"Tanya?" Wildwing asked.
"I'll get right on it," Tanya replied. "I'll need to, you know