Swooped | ✓

Prologue: Sitting Duck

You're probably wondering how I got into this situation. You know, tied up, in tight black and white kevlar with a bad case of moose knuckle, and with wings sprouting from my back. And trust me, I'll explain all of that soon. Promise. But we need to get something straight first.

This was not my idea.

If you honestly thought that I would want to be tied up by my feet, hanging from a rooftop like Chinese roast duck dangling from a hook, then clearly you're the birdbrained one, and not me. No, this was Milo's idea, and as I'm hanging here with my wings clipped I'm cursing him to tiny itty bitty pieces. I knew he could be kinky, but a guy who thinks it's cool for his boyfriend to get strung up like this by a superbly insane supervillain was definitely not boyfriend material.

"When I get out of this situation, I'm breaking up with you, Milo," I grunted, my words followed by a crackle of laughter in my ear. Oh, I was so breaking up with him after this. "Oh, shut up, you asshole. I've been hanging here for an hour already, how long does it take you guys to get your shit together? I'm a sitting duck out here!"

"Sitting duck," Geoff cackled, my friend's voice slightly obscured by what I assumed was his mask. His amusement made my feathers ruffle, straining against the chains that tried to restrain them. Tried being the operative word, because if I really wanted to, I could wrench them apart with my wings and be flying off into the sunset.

But no, that wasn't a part of Milo's stupid plan, which involved me being bait. A literal sitting duck. And I was getting impatient. All I wanted was to crash on my couch, smoke a joint and maybe snuggle with my boyfriend. Who would be my ex-boyfriend soon, if he didn't hurry up.

"Okay, are you in position?" Milo's voice spoke through my ear piece, monotonous yet gentle as always. 

"Of course I'm in position! I'm fucking tied up, here!" I grumbled, Milo huffing.

"Not you, Ducky," Milo said, and I could hear the smile in his voice as his tongue rolled over the stupid pet name. "I'm talking to Geoff and Nightingale."

"Code names, Nestlé!" Geoff groaned. "Why did you call Lark by her hero name, but you just called me Geoff!"

"I'll call you by your code name if you stop calling me Nestlé," Milo said coolly.

"Well, sorr-y if your name is a fucking Nestlé-branded chocolate malt drink," Geoff snapped back, voice whipped by the wind. "And 'Eagle Eye' is way too hard to say. Way too many syllables, dude."

"It does have a better ring to it than Nestlé though," Lark chimed in, voice light and amused. 

"Can you guys quit bickering and hurry the hell up? He's coming back, I can sense it," I said, a sense of approaching danger ringing in my head. Adrenaline travelled through my wings, the chains around them rattling as they shook in anticipation. 

"Oh, shit," Geoff muttered, followed by the sound of wind and strained breaths. "Okay, Red Crane, aka moi, is in position."

"Nightingale?" 

"I've been in position for ages," Lark sighed, and with my heightened vision I could see the outline of her wings as she perched on a nearby rooftop, strawberry blonde hair gently swaying in the breeze.

"Good," Milo said, followed by the crack of knuckles. "Operation Bald Eagle is a go."

"You are such an idiot," I said, rolling my eyes, though my mouth twitched into a smile. I quickly wiped the expression off my face when an angry looking bald man - hence the operation name - peered over the edge of the skyscraper I was precariously dangling off. As he saw me wriggling in my chains, the man smiled menacingly. Gloatingly.

Oh, how little he knew.

"Culver?" Milo murmured into my ear piece, voice making my chest warm despite the cold wind brushing through my wings.

"Hm?" I responded, as the bald man's mouth spat out some monologue about how he has already won, his quest for world domination and how I was going to die here if I didn't give him what he wanted. I was barely listening, peering across at a security camera atop a building nearby, which I knew Milo was watching from. 

"You look good tied up like that."

"I'm going to kill you," I muttered, Milo laughing as the bald villain's face turned red and purple. It was then that I let my wings unfurl, snapping the chains that did nothing to hold me, the bald man and his cronies staring in shock. I saw Lark descend from a building, knocking out some sniper sentries that had been keeping an eye on me, as Geoff grappled onto the roof, roundhouse kicking two others on the opposite side.

Yeah, I was so breaking up with him after this.

A/N: Thank you so much for clicking on this story, and I hope you enjoyed this first little taste! Much, much more to come :)