Fireworks.
The Ducks celebrate the Fourth of July.
Dive had just come back from the mall; it was only a few weeks after they won the Cup and lost it due to the fact that they were not full Earth humans, even though they won it fair and square. He walked into the recreation room where the others were either reading books or watching TV. "Thrash and Mookie has invited us to go with them to the annual Fourth of July celebration. Want to go?" asked Dive.
"What is this Fourth of July celebration, Dive?" Duke asked.
"Not really sure, but Mookie said something about fireworks and music," said Dive.
"Well the fireworks and music sound interesting. Sounds like a festival of some sort."
Wing wasn't really sure if he wanted to go, too many humans around usually meant some sort of trouble. "I'll stay here, Dive."
"Oh come on big Bro, from how Thrash and Mookie describe it, the fireworks will be like the Raven's Court did every year, and you loved those."
Wing was silent. "I'll see what I can do since I am on monitor duty tonight."
"Alright, bro, make sure you make it! So who wants to go?" asked Dive, turning to look at the other Ducks.
Grin, Mallory and Tanya jumped at the chance to see this festival. Duke turned to look at Wing and turned to Dive. "I'm in. When do they want us there?"
"7pm that's when the celebration starts, I think with music and then a small concert before the fireworks are set off," Dive said, looking at the piece of paper he held in his hand.
Duke nodded. "We'll meet you, Thrash and Mookie at the comic ship around 6:30 so we don't have to search for you in the crowd."
"All right," Dive rushed out of the room and down the hall.
Wing shook his head as he headed for his room. He went to his bookshelf and found his personal photo book. He flipped it open to find several photos of Dive, a Raptrin female and a brown haired female duck looking towards the sky as some fireworks went off in the night's sky. He took a deep breath in and closed the book. She was dead as was Canard. They were never going to return to him. He quickly headed for Drake One to get his mind off of them.
Meanwhile, Phil was sitting in his car in the garage when he noticed in his mirror that Dive was rushing off again towards the mall. Phil shrugged and turned his attentions back to the person he was talking with.
It didn't take Dive long to reach Captain Comics to tell Trash and Mookie the good news, he also wanted to learn more about this Fourth of July. It had always intrigued him about his new world's holidays and what they were about.
"Hey Thrash, why do you celebrate this day for?" asked Dive.
"Fourth of July is the day we declared our independence from England," Thrash said, as he started to close the store for the day.
"I do not understand independence from England? Were you in a war with them?" asked Dive.
"Yes, we were in a war with them trying to get freedom from them. We had enough of their taxes and their domineering ways over our country. They demanded our sons to go to war for them and we decided enough was enough and we declared war. It took many years to finally get to the point where we had our own congress and then one day, John Adams finally convinced the congress to write a declaration for independence. Another man Thomas Jefferson really wrote the declaration and then finally on July 4th, 1776, everyone in the congress signed it. There was some who refused as they didn't want to declare independence from England." Thrash said.
"I think I understand; there are a couple festivals on Puckworld that are celebrated for similar reasons."
"Maybe there is a new one for what you and the others did to free Puckworld from the Saurians?" asked Mookie.
"There might be, but I know a friend of me and Wings will still be celebrating the same festival she always has, I guess it's her parents' connection to Dublin. But it's the festival of the Rising Dove, and it's the oldest festival I know of on Puckworld, but most don't celebrate it except Raptrins and some Suscan."
"It sounds great. But nothing beats our celebration, hey, it's almost time to get to the park and snag the best location!" Thrash said.
"The others haven't arrived yet! We have to wait for them to arrive!" Dive said.
"Awe man, how long till they get here, we may not get the spot we want."
"They should be here by 6:30pm." Dive stated, as he looked out the window searching for his fellow teammates.
"I got an idea!" Mookie said. "I'll go ahead and save the location. You two can wait for them to arrive."
"Sounds good, we'll meet you there then," Thrash told her. Dive nodded in agreement.
Mookie rushed off towards the park as Thrash and Dive waited for the others to arrive at the store. They didn't have to wait long before the other Ducks arrived at the store, all but for Wing, who remained at the Pond.
