Dragaunus had the Mask set down on a table in his labs. Although Chameleon tried, he couldn't wear the Mask and it automatically electrocuted him when he tried to put it on. Siege chuckled at Chameleon's misfortune.

"Where is he?!" Dragaunus roared at Ryan in anger.

"I told you," Ryan said calmly, "I left Mercury a message. He'll be here soon, Lord Dragaunus." It had been twenty four hours since the Saurians claimed the Mask from the Mighty Ducks and twelve hours since Ryan was able contact his so-called ally, Mercury, but he had to leave a voicemail because Mercury didn't answer.

"He had better arrive soon." Dragaunus growled, impatience gouging him.

"So what are we gonna do when Mercury reprograms the Mask?" Siege said as he looked the Mask over.

Ryan cleaned his glasses as he spoke, "Who knows? Mercury will be the one adding new features and making it work for other species besides ducks." Just then, Ryan's phone vibrated in his pocket and he answered it. "Hello?…Mercury, where are you?…You lost your gateway watch…again?" Ryan sighed as he pinched his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "…Alright, hang tight. I'll get you here…Yes, yes, I know. Just know this is coming out of your paycheck." Ryan hung up and used his wristwatch to open a dimensional gateway in front of him. Moments later, a young man, much younger than Ryan, came through. He looked to be at least 20 years old. He had dark blue eyes and long pure white hair that went down his back to his knees. His outfit was strange, having black and white checkered patterns on his shorts, wearing a white dress shirt with a long black vest and tie and black and white sneakers.

Dragaunus had his arms folded, an unamused look on his face. "Took you long enough, now…" He paused to eye the mask, "…our moment of triumph approaches." The Saurian OverLord sneered.

"Great way to say 'hello'." Mercury said sarcastically while rolling his eyes. "So what am I repairing and/or remaking?"

"First, you'll be repairing this ship." Ryan reminded him as he motioned around.

Mercury snorted in amusement. "This hunk of junk? Are you SURE we couldn't have just given them one of our BETTER ships?" He asked.

"Mercury." Ryan lightly scolded.

"What?" Mercury said. "I mean, it's impressive, don't get me wrong, but…" Mercury knocked on a nearby wall three times. "…our ships are MUCH better."

Ryan just sighed at Mercury. Dragaunus scowled.

"He's kind of right, My Lord. The Raptor has seen better days." Siege said rather sadly as he ran a hand over a dashboard.

"Enough about the sorry state of my ship. Can you fix it, Mercury?" Dragaunus asked with a growl, his tail lashed back and forth.

Mercury smirked. "Heh. No biggie. Watch this." Mercury placed the palms of his hands on the wall of the Raptor and suddenly the whole ship started to ship. The metal that was out of place began to shift back into its original position and dents were being fixed easily. The Saurians watched in amazement for a while before everything suddenly stopped and froze in place, but there were areas that were completely fixed. Mercury bent over, his hands off the wall and now on his knees, and breathed heavily.

"Don't push yourself too much, Mercury." Ryan said.

"I know, I know…" Mercury gasped. He then stood up straight and stretched his arms.

Ryan looked at the Saurians and explained, "Mercury Benson has an ability to control metals and such called ferrokinesis, and he's skilled in magic as well, being able to summon Rune Soldiers like me."

Dragaunus had a genuine smile on his face, "Very impressive, thank you." It was rare for the Overlord to be thankful but he wasn't one to not give credit where credit was due.

"Now that only leaves us to find a power source." Siege said as he marveled at the new look of the ship.

"That won't be a problem." Mercury said after he stretched. "Tomorrow, I can fully fix the ship's interior and exterior, and then I'll work on getting some Balerium crystals. I'm sure Lord Ashebridge has some in his supplies."

"Lord Ashebridge?" Wraith repeated.

"Yeah, that's our boss's name." Mercury stated, only for Ryan to elbow him lightly.

"You will refer to him as our 'Lord', Mercury. Never forget that." Ryan said.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Mercury replied nonchalantly. "So what else am I doing here?"

"You will be disassembling and rebuilding this." Ryan moved over to the table that the Mask sat on and picked it up to hand it to Mercury.

Mercury took the Mask and looked it over and whistled, "Damn, this is a fine piece of work. But yeah, I can do it."

Dragaunus couldn't stop grinning. The power of the ducks will belong to the Saurians, and company, of course.

"So you can undo the whole thing where only ducks can use it?" Chameleon said as he rubbed his hands together.

