"Great job, Wildwing!" said Canard, patting the duck on the back. "See? You didn't need that much practice. You have everything pretty much down pat."
Nosedive, who was doing yet another set of sit ups, growled to himself. If anything, Canard was playing favorites and it was really beginning to bother him. So much for being a fair leader, he thought to himself.
He automatically winced when Canard turned towards him and caught him glaring. Canard made his way towards Nosedive.
"What's wrong with you, Kid?"
"Nothing, sir," replied Nosedive, halting his sit ups. He got up and stood at attention.
Canard raised an eyebrow. "Nothing? It sure didn't look like nothing the way you were looking at me. Do you have some sort of problem, punk?"
Nosedive mentally counted to ten. "No, sir," he replied again, with forced politeness.
"You know, if you were half as good as Wildwing, I'm sure you could be a great asset to this team. But right now, with your attitude, this team is probably better off without you. So you better quit giving me those looks and straighten up."
"Begging your pardon, sir, but what can you do if I don't? Send me home?"
Canard's face tinged red with anger as Nosedive stared up at him defiantly.
"Get out of my sight," he hissed. "Now, before I do something I'll regret."
Nosedive turned and began to walk away from Canard, heading to the gym's doors. He pushed a button on a panel beside them. They slid open.
"Right now, you are nothing but a burden to this team!" shouted Canard. The other ducks stopped what they were doing and looked up.
Nosedive, embarrassed by the attention, kicked the doors in response as they slid shut.
Finding himself alone, he took a deep breath. With a trembling hand, he wiped his eyes and let out one small sniffle. "This bites," he muttered to himself.
X
Nosedive was moving about in his room, trying to use his energy positively by cleaning.
He was amazed at the number of food wrappers that had made their way under his bed. He pulled out a moldy pizza crust. "Eeww!" he said. "Dude, that's the last time I decide to clean up!"
He threw the crust into a nearby trash bin that was already overflowing with junk.
He reached under his bed one more time and pulled out a battered wallet. He let out a small gasp. "Here it is!" he whispered to himself, opening it up. He smiled when he counted through the money bills and saw that he still had the fifty dollars he had planned on spending at the comic book store.
His smile faded into a more wistful look when he saw that he still had a couple of wallet sized pictures inside as well. The pictures were the only thing besides the clothes on his back that came with him from Puckworld.
One of the pictures was of him and a young female duck taken from a high school dance. It was the last dance they had attended together a few weeks before the Saurian attack.
The second picture was one of his whole family. A tall and muscular duck stood straight and proud, a half formed smile on his beak. His eyes were focused downward. Next to him was a shorter and thinner duck with blond hair, very much like Nosedive's. She too was standing proudly, with a soft smile on her beak. She, too, was looking down lovingly at two smaller ducks. An adolescent Wildwing stood in front of his father, eyes shining brightly as he looked straight forward. His arm was draped around the shoulders of a much younger Nosedive. The young duck had a huge grin, as he tilted his head upwards to look at his brother.
Nosedive sighed. Those certainly were the days he wished he could go back to. He pocketed the wallet and dove back under the bed.
"Yo, Dive!" someone shouted from outside his door, startling him enough to make him bang his head against the bed's underside.
"Ouch! What?!"
"It's Duke. Can I come in?"
"I'm a little busy, Duke. Can't it wait?"
There was a pause. "Yeah, I guess it can wait. Is there a time I can meet up with you?"
"Umm. I'll get back to you on that."
"Okay, kid."
Nosedive remained silent, waiting to see if Duke was going to ask anything else. Hearing nothing he shrugged his shoulders and went back to work. There were some days when he couldn't understand his team mates.
X
Grin watched Nosedive as he skated on the ice. It was starting to worry him that Nosedive had been taking great strides to have more time to himself. Normally, Nosedive would ask him to come along to the mall in search of comics and crystals. Lately, Nosedive had been going off on his own. He couldn't even remember the last time Nosedive and Wildwing did anything either. There was something bad, and Grin felt helpless about it.
