Hidden in the mountains near the national park not far from Anaheim, the Raptor was cleverly cloaked and had blended in with the area nicely, but inside was another story.
"Again, those cursed ducks thwart my plans to release the saurian war fleet!", Dragaunus roared as he blew a drone to bits, "And now our allies are sent back to Dimensional Limbo leaving us to fend for ourselves yet again!"
He paused to notice Charyus was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is Charyus?", he asked harshly as his nostrils smoked.
Chameleon wasn't one to keep quiet, but by now he had gained enough confidence to hold his nerve.
"He teleported away. He wouldn't tell me what, but only that it was important."
Dragaunus' expression darkened.
"Siege, get the control panel to locate Charyus and see what he's up to. Wraith, take Chameleon and salvage as much as the balerium crystals that you can and get that crystal maker back up so we have a steady supply again."
The three went off to do their duties as Dragaunus turned and fried another drone.
"Those ducks may have bested me this time, but I'll find a way to get those-"
He was cut off when Siege called in.
"My lord, we detected a major power source near the desert dunes."
Dragaunus made his way to the bridge to see the panel was operational again and the readings were certainly worthy of his attention.
"Can you get a closer reading?"
Siege pressed a couple buttons and a closer image came on to the screen. It looked like an average meteorite, but something was inside it which would explain the reading.
"How soon will we be able to get that rock?", Dragaunus asked.
Siege turned his way smiling devilishly.
"Immediately."
/
Canard twisted and turned in his bed. Clearly he was having a nightmare and it was all too familiar. He was recalling the first time he went to Dimensional Limbo. Normally this wouldn't phase him too much, but this time it was ending and another started up.
"Do they know?"
Canard paused. He was floating in nothing but space, but he knew that voice which only confirmed his suspicions when he turned to see Charyus floating casually nearby.
"I thought I made it clear that I don't want to make a deal.", he said firmly.
Charyus smiled and lifted his hand as his eyes glowed with dark light. Canard felt pain as he also noticed his body was shifting from transparent to solid rapidly.
"What is this?!", he demanded, "My team beat you!"
Charyus' smile didn't flinch.
"You only sealed your own fate.", Charysu chuckled, "By destroying that anti magical crystal, you have made it so can send you back to Dimensional Limbo anytime I choose."
Canard's eyes widened with surprise.
"So you telling me that my summoning was temporary was a bold faced lie?!"
Charyus' smile got bigger.
"You read my mind. Chroma set it up, but I have ultimate control. So here's my deal: get me Wildwing's mask and I'll break this enchantment you're under."
Canard's expression darkened further.
"I'll never betray my friend just to save my own feathers demon."
"Then don't try.", Charyus answered calm as ever, "And when I send you back to Dimensional Limbo and Wildwing will be haunted by the fact only I can free you from that plane of existence and we'll see if he's willing to let go of his most prized possession to-"
"Leave Wing out of this Charyus!", Canard snapped, "I'm not your little drone and I will not be swayed by your words. Wildwing won't either."
Charyus floated a little away, but still smiled.
"We'll see.", he said calmly as he vanished away.
And Canard woke up. After looking around, he saw he was in his room and in his bed too.
"Geez, that's the last time I let Nosedive dare me to eat triple spicy tacos before bed.", he said as he laid back down to get back to sleep.
/
The following morning, Wildwing was getting up when the aroma of burning food hit his nostrils.
"Nosedive must be trying to cook again.", he muttered.
He made his way to the mess hall to find that the place wasn't on fire, and the food was okay, but it was Canard who was cooking this time. Wildwing would have dismissed this except Canard had this haunting look in his eyes.
"Canard?", he asked coming over.
Canard froze and turned around fast.
"Yeah?", he asked.
Wildwing grew concerned.
"Canard are you okay? You look like you've seen death itself."
Canard tried to calm down.
"Sorry, I just had a bit of a nightmare and Charyus was in it."
"Canard, Charyus can't do anything to you.", Wildwing said trying to calm his friend down, "Charyus was probably bluffing."
Canard felt a little better. If Charyus did anything, he would use his aura to hold it off for a while. Canard went back to his cooking just as Nosedive came in in his pajama bottoms sniffing the air.
"What's cooking?"
A short while later, the ducks were all dressed and just about ready to head out when the alarm went off. Tanya did a quick scan and the coordinates came up.
"We picked up teleporter energy not far into the desert."
"Let's move!", Wildwing called out.
