A television screen showed a familiar hockey rink to viewers all across Anaheim. It was a television ad, being shown for the third time in the past hour.
“Do your kids love hockey?” the announcer boomed, “Can they not get enough of the Mighty Ducks? Well, here’s your chance to make their dreams come true. In this one time only opportunity, Anaheim’s own Mighty Ducks will be hosting a youth hockey camp. For one week your children can learn how to play hockey from some of the best players in the league. There is limited enrolment, so register today! For more information, please call-“
Dragaunus shut off the television signal in disgust. Those stupid ducks! He couldn’t stand how they always defeated him. Even with Canard out of the picture, they still triumphed every time.
“Canard…” the overlord muttered under his breath. That duck had been such an annoyance back on Puckworld. At least he had managed to destroy that particular accursed duck. But wait! Could it really be possible that maybe… no, he couldn’t have survived dimensional limbo. Yet a nagging voice in the back of his mind was telling him otherwise. The Saurians had been imprisoned there, and they had managed to escape. The duck wouldn’t have the resources to escape like they did, but knowing how those annoying ducks had the knack of survive everything he threw at them, he had a feeling that their former leader was probably still around somewhere in limbo.
So the duck was still a possible enemy, he decided. But what if he could take and use this duck to his advantage? It would be very easy to… yes, that’s what he’d do. This would be the perfect plan. None of the ducks would be able to stop him this time.
“Wraith!” he yelled. “Get in here!”
Soon the mystical Saurian was before him, “What is it my lord?”
“We need to conserve all of the Raptor’s energy for the dimensional gateway. Then I have a special assignment for you. We’re going to take the Ducks by surprise this time, and we will take over this miserable planet!”
The sound of evil laughter filled the room as Wraith left to pass the word on to Siege and the Chameleon.
*****
“Tanya, are you sure this is a good idea?” Nosedive nervously asked.
“Of course it is,” she replied. “The worst that could happen would be, you know, like a very minor miscalculation.”
“Thanks, I’m so reassured now,” Dive said sarcastically.
The two ducks were standing in Tanya’s lab. Tanya had been working on her latest idea for quite some time now, and even though she was confident in its formula, she still had to test it on someone. So when she enlisted Nosedive as her test subject, he was more than skeptical about what was going to happen to him.
Her project was a bluish-colored liquid. Her objective was to make an energy drink, so that if Dragaunus were to attack, for example, after an extremely tiring hockey game, they would be able to have more strength to defeat him more easily. She had taken some of Earth’s energy drinks and bars, to study them, and decided they wouldn’t work on ducks. So by taking the important ingredients and adding her own special chemical to the mix, it could help a great deal in possibly capturing Dragaunus. That is, it would be if she could get Nosedive to try it so she could see the effects it would have on the youngest team member.
“I don’t know…” Dive said, attempting to avoid drinking the liquid. “I don’t really trust something that’s blue.”
“Oh, come on,” Tanya insisted. “I promise that it’s not, um, toxic, so it won’t kill you. Besides, don’t you eat blue snow cones from concessions after a, uh, game sometimes?”
Nosedive sighed in defeat, “Oh, fine. But if I do die from this stuff, my brother will come after you.”
“Actually, I’m the one who told her to use you as the guinea pig,” Wildwing said as he walked into the room.”
Dive pretended to be hurt, ”You would use your favorite little brother like this?”
Wildwing paused to act like he was thinking. “Yup,” he nodded.
“I feel so loved,” Dive pouted.
“Of course you are. I figured you’d be the best one to try it. So come on, and help Tanya out,” Wing urged.
Dive still shook his head, “Nope. I don’t want it.”
Wing had an idea, “Tell you what, baby bro. If you try Tanya’s drink to see if it works, I’ll buy you a new video game, whatever you want.”
Nosedive brightened with the bribe, “Really?”
“Sure. Now you don’t have to drink all of it, right Tanya?”