How does one fight something that originates from deep within the soul?
X
Nosedive sat in one of the den's chairs, watching cartoons on the giant television screen. Lately, with the exception of Canard, all his team mates have been approaching him, wanting to "just talk." It was beginning to bother him.
He was startled when his older brother slid right next to him. Nosedive reached for the remote, ready to turn off the television.
"No, no, leave it on," said Wildwing. Nosedive gave him a strange look, but he put the remote back down.
"What are you doing here?" Nosedive asked, glancing at the clock. "Isn't it time for hockey practice?"
"Canard's giving us the day off."
"Really?" Nosedive's voice sounded hopeful.
"Yeah. I was thinking, you want to go to Anaheim Cinemas and see what's playing?"
"Just you and me?"
"Well, Canard, Mallory, and Duke are going. Tanya wants to work on her new invention and Grin is gonna do, well, Grin stuff. You up to it?"
"Uh, no that's all right," replied Nosedive, rather quickly. "I think I'll just hang around here and catch up on some comic books."
"You want me to stay?"
"No! Go ahead, have fun. Don't let me hold you back."
Wildwing gave him a funny look.
Nosedive rarely passed up the chance to go to the movies with him.
"Okay," he said, getting up. He gave his brother one final look of concern and then walked out of the room.
Nosedive sat still for a few moments, then let out a deep sigh. "This is so lame," he said to himself. He turned off the television and got up. He spoke into his comm out of habit, "Hey, Wing!"
"What's up, Baby Bro?"
Nosedive winced as he heard Canard laugh and say, "You still call him that?!"
"Uh, I decided to head out to the mall and meet up with Thrash and Mook. Just wanted to check in with you."
"Okay, have fun."
"Yeah, thanks," Nosedive replied without enthusiasm. Man, Canard knew how to kill something that was always pleasant to hear. X
"It's like they're smothering me, man!" said Nosedive, as he plopped down an arm load of comic books on the counter.
In front of him stood Trash and Mook, flipping through the stack that he had chosen.
"That is like so not cool," said Thrash.
"Yeah. And like your brother does nothing?" added Mook.
"No. Not really. Lately he's been trying to talk to me, but dude, he's tight with Canard. I can't say anything to him! And all the others seem to respect Canard. I'm like stuck so far into the middle that it is so uncool."
"Bummer!"
"Yeah, well, ring me up. I gotta be heading back to the torture chamber."
"Like, sorry you have to go there," said Mook. "Why don't you just like come here more often. We don't mind."
"Canard doesn't let us get out that often," remarked Nosedive, bitterly. "But thanks for asking."
Thrash rang up the books and took the money Dive gave him. With a small wave, Nosedive gathered his purchase and walked out the door.
"See ya later, dudes."
X
Nosedive was riding on his Duck-cycle when he happened to pass a large crowd. Curiosity got the better of him and he made his way towards it.
He spotted several news vans and made his way to one that was standing apart from the rest.
"What's going on?" he asked a person who was standing on top of the van. He was pointing a camera towards some building that had a "Grand Opening" banner on it.
The camera man looked at him in surprise. "Uh, wow! You're Nosedive! I, uh, well," he quickly composed himself to act more professional. "This is the new Anaheim Grand Bank, and it supposedly features a new security system that locks in the robber for the cops to arrest."
"What?"
"Mr. Lloyd, multimillionaire. Haven't you heard of him?" The reporter pointed towards a blond man that was standing at a podium, giving a speech.
"Yeah, I think so. Every time my shows get interrupted with some stupid special news bulletin."
"Uh, yeah. Anyhow, this new system keeps track of every human being that enters. When someone tries to rob the bank and is inside, the system is activated to keep track of the number of people that are running out. The doors then slam down shut keeping one live person inside. It's not a hundred percent accurate of course. There's a possibility that it could be one of the hostages that are left behind. But it at least increases the chance of trapping a bank robber."