"Of course. I just need a few pieces of equipment and material, and I'll be good to go." Mercury set the Mask down on the table once more before snapping his fingers and pointing at Chameleon. "You and me, green dude. We're going shopping. And by 'shopping', I mean we're going to steal the stuff we need."

"Wait, why do I have to come?" Chameleon asked.

"Because you seem like the easiest one to cooperate with here." Mercury admitted before he pressed a few buttons on Chameleon's teleporter device and they left. Dragaunus and Siege went off to do their own things after that, but Wraith looked at Ryan with suspicion.

Ryan noticed and asked, "Is everything OK, sir?"

"If he could bend metal to his liking, then why not reconfigure the mask with magic? Why steal equipment to do so?" Wraith questioned, though it was more of a bogus question, he really wanted to ask more about Ashebridge but he knew Ryan would just give him the same answer. Wraith couldn't help to wonder if their interests were aligned, or was there some ulterior motive behind all this?

"Unfortunately, that's just how Mercury is. He's a tinkerer. But he gets the job done. One way or another." Ryan answered before looking at his watch. "Now if you'll excuse me." Ryan walked past Wraith with a look in eyes that Wraith could not describe.

-\-

At the Pond, the ducks were practicing for the big game for the Stanley Cup. The date was coming up soon, and because of all the crazy stuff going on, they had to practice as much as they could before the big game. But unfortunately, that didn't stop Phil from giving them public appearance jobs that they didn't care for.

As the ducks were practicing, Wildwing was off to the side helping Canard get his skating skills better.

Canard hobbled onto the ice. He could move quickly again but he had trouble managing his weight on his feet. Canard noticed Wildwing seeming dazed, his brows knitted.

"Something on your mind, Wing?" He asked, holding out his arms to maintain balance.

"I can't stop thinking about the mask." Wildwing answered, feeling weird not wearing it.

"Don't worry. We'll definitely get it back." Canard assured him. Wildwing couldn't help but smile back at his best friend. However, that moment didn't last long because everyone's coms started going off.

"It's a Drake One alert!" Wildwing looked at his com as did everyone else. "Teleportation energy is near a science university in the area."

"Alright, let's kick some scale!" Nosedive cheered. The ducks shifted into their battle gear and hurried to the Migrator. But not before Canard stopped Wildwing.

"I'm not gonna sit back around here anymore. Not after what happened last time." He said to Wildwing. Wildwing wanted to protest, but saw the look in Canard's eyes and knew he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Alright, come on!" Wildwing and Canard followed after the others. Canard put on the armor that was made for him thanks to Tanya. Nosedive had reminded her to make it earlier that week. Of course it took her no time, she was the tech specialist.

After buckling up, the Migrator took off. Wildwing looked forward to getting the mask back, and Canard looked much more forward to getting some payback on the saurians for what they did.

-\-

At the science university, staff and students were forced into a storage room as hostages and all their phones were crushed thanks to Mercury's Rune Soldiers made from Earth magic. As the Soldiers were looking for the equipment, Mercury and Chameleon watched from the sidelines. Mercury reached into his vest, pulling out a box of cigarettes and a lighter.

Mercury looked at Chameleon and asked, "Mind if I smoke?"

Chameleon then transformed into a teddy bear with an anti-smoking sign, "Hey mister, doncha know smoking is bad for you?" Chameleon snickered at the look on Mercury's face and changed back to his usual form, "Go ahead, I don't care." He paused snickering some more. "Ah it's been awhile since I've gotten a good laugh." He wiped away a tear.

Mercury's expression changed from confusion to one of humor and laughed a little. "Okay, that was a good one." Mercury admitted. As the Rune Soldiers finished gathering the stuff, Mercury put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. However, the minute he did, there was the sound of someone trying to break down the door to get in. Mercury and Chameleon looked to the doorway of the room just in time to hear voices coming from the hall.

"Every time…Every time I just want a quick smoke." Mercury said to Chameleon and groaned before taking out his cigarette, letting it fall to the ground, and stepping on it.

"It's those ducks." Chameleon sighed before thinking, "Then again, what can they do? Leader boy doesn't have the Mask. Might as well change the story to the Mighty Saurians," Chameleon said before he wrapped one arm around Mercury, "and friends." He added. Pulling away he shifted into a wrestler, "How's about we go give them a nice unfriendly welcome?" He jeered.

"I was going to suggest that, but…I think we have everything we need." Mercury said, seeing the boxes with the stuff his Rune Soldiers were holding. "What do you say we get out of here?"

"Hmm, even better!" Chameleon agreed. "I can't wait another second, let's get going so I can see what the Mask does!"

