January 20, 1937

Revenant woke with a start, Shadow was pounding on the door to his room. Standing there with the Wraith twins his face was concern bordering on panic.

“Something bad is going down, Lady Grudge and the new lookout got winged, shots all over town we need to get out of here NOW.”

Revenant tosses on his clothes and slams his stuff into his bags. He calls the HQ.

“I’m in Vegas doing a few odd jobs, what’s the buzz?”

“Get the hell out of town and back home brother” was the reply.

He hits the door running flanked by his elite guards, piling into a car the motorcade screeches off down the street as more gunshots ring out. The driver, knuckles white with the grip on the wheel, doesn’t blink till they are going through the gate in the private airport entrance. Boarding a spendy charter he didn’t want to take the time for a commercial flight. Chalk it up to the costs of the day and be glad you got off this cheaply he muses.

Sitting with Shadow near the front he’s tossing back a couple drinks to ease his nerves and everyone is speculating on what happened. Shadow’s pupils finally contracted to normal size when the plane left the ground. He was Revenants best friend. He met him in Chicago as part of the same crew. He looked up to Revenant and they became close friends. When he saw him murdered in the purge he grieved? Then he met Nara S Imhaya at the funeral he offered him a job. Becoming a good friend and trusted bodyguard he proved his worth time and again. Many things had made Shadow wonder about his new friend. The necklace he wore with its purple gem. The way he talked about the old country sometimes. One night they were having a few drinks to wind down and talking about the new guys. Nara mentioned one reminded him of Gary from Gary.
 

With a look that was part bone chilling fear, part anger and part mistrust Shadow speaks in a slow low tone.
“Boss you have been the best boss anyone could ask for. I been your number one guy, I took a bullet for you. I’ll walk with a limp for the rest of my life. There’s something there, something you been keeping from me and unless I can trust you, I don’t know how tonight’s going to end. You never met Gary he was one of Revenants guys, he died with him. How do you know him?”

Over the following hours Nara told him everything. From the cave on Mount Ararat and finding the cross. His encounter with the angelic being Feowyr. The way it regenerated him. How when his body becomes uninhabitable that fragment of the universes will creates him another body to live in. He talks about the relief it was to confide in someone this story even he could not believe.

Nara had sent him on a job right before uttering his prophetic final words on a street corner. Telling the worried crowd whatever happened make every tick of your life count. Then ironically becoming a statistic of the absurd war. Shadow was naturally not surprised to get a telegram one day shortly thereafter. He was somewhat taken back by the familiar voice that answered the number he was told to call. Not even telling him what happened could prepare him for seeing his dead friends face again.

He made his name for himself years before. Quiet and stealthy he would appear when needed and just as quickly fade into the background. From that day on he was Revenants literal shadow. The running joke was he had been sent from God to be with Revenant everywhere. To keep him safe and to keep his secrets. But most of all to always be the one he knew would watch his back.

The wraiths were two mob orphans Shadow had adopted so to speak. Twins with an eerie sort of mind link they always knew what the other was thinking or feeling. Quiet and subdued they still spoke to each other in a language they created as kids. This was the only family they ever knew and their loyalty to Shadow was almost fanatical.

There were others, the running joke was they were the ghost crew. But rounding out Revenants inner circle was Lady Grudge. Nobody knows how or when they met. Everyone agrees she loves Shadow and he loves her with all their hearts, minds and bodies. Lady Grudge is a powerful blend of opposing energies. She stands at 6 foot 3 inches and is an imposing figure. Graceful and feminine with golden hair and sky-blue eyes. Her every curve sensual and toned but underneath an almost elemental layer of pure muscle. She grew up being told “what a girl is supposed to be like”. She was pushed around and abused untill she got big enough to fight back. She is protective and nurturing to those she loves and as unstoppable as a mother bear towards those who would harm her family. She can speak in a voice that makes you feel like you are being rocked in your mother’s arms. She can also unleash a torrent of curses and verbal flaying that has silenced marine drill instructors. She smokes stogies, reefer and chews Mail Pouch tobacco when shes in a spitting mood. She can hit a bulls eye from 20 feet with a long thick brown stream of practiced contempt. In her own words she will proudly tell you she can “Out drink, out curse and out screw every guy in the room”. She usually follows this with the announcement that she has a male and female spirit and likes to indulge both.

She had been flitting about barking orders in one breath. Then taking the other breath she turns to, the new guy. Untill everyone gets his name or he makes one for himself that’s who he is. He was the other guy who got winged. Blood has dried on her cheek where the bullet creased her. The tiniest 2-inch line it only bled a little. Enough to look like she was crying blood on that side of her face. The scripter who took a shot at them got too close and too rushed.  Revenant shuddered; he only made her mad. The guy deserved to die but to say she broke him was an understatement.

Patching up the through and through on his forearm and gently splinting it before tying it up in a sling. In that beautiful voice that made you think mom kissed your boo boo
“There you are my little lame duck, you won’t be flying for a while but your wing is all taped up”

There was a chorus of chuckles and embarrassment turning his face bright crimson. Then some mafia magic happened.  On the day FDR was sworn in to his second term as president. The first President to be sworn in on Jan 20 and not the first part of march. The 20^th amendment was enacted to reduce the time an outgoing president would be in power before the new one took office. It was called the “lame duck” amendment. Revenant chuckled at the irony. The first lame duck inauguration would be for a man who overcame his bodies limitations. People with handicaps of any kind were ignored and underestimated by most of society. This man who could not walk is taking the oath to lead the entire country.

Just like that whatever the civvy turned gangsters real name was he became LD, Duck, or The Vegas Duck forevermore. The Duck who forgot to duck and was winged in the wing. Such is how these things go in this way of life sometimes.