Nosedive looked around and was surprised by the lack of police. He mentioned it.
"Oh, yeah. Mr. Lloyd is so confident that the system will work that he ordered the police to stay five blocks away during the grand opening and the press conference."
"That is like so stupid," commented Nosedive.
"Can I quote you on that?"
"No! I don't need to get into anymore trouble!" Nosedive pulled away from the reporter, remembering their lack of respect for one's privacy. Well, maybe that opinion was a bit harsh.
Suddenly there was a loud boom from inside the bank. People came running out, screaming.
"The bank is being robbed!"
X
Captain Klegghorn sat in his unmarked car, sipping on a cup of coffee. "Stupid money mongol," he muttered to himself. "So confident in his technology."
"Shots fired at Anaheim Grand," shouted out a voice on his radio. Klegghorn 's coffee spewed out of his mouth. "All available units report to the bank. Unknown number of hostages. . ."
Klegghorn dumped his coffee out the window and pulled out his siren light.
"All right, boys," he said into his radio. "Let's go!"
X
"Ah! Help me!" a woman screamed from inside.
Nosedive immediately changed into his battle gear. He headed over to the bank, running against the crowd of people that were streaming out. He got to the entrance and looked in.
The bank was big enough to start off with a long wide lobby. Sofas were set in the middle for people to wait. Potted plants littered the floor, matching the leaf- printed wall border that ran down the sides of the lobby. Several wooden desks that matched the sofas lined the walls, currently missing their occupants. There were a few doors that must have led to other locations in the bank, but they were shut tight, so Nosedive couldn't see into those rooms.
At the very end he could see large double doors that led to the bank tellers. A few more people streamed out as a deep commanding voice yelled "Get back here!"
Nosedive could see a tall, masked, muscular man dressed in black reaching for a petite woman who was passing through the main room's doors.
The robber had managed to grab the woman before she passed through and yanked her back. He spotted Nosedive and shot back with a rapid firing gun, very similar to the Uzis he'd encountered not too long ago.
Nosedive dived behind a desk, shooting his puck launcher.
The robber returned fire.
X
Klegghorn pulled up to the bank along with a dozen other patrol cars. They blocked off the roads, pushing reporters and civilians alike away from the bank.
They watched as several people ran away from the building.
For a few seconds, there was no one on the street and everything was silent. Then several shots were fired from the inside.
The police began firing without a second thought.
X
Nosedive watched as the robber backed away with the hostage. He pulled her back into the tellers' desks and hid there.
Nosedive got up and began to make his way to the doors. He threw himself to the ground when several more shots were fired from inside. Then, to his horror, a lot more shots came from the outside.
It was then that he realized that he was trapped in the middle with no safe way out.
X
"I'm telling you, man, I saw a Mighty Duck run in there!" some person was yelling from the railings that the police had set up.
"What?!" Klegghorn marched over to where the man was standing. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive, man! He, like, ran in there with some kind of gun right after some woman screamed for help."
"Great!" Klegghorn charged back to his car. "Hold your fire!" he shouted to the officers. "We may have more than one hostage in there." Klegghorn fished through his glove compartment and found what he was looking for.
In his hand he held a comm unit exactly like the ducks had. In fact, it was given to him by the ducks in case they ever needed to get in contact with him. Right now he was wondering whether it was really for him to get in contact with them.
He randomly pressed a button.
X
"That was so lame!" Mallory exclaimed as they walked out of the Cinema complex.
"Heh, heh," chuckled Duke.
"I must say, it does give insight to how humans think," added Canard.
"Yeah," said Wildwing. "Oddly."
His comm beeped.
"Wildwing here."
"Wildwing! It's me."
"Klegghorn?!"
"Yeah. There's a robbery going at Anaheim's Grand Bank," shouted Klegghorn into his comm unit.
"Where's that?" asked Duke, standing next to Wildwing.
