Dive's reaction.
Dive realized that they were stuck on Earth.
Dive slammed his fist on the alarm button of his clock. The red numbers shone in the darkness of his room. It was only five in the morning, why did his brother set these early morning practices. He rolled over onto his right side facing away from the clock. He nearly got back to sleep when the sleep buzzer buzzed loudly within the room. "Argh, okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up, you blasted clock." Dive said, as he turned it off and climbed out of bed heading for the shower.
Dive headed out of his room towards the ice. At first he was surprised when he stepped out of his room to find that he was in the Pond. He had hoped that they were back home on Puckworld but then he recalled what happened the day of the NHL Final Western Conference Games – they went after Dragaunus and Wing destroyed their gateway generator, now preventing them from going home and that the Saurians were struck here on Earth too. Dive really didn't mind but in a way he did want to go home.
He sighed, it would be nice to know if their parents were alive or not, but because of his big brother they'd never have the chance. Why did he have to destroy their only way home? He slammed open his locker as he pulled out his pads.
"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed!" Duke said, with a grin.
"Oh shove it, old fart!" snapped Dive, flinging his glove at Duke, who ducked.
"I'm no old fart, you little whippersnapper!" Duke said, with a grin.
Dive glared at him as he grabbed his glove off the ground and headed off to the ice.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Wing.
"Don't know, I never saw him act this way," said Mallory.
Duke shrugged. "He's probably just in one of those moods; I'd suggest walking on thin ice for he could blow at any time."
They nodded as they skated onto the rink to see Dive practicing hard. They had the Stanley Cup game to deal with in another two days and they needed to be on the top of their game for them to win the cup.
It was no more than five long hours of practice did Wing call it a day. He smiled at Dive who scored several shots against him. The practice games did prove very good as they challenged each other.
"Go shower and relax. Tonight, we'll have another round of practice," Wing said.
Everyone moaned even Grin moaned as they really needed to rest that night and do another practice round in the morning.
Dive grumbled. "Wing, just cancel it, I'm really not in the mood for another practice today, and I doubt any one else is either."
"Are you sure, Dive?" asked Wing.
"Yeah," Dive said, as he walked away from Wing and vanished into the showers.
The others agreed with Dive. Wing agreed to drop the evening practice for a seven am practice. They liked that later hour practice as it allowed them to sleep in more, if there wasn't a crime happening somewhere in the city.
Dive pulled on his jacket and headed out to see his friends at the comic shop. It was only there did Dive really relax as being stuck in the Pond was boring. But here reading the comic books and chatting with Thrash and Mookie was great.
When he got in, they were in a middle of small argument. "We'll talk about it later, Mookie. Divester, what's up?" Thrash asked, as he went to his side.
"Nothing much, just a lot a practice enforced by Wing, I wish he'd mellow, I also wish I was back home."
"Hey, this is your home now. If what you had said was true about that gizmo being smashed to pieces then your new home is Earth," Mookie said.
"I know, but this is not 'our' real home, Mookie," Dive stated, as he flipped through the comic book that was in his hand.
"What's so bad about Earth?"
Dive sighed. "Not much, it's just that even after everyone gets use to us it's the feeling that one doesn't belong, that no matter what in some way I'll be an outsider looking in."
"Oh Dive, you must drop that feeling as you love Earth just the same way you feel about Puckworld. You love both worlds, even if you cannot go back to your home world, Earth is your home now," Thrash spoke, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"Your right Thrash, I do love both worlds, maybe someday Tanya will figure out how to build a gate, and then I could show you Puckworld."
"I would love to see your home world, Dive. It would be so wicked!" Mookie said. "From what I heard it is beautiful."
"It is, but you'd better dress warm."
"We will, just tell Tanya to get off her tailfeathers and get that gate operational!" Mookie said, before she broke out into giggles.
"Not until Dragaunus is dealt with, I don't want him back there." Dive smiled. "But once he's beat she'd better."
"But didn't he crash in the ocean, wouldn't that have killed him?" asked Thrash.
"Um, yeah it would have killed him, but it might be possible that he survived but that's very slim if he even did survive that type of crash and surely by now if he did, he would have died of lack of oxygen." Dive said.
Pretty soon, they were busy dealing with customers as Dive waved bye to them and headed out to the park where he strolled and in a way was searching for a place where he could just be alone with his thoughts. He found a place where it was not a popular area with the speed walkers or those with dogs. He sat down next to the pond and looked into the water to see a reflection of himself in the still water. He wished that he was back home on Puckworld, but he knew it would probably never happen and that he should be grateful that he, his brother and their friends were alive here on Earth. He smiled, No regrets, Puckworld was free, and that would just have to be good enough.