The scientist nodded, "I’d rather that he didn’t. If it’s too strong, he’ll be bouncing off the, um, walls if he has too much.”
Knowing he didn’t have any other choices, Dive carefully picked up the bluish liquid. He looked at with some more skepticism, then slowly brought it up to his mouth. After consuming some of it, he handed it back to Tanya.
“Well? How do you feel?” she asked.
Dive was silent for a moment, letting the taste sink in. “It’s not bad,” he commented. “But I don’t really feel any different.”
Tanya slumped in disappointment, “I was sure that it would work…”
Suddenly, Dive shivered as a rush of energy hit him. “Whoa…” he gasped as Wing set a hand on his shoulder to steady him.
“Are you okay, Dive?” Wing asked with concern.
Dive looked at him and suddenly started laughing, “Wow, your voice sounds funny,” he giggled. His laughter increased as they both gave him puzzling looks.
“I don’t know what’s so funny about it,” Wing looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“You sound like the time when Canard drenched you with that squirt gun and your feathers froze together. You couldn’t move for hours!” Dive said with tears of laughter rolling down his face.
Tanya looked over at Wing with amusement, who began blushing at the memory.
“Tanya, what did you put in this stuff?” Wing asked, only causing his brother to laugh even harder.
“Well…” she started, but Dive interrupted her.
“Hey, Tawny, let me have some more, this is fun!” he exclaimed.
He took off running out of the room. Worried that he would hurt something, or himself, the two ducks took off after him. With Wing being close at his heels, they managed to catch Dive before he could get to the living room. Wing grabbed onto his shoulders and managed to keep him from getting away. Dive had starting laughing again, and his whole body started shaking. Suddenly, he simply stopped struggling and looked at Wing with a glazed look in his eyes.
“Wing, I don’t feel so great…” he managed to say before passing out.
Wing caught his limp form before he fell to the floor, “Tanya, I don’t think this was such a good idea.”
“Maybe not,” she agreed.
*****
There was nothing. It was as if life had ended for him. He had been trapped in limbo for so long he barely remembered anything about his life. Memories started to drift away, now images of the past were slowly fading. The duck had survived the worm, but now there wasn’t much left of him. But he had no regrets. When he used to have his memory, he knew that his friends were safe because of him, and he was satisfied with that. But he was so far out of it when the Saurian appeared before him that he didn’t even remember the war. He didn’t resist when the Saurian took him, and everything went black for him shortly after that.
*****
“Is he alright?” Duke asked as four of the Ducks were gathered in the Ready Room.
“Dive’s fine,” Wing told them. “He’s asleep right now, and Tanya says that he probably won’t wake up until some time tomorrow.”
“So you mean we’ll actually have a quiet afternoon for once?” Mallory asked. “No pranks or anything?”
“I shall be able to maintain my inner peace and tranquility,” Grin nodded.
“Come on,” Wing said in Dive’s defense. “He’s not that bad, he’s just a kid.”
“Yeah, I know,” Mallory told him. “I was just kidding.”
“Anyway,” Wing continued, “I’d still like to have practice today without Dive. We won’t get an opportunity to next week with all of the kids coming for that camp.”
“They aren’t stayin’ here at the Pond for that, are they?” Duke asked.
“No,” Wing assured him. “Phil promised that it was only a day camp. The kids will come from about ten until four, and we’ll help them to play hockey better.”
“Sounds better than a photo shoot or something,” Mallory commented.
Wing nodded, “It’s actually sounds like one of Phil’s better ideas for public appearances.”
“Let’s just hope Draggy stays out of it, though,” Duke added.
If only they knew what was going to come in the next few days.
*****
The tan duck groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Where was he? What was going on? He noticed that he was tied down to a table, and seemed unable to move his head in either direction.
“So you’ve decided to join us,“ said a voice that was just out of his line of sight.
“Who are you? What do you want with me?” The duck had no memory, yet the voice seemed familiar, and he didn’t trust it.