"Near Anaheim Mall. Witnesses say that there's a Duck caught in the middle. Youse missing somebody?"
"Dive," whispered Wildwing, in shock.
X
Nosedive took a deep breath as he prepared to go after the robber. A beep from his wrist caught his attention.
"Hoh, boy," he muttered, realizing that he was about to be in big trouble. He didn't realize how much until he saw that it was Klegghorn on the line.
"What in earth's name were you thinking!" Klegghorn shouted. "Get out of there right now!"
"But there's a lady trapped in with the robber!"
"Let us handle it. You get out of there this instant before your brother gets here!"
"Wing?" His comm beeped again. "Uh, Captain, I gotta go." He clicked another button, cutting off Klegghorn.
"Nosedive!!" shouted Wildwing.
"Speak of the Saurian's spawn," he muttered to himself.
"Why haven't you contacted me about the situation?!"
"Uh, things got busy?"
"What?!"
"Wing! There's a lady trapped in there with some nut that actually thought he could rob this bank!"
"I heard. But don't you dare do anything before we get there."
"Get outside and wait with Klegghorn," ordered Canard.
Nosedive let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, sir."
He shut the comm off and prepared to go back out the door. Then the woman screamed again. Nosedive hesitated. He heard her scream one more time and sighed. "Orders be spaced," he cursed, as he shut off his comm to avoid incoming transmissions. It was time to rock and roll.
X
The bank robber was dumping cash with one arm into a bag that lay open on the floor. With the other, he held his gun trained on the woman who wore a name tag saying Mabel.
"Scream one more time and I'll make sure no one can identify you by your face," he said.
The woman just stood still in absolute terror.
"You know, you could be useful and help me put the cash into the bag."
The woman nodded and slowly moved towards the robber.
"Now!!"
She scurried over and began throwing the money into the bag.
"That's better."
Neither the robber nor Mabel were aware that Nosedive was just outside the vault, making his way towards them. He had hidden behind the giant pots and then had gone around several cubicles that were in the room. His next stop was to get the woman away from the robber and make a break for it.
He took a deep breath, trying to gather his courage.
The robber was lifting a bag when he ordered the woman to stop. "Pick up the other bags," he said.
Nosedive jumped into the doorway. "Drop the loot, dirtbag!" he shouted, firing a puck at the robber. The puck hit the bag that the robber was carrying in front of his chest. The impact knocked him backwards on his back.
"C'mon!" urged Nosedive, as he grabbed the woman by the arm, pulling her out of the vault. She screamed as they began to run towards the lobby.
Nosedive glanced back and spotted the robber at the vault's doorway.
"Run!" he shouted, giving the woman another shove as he stopped and fired one more puck in the robber's direction.
The robber ducked behind the wall as Dive's puck ricocheted off the vault's edge, missing him by millimetres.
Nosedive ran again and saw that the woman had crossed into the lobby. *Yes!* he thought to himself.
She ran through the front doors. *Safe!*
Then the steel doors came crashing down, trapping him in side the bank with the armed robber.
X
Klegghorn was watching the entrance with growing apprehension. He had tried communicating with Nosedive a couple of times with no success. Where was that duck?
"My system will stop him," said a person with an English accent. "And will aid you in apprehending him."
Klegghorn turned around and was appalled to see Millionaire Lloyd standing behind him.
"You?! What are you doing here? Get back behind the lines!"
"Relax, Officer. Once the system senses only one person left in the room, the steel doors come down, trapping him inside. That way you'll go in and arrest him. If it's the hostage that is left behind, then the hostage will be safe and sound while you do what you do to capture the vermin."
Klegghorn opened his mouth to comment before he was interrupted by one of his men.
"Sir! We see the woman and the duck running into the lobby!"
Klegghorn quickly focused on the front door. He saw the woman emerge, and to his horror, saw steel doors slam down shut.
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! He's still in there!" The woman had begun screaming.
