Episode 13: Nosedive's Big Imagination
The mighty dragon flapped its wings as the warrior held onto the rope that he lassoed around the beast's neck.
"You're mine, dragon!" shouted the human, but the creature refused to give up.
Then, without warning—
"Hey Dive!" someone shouted and the young mallard quickly shut the book.
"What are you doing? What's behind your back?" Wildwing said to his brother.
"Nothing!" Nosedive protested, hiding the book behind his back.
"Oh yeah, what's this?" Duke teased, taking the object out of Nosedive's hand.
"It's…it's about Earth's ducks," the young mallard quickly replied.
"'Lord of the Dragons?' This is about Earth's ducks?" Duke asked, throwing the book to Wildwing.
"You guys are real jerks! Give me that!" Nosedive demanded, struggling to get the book back.
"I thought you like comic books?" Wildwing asked, giving the book back to his brother.
"I do, but Trash and Moki gave me this, said it's very cool," the mallard replied.
"Well, you better put that down, we'll be late for practice," Wildwing commanded, but Nosedive gave a frown.
"Man, I hate practicing at a time like this," he said, grumpily.
Up on the ice rank, the two princesses watched as the Ducks worked tirelessly to perfect their moves.
Nosedive, however, was daydreaming about the book he was reading and his imagination got the best of him.
"You're mine, dragon!" he shouted, believing the puck to be the dragon from the story.
"Yo Dive!" Mallory cried out, but the young mallard ignored her as he pretended to lasso the dragon.
"Watch out!" Subria called out as Nosedive slammed hard into the wall.
"Ouch!" he cried in pain.
"Oh Dive, your imagination ran wild, again. You gotta keep it under control!" Wildwing demanded.
"But the dragon…!" Nosedive replied, but his brother held up a hand.
"But nothing! If you screw up during the pre-trials, you're out!" the older brother shouted and the young mallard gave a sniff, and then stormed off the ice.
"You shouldn't have been so hard on him," Pearl said to Wildwing.
"I know, but if he keeps reading fairytales then his brain will tell him that dragons, witches, and houses made out of gingerbread are real," he said to her and she had to chuckle.
"Actually, witches are…or were real," Pearl replied.
The other Ducks kept on practicing, while Nosedive was blowing off steam in the bleachers.
"I don't need Wing to tell me what to do! I'll show him! I'll show them all!" he angrily said to himself.
Then, he stepped on something and he looked down to see a book with no title on the cover.
"Hello, what's this?" he asked, picking it up.
He flipped a few pages to discover that it was a journal, not a book.
"Oh cool!" he exclaimed, but discovered that the last entry was not finished.
"Hmmm, I hope whoever lost this wouldn't mind if I write in it," Nosedive said, hiding the journal under his jersey.
Down by the ice, Subria's senses went haywire and she nearly collapsed.
"Subria! Are you okay?!" Pearl asked, but then her senses went wild.
"Girls!" Wildwing cried out as the Ducks came to their side.
"Did you feel that?" Subria asked her friend.
"I did," the princess answered.
"Feel what?" Mallory asked and the princesses stared at them.
"A spell page, a powerful one," Pearl answered.
Tanya popped open her Omi-tool and her radar sensor found faint levels of a strange presence down by the mall.
"I got a faint reading on something," she said to them.
"We should check it out this evening, just to be safe," Pearl informed and the Ducks went to the locker room.
"Hey, where's Dive?" Subria asked.
"Probably went back to read that book," Wildwing said as he changed out of his jersey.
"Maybe you're right about him, his imagination does run wild," Pearl replied and he nodded in agreement.
()()()()()()()
Up high on a building, the 'Raptor' hid from plain sight.
"My lord, I sense a great spell in my mind," Louran said to Dragaunus.
"Good, since you declared the last one to be worthless, I want you and Wraith to capture it as soon as possible," the dragon king demanded.
"We will have to wait till dark, that will be the best time," the wizard replied.
