All the rest of that morning, the ducks kept Morpha away from Phil which was easier said than done. Whenever Morpha thought Nosedive was away for to long, it showed up in it's dog form, but luckily Thrash and Mookie were there to help out and keep it company.
"This is so cool.", Mookie stated as she observed Morpha shift from a dog into a miniature version of Nosedive and then back again.
Thrash was equally impressed.
"So Dive, you're saying that this is your new pet?"
Nosedive smiled.
"That appears to be the case as long as a certain word isn't said, Morpha is my definition of the perfect pet."
Then Nosedive remembered something.
"Oh hey, I got to get to practice for the big game tonight. You're both going to be there aren't you?"
"Don't worry about that.", Mookie assured him, "We'll be there alright. And we'll bring Morpha too."
"Catch ya later dude!", Thrash called.
Morpha tensed and started shifting and growing rapidly much to Thrash and Mookie's surprise.
"Whoa, what's it doing?", Mookie asked.
Thrash was speechless.
"I don't know, but we better tell Nosedive and his bro."
As Morpha was reaching final shifting, it paused again and then shrank back to it's original size and dog form. Now the two humans were interested.
"What happened?", Thrash asked.
"I'm thinking we found the trigger words for Morpha.", Mookie explained before turning to Morpha, "Later."
Morpha started growing and shifting again only Mookie kept her cool.
"Bro.", she said.
Instantly, Morpha paused in it's metamorphosis and shrank back to where it started. Thrash smiled as he and Mookie had found out what caused Morpha's shape shifting. Yep, they had nothing to worry about now.
/
Charyus stirred the goo inside his cauldron as he watched it bubble and change color.
"Dust from a distant moon, three leaves of a Viscous Lasher plant, shard of mirror of a royal wizard, and the chain link with dried blood on the inner rim.", he recited as he continued stirring.
The stuff bubbled faster and then thick smoke billowed out and filled the room. The vents opened as Charyus coughed and struggled to stand while the smoke cleared out.
"Of all the rotten luck.", he grumbled, "I haven't had successful enchantium brewing all day."
Siege came into the room and noticed Charyus while making a suspicious face.
"Having trouble with your magic brew?", he asked coldly.
Charyus dusted his shoulders.
"A minor set back. If I had my tome where I had my recipes for magic spells, I'd have an entire arsenal of enchantium at my disposal."
Siege didn't look impressed.
"Screw your enchantium, I got something that will not only put the ducks out of commission, but give us real power."
Charyus didn't like where this was going. Dragaunus was more into technology than the mystic arts that he and Wraith praised. If Dragaunus would just give him time, he would be able to show what enchatium was capable of. Siege went off and Charyus waited til he did before talking.
"Wasn't it technology that brought you down on Puckworld or was it your short sighted idiocy that did you in? Wraith always knew you would fail if you didn't rely on the mystic arts the way our ancestors did, but you never took him seriously."
At that moment, Wraith warped in and noticed Charyus' cauldron among a mess that was cleaning itself.
"Another spell miscalculation?", he asked.
Charyus nodded.
"If my tome wasn't destroyed by Canard back in Dimensional Limbo, the whole galaxy would be at the mercy of my will. How goes Pretorius and his little creation?"
Wraith looked glum.
"The doctor is trying to recreate the thing again and this time he'll ensure he has control."
Charyus frowned.
"So Wally let his little blob get out did he? Well at least he's trying to make up for his mistake. Hopefully I won't have to intervene and correct him."
/
Canard passed the puck to Grin who maneuvered past Tanya and was about to shoot when Mallory stole the puck and passed to Nosedive as they headed for the other net. Nosedive was almost slammed by Grin, but he evaded only to be slammed by Canard.
"Eyes open boy.", Canard smiled as Duke took the puck, "Can't always watch your back."
Duke made his way over to Wildwing only to have Grin almost get him. He shot, but Wildwing caught it in his glove just as the buzzer rang.
"Great work team.", Wildwing said after they met up in the locker room, "But we got to up our game tonight. The semi finals aren't going to be easy."
"Hey, we'll do fine.", Duke said calmly, "Canard sure took Nosedive down that last play."
Canard blushed.
"Guess all my exploring in Dimensional Limbo taught me a few fighting techniques that I incorporated into my play. Nosedive almost didn't get hit though. A little faster and he's got it."
Nosedive felt okay that Canard said that. His mind was on Morpha though. Where did it come from and why was it there? Canard must have sensed Nosedive's inner turmoil which should not as come to a surprise from an aura reader like himself.