Mercury smiled and took the boxes from his Rune Soldiers before he made them disappear. The two of them teleported away. However, there was a small hole in one of the boxes and a small device fell out before they went away. The ducks hurried into the room but were too late and only caught a glimpse of the bad guys getting away.

"Aw rats! They got away." Nosedive said, his posture slumping. Canard spotted a device on the ground, he went over to pick it up.

"What's up, Canard?" Wildwing asked as he watched his best friend.

"Looks like they forgot something." Canard said, showing off what he found. It looked like a circuit board, a small one that had an interesting design on it.

"Let me see that." Tanya offered before Canard handed it to her. "This looks like a device for reprogramming a computer," Tanya looked it over, "or the weaker earth version of one."

"What would the Saurians want with that?" Wildwing questioned.

"You don't think they wanna use that on the mask do you?" Nosedive said, scratching his head.

"We should bring it back to the Pond for further analysis." Tanya suggested.

"Let's first get everyone out of here and make sure they're unharmed." Wildwing said. The ducks nodded and hurried to escort the staff and students that were taken hostage outside of the school.

-\-

"No, no, no!" Mercury groaned and slammed his forehead on the table.

"What's wrong?" Chameleon asked as he was helping set up the stuff for Mercury.

"…We lost the mini circuit board I needed to help make this whole project work." Mercury told him. He looked around to make sure Dragaunus or Ryan wasn't around to hear that. Luckily, they weren't.

"Maybe we need to go back to the university? We could always steal another one." Chameleon suggested.

"No, that circuit board was one of a kind." Mercury said. "I should know…Anyways, the ducks probably have it now. Our best bet is to get into their base, and get it back. Get in and get out."

"But how?" Chameleon asked.

"Just follow my lead. I'll summon Rune Soldiers, they cause a distraction. That should keep them busy long enough for me to sneak in and grab what we need."

-\-

Tanya tapped a few buttons on the machine, her simple creation to identify techs and software was working its magic as it ran over the mini circuit board. "It's gonna be a little bit before this tells us what it really is"

"Guess we could play some hockey to kill time." Duke suggested.

"Bet ya I can score past Wildwing before you, Duke!" Nosedive said.

"Ha! That'll be the day, Dive." Duke laughed as the two off them hurried off to get ready for the ice. However, after they left, the alarm sounded. The other ducks hurried to Drake One and checked the cameras outside and saw fifty Rune Soldiers, ones made of rock and with hammers instead of lances like the ones before.

"Oh great! What do they want?!" Mallory asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like those hammers they're carrying." Tanya pointed out.

Wildwing was worried if they could handle these monsters, but that's when he remembered. "Their backs."

"What?" Canard didn't quite hear what Wildwing said.

"There are symbols on their backs." Wildwing clarified. "That's their weak spots. That's where we aim."

"How do you…?"

"No time to explain! We have to go now!" Wildwing interrupted Mallory. Everyone was a bit shocked by Wildwing's sudden shout but they all hurried and grabbed their weapons before hurrying outside the Pond to meet the Rune Soldiers. The minute one of the ducks got close to one of the stone monsters, the soldier raised its hammer and was about to strike down on them. Canard fired the Rune Soldier in the back with his puck blaster. The Rune Soldier went stiff. Slowly it fell to its knees as it became nothing more than ash scattering in the wind.

"Nice one, Canard!" Nosedive smiled.

Canard took aim at another Soldier, "No time for compliments, we gotta take them down"

"Right!" Nosedive targeted the one on the left. Mallory fired a couple of shots at different soldiers on their backs and they all turned into ashes. Duke did the same but with his saber. However, while the ducks were fighting, they didn't notice Mercury and Chameleon sneaking around the battlefield.

"They learned about the Soldiers' weak spots." Mercury pointed out when he saw his soldiers turning to ashes. "We need to move fast." He told Chameleon. Mercury knelt before an air vent and used his ferrokinesis to crush the plate and rip it off. "If I don't come back in thirty minutes, leave without me." Mercury told Chameleon.

"I wish you luck" Chameleon said, "though I should warn you, that base is loaded with security bots and turrets."

"Don't worry about it." Mercury assured him. But before Mercury went in he turned back to Chameleon and said, "Bet you twenty bucks I can make it out within fifteen minutes." Mercury held out his hand and Chameleon smirked and shook it.

"Heh, you're on." The Saurian replied. After the handshake, Mercury slipped into the vent. However, it didn't go unnoticed. Nosedive was firing at some soldiers and was pushed off to the side as he did so, but he also noticed Mercury sliding into the air vent that led into their base. Nosedive quickly acted and went back into the Pond and hurried back down to their HQ.

