Jeff

Sixty days after the Battle for the Birds, Jeff was now very powerful and

well-known by the parrots. Jeff was sitting on the throne overlooking the rebuilding of the Republic of the Parrots. General Anthony was sitting on the smaller throne next to him.

“Grr,” Anthony mumbled. “I’m just mad at what those rascals did to Josiah.”

In the dorms, Matt was just sitting alone. Arthur was working on his signal device, but he couldn't focus. And Demetrius was crying so much it could fill 36 gallons of water. The parrots had gotten used to Jeff. They had known him for a long while in the war against the ducks. But even still, the parrots felt empty two months after Josiah’s death.

Jeff was giving a speech about how sad it was that Josiah passed away. But he stuttered so much no one could understand him.

After Jeff’s speech, he decided to go help Bennett, or “Bob”, the construction parrot, with rebuilding the kingdom above ground. After all, Jeff had nothing else to do since all he could do was cry.

“So how’s the build going?” Jeff asked.

“We’re working on the sewage right now. We hope to be finished with this stage in a couple of months,” Bennett replied.

“Ok. Is there anything I could help you with?”

“Not really. We’re waiting for the miners to get more steel for the pipes.”

“Alright.” Jeff had nothing to do, as he had no king to advise. Except for himself.

Jeff thought about what needed to be done next. The ducks were out of the way, so what was the next step for the kingdom?

“We need better technology. And I know just the person.” Jeff thought. He went back to the underground kingdom and visited Demetrius's room.

“Oh, hi Jeff…” Demetrius says.

“Sup?” Jeff replies.

“What have you been up to?” Jeff asked.

“Nothing much. I’ve been searching for a new project for a while now.” Demetrius replies.

“Perfect!” Jeff exclaimed. “I was wondering if you could work on a medicine for poison. Some parrots have gotten bit by the venomous animals in the forest, and Matt has had a couple close calls.”

“Ok thanks, I'll get to work.”

Jeff exited Demetrius's room feeling accomplished, knowing that Demetrius could invent basically anything.

Literally the next day, Demetrius invented a cure.

“Let me know if it works properly and I’ll adjust it if it doesn't work as well as we hoped.” Says Demetrius.

When they brought it to the doctor's cave, it worked flawlessly. Every parrot recovered within a week.

Jeff barged into Demetrius’s room.

“How did you–!?”

“Don’t ask questions,” Demetrius replies with a faint smile.

“Okay buddy. Jokes over,” Jeff said.

“Okay, okay, it was pistachios! I use a lot of pistachios in potions and cures! You can’t blame me!”

“So that's why my mac and cheese seems to cure a cold.” Jeff had said too much. He gasped, then looked at Demitrius. Then, Demitrius looked back with a smirk.

“Don’t tell anyone, or else you'll be fired from the C.I.P.” Says Jeff, half joking but also 70% serious.

“I won’t tell anyone your recipe! I don’t even know the whole thing, other than a little pistachio! I don’t even know how the pistachio is incorporated into the mac and cheese!” Demetrius cried. Here’s a deal: I don’t tell anyone and I'll help make it better as long as you help me with one project.”

“Okay, sure,” says Jeff.

“Good!” says Demetrius. “I call the project: Extermination. Mission objective: eliminate all ducks in the kingdom.”

Jeff holds back a laugh. “What do you mean? The ducks are gone.”

“The other day while Arthur, leader of the Central Intelligence of Parrots, or the C.I.P., was in the woods, he found a duck on its way to the castle. The duck was just a duckling and didn’t like the other ducks, so he ran away. Arthur felt bad and took the little guy in. But the important thing is, the ducks are still out there, gathering power and waiting for the right time to strike again.”

“WHAT!? And he didn’t tell me this? Even though I’m the king?” replies Jeff.

“He didn’t want to stress you out, especially right after Josiah left us,” says Demetrius. “But the ducks only appeared one month ago, right in between now and the final battle. Besides, Arthur is a very busy bird. He had other matters to attend to.”

“Uh, I'm standing right here.” says Arthur.

He had heard the whole thing while he was quietly watching from his birdcage-study.

Both Demetrius and Jeff flinch, not expecting him.

“Ohh, hey Arthur!” Jeff chirps out nervously.

“We’re cooked,” Demetrius whispers.

“At least he can't fire you,” Jeff replies.

“Did you tell him?” Arthur asked.

Demetrius glanced up at Jeff then back at Arthur. “Maybe.”

“You little rascal! I told you not to tell him! TO THE DUNGEON!” Arthur cawed out.

“You know you can’t do that, right?” Jeff says.

“Yeah, but I wish I could.” Arthur replies.

Demetrius had almost gone to the dungeon and lost his C.I.P position in just one day.

But Demetrius was a good parrot. And he wanted to make that clear. So for the next week, he worked on his new invention…

Meanwhile, Jeff had been thinking a lot about his deal with Demetrius.

He needed to get started on this Extermination project, but he didn’t know what to start with. So, he went to the person that knew the battle map the most: General Anthony.

“You want to know where the ducks were last spotted? Hmmm.. Let me get to the battle map.” says Anthony. “The ducks were last spotted near the site of the final battle, in the woods to the east–”

Anthony walks to the map and freezes. He looks down and notices the red duck figurine that Josiah had stabbed to the map upon Edward’s castle. Edward…

All of the parrots had thought about Josiah a lot, but never about Edward.

“Who is the new leader of the ducks if they are still alive?” Anthony asks himself, then asks Jeff.

Jeff pauses. “...I don’t know, I had never thought about it.”