“Why, Canard, I’m disappointed in you. Don’t you know who I am?”
Canard… that name, where had he… Suddenly, everything hit him like a bolt of lightning. He was Canard, and he was the leader of a team of ducks from Puckworld. And that voice was…
“Dragaunus…” Canard spat with hatred in his voice.
“Congratulations, you’ve remembered. And now Wraith is going to turn you into my personal slave.” The Saurian overlord finally came into view.
“You can’t make me do anything!” he yelled. “And if you’ve done anything to my team, I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” Dragaunus broke in. “You’re unable to move, and by the time Wraith is done torturing you you’ll be doing everything I say, including capturing your own teammates.”
“I’d rather die! I’ll never hurt them!” His eyes now held fear, but it was fear for the other ducks, not himself.
“I figured you would say that. I’m taking an extra precaution by erasing your memory again. You won’t even know the difference. And this time, you won’t be getting it back.”
The Saurian turned away for a moment, continuing, “Wraith, he’s all yours.”
With an evil laugh, he left the room. Soon Wraith appeared in his sight, but Canard’s fear for the danger his team kept him silent.
“This should be fun,” Wraith said ominously.
Soon the sound of screams filled the air.
*****
The rest of the day was very uneventful for the other ducks. They practiced for awhile, then they each split off to pursue their own individual activities. Tanya went back to working on her formula, but decided against trying it on anyone for awhile. Grin had left to go to the weight room to work out, along with Duke. Mallory and Wilding were watching a movie, and Nosedive was still asleep. It was a lazy afternoon, because it had started to rain and the ducks were confined inside.
They had all ended up watching a hockey game together that night, with two ducks ending up richer from a certain bet that was placed. Another bet was placed on what time Nosedive would wake up the next day, and even Grin had gotten in on the occasion.
So all in all, the day hadn’t been so terrible after the fiasco in Tanya’s lab. And the Ducks would have gladly gone back to that day if they had the choice.
*****
Canard heard voices whispering to him and echoing in his mind constantly. The pain he had felt was gone, but now there was a nothingness that had taken over. Now, his energy was slowly being drained from him by an unknown source, but he had a strong feeling that it was Wraith’s doing.
“Give in to us,” the voices said. “There is no other way…”
“No!” he screamed inside of his head, “I won’t do this! My team doesn’t deserve this. Wildwing doesn’t deserve this.”
“Of course he does… He left you to die in limbo. He doesn’t care about you at all… None of them do…”
“That’s not true! It was my decision to sacrifice myself. Wildwing is probably being a good leader for them.”
“Is that what you think? His decisions as leader are solely based on his brother. The team is nothing to him… All they want is power, the power to take over everyone…”
“No…” Canard was getting weaker by the second. “All we want is our planet back…”
“You shall have it back, then,” they whispered, “but you must understand that the Mighty Ducks are the evil ones, not us… Help us…and we will give you peace… an end to all of your suffering… Everything will be good once again…”
“End… everything…” he had very little strength left by now, and the voices only seemed to be getting stronger.
“Yes… that’s it…” the voices soothed him, “Just rest for now… be at peace… Forget about them. We will help you to forget…”
With nothing left to fight with, the mallard’s thoughts drifted into the darkness before disappearing completely.
*****
Dragaunus paced impatiently back and forth across the floor in the Raptor’s main chamber. He had left Wraith alone to perform his work, but now his anger was slowly building. What was taking so long anyway? He wanted results, and he wanted them soon.
Wraith finally emerged from the room he had been occupying for the past two hours and bowed before him.
“Well?” Dragaunus snapped.
“He is very strong, my lord. But it was successful in the end,“ Wraith announced. “And when he awakens, he will be at your command.”
“Excellent,” the overlord beamed. “Then tomorrow we shall begin the plan.”
*****
The next morning, everyone, minus Grin and Dive, was sitting on the sofa talking about this or that when Nosedive stumbled into the room.