"Very well, just be sure you don't mess up this time," Dragaunus said, impatiently.
Wraith took Louran aside, "I don't know if I can last another week with this lunatic," the Saurian whispered.
"All I ask is patience, and then we'll be rid of him," Louran replied back.
"Then I hope the spell you sensed will be the right one to kill him," Wraith begged, but his comrade shook his head.
"The right one will turn up soon," the wizard replied, once more.
The two decided to wait till it was time to go after this one spell.
()()()()()()()
Night-time came with the humming of crickets and quiet streets, but the Mighty Ducks and the two princesses were ready to head on out.
"Nosedive, where are you?!" Wildwing called out.
"I ain't going this time!" the young mallard shouted back.
"What? Why?" Tanya asked, utterly confused at her comrade's change in behavior.
"I…I don't feel so good, yeah that's it!" Nosedive quickly answered.
"Oh Dive, you have to get up early in the morning to think something like that," Wildwing replied, shaking his head.
"I swear, I feel sick," the young brother said.
"I'm afraid we don't have time for this, I have a feeling that Louran might get the spell before we do," Pearl informed the others.
"Okay, suit yourself Dive, get lost in your wild world of make-believe!" the leader shouted to his brother and the Ducks and the princesses hurried to the Migrator.
"Oh, is that so?" Nosedive said to himself, taking out the journal and began to read the last entry.
The Migrator's tires burned on the asphalt as it headed towards the mall.
When they arrived, Subria's senses were out of whack, "It's definitely here," she said to the others.
"I can feel it, too," Pearl replied.
"Shhh!" Mallory shushed them, "There's someone here," she warned and the Ducks took out their weapons.
They carefully looked around the outdoor mall when someone shouted, "Hey! Put down your weapons!"
The Ducks scrambled and were surprised to see Kelghorn a few feet away.
"Kelghorn, don't do that!" Duke shouted, trying to calm his beating heart.
"Mind if I ask what you Ducks and my ladies are doing here after hours?" the captain asked.
"There's a spell page around and we have a feeling that someone else, besides you is out here, too," Wildwing explained, but then, a shadow peered over them.
"I'm afraid you are right, Ducks," a familiar voice called out and they turned to see Louran and Wraith atop a building.
"Oh nuts!" Kelghorn shouted, taking out his gun and was about to fire.
"Hold it!" Louran demanded, using the 'Fire' page to make the Ducks' weapons and Kelghorn's gun feel hot.
The two wizards came down to their level, Wildwing placed himself in front of Pearl, "What do you want?" he demanded.
"As I said, I get this spell," Louran said, but the Ducks angrily stared at him.
"And who died and made you king?" Kelghorn asked, bitterly.
Louran didn't get the joke, but replies, "Do you have any idea where the spell is?"
"Yes, do you?" Pearl asked and the two pointed down the dark walkway where a pair of eyes glimmered in the blackness.
The spell captors were confused by this, till they saw it was a cat walking towards them.
"It's just a cat," Pearl replied, but the others were still staring at the animal.
"Uh, you might want to take a look, again," Duke informed and the princess gave a second look at the cat. The creature was actually seven feet tall with big paws and it walked passed them.
"Don't make any sudden moves," Kelghorn warned under his breath, but it was too late. The cat turned his head, staring at them, and featured his sharp white teeth, growling at them.
The Ducks, the princesses, the two wizards, and Kelghorn went into a mad dash away from the giant cat, but the creature leapt up and blocked them.
"Okay, okay, nice kitty," Kelghorn said in a shaking voice.
Wildwing then snapped his fingers, catching the others' attention, except for the two wizards, "On the count of three, we run," he whispered.
"One" the Ducks prepared themselves.
"Two" hearts began to pound.
"THREE!" Wildwing shouted and the Ducks, Kelghorn, and the two princesses made an immediate run away from the cat.
"Where are you going?!" Louran shouted, but then, the cat pinned him to the ground with one paw.
