They got needles they say they’d use’em on me, if I wasn’t good. I been making my eyes like I listen but I don’t. For all their machines they don’t know when I’m just yanking them. Nothing bad happening yet. But I don’t like it. Rescue me soon. If not Tank is the Leader till I get back. That is all I got to say."

Derek stopped for a second.

"I know this is going to be hard. But I know that you are the only person who knows what’s at stake here."

"Do they know what has happened with him? Do they know if they got the drugs into him?"

"He was placed into the 3^rd degree camp. He didn’t grow up in there so they have to make sure he’ll crack soon or he will be rescued. You know very well, that it won’t work after the age of 16. He’s borderline. If it doesn’t work they might just kill him."

"They might have killed him already."

Derek fell down in his chair. Jack leaned forward.

Jack let it sink in.

"Are you lying to me?"

Jack stared at him "You can ask me this?"

Derek turned around

"I sometimes wonder if I should have told that to ya."

"Derek, you might think of him as just another brainless idiot barbarian. But that boy is going to help us save the world. I knew it from the first time we met. They said he was young and short. It was after we started FOWL. I had ran into him once before. He almost killed Darkwing Duck by himself. I was ready to run, I mean really. He was a sick little puppy. But it was too late. He saw me. I nearly got brown in the pants, let me tell ya." Jack got a look in his eye.

"He recognized me. Without the motley. He just took a long look at me. He asked me why I wasn’t crazy anymore. Just out of the blue. I said I got over it, cause I had a job to do. He laughed at that. I mean I was so scared. This little tiny thirteen year-old kid had me scared. What’s more everyone around him was scared. His laugh went so much deeper then. The Muddlefoots around him began to laugh not even sure what they were laughing at. He asked me what job do I have to do. I told him, to get rid of Negaduck and protect old Canard from SHUSH. He nodded and left. Saying the water here was for Jack’s clan, the FOWLs. We dug there three days later. The sensors hadn’t picked it up, but he did. It was rich with 500 gallons of water."

Derek wasn’t keen on hearing this story. "What about the de-education?"

"I know he’s smarter than me, Derek. And he’s messed with our minds so many times I can’t even count. I’m not even sure you can measure this kind of genius. It’s not the kind of thing you can measure IQ 167 or something. His brain is just completely different."

"So you’re saying he’s smarter than us. He don’t act it."

"He couldn’t. You knew how badly you were held back by your lack of education, he’s had less. He is a child of the Waste, no books, no teachers. All he needs is a gun and a canteen to survive. I wouldn’t say you are a slouch just because you can’t diagram a sentence."

"So he’s just smarter than me then?"

Jack rolled his eyes, and continued speaking.

"He is the new man. He grew up in this world. This is his world. Not ours, not even Canardberg's. And we aren’t going to able to do shit without him."

"But you are not kidding me about the De-Education center."

Jack put in a VHS tape. "This is the last known recording of Honker of Muddlefoot"

The tape was very bad. His head was in darkness.

The tape skipped

"This is Honker, the leader of the Muddlefoots. To all FOWL allies and to my clan. When I was picking up the gun shipment for the yearly tributes from the School side of the Clan. I was kidnapped by two of the Necrobots. They took me back to this place. It is very boring here. I think that I can hold out for a few more days. I can read the title but it’s not really a word. Re-education or something. No such word, something like Tank used to make up, thinking it was a word that meant something. Because it’s like a word but changed.

They got needles they say they’d use’em on me, if I wasn’t good. I been making my eyes like I listen but I don’t. For all their machines they don’t know when I’m just yanking them. Nothing bad happening yet. But I don’t like it. Rescue me soon. If not Tank is the Leader till I get back. That is all I got to say."

Derek stopped for a second.

"I know this is going to be hard. But I know that you are the only person who knows what’s at stake here."

"Do they know what has happened with him? Do they know if they got the drugs into him?"

"He was placed into the 3^rd degree camp. He didn’t grow up in there so they have to make sure he’ll crack soon or he will be rescued. You know very well, that it won’t work after the age of 16. He’s borderline. If it doesn’t work they might just kill him."

"They might have killed him already."

The agents gathered around the center of the HQ as Derek and Agent 5 went into the R&D. Big Jack was waiting. One of the foundations of the success of FOWL was how technologically innovative they were in weaponry. Jack had a facility for creative and almost amusing diversions and devices.

"Agent Boo. I’ve been planning a few tricks to get past the guards, that you might find most useful. Ever since the Orphanage incident, they’ve changed the facilities quite a bit. This at first glance appears to be a normal everyday canteen. Well if you twist the lid, it produces a sonic blast that will incapacitate the opener. They assume that it is standard FOWL issue cyanide, open it and fall to the ground. It will only work if one of you lets yourself get caught. It will be the diversion. You will also both be issued third generation Jack Hooks on your tools. These operate three times quieter than their predecessors did. Hopefully, if they have not equipped their new cameras with Nega-decibel sensors, you should be able to use them without any trouble."

"How’d ya fix the noise?"

"Try it out for yourself Agent 3." Jack handed him a hook.

