"Alright, I'm getting closer to it.", Charyus said to himself as he observed the two enchantium he made the other day, "Forgetfulness and Petrification are now added, but they won't last very long. If I had only remembered that one ingredient I need to make the spells I craft permanent."
Chameleon came into the room and noticed Charyus looking deep in thought.
"Um, may I offer a suggestion?", he asked a little nervous.
Charyus looked his way.
"You may.", he said calmly.
Chameleon felt bolder by that. Unlike Dragaunus who would often overreact and yell, Charyus communicated in a calmer and respective tone that made him feel more like a team player rather than a tool.
"Instead of mixing ingredients from one planet, why not mix others with the ones you already used?"
Charyus shook his head.
"I've already tried Chameleon, but no avail. I told Dragaunus this would take a little long to recall everything from memory."
Chameleon nodded.
"Yeah, too bad you couldn't go back in time to see what you did to make your spells permanent."
Charyus then smiled.
"No, but I think I know a spell that can help us with our issue."
At that moment, Dragaunus came into the room looking angry and smoke billowing from his nostrils.
"So what brings you here my lord?", Charyus asked calm as ever.
Dragaunus' expression darkened.
"I've given you weeks to destroy the ducks and every time you fail me!"
"It's progress my lord.", Charyus answered, "I'm getting closer and what I assured you will happen if you just be patient."
Dragaunus didn't look so sure. How could Charyus still be so positive after so much failure, he might never know, but he was losing his patience quite fast. Charyus however was stirring and adding ingredients.
"Withered clover, claws of cat, salve of poison ivy, powdered light from an eclipse and flame of elemental plane."
The cauldron frothed and bubbled as Chameleon pulled a Balerium crystal from his satchel ready to contain the spell Charyus was conjuring.
"And now, the rain from a polluted cloud and salt from Typhos waters."
The mix frothed and flowed and Charyus turned to Chameleon.
"And finally, a horseshoe from an unfortunate accident on horseback."
A dented horseshoe floated into the mix and the cauldron bubbled faster and frothed higher. Dragaunus was about to bow again, but Charyus issued Chameleon who used tongs to dip the crystal he had into the mix. After a minute or two, the mix settled and Chameleon pulled the crystal out. Charyus eyed the design and smirked.
"Like I said Dragaunus, be patient and results will happen."
Dragaunus still didn't look convinced.
"It better, or I'll scorch your scales."
"Noted.", Charyus answered.
/
"Any luck?", Wildwing asked.
The ducks had woke up that morning, but Phil was nowhere to be seen. They had fanned out and searched and after a while, they regrouped.
"Nothing on our part.", Canard stated.
Nosedive shrugged.
"Mallory and I found nothing."
Grin said nothing so Duke spoke up.
"No sign on our part."
They all turned to Morpha who had come into the cabin and Nosedive came over to it.
"Morpha, have you seen Phil?"
Morpha looked thoughtful and it's blue coloring turned white. Wildwing then looked suspicious as did Tanya and Duke.
"He's hiding something.", Tanya stated.
Wildwing came over.
"Morpha, did you do something to Phil?"
At that moment, Phil came into the cabin covered in dirt and looking pretty miffed.
"Whoa, what happened to you?", Mallory asked.
"Your pet buried me.", Phil said rather annoyed, "And in the middle of a phone call I was making. Now I need to take as shower before that big photo shoot of you guys before the big game Saturday."
As Phil went to do so, the ducks couldn't help but snicker.
"Our dog actually buried our manager?", Duke chuckled.
"Well at least we didn't have to hear him calling us out for a while.", Tanya put in.
After the ducks pulled themselves together, Morpha then shifted into an alarm clock and started ringing. Wildwing saw the time Morpha displayed and quickly got his act together.
"Okay ducks, we need to get our practice in. Let's move out."
As the ducks filed out, Phil had finished his shower and was dressed in fresh clothes when he got out and was on his way to the Migrator following his team and with Morpha trotting alongside him in it's dog form again.
/
At the rink, as the ducks practiced, Phil tried to make the phone call he made earlier that morning and also looking for a quick buck as usual, Morpha observed too, though the cold atmosphere in the place made it a little stiff. It made it's way into the back where the heat vents helped it regain it's flexibility and then it noticed something nearby. It was a shadow on the wall, but it flattened itself into a pancake and slid across the floor to get a better look. Turns out it was Charyus and Chameleon with a new crystal out and put into a ray gun.