"Thinking of your pet?", he asked.
Nosedive was a little surprised Canard had guessed so well, but then cooled as he remembered Canard could read the emotions of others.
"Yeah. I'm just worried this doesn't end up to be a trap."
Canard didn't look worried.
"I read Morpha's aura when he showed up. He wasn't planted among us. He was running from something or someone. I didn't get a full read, but I doubt he'll turn on us the way he interacted with you."
As the ducks cleared out and were about to head out, Canard paused and sharply turned around.
"What is it?", Mallory asked.
Canard's eyes looked around.
"There's something here and it's watching us."
At that moment, a gray transparent tendril shot out of the stands right at the ducks who jumped out of the way just in time to evade it. Many more came out from around the stands keeping the ducks on the move.
The ducks shifted into battle mode and were about to open fire when the tendrils split and eventually the ducks got snared and pulled to the center of the ice where gray goo melted from the stands came to and formed multiple humanoid slimes with the tendrils for arms and a tower of slithering goo for legs. The heads had blank eyes and no mouths yet the eyes moved like they had eyebrows.
"Well, all comfy are we?"
The ducks tensed.
"Who said that?", Canard asked.
Wildwing looked thoughtful.
"Wait, that voice sound familiar."
Out of the stands came a bald man with glasses and a lab coat on. Wildwing's eyes narrowed.
"It's Dr. Pretorius."
"The nut case who trapped you in a human town and tried to use you for science?", Canard asked.
Dr. Pretorius came forward looking pleased.
"I see you met my new creations. I admit that the last time I was ill prepared for you, but now I will extract your advanced alien DNA for perfecting my pets while Canard will be through more testing. I hear he has been in contact with such marvelous energy and will be drained of it."
Canard's eyes narrowed.
"How do you know about me?", he asked, "And how could you make something so advanced like this?"
"A simple answer for both questions.", Dr. Pretorius answered, "I received information from a very powerful backer."
He held out a photo of Charyus and the ducks were shocked for a second.
"Unbelievable.", Duke said.
Dr. Pretorius snapped his fingers and the ducks felt the tendrils tighten as he came closer.
"I see you're familiar with this backer of mine. He specifically asked me to retrieve your mask and bring it to him."
Dr. Pretorius pocketed the photo, but before he could get closer, blue tendrils came out and severed the gray ones. Everyone turned to see Morpha in his own humanoid slime form and his blue color turn red.
"I see you still live my flawed experiment.", Dr. Pretorius said calmly, "But your base outline made my soldiers here most effective."
Morpha's eyes narrowed and his tendrils formed razor blades.
"Are you planning on fighting me?", Dr. Pretorius asked, "Later."
Morpha paused and started shifting into it's colossal form.
"Bro!"
The ducks turned to see Thrash and Mookie nearby in the stands. Dr. Pretorius frowned.
"So you figured out my flawed soldier's trigger words eh?", he stated as he pointed at them, "Destroy them!"
The soldiers started to move, but Morpha stretched out a tendril and severed the ones binding the ducks. The ducks then engaged as Dr. Pretorius kept out of reach. Nosedive noticed that while Morpha's trigger words were being said left and right, Morpha's state grew more and more unstable like it was about to fall apart. Grin invoked his Freeze spell and Dr. Pretorius' soldiers were now popsicles on the ice. Dr. Pretorius yelled the trigger word again and this time Morpha was going from blue to red to every color as it shook and twisted faster and faster. Nosedive fired a puck at Dr. Pretorius which turned out to be a bola one which tied up the doctor. Before he could say the trigger word again, Mallory shut his mouth with her hand.
"Morpha?", Nosedive asked.
Morpha only vibrated faster and then he burst into a hail of color changing goop that covered most of the place including the ducks.
"Is he dead?", Duke asked.
As if to answer him, the goop slowly slid together and Morpha reformed his humanoid shape again. Thrash and Mookie came around the stands to where the team was.
"He okay?", Thrash asked.
Wildwing looked concerned.
"We might be able to later."
The ducks looked to Morpha only to see Morpha didn't shift at all. Morpha did shift into it's dog form again and the next thing the ducks knew, it was on the ice as if it was in a coma.
/
A while later, Tanya came in with Morpha. She had been with him all the while after Dr. Pretorius was handed over to the authorities and his soldiers were dissolved.
"How is he?", Wildwing asked her.
"I checked his molecular structure and everything like last time.", she answered, "I guess since the trigger words were said so many times in such short time period, that it was just too much for him to take. Luckily he's amoeba based so he could reform after he blew himself up and now the trigger words don't work for some reason."