A few minutes later, the Aerowing was in the air and heading west into the desert. When they reached the area, nothing seemed out of place, until the ground opened up and several large mechanical worms came out with large cannons on either side of the heads and opened fire.
"Evasive action!", Nosedive screamed.
The Aerowing avoided the barrage and opened fire back. The middle worm then fired a ray that made the Aerowing freeze in midair.
"People might ask, 'Why install a space disruptor?'."
The ducks got attention as their communications screen came on to reveal Professor Cerebellum writing on a pad.
"Note to self: use space disruptor more often.", the penguin genius noted as he wrote.
"Hey, didn't you get sucked into Limbo?", Mallory asked.
Cerebellum snickered.
"You think a mere vacuum hole in space could hold the greatest of the intergalactic geniuses? I anticipated you would come here if I made a disturbance. And after thwarting the saurians, I took the liberty of holding back while the saurians brought themselves to their own defeat. I would know cause one showed up with a bunch of drones and after I explained, he left with a piece of meteroite which I took the rest of and compressed into the power core of these-"
He paused cause the Aerowing was out of the space disruption and was online again. Cerebellum took his pad out again and wrote another note.
"New note to self: never brag when you're under a time limit."
/
While the fighting resumed, Charyus watched from afar and chuckled.
"Well, you think I have no hold do you Canard? Well, allow me to give a little hint."
He lifted his hand and his bauble appeared to reveal Canard assaulting one of Cerebellum's worms from the inside. Charyus pinched his claws and Canard fell over as he clutched his side in pain. Canard strained to open his eyes as his aura glow surrounded his phasing body.
"So you're trying to use aura to delay me are you? Well, that might work, but for how long?"
Charyus kept his claws pinched and he could feel Canard resisting, but then an explosion came up and the bauble broke sending Charyus backward a few feet.
"Darn it. Lost the link.", Charyus muttered, "However, now Canard knows I have a noose around his neck. If he won't be swayed, maybe another member of the team can. But who?"
He paused a moment to go over what he knew. Canard and Wildwing were obviously too strong willed to be swayed due to them having contact with the mask longest of the rest, Duke would be willing, but only to an extent, Mallory and Tanya were instantly disposed of as opportunity due to Tanya pausing to describe what she would do and cut it last second and Mallory being a soldier would be hard to sway. That left only one other besides Grin who Charyus deemed strong, but not persuadable. As Charyus thoguth about it, a smile came over his face.
"Of course. If I remember right, Nosedive has a voice that can control others if they dare listen.", Charyus chuckled to himself, "Not only did it break enchantments his fellow ducks were under, but it repelled entities as well. Just the kind of thing for a sneaky sorcerer like me to use against the others."
He warped back to the Raptor only to be met with Dragaunus who was looking pretty miffed.
"You don't look happy to see me."
Dragaunus' nostrils flared as smoke billowed out.
"I place my trust in you and just when victory is within our grasp, you let it slip-"
Charyus waved his claw and Dragaunus froze in place.
"I ment to.", he said calmly, "A minor set back, but worth it. The ducks may think they have bested us, but I always have a few tricks up my sleeve. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a special little enchantment to brew for a special little duck."
He was about to leave when Siege came in with a fancy new blaster and noticed Dragaunus.
"Why is Lord Dragaunus frozen?", he asked harshly turning to Charyus, "The meteorite you had Cerebellum send out had been retrieved."
Charyus smiled bigger.
"Excellent work Siege. Incorporate it into the mainframe of our drones and prepare for next assault."
/
The ducks got back to the Pond where they found Klegghorn looking both concerned and upset.
"What's up cappie?", Nosedive asked.
"Never mind the talk.", Klegghorn snapped as he held a newspaper out, "Have you seen the news lately? People are starting to get a little unhinged."
Wildwing read the headline and grew just as concerned.
"Locals decree 'Alien Ducks Go Home!'. Weird phenomenons claimed to be linked to duck's presence and people vote on exiling local hockey team."
"Hey, this isn;t the work of that one reporter like from last time would it?", Duke asked.
Klegghorn shook his head.
"He's the one who gave me the heads up. I hired him as a private investigator for the forces and he's kept his nose clean. We don't know what's causing all of this, but these meetings are taking place somewhere and I need you birds to find out what it is."
"Hey, since when are we official help?", Nosedive asked.
"If you want the public to vote you off the planet and leave those lizards to take over be my guest.", Klegghorn said firmly, "I'm going to try and get to the bottom of this, but it seems you birds are my best bet."
Wildwing nodded.