"It’s got slime on it."

"It is a resin. Like the ones found in novelty slime, like you’d find in toy stores. Yet they won’t slip like normal lubricants. It’s most effective. Try it out."

Derek applied one to his hand tool, as did Agent 5 across the opposite wall. It didn’t tinkle or crash. It just stuck. Jack attached the end of the rope it was attached to, to a car fender.

"The resin can withstand pressures of 3000 pounds once airborne. The only vice is that you can’t pull them out unless you get half a gallon of warm dishwater. It melts with water. Who would have guessed our ultimate weapon would be washable?"

"This is marvelous, Sir, you’ve really outdone yourself" Agent 5 marveled. "Is this anything?"

"This is my newest invention." He displayed the strange rubber ball. Red and white striped. "The Whirly Gag 4000."

"The Whirly Gag 4000?" Derek asked.

"Give it a try." Big Jack tossed it to him over hand. Derek caught it.

He tossed it into the air, where immediately it began to shudder making a horrible deflating noise. It had a huge hole in it.

"Now look you broke it." Jack said. "It took me days to work on that prototype."

"I’m sorry, Big Jack. I didn’t mean to."

"Well maybe you can fix it." Agent 5 suggested

"It has a huge gaping hole in it." Derek panicked. "I’m sorry

"Come on. I demand that you fix it. Or you are off this mission."

"I-"

Big Jack pushed a button trigger. It turned back to normal.

"That’s the fourth time I got you Boo. I think you might be getting old."

Agent 5 laughed "Last time it was the Gagometric 300."

"It’s still fun to try out these things."

"Well thank you." Derek said tipping the brim of his hat.

The Agents came together in the center of the circular room, as the FOWL logo, a beaked androgyne figure holding up it’s fist flashed in holographic emitter. A wooden box with a latch rose out of the center.

As team leader Derek, flipped it open. There were slots that were only big enough to fit a single lollipop. There were slots for about 50, most of them were empty, save fifteen or so.

"What flavor?" he asked Agent Walnut.

"Do you got butterscotch?"

He let her take the yellow one out of the slot.

Steelbeak scratched his head "What’s up with the lollipops? It seems kind of oh I don’t know, not top priority."

Since all of the agents were occupied with the mission, they had to let Derek out of his cell, Bane kept his gun in his back.

Bane lowered his glasses "It’s a little joke Jack has. It’s quite funny." He unwrapped a lollipop. And put it in is mouth "When you bite into a lollipop it breaks a capsule in your third molar. Instant death, also sends us a little message. SHUSH thinks it’s in the lollipops. They confiscate warehouses full of lemon drops, chocolate bars, any kind of candy at all. All locked up in these warehouses. It is priceless, to see how much time they waste on chasing little kids they think are FOWL agents."

"Yeah a laugh riot. Killer candy." Steelbeak said.

Bane left it in his mouth "All you have to remember to do is not to bite down."

If you can believe it Steelbeak thought that this plant duck was even stranger than he imagined. "You are one sick puppy, Bane."

Bane laughed, "Care for one?" offering another red one

"No."

"You don’t got a capsule in there." Bane rolled his eyes.

It was quite red and seductive.

"Hey Cherry my fav. How did you know?"

Derek pocketed an equally red one. And closed the box. It slid beneath the floor.

Bane took the lollipop out of his mouth, and looked at it. Not the same rich red.

"Derek always chooses Cherry. Sometimes I think he will get caught one time just to see what it tastes like." And began sucking on it as the agents pick out their flavors.

Steelbeak unwrapped the deadly lollipop. Killer candy, a gutsy Bushroot, a sane well dressed Quacker Jack, a crazy despotic police state, Robot zombies, apocalyptic biker gangs; That’s the sorta-nega-verse for you and began eating the cherry lollipop, as he saw himself give out lollipops to his fellow agents.

Derek looked at Serena, dressed in her smellier clothes, greenish coveralls. Still pretty cute though. "I think I’d like apple. Ties in very poetically to the original sin, don’t you agree? The green of envy."

He motions her to get the green one.

She took it and hid it in her garter underneath her coveralls. If the border guards even smelled a lollipop on her, she was toast. Derek knew he shouldn’t stare.

Agent 5 stood very still for a second, fingering the canteen that he and Derek had fought over. Agent 5 wouldn’t let anyone take the risk of getting caught saving his brother. And Derek knew he was the only agent who could break into SHUSH’s computer.

"Do you got root beer?"

"No. I don’t think we do." Derek said coldly, snatching the canteen away from him.

"You know how I feel. He’s my brother."

"We need you. I’m not as important as you are 5. Besides how many years have I got out there anyway. How many licks does it take to get to the center? Heh. This isn’t one of your games, kid. Dese are some real sick puppies. I don’t got half the brains you do and look what they did to me"

"Do you have root beer?" Agent 5 glowered.

"No we don’t." Steelbeak didn’t even bat an eye.

"Derek! Let him have the canteen" Jack’s voice cut across the room.

Derek sighed and handed him a brown one. And the canteen

Agent 5 saluted.

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