"Are you sure this is going to work?", Chameleon asked.
Charyus nodded.
"Quite sure. If I used the right ingredients, this spell should swing the odds in our favor."
Morpha got a little scared and it hurried away, but unfortunately it bumped a pipe getting the lizard's attention.
"What was that?", Chameleon asked.
Charyus snapped his claws and a bolt of magic flew from his staff, circled the corner and before Morpha knew it, it was trapped inside a bubble and floating right in front of Charyus and Chameleon.
"Well, it looks like we caught ourselves a spy.", Chameleon said firmly as his head imitated a mob boss.
Charyus' eyes narrowed.
"Indeed and a little distraction on our part."
Morpha struggled as Charyus placed his hand on it's head, but it all was in vain as Charyus' eyes started glowing and Charyus chanted an ancient tongue. Morpha went limp and the bubble dispersed and Charyus took his hand away.
"There. Now hand the ray over Chameleon."
Chameleon didn't look so sure.
"Um, is that wise?", he asked, "What if this thing turns on us?"
Charyus smiled.
"It won't. It's going to deliver our gift and the ducks won't suspect a thing."
Chameleon shrugged.
"Works for me."
He handed it over and Morpha extended a tendril that wrapped around the ray gun and then it walked off as if nothing happened. Charyus' smile widened.
"Try and meddle now ducks."
/
The ducks got off the ice and were in the showers going over what they just went through.
"Nice block out there Wing.", Duke commented.
"Your steal was most effective.", Grin put in.
"Not to mention I managed to get by my own big bro.", Nosedive added.
Canard rolled his eyes.
"Don't let this go to your head.", he said calmly, "We did good out there, and we might be able to pull it off."
Wildwing sighed.
"Dive just got lucky that one time. We can't always rely on luck to win our games."
None of the other ducks could disagree with that.
"We need to know our roles and keep doing our best.", Mallory put in.
After they had changed, they got out and the lights flickered for a minute.
"What was that?", Wildwing asked.
"Probably a short circuit.", Tanya suggested, "Power must have been faulty."
They got out a little further as Phil was coming down with a rolled up flier.
"Okay ducks, you got a-"
He was cut off cause Canard tensed and that caused everyone to pause.
"Hit the deck!"
The ducks moved just in time to see a blast of gray light fire from somewhere. The blast bounced around and kept going until it finally hit Phil and knocked him down. It didn't do anything to him as it appeared, but Canard wasn't convinced.
"What was that?", Nosedive asked.
Then a faint crash made them turn to see Morpha land at the base of the stairs they were on and a device smashed beside it. Morpha reformed as the ducks came over, but Tanya noticed the device.
"Hello, what's this?", she wondered.
Wildwing did a scan with his mask.
"Seems like some kind of ray and I bet Charyus is behind it."
The ducks noticed a crystal in the ray that turned black and then dissolved into dust. Canard's expression darkened.
"Oh yeah, this has those lizards written all over it."
Phil got up from his position only to slip and fall down the stairs landing beside the ducks.
"Ow!"
"Talk about bad luck.", Duke commented.
A while into the morning, the ducks noticed something strange.
"Phil seems to be having a lot of bad luck lately.", Canard noted as the ducks noticed Phil slip and fall into a tree only to be chased by a swarm of angry bees.
"Maybe that blast did something.", Mallory stated.
Canard looked thoughtful. When Phil finally managed to avoid bad karma to be still, Canard did an aura reading.
"Yep, this is magic involved."
Nosedive groaned.
"Man, not more freaky magic. This always happens whenever Charyus is involved."
Phil however overreacted.
"I've been cursed by a saurian!"
He ran off screaming with the ducks following. They were about to find him when they got a call from Drake 1.
"We need to move out.", Wildwing said firmly, "Grin, you take Tanya and Nosedive and see if you can get that bad luck spell on Phil dispersed. The rest of us will see what's up."
While the others went off, Grin, Tanya and Nosedive tried to find Phil. Luckily they didn't have to look far cause Morpha showed up again and was near a broom closet.
"Is he in there?", Nosedive asked.