-\-

Mercury, once inside, had to deal with the security bots Chameleon mentioned but he dealt with them easily. Not with his ferrokinesis but instead two Beretta 92 pistols he had on him. Putting his weapons away and moving through as quickly as he could, Mercury searched the base for the mini circuit board he needed. Mercury found the board hooked up to a simple looking machine in Tanya's lab, and he began to undo the latches holding it in place.

"Hey! That doesn't belong to you, creep!" Yelled Nosedive.

Nosedive tackled Mercury, and then jabbed the young man across the face. In retaliation, Mercury shoved the duck off of him. In his daze, he grabbed Nosedive by the hair and threw him to the floor.

"It doesn't belong to you either!" Mercury yelled back. He uppercutted Nosedive in the stomach and threw him into the wall by his arm. Mercury quickly turned his attention back to the circuit board, almost getting it free. Nosedive groaned, he heaved himself to his feet and tried to land a hit on Mercury again. The other young man saw this coming and delivered a sharp kick to Nosedive's ribs. Nosedive flew back, and collapsed to the floor. The wind knocked out of him. He groaned, his body protested as he tried to stand only for gravity to pull him back down. Mercury glared at Nosedive, "You know what? I think it's better if you stay on the ground for a while." Mercury tapped his foot twice and the metal floor began to warp like slime until it wrapped itself around Nosedive's body, wrists, and ankles before turning back into solid metal.

Nosedive struggled pitifully against the metal, his muscles tensing with each pull. "So not cool!" He groaned.

Mercury chuckled at the display and turned his attention back to the circuit board. He successfully unlatched it from its prison, and swept the device into his hand and looked at his watch. "Dude! I did this all within ten minutes! I am so getting that twenty bucks." Mercury smiled. Then he looked at Nosedive and said, "Oh and don't worry, the metal will release you as soon as I leave the area. And as much as I would LOVE to watch you continue to try and free yourself from something you have no power over, I can't. I've got a bet to win. Bye!" Mercury waved with a wink before dashing out of the lab. Nosedive gritted his teeth. Pure fury pumped through his veins, but then he slumped against the floor, waiting shamefully for the metal to unclasp from his body.

-\-

Mercury made it back where he came, a wide smile on his face and the mini circuit board in his hand.

"Hey! You got it!" Chameleon smiled.

"And within fifteen minutes! You owe me twenty bucks, dude!" Mercury laughed.

"Hey!" Chameleon and Mercury looked to see the rest of the Mighty Ducks coming their way.

"Oh jeez." Mercury's smile fell

"Let's book it!" Chameleon said as they teleported away.

"They got away." Mallory growled.

Wildwing looked around frantically, "Wait-where's Dive!?"

Tanya tapped a few buttons on her Omni Tool and activated the tracker in Nosedives communicator. "It says he's in the base."

Wildwing dashed for the doors to the pond and began down the stairs to the elevator. The others following behind him. His heart pounded, he hoped his baby bro would be alright. Wildwing gritted his teeth at the mere thought of what that creep could've done to hurt Nosedive. The elevator beeped and agonized to get to the top. As soon as Mercury had teleported away with Chameleon, the metal that was holding Nosedive in place warped back to normal, releasing him. Nosedive sat up tentatively with a groan, his muscles flared and light red marks were left on his formally sealed limbs as he tried struggling the metal chaffed. He heard the sound of footsteps rushing his way. Wildwing came into the lab and saw Nosedive on the ground.

"Hey bro…" Nosedive greeted weakly.

"Dive…" Wildwing helped Nosedive over to the closest chair in the lab. "What happened here?" He asked.

"This white haired dude just busted in and…and took the tiny circuit board." Nosedive explained.

"And you let him get away?" Mallory accused.

"Hey! I didn't LET him, Mal!" Nosedive defended. "He was stronger than he looked."

"Well, you should've been stronger, Nosedive!" Mallory added.

"Mallory, that's enough." Duke told her.

"No, Mallory's right." Everyone looked to Canard, who said that. "I'm not accusing you of letting him get away with the circuit board, Dive. But you should've done better. You're a Mighty Duck, a member of this team." Canard said. Nosedive looked the other way, rather ashamed. "But that goes for all of us. There have been more than enough times these new enemies with the Saurians got the drop on us. It's time we took things more seriously."

"I'm in agreement with this." Grin said. "We need to be stronger, not just in body, but in mind as well."

"I suppose you both are right." Duke added. The other ducks thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. Even Nosedive did before his hands curled around his knees.

Maybe they're right…maybe I do need to be stronger… He thought sadly.

Co-Written with PurpleReign9000

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