"Get off of me, you beast!" he cried out, as Wraith struggled to make the cat move.
Once the group was far from their enemies, they gave a sigh of relief, but Grin pointed to something, "I believe we found what we're looking for," he said.
There at the newly furbished fountain stood a woman with light-blue skin and wearing a blue medieval dress and pointy hat and holding a wand.
"The 'Big'," Pearl replied stepping in front of the spell. The woman moved her wand and touched a gold-fish in the fountain and it grew to a gigantic size.
"Wow, they call you 'Big' for a reason," Grin informed, but then, the spell's wand touched him, too.
"Uh-oh," Tanya said and they watched as Grin grew as big as the fish!
The 'Big' stood up, featuring itself to be at least seven feet tall and it looked at Pearl, curtsying to her. Without hesitation, the princess opened to an empty page and calls out, "'Big', I command you to return to the spell book from where you came!"
The spell obeyed and it entered the book, its picture featured on the blank page. Then, Grin and the fish began to grow back to their regular size, and so did the cat, which ran off before the two wizards could do any harm to him.
"How did it feel to be a giant?" Duke asked, laughing at Grin.
"Two words: Lay off," the grumpy Duck informed his comrade.
Subria quickly returned the fish to the fountain and it swam away, unaware of what just happened.
()()()()()()()
Back at the Pond, Nosedive just finished reading the last entry in the journal, and was thinking of what to write in it.
"Okay, there's a kingdom with a sad princess, who never knew how to be happy, and…" his brain began to work and then he began to write.
Over at the mall, the Ducks and the princesses confronted the two wizards, "Admit it, you creeps, you'll never get all of the spells," Kelghorn said, angrily.
"You keep dreaming, because one day I'll get that book and I'll have you Ducks roasted alive! And as for you Princess Prywden," Louran replied, pointing at Pearl, "I'll make you pay for what your grandfather did to me!"
"If you want her, you have to get through me!" Wildwing shouted and blasted pucks at him. The others began to fire rounds at the two wizards and they teleported away.
"The nerve of them! I really want to rip his hair off of that Louran!" Mallory replied with boiling anger.
"Calm down, besides, we got the most spells and-" Pearl stopped speaking when she noticed something behind Mallory.
"Pearl, what's the matter?" Wildwing asked, but the princess pointed to the thing behind Mallory.
Then, the object vanished and the others failed to noticed, "I swear I saw something, a girl, only she was transparent," the princess replied.
"You mean a ghost?" Tanya asked and laughed, "They don't exi…exis…they're not real."
Just then, the pale girl returned; she wore a yellow dress with a tiara in her hair. She glided across the ground and they noticed that she had no feet and she vanished, again.
"Okay, what's going on here?" Duke replied, clearly freaked out.
Suddenly, a panther appeared and the Ducks were prepared to fight it off, when it turned its head to them.
The panther had spirals for eyes, which threw the Ducks off, "What is that? I never seen a big cat like that before," Mallory informed. Just then, the panther sprouted wings on its back and it flew around them and then, all sorts of animals appeared, with wings on their backs.
"This is really weird," Wildwing said, bewildered by this event.
Pearl began to think, examining a winged mouse with spiral eyes, "This must be the work of the 'Create'," she informed.
"The 'Create'?" Mallory asked as a friendly rabbit jumped into her arms and she petted it.
"Yes, it has the ability to give existence to anything that is written in its book, but I wonder who is using the spell?" Pearl said, while she stroked a horse' neck.
Back to Nosedive, the young mallard's imagination got the best of him, again, and he began to write something.
Back at the group, the wind suddenly picked, blowing away the strange animals, and the Ducks looked up at the sky as a huge dragon flew over them.
"I have a pretty good idea who is using it," Duke informed.
"Nosedive," Wildwing answered for him.
The dragon stomped on its giant feet, making the ground shake underneath them.
"How are we going to capture this big thing?" Tanya asked.
