DuckTales (2017) || ScaleFeather || A Story of Brotherhood and Friendship

(5) Damian

"Now, try picking it up, and lift it," Blot gently encouraged.

Damian tried not to let out a grumble as he positioned his new robotic arm around his staff, which was laid flat on the table. He twisted his stump a bit toward the left, making the wrist rotate in that direction, so that the palm faced the staff. Damian let out a small gasp of pain, for his stump still hurt painfully. He then gently put his palm on top of the staff, and the robotic fingers slowly wrapped around it. Now, the challenge has arisen: lifting.

Damian had only managed to grab objects with his new hand. He had never successfully lifted them from where they were, and if he had, the hold hadn't been maintained for very long. Damian had grown very frustrated at those results, but he wasn't about to give up, especially not in front of Blot. If Blot thought he was resilient, he had to prove it.

Only issue: the staff felt quite heavy. In Damian's new and inexperienced hand, the staff felt like it weighed a hundred times more than it usually did. Of course, Damian didn't even feel it in the hand at all, per se. The staff stayed closer to the table as Damian tried to lift, making the socket of the prosthetic press down on his stump, and he scrunched his face and gritted his teeth in pain. He was used to hiding physical pain, but this was a whole new level, especially now as an amputee. Damian tried to push through it, without the use of his remaining arm, and lift his staff. Unfortunately, his stump gave out, and the fingers loosened, dropping the staff right back on the table.

Damian growled in frustration, which quickly escalated into rage. He let out an angry shout.

"What's the point?" he shot angrily and no one in particular. "I can't do these things anymore! Of course the engine had to land on my dominant hand, and I can't even use my powers to their full extent! I can't do this!"

Damian pounded his remaining fist on the table, upset and frustrated at how slow he made any sort of progress. He turned away from Blot, not keen to look anyone in the eyes with such emotional vulnerability. However, Blot came up right behind him, and gently put a hand on Damian's shoulder, getting on one knee to be eye-level with him.

"I told you I would stay by your side, no matter what," he said gently. "I will always be here to help you."

"I don't want help," Damian almost whimpered, his shell of anger breaking to reveal his sadness. "Asking for help — makes me feel weak..."

His voice became quieter with every word of it, and he stared at his feet. He glanced to the side, and saw that Blot looked rather concerned, with a brow slightly raised.

"Asking for help is not weak," he said, still gently. "Strength comes from vulnerability. Asking for help is not giving up; it is when you refuse to give up. I hadn't learned that until I met my partner."

That made Damian think of all the missions he had taken on with partners. He hadn't felt so weak asking for help then, why did he feel weak asking for help now? What Blot was saying started to make sense, but there was still something that made Damian nervous to try again.

"But I don't know if I can do this with help," he said. "This is my body, it has to be all done by me. But I've changed, and I'm not as strong as I used to be anymore."

This seemed to earn a confused look from Blot.

"No one is questioning your strength," he said. "In fact, I would say you have gotten stronger; after your encounter with the Dragon Knight, you felt strong enough to take on a mission from High Command...and protect me during it. You were strong and willing enough to forgive me after I did this to you. Now I can only hope you will be strong enough to use this setback as an opportunity to grow."

Well, that definitely left Damian thinking, and it seemed to make up his mind. He had gotten stronger after those things. Maybe it was time to use this setback as an opportunity to grow. He turned to face his staff, still lying on the table, and prepared to try again.

He reached the arm over the staff, used a smaller twist of his stump to turn the wrist, then made to wrap the fingers around his staff. He tensed the muscles in his stump to close them around the handle, and kept them tense to pick it up. It was a bit less painful, but now he felt so energized, and he worried he'd have to keep doing it whenever he wanted to keep an object held in his new hand....And then Blot reached around and put a hand on his stump.

Damian turned to see Blot, his eyes implying that he was smiling under his mask.

"Don't tense your muscles," he gently encouraged. "Let them relax, and try to give the prosthetic a chance to cooperate."

Damian had never thought of giving that a try before, so he relaxed his stump, and Blot let go. At once, Damian did feel some pain, his heavy staff pulling the robot arm down...and then it seemed to get lighter. The robot arm bent at the elbow, making the staff vertically straight, and the socket gently closed around Damian's stump. Even without feeling the arm at all, Damian used the weight of the robot arm to attempt a few moves. He started by giving his staff a classic twirl, which ended up being quite fluent, and practically flawless. He spun his staff more, in every way he used to, and the prosthetic obeyed! Then Damian tried to make the hand squeeze the staff back into its compressed form...and it did! Then Damian pocketed it with his new arm, finally having mastered some control.

Now for the final test: his lightning powers. Damian was pretty sure he'd basically lost half the power he had when he lost half of what he used his power with. But now that he had some mastery over his new arm, he thought he might see if he could use his powers with it. Damian willed his power as best he could through both arms, then aimed for the monitor screen at the other end of the room. He shot both of his arms forward, but red lightning only came from the left. In his right, he felt a strange tingling, but no powers. He slumped his shoulders, but thankfully not as frustrated. Blot seemed to understand what he'd been trying to do, and put a hand on Damian's shoulder.

"We will work on that, if we can," he said.

Damian looked up at Blot, and for the first time in a while, he smiled.

"Yeah. We will."