"Maybe he overrode it when he blew?", Duke guessed.
"Morpha's inner peace is reborn as he is.", Grin put in sagely.
Thrash and Mookie had followed them to the cabin where they had brought Morpha and were just as interested.
"So does this mean we can keep him?", Nosedive asked.
Mallory didn't look so sure.
"After it blew up like that? How do we know it doesn't have another trigger word that could make it go ballistic again?"
Wildwing's eyes narrowed.
"She's got a point Dive. We don't even know why Charyus even had Dr. Pretorius make it."
"My guess is that Morpha was ment to spy on us.", Canard stated, "But it had second thoughts and when it met Nosedive, it found the person it wanted to be with."
Morpha had been quiet all this time and it shifted into it's humanoid slime form with it's eyes looking sad as it's form turned dark blue as it rubbed it's left side with it's right arm. Canard felt his sorrow and he could feel it's uncertainty.
"So what are you going to do with Morpha?", Thrash asked.
"Well, he saved us from Pretorius and he's not showing signs of danger.", Wildwing said calmly, "I'm guessing we can keep him."
Morpha's color changed to it's normal sky blue color as it looked Wildwing's way as if wondering. Nosedive looked equally interested.
"Did you just say what I think you said big bro?"
Wildwing sighed.
"I said he could stay."
The next thing all the ducks knew, Morpha had tendrils around their waists and pulling them into a giant hug as it's color turned pink. Thrash and Mookie sighed.
"Morpha, release.", Thrash said firmly.
Morpha did so and it shifted into it's dog form.
/
The stands were all a buzz as the ducks had the puck and headed down the ice. The opposing team was great, and they had a few bad plays, but the ducks wouldn't give up.
"With the Ducks behind by one goal, this semi final game is really heating up! And the Penguins have the puck, with this much excitement we're going to have a glorious game!"
"Go Ducks go!", the fans screamed.
Duke cut off the offense and allowed Canard to get in and get the puck back.
"And Canard steals the puck! Now the ducks are on offense and oh, Canard looks like he's in a jam!"
Canard saw the opposing team members coming in to slam him, but he passed the puck and Mallory got it.
"And Mallory has a successful pass and now she reaches the goal...she shoots...she scores!"
The goal rang as the puck slid passed the goalie and hit the net.
"And the score is tied! With only thirty seconds left, will the Ducks score or will this game be posted?!"
Mallory passed to the opposing team's path with Grin and Tanya covering her. They took out the others just in time for Duke to steal the puck.
"And Duke steals and passes to Nosedive."
Nosedive neared the goal and then out of the corner of his eye, he saw an opposing team member trying to slam him and he remembered earlier that day. He ducked and the player went over him.
"And Nosedive evades the play. With only ten seconds left!"
Nosedive passed to Canard who neared the goal. He shot and he made the goal just as the buzzer rang.
"And Canard scores! The Ducks win the game!"
The ducks met up and raised their sticks together.
"Ducks Rock!"
/
Charyus had the circle made and had his staff at the ready. The other saurians were there too, but Dragaunus wasn't looking thrilled.
"Why are you doing this Charyus?", he asked harshly, "After the failure he gave us?"
Charyus smiled.
"He can prove useful to us my lord. Getting him away from the police was child's play, and since he's such a huge fan of us, I'm going to reward him for his efforts."
"His efforts ended in failure.", Wraith pointed out.
"I know.", Charyus said calmly, "But soon, he'll be more useful to our cause and we could use another ally in our situation."
He faced Pretorius who was floating in the center of the circle and looking asleep. Charyus then started chanting in an ancient language and the circle began to glow and spin. It spun faster and faster until a dark mist rose and enveloped Pretorius. After a while, the shadowy cocoon lowered and dissolved revealing another saurian that had the features of a frilled lizard and torn garments on.
"Arise Pretorius!", Charyus commanded, "Arise my servant!"
Pretorius' eyes opened and his face twisted into an evil smile.
"I live to serve ."
"Turning a corrupt human being into one of us?", Chameleon asked looking confused, "Not exactly what I call helpful."
Charyus looked his way.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Pretorius looked at his reflection and checked himself. Charyus looked his way.
"Welcome aboard Doctor. I look forward to working with you as long as you deliver results." Dragaunus' expression darkened.
"If this fails Charyus, I will burn not only his scales, but yours as well.", he said threateningly though Charyus didn't look phased.
"I know what I'm doing.", Charyus said calm as ever, "Soon the ducks will face their ultimate doom."