Pearl, however, immediately thought up an idea, "Tanya, you're a genius," the princess said, taking out the book.
"Hold on, what are you doing?" Wildwing asked.
"If I use the 'Big' spell, I'll be just as big as that and be able to fight that," Pearl answered, but the mallard shook his head.
"Leave that to me, you're in charge of capturing this spell," he replied and she nodded in agreement.
Pearl turned to the 'Big' spell page and commands, "'Big', make Wildwing grow!" The spell surrounded Wildwing and he began to grow as big as the dragon.
"Don't say a word," his voice boomed, causing the others to shutter in fear.
The giant mallard walked towards the dragon, "Hey big boy!" he called, catching the creature's attention.
"Ready to get your face pounded?" he asked, again. The dragon roared and Wildwing cracked his knuckles, "I'll take that as a yes," he said and charged at it.
"The brave warrior, risking his own life, wrestled with the mighty dragon," Nosedive wrote in the journal.
Wildwing got tangled in the dragon's tail, but he managed to get the creature onto its back. Suddenly, the dragon gave a kick at Wildwing's abdomen, causing him to land on his bottom.
The creature rose over the mallard and it appeared that it would win the battle as it summoned a fire-ball in its mouth.
However, it stopped moving and it began to disapparate.
"I love cliffhangers," Nosedive said to himself, shutting the journal and placing it on his nightstand and headed to bed.
"Wildwing, quick, I must capture it before it disappears!" Pearl called out. The mallard took the princess in his hand and he held her out to the vanishing dragon.
Pearl opened the book to an empty page and shouts, "'Create', I command you to return to the spell book from where came!"
The journal vanished from the nightstand, but Nosedive was unaware of it, and the spell entered in the spell book.
"You know, this sort of reminds me of King Kong, only you are Kong," Pearl said to Wildwing and they laughed.
"Hey Wing!" Duke called out, "You don't want to be like this forever!"
"Now that you mentioned it, this isn't so bad, but I'd rather be myself," Wildwing answered and then, the 'Big' spell's power began to ward off, returning him to normal size.
Pearl, on purpose, wrapped her arms around Wildwing's neck and he held her in his arms.
"I have to admit, that was pretty fun," the mallard said.
"I feel bad for Nosedive, what should we tell him? That he happened to use 'Create'?" Subria asked them.
"Actually, I think I might have just the thing," Mallory replied and they returned to the Migrator and went back to the Pond.
()()()()()()()
Morning came and Nosedive was eager to open his new journal and write what was on his mind.
However, he noticed that the journal was gone from the nightstand!
"Oh man, where is it?!" he panicked and was about to tear the room apart.
"Hey Dive, can you come out here?" his brother called out.
"I'm a little busy, can it wait?" Nosedive shouted back.
"Now please!" Wildwing called and the young mallard left the room.
He noticed the group gathered by Drake 1 and he joined them.
"Okay, what is it?" he asked, grumpily.
Pearl opened the spell book to the 'Create'.
"Hey, that's my journal, what's it doing…?" Nosedive stopped, realizing that it was a spell page.
"Congratulations Nosedive, you found your first spell," Subria replied.
"What are you talking about?" he asked in a confused tone.
"Since you found it, it's yours to summon as well, but I recommend not using it since it is a bit dangerous," Pearl answered and held out a pen.
"You mean it's mine to keep?" Nosedive asked.
"Not to keep, but to summon when we're in danger," Pearl answered, again.
"However, we do have something for you to put your wild stories in," Mallory said, showing a big journal with bird designs on it.
"Gee thanks," he replied, not amused with the cover art, but he grew excited at the many blank pages in it.
"By the way, when will you finish your first story?" Wildwing asked his brother.
"Seriously?" Nosedive replied in a confused tone.
"Nope, we really want to hear what's in your mind," his brother answered and Nosedive immediately went back to his room.
"I would say pretty soon," Pearl answered for the others and they chuckled.