Jeff and Anthony left the meeting room.

Jeff went towards Matt’s room and opened the door.

“Oh, hi Jeff.” Matt says.

“I need your help.” Jeff tells Matt.

“With what?” Matt replies.

Jeff answers, “You know the new duck we found in the forest? I want to find where that duck came from and figure out who the new leader of the ducks is. Can you try to find them?”

A couple hours later, Matt left the kingdom with a few of his buddies to try to find the ducks. They didn’t see a thing until they couldn’t see the G-TOP (Great Tree of Parrots). Just five minutes after the great tree left their sight, strange quacks and squawks began to echo throughout the woods.

“Something isn’t right… It wasn’t like this a month ago. What is this?” says Matt.

“Matt! We must go back and alert Jeff! This isn’t-” One of Matt’s scouts is interrupted by a strange noise. Then a strange mist began to spread.

“Uh-oh…” says Matt. Then he points up with his wing at a duck in strange gear with a strange device.

“RUN!” shouts a scout.

…….

“Matt! He should be back by now…! Why isn’t he here?!” panics Jeff.

“Something must’ve happened!” says Anthony.

…….

Matt ran with all his might. He couldn’t fly because there were too many gas ducks in the trees. On the ground, there were geese with flamethrowers in heavy heat-resist armor. The only way to dodge was to zig-zag while running and occasionally jumping and flying in short bursts. Even then, his wing might catch fire for a moment or his vision might spin from gas or smoke.

“Split u-” stutters Matt. Just then, a moss and rope wall lowered and Matt and the scouts were all wrapped up, tangled in the ducks’ trap.

The next day..

“Why isn’t Matt back!? He should be here by now! It’s been over 40 hours!” Jeff was pacing back and forth in the throne room.

Just then, Oscar flew in.

“Lord Jeff! There hasn’t been confirmation, but there are rumors about where Matt went!”

“What do these rumors say??” inquires Jeff.

“Well… They say that Matt might have been captured by ducks. We had parrots scout out part of Matt’s route and they found a large path of burnt trees and traces of gas and smoke. We suspect that a squad of ducks might’ve attacked with flame or explosives.” says Oscar.

“What!? Then there really is some mastermind behind all this. The ducks wouldn’t have been able to do that on their own with no coordination…” mumbles Jeff.

“What do you want me to do, Jeff?”

“You stay and watch from the throne room balcony tonight. Immediately alert me if you see anything, even if everyone is asleep.

I believe that Arthur has already designed stealth gear for this task.” orders Jeff.

“Yes, sir. I’ll go get ready now.”

It was December 22 and it had begun to snow. The harsh wind, however, only slowed the duck’s advance.

“Geez, this sure isn’t comfy.” grunts Matt.

He was caught sideways in a rope net coated with flammable liquid.

It wouldn’t taste good to tear through and if he even tried, they would set it on fire and burn him alive. The wind would blow the fire all over the place. There was no escape. He didn’t know what to do. By the time he had a plan, he was already at the duck base.

“I’m cooked,” Matt says.

“You are indeed cooked,” says a voice behind Matt. “You won’t be getting out of here.”

Matt turns around to see a crow with black fur around his neck.

“I am Skyrupture. But you can call me ‘Crow’ because you won’t need to tell anyone my name. You aren’t leaving alive,” Skyrupture leaves with a sinister smile on his face.

“I’ve gotta lock in,” Demetrius whispers to himself. “Luckily, I’ve been in prison before, so I should be able to invite these ducks to a jail break.”

“Anthony! Lucas! Arthur!Oscar! We gotta go find Matt! Hurry to the front gates of the G-TOP!” Jeff shouts.

“Coming!” they all shout.

10 minutes later Jeff, Anthony, Arthur, Lucas, and Oscar all left to search for Matt. They started in the woods where Oscar had found the burnt trees and hints of gas. There was one particular tree that was just standing. Oscar sniffs the air to smell gunpowder. He then turns back around.

“Wait a minute…” Oscar sniffs the air again.

“Everyone! RUN!!!” All the parrots skedaddle away. The tree next to them then suddenly exploded.

“They hid bombs?” Lucas asks, adjusting his bionic suit.

“Whew! That was close.” says Anthony as he brushes off the dirt and wood from his feathers.

“We gotta be careful as we advance. Come on!” Jeff rallies the crew to continue forth through the brush.

30 minutes later…

“Guys! Look! That must be where they’re holding Matt captive!” Jeff points to an abandoned military training facility.

“We’ll need a stealth approa-” says Arthur.

“CHARGE!!!” interrupts Lucas.

“Oh well. CHARGE!!!” shouts Anthony.

Then a crowd of ducks and geese in heavy armor with flamethrowers, rifles, and shotguns charges out to fend off the squawking intruders.

Anthony charged in with his machine gun and started to eliminate the ranged flame spewer turrets while Lucas used his colossal sword to break through the defensive line of tanky ducks. The same type of duck tanks that had killed Josiah. Knowing that, it wasn’t hard to fight them anymore. The parrots’ rage allowed them to overpower them much easier than before. The flame thrower guards were what really made it much more difficult. The ducks had begun to push them back more.

Meanwhile…

“Demetrius! We’ve found something while building!” shouts Bennett.

“What is it?!” Demetrius asks.

“It’s a scroll. We can’t read it, but you studied this language. Do you know what it says?”

“Yes,” Demetrius replies. “No way…”

Demetrius knew what it said, alright. It had a hint to finding a chance of rebirth.

End of DvP’s sequel, Jeff!