"I thought you said it would close only if there was one person left inside!" shouted Klegghorn at Mr. Lloyd.
The English man was flabbergasted. "I. . . well. . . this. . . The system was designed to recognize humans! I wasn't expecting an alien duck to enter my bank, much less be involved as a hostage in an attempted robbery!"
"Great!" growled Klegghorn.
Glancing up, he saw the Migrator approaching. "Double great," he muttered.
It stopped next to his car and the remaining six ducks stepped out.
"Where's Dive?" was Wildwing's first words.
"In there," said Klegghorn, pointing to the fortified bank.
X
Nosedive panicked for a moment, the dived towards one of the side doors in the lobby. Luck was on his side as it opened. He shut it closed and looked around. There was another set of desks and another door. Hurrying towards it, he tried the handle.
Locked.
Then he heard the robber shouting outside in the lobby. Heart pounding, Nosedive hid behind one of the desks.
The robber became silent.
Then he began calling out in a sing song tone. "Come out, come out, where ever you are."
Nosedive grimaced as he heard the man approach his hiding place. He checked his puck launcher.
Empty.
"I'm roast."
Looking wildly around, Nosedive couldn't find anything to use as a weapon. Then his sight landed on a lady's purse.
Outside in the lobby, the robber was trying the door next to Nosedive. He jiggled the doorknob and found it locked. He moved one over. The knob turned all the way.
Underneath his mask, he grinned. He kicked the door open and pointed his gun into the room.
Something large and heavy hit him across the face, knocking him out cold. Nosedive stood above him, purse in hand.
"Sweet dreams, punk," he said.
X
Nosedive grumbled to himself as he flipped through the television channels. He had felt good about himself when he had caught the bank robber. But when the steel doors went up, and the police swarmed in, he had been yanked out of there by his brother.
"What were you thinking?" he had shouted. "You could have been killed!"
"But, Wing! I couldn't leave the lady in there alone!"
But Wildwing wouldn't listen. And, naturally, Canard got in a few words, too.
"That was completely irresponsible! Jobs like that require proper back-up, which you didn't have. Of course, I'd hesitate sending you as back-up."
Nosedive stopped switching the channels when he saw that Bernie the Bear was on. He sat back to relax.
"We interrupt to bring you this special bulletin."
"Great," muttered Nosedive.
"Earlier today, the Grand Anaheim bank was almost robbed. Millionaire Lloyd shares a few words."
"You again?" Nosedive shook his head.
"Due to the recent setback in the security system, I'm shutting down the bank until it can be upgraded. This time it will also include any living being so as to avoid what happened earlier today."
Nosedive growled. "You should."
The screen switched back to the reporter. "Mr. Lloyd was referring to the fact that the system had locked in not only the robber, but our own local hockey player, Nosedive."
Nosedive stared, completely mortified as they played news footage that he had not seen earlier. It was of Wildwing and Canard reprimanding him in public.
"And it seems that he was in trouble with his team as well."
Nosedive groaned and hid his face with his hands. Could this day get any worse?
X
Night had settled in Anaheim. The streets were dark and almost empty. A news van was stalled in an alley not far from the bank. One man sat in it, waiting. It was the reporter that Nosedive had talked to earlier.
He didn't move as his passenger door was opened. A large figure got in.
"You were right," he said to the newcomer.
"I am always right on matters like these," said a female voice.
The "reporter" chuckled. "That young duck is resourceful, I'll have to admit. I hope the payment you're giving me is worth me losing my best man on the team."
"Do not worry. The payment is adequate enough, and your man will be returned to you soon enough."
The man looked up at Nightbloom.
"Oh?"
"I may still have use of you and your team."
"Excellent. How do I get a hold of you?"
"You don't. I will contact you."
The man pulled away from the Saurian as she disappeared before his eyes. In her place was a bag full of cash. The man grinned and picked it up. It was pretty heavy. He tossed it towards the back of his van which was filled with explosives and ammunition. It was time to get out of here before he was caught.