"Where's Wing?"
"He decided to stay at the Pond, said someone had to do monitor duty incase Dragaunus attacked."
"Darn it, Wing!" Dive snapped. He popped up his com and was about to yell his brother out but then closed it. He turned towards the store and grabbed the phone and dialed a number. "Hey, could you grab Wing and bring him to the park. He's holing himself up in front of Drake One again. Okay, thanks."
"Who did you call, Dive?" asked Mallory.
"One word – Phil," Dive said.
Mallory shuddered. "Your evil Dive, even I wouldn't sic Phil on my worst enemy."
"I know, but it's the only way to get Wing here. Phil said he would bring him to the park. I told him to look for the Migrator." Dive said, as they headed for the Migrator and headed for the park, where they saw Mookie waving them over.
"Where's Wing?" asked Mookie, as she looked at the others.
"Phil's bringing him later," Duke said, as he helped them unload the food that Mookie had in her car.
"What are you planning on feeding, Mookie, the third world nations?" asked Mallory, looking at the huge amount of food.
"Well, you guys eat a lot of food and so I made sure we had enough food for the entire concert and fireworks, Mallory." Mookie said, as she looked at the food.
Mallory nodded as she helped Mookie flap out the blanket and sat down on it. It was only then, did she have a chance to look out over the park to see it packed with people, wearing all types of hats or waving the American flag.
"Mookie, is this a festival celebrating this countries roots?"
"Yes," Mookie said.
Mallory nodded. "This should be a treat, the old DuCaine festival on Puckworld, isn't overly celebrated any more, some cities still do fireworks, but not many."
"Why did people stop celebrating?"
"Because most stop believing Drake DuCaine ever existed, so what's the point?"
"Too bad, well this should make up for it."
"I hope so," Mallory said, as she got comfortable as the conductor came onto the stage and started the orchestra to start the first song of the concert.
It was about an hour into the concert, when Phil and Wildwing finally made it to the park, just in time for the final song which the song that they did had actual canons which fired off blanks during the song. To Wing, he could see Mookie, Mallory and Tanya crying to the song itself. He just didn't get the reason for their tears for a song that had cannons boom off in it.
Phil saw Wing's confusion. "The song is about the wars that were happening in 1812, between Canada and the USA as well as Britain and France; it's called the 1812 overture."
"So who wrote this…'overture'?" asked Wildwing, turning towards the orchestra as the music started to get stronger and then it went soft as it ended.
"Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, one of the best musicians that ever lived." Phil said.
"I like it, of all the things you've dragged me to; this one isn't so bad," Wing told Phil as he went to join the others.
The next thing that happened in the sky was the start of the firework display. The ducks were breath taken, most of them had never seen a fireworks display this grand, Wing was close to tears and he missed her, if only things could have been different. Dive looked over to his brother and scooted next to him. "You miss her don't you?"
"Yes, if Dragaunus didn't invade, we wouldn't be on this planet but Puckworld and we would be working on finding a home together and getting ready to get married," Wing said, as he looked at the sky as the fireworks went on.
"Everything happens for a reason, or so I've been told, just don't give up hope." Dive told Wing sympathetically.
Wing smiled, she had told him the same thing. Just then, a red heart appeared in the sky. Wing smile went even bigger as he saw it.
Chameleon was watching the fireworks going off and he hit the switch which made the Raptor become visible. Dragaunus had managed to slip outside under his own cloaking device and he turned his head to see the lighthouse reveal what it really was as he dashed back into the ship and got the cloaking device turned back on. He glared at Chameleon for his stupidity on turning off the cloaking device.
"We spent most of our ship's energy to get onto this cliff and if we're found by those blasted mallards, your head will roll and I do mean it, Chameleon!" snarled Dragaunus.
"Sorry boss," Chameleon said.
"Sorry isn't good enough; I can't afford any screw ups!"
"Sorry, boss, it won't happen again," Chameleon whimpered, as he crouched low to the floor making himself to be as small as possible.