“Hey, it emerges!” Duke teased. “You’ve been asleep for, what, about twenty hours or somethin’?”
Nosedive barely even noticed Duke said anything as he took a seat next to his brother.
“Feeling better now, baby bro'?” Wing asked.
“Sort of,” he mumbled. “What happened anyway?”
“Basically,” Tanya told him, “You had a rush of energy before you passed out.”
“Oh yeah,” Dive yawned. “Bro', you can be the guinea pig next time. And you owe me a new video game.”
“Yes I do Dive,” Wing nodded. “We can go shopping when you’re up to it.”
“Later,” Dive agreed, still not quite awake yet. He laid his head against Wing’s shoulder.
“Hey, it’s 9:30,” Duke observed. “I believe that I was the closest.”
After some disappointed groans, Duke was handed money from each duck, other than Wildwing, who hadn’t participated, and Nosedive himself, of course. Dive, however, either didn’t notice what was going on or was too tired to really care.
No one spoke for a moment. Dive probably would’ve fallen asleep again had it not been for Drake One’s alarm suddenly blaring throughout the Pond. After some complaining, all of the ducks, including Dive, clambered over to the supercomputer.
“There’s some major teleportation energy coming from downtown," Tanya exclaimed.
“I knew it was too good to last,” Mallory grumbled.
“Well team, we’d better check it out,” Wildwing said with authority. “Can you handle it, baby bro'?”
Dive nodded, "I’m awake. Just give me some caffeine and I can take on Lizard Lips on my own.”
Duke laughed, “I’m sure you could, kid. I’m sure you could.”
*****
The Saurians had teleported to the park, taking Canard with them. Dragaunus came personally just to make sure operations went smoothly. It had stopped raining over the night, and the sun had dried things up fairly quickly.
The Saurian overlord looked into the eyes of the duck, “Now, do you understand what you’re supposed to do?”
The tan mallard looked back at him with a coldness that had never been in his eyes before, “Perfectly.”
Dragaunus gave him an evil grin, “I knew you would. And I know that you’ll make me proud. Just stick with the plan as much as possible, and those ducks will be as good as gone!”
“Yes, my lord,” Canard bowed his head.
“Then let’s get out of here,” Chameleon urged. He wasn’t very fond of the entire plan, and he’d rather be far away when the commotion started.
“Very well,” Dragaunus agreed. “You’d better make me proud, Canard.”
The Saurians disappeared, leaving Canard alone. He stopped to examine his surroundings. What would be a good way to get attention from people? If he was injured, the ducks would take pity on him, he finally decided. Unable to think of a better option, he pulled out the laser weapon given to him by Dragaunus. Making sure no one was watching, he carefully aimed it at his left leg. He fired it, and winced slightly in pain from the shot. He limped over to a spot under a tree and laid on the grass. It was still slightly damp from the rain, but it wasn’t so wet as to be a nuisance. He closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious.
If I play this right, Canard thought, the ducks will fall right into our trap.
*****
The Migrator didn’t get very far before they discovered the trouble. A crowd of people had gathered around the entrance of the main park. Upon further investigation, they noticed a familiar police car parked close by.
“Aww, man. Does Klegghorn have to get involved in everything?” Nosedive complained, now almost completely himself again.
“Of course,” Wing replied absently as walked over towards the commotion.
Klegghorn walked over to meet them. “You ducks,” he scowled. “This better not be another one of those publicity stunts of yours.”
“What’s going on?” Wildwing asked.
“You mean you don’t know? I figured this guy must be a friend of yours,” he gestured towards the area where the crowd had gathered.
Mallory, Duke, and Nosedive went closer to investigate. And what they saw shocked them.
“Bro',” Dive called with wide eyes, “You’d better check this out…”
The others soon joined them, also getting caught in the sudden shock. Wing’s hands instantly flew up to the mask.
“Canard, is that you?”
To be continued…