"We'll do what we can Klegghorn. Thanks for the heads up."
Klegghorn gave a smile as he got into his cruiser and drove off while the ducks went inside.
"Tanya, get a scan of all the places where these meetings took place. We might find out where the next one is.", Wildwing instructed, "Duke, we might need you to infiltrate and find out what's running this."
Duke went to get his gear while Tanya went to Drake One to do the scan.
"Any ideas on what might be behind all this?", Mallory asked, "Seems like something Charyus would pull."
"Maybe.", Canard answered, "But Charyus isn't the only foe we're facing. Some of his allies were missed and Cerebellum proves it."
Grin placed a hand on his chest.
"Evil lurks like a serpent among the grass waiting for the perfect time to snare it's victim."
Nosedive then snapped his fingers.
"Oh yeah, Thrash and Mook invited me to an outdoor concert tomorrow night."
Canard could see Wildwing wouldn't let Nosedive go anywhere unless he was assured that Nosedive would make good on his word.
"You know Dive, I don't recall the last time I was at an outdoor concert. Mind if I tag along?"
Wildwing was about to object, but when he saw a glint in Canard's eye, he smiled knowing what Canard was going for.
"Just keep your coms around in case Charyus tries anything.", he said firmly, "And be back before ten."
/
Charyus stirred the contents of his cauldron as it's purple color shifted to dark gray.
"Add the whiskers of a catfish, fangs from a vampire bat, a dash of poisoned flesh of a dead leper, and the dust ground from the bones of a dodo bird."
The mix bubbled and frothed as it's color went to vivid green.
"Add the claws of a grizzly bear, and a dozen rotten eggs, the blood of cat with the hair of a lion's tail."
The mix then turned pale white signifying that it was almost ready.
"And finally, the feather of a dying raven."
He added the last ingredient and the mix gave off an ominous glow and faded to pure black. Charyus used a pair of pincers to reach into the mix and pulled out a ruby with an onyx colored center.
"Another temporary spell?"
Charyus turned to see Wraith nearby looking glum as usual.
"No, a distraction.", Charyus answered, "Once the gateway generator is operational again, I will open a portal to Dimensional Limbo and use this spell to draw the attention of something that will prove useful to us."
"And how do you intend to do that without drawing attention?", Wraith asked, "These primitive earthlings are well aware of our existence."
"Oh Wraith do lighten up for once.", Charyus said sounding bored as he placed the gem on a table nearby, "Have you forgotten I have the spell of Forgetfulness?"
Wraith still wasn't on board, but he knew better than to get on Charyus' bad side. Dragaunus was a clear example.
"So, what exactly will be drawn to this thing?", he asked mentioning the gem.
"As I said, something that will prove useful to us.", Charyus said smiling.
At that moment, a call came in. They didn't see who it was, but Charyus knew.
"The ducks know about the club."
"Excellent work.", Charyus stated, "Continue preparations and have your cult ready to have company."
"As you wish."
The screen went blank and Charyus looked at his new gem with sinister glee.
/
Tanya went over her readings as the other ducks came over.
"Any luck Tanya?", Wildwing asked.
"I scanned the whole city three or four times.", she answered, "Nothing came up."
"How about the waterfront at midnight tomorrow night?"
The ducks turned to see Duke coming over with a flier. He was dressed differently now, but they were used to it.
"Hey Duke, we haven't seen you wear that since our last season.", Nosedive said(breaking the fourth wall again).
Mallory gave a look that told Duke she wasn't comfortable, but she knew she had no choice. Duke laid the flier on the dashboard and Canard's expression grew darker.
"That's the same area not far from where the concert takes place. Why would someone announce where the event takes place?"
"People think it's just a bunch of kids getting together.", Wildwing said firmly, "What else could be the best cover for an undercover operation?"
Canard smiled.
"Well spoken. If those saurians are behind this, they'll not hesitate to throw whatever they have at us."
"Does that include the kitchen sink?", Nosedive asked although he paused when he noticed nobody was getting it, "Hey, just a guess."
Wildwing then brightened.
"Wait, Dive, did you say sink?"
"He did.", Mallory answered, "Why?"
Wildwing put a finger on the flier.
"We know the event is the waterfront and a bunch are going to be there. I'm thinking that there's a connection between this cult and the threat of us leaving."
Duke dusted his shoulders and Wildwing gave him a knowing look.
"Ready to go undercover again?"
Duke smiled
"Certified thief and Brother of the Blade Duke L'Orange at your service."
