"Dive, this place is awesome!" yelled Kristy, bouncing to the music.
"What?"
"I said, never mind!" she had to shout to be heard over the noise. This club was amazing, the music was blasting and the lights were flashing. Kisty and Dive had arrived at the mall only to find it closed, but luckily Dive knew about this cool dance club down the street.
"Hey T, over here," called Dive, motioning her over to a group of human teens. Kristy managed to work her way through the crowd to where they were waiting away from the dance floor. At least it was easier to talk away from the stereo system.
"Kristy, this is Mookie," said Dive, pointing to the girl with a bright pink mohawk, "Mookie, this is Kristy, the latest edition to Earth's ever growing alien duck population."
"Nice ta meet you," Mookie held out her hand.
"Same here," Kristy accepted the hand shake, "I like the hair."
Mookie smiled, "Dude, I could do the same for you if you want."
"Hey duck-girl, don't let her near your hair," warned one of the boys. Mookie just stuck out her pierced tongue at him. "Name's Thrash, I work with Mook at Captain Comics."
"Oh Kriss, you gotta see their comic shop, it's the best!" exclaimed Nosedive.
"Cool, um Dive 're you gonna answer that?" asked Kristy, hearing a now-familiar beeping noise.
"It's not me," said Dive, holding his comm up to his ear, "Check yours."
"Oh duh!" Kristy had forgotten that Canard gave her a comm earlier that evening. She pushed the button hesitantly. "Uh, hello?"
"Kristina Thunderbeak, where in the world are you?" Canard's voice exploded from her comm. "What are you doing? Do you have any idea what time it is? You had me so worried, and you're supposed to be grounded!"
Kristy looked over to Dive for help, but he was dealing with his own problems. "Nosedive! What were you thinking?" Wildwing sounded almost as mad as Canard.
"Kristina, answer me!" demanded Canard.
"Um, well, we just wanted to go hang out with some of Dive's friends and-"
"You were grounded!"
"I'm really sorry," said Kristy, "we were only having fun, and um...I didn't exactly think we'd get caught."
"Stars! Kristy do you know how dangerous it is?"
"Canard, it's not that bad. You're just overreacting."
"Overreacting? Kriss, do you remember what happened today?"
"Okay, I get it! Just let me just get Dive and we'll head back."
"I want you back here now!" ordered Canard. "If you're not standing in front of me in ten minutes I will personally hunt you down and-."
"Alright, I get it! Kristy out."
"So, how bad did you get it?" she asked Dive.
"Bad. You?"
"You don't wanna know, but we've gotta get going."
"Sure," Dive grabbed his jacket, "later Thrash, see ya Mook."
"Yeah, later dude," called Thrash.
"Catch ya later Kristy," added Mookie.
"So how screwed are we?" asked Dive, heading for their parked duckcycles.
"Very." Kristy hopped on and started her bike. "According to 'Nard we've got like ten minutes before he sends out the search party."
"What, they think we'll get lost somewhere between the freeway and the Pond?"
"Yeah, that huge arena is really hard to spot," replied Kristy.
"Whatever. Wanna race?" asked Dive, reeving his bike's engine.
Kristy didn't answer, instead she zoomed off on her duckcycle. Dive knew her well enough to expect this and was right behind her.
Wraith was fuming with anger. How could Dragonus stand that annoying duck? She should've let us into the Pond when she had the chance, not gone chasing after her personal revenge. Lucricia had even had the nerve to blame the Saurians for her failure, and now Dragonus was taking out his anger on his henchmen.
"I'll show him," whispered Wraith, "when I deliver the mask myself Dragonus will have to see her weakness." He returned to paging through an ancient book of spells, then flipped back a page.
"Ah, this could be useful," he said, thinking out loud. It was a memory spell. "Not only will I give Dragonus the mask, I'll make Wildwing's own brother deliver it to him." Wraith remembered his leaders intense hatred for the duck's leader. It was a perfect plan!
"Now, where can I find that meddling duckling?" asked the sorcerer, raising his hand over a map of the city and muttering the simple spell. The green marks showed six ducks still in there headquarters, but two were missing. They were currently speeding down the freeway, and when with a word Wraith saw each duck's image.
Luck of the ancestors was with him, the two lone ducks were none other that the youngest members of the team. Wildwing's brother and Canard's sister, the girl Lucricia had repeatedly tried to kidnap, without success.
That's it, thought Wraith, I'll just cast the spell on both of them. I'll please Dragonus and show up that duck by capturing the girl too. He tore the page with the spell out of the book and teleported away to set his trap.
Drake One's alarm blared through the Pond, calling the ducks to the ready room.
"Wing, what's up?" demanded Canard.
"It's picked up on some teleportation energy..."
"Where?"
"If I knew I'd tell you," snapped Wildwing, typing furiously on the computer.
"Let me do it." Tanya shoved Wildwing out of her way and within moments the location was flashing on the screen.
"Oh no!" The words left Canard's mouth in a gasp.
"Tanya, can you track Dive and Kristy's signals?" asked Wildwing.
"Yeah, just a sec...here! They're approaching the target fast."
"Stars...Kristy, are you there?" Canard tried depertly to reach his sister over her comm.
"Come on Dive, answer," pleaded Wildwing, hoping for, but not expecting, a different response.
"We have to get them," said Canard.
"What're we waiting for?" asked Duke.
"Let's move," ordered Wildwing.
8
Kristy heard her comm go off, but ignored it. A glance behind told her that Dive was doing the same. He held up his wrist and Kristy interpreted the signal to answer her next call. Sure enough, it was Dive.
"I thought we still had four minutes."
"I bet Canard's just calling to yell at me for speeding," said Kristy.
Dive laughed, "You're probably right. Wing would kill me if I got a speeding ticket. Hey Kriss, watch out for the blind turn coming up," he warned.
"Got it...What the?" Kristy was distracted by a bright green flash.
"Kristy, what's wrooooo" Dive was cut off by a sudden force pushing him back, they were both knocked off the rode.
Kristy forced her eyes open and saw Dive sprawled next to her. His duckcycle was a wreck, lying in the background. And mine probably isn't in any better shape.
"Kristy?" asked Dive slowly, "what happened?"
"I don't kno..." Kristy tried to raise her head, but dropped it to the ground immediately. There was a soothing voice murmuring a hypnotic chant, and Kristy couldn't resist. She gave up the fight for consciousness and fell into the darkness. Dive couldn't resist and followed her a second later.