Morpha's color turned white and it's face grinned which clearly read one thing: mischievous. Morpha knocked on the door.
"Go away!", Phil called from behind the door.
"Oh Phil, there's a huge contractor here who wants to sign us up for a big payout to you.", Nosedive said calmly.
The door opened and Phil came out only for Grin to grab him and Tanya helped hold him while Nosedive invoked his Create spell. He quickly scribbled a good luck charm which magically appeared around Phil's neck only to have Grin slip and Phil slipped out only to then freeze and stand up straight looking both confused and worried.
"What happened?"
The charm Nosedive conjured dispersed and Phil's face brightened.
"I'm-"
Then a light bulb from the ceiling and almost hit his shoulder which made him freak out again.
"Still cursed!"
He bolted in the direction of his office, but the ducks didn't look worried.
"Okay Morpha, jokes over."
The broken light bulb dissolved and shifted into Morpha who had white coloring again and rolling on it's back like it was laughing.
"Should we tell him?", Tanya asked.
Nosedive and Grin looked at each other.
"Maybe when everyone else gets back."
/
Wildwing avoided another barrage of plasma shots as Professor Cerebellum took aim again.
"Did you have to use giant mechanical spiders?", Duke called out.
Cerebellum tapped his microphone/bull horn.
"I had assistance you feathered parasites!"
Dr. Droid's head showed up on the dashboard beside him and both scientists looked overeager.
"Launch the mini drones!"
The haul of the enormous spider opened to let out wasp bots that joined in the fight.
"Man, I hate bugs.", Mallory said firmly as she slashed a couple apart with her Sword spell.
The spider fired nets lined with electric wire, but Canard avoided it while using Aura to deflect it.
"So you're teamed up with a cybernetic lunatic?", Canard asked.
Dr. Droid looked angry.
"I'm not a lunatic!"
"Well let's see.", Wildwing countered as his shield deflected a couple wasps, "You're crazy, you plan on taking over, and you're not very nice. I'd say that counts as a lunatic."
Cerebellum pulled a lever.
"Then let's see how you tackle my special detonation beetles!"
A few flying beetles attacked, but they were beeping. As they got close, they blew up before they could get close enough to cause damage. Droid looked at Cerebellum annoyed.
"You made the timer too soon!"
The ducks by now had the upper hand and Cerebellum pressed a sequence in his dashboard.
"What are you doing?", Dr. Droid asked.
"Taking down our problem while putting our machine on auto pilot.", Cerebellum answered.
The head of the spider popped off and became an escape pod that opened it's mouth to reveal a large cannon only for Duke to appear on top of it and smile at the two villains.
"Hi.", he said smiling.
He threw a puck at the dashboard and it started beeping. He leaped away and landed on a ledge and Cerebellum pressed a button.
"People might ask, 'Why have a back up dashboard?', and I might add, 'For back up'."
Droid and Cerebellum were about to take off, and the dashboard exploded and they were sent flying.
"Curses!"
The spider collapsed and fell apart at the scene and the ducks headed back to the Migrator.
"Well, that went well.", Duke said dusting himself off.
/
Charyus was beside himself.
"I give these two scientific minds one task and they can't do that one..simple..thing?!"
This time, Dragaunus was the one smiling.
"And you actually thought this would turn out differently."
Siege nodded.
"You know, for an oracle, he's really not all that bright."
Charyus looked their way with a cold glare.
"That amoeba misfired and hit the wrong target.", he said harshly, "And the magic preserving the enchantium I just made is waning. They wouldn't be if I had the one ingredient I can't seem to remember."
Dragaunus didn't stop smiling.
"As much as I would love to scorch your scales Charyus, watching your schemes fail is starting to become somewhat of amusement to me."
Siege snickered.
"Yeah, who needs magic when our technology can produce weaponry that can overcome anything?"
Charyus' expression hardened.
"Obviously I need a new strategy, but it's all in progress of knowing what I'm up against."
Dragaunus rolled his eyes.
"While you do that Charyus, I'm going to look into what creatures you have in Dimensional Limbo and see what you have remaining. Maybe someone you know will have better luck than you have been."
He went off with Siege following leaving Charyus alone, but the saurian oracle smiled wickedly.
"Smile while you can Dragaunus, cause when I find the one gem that I'm seeking, even you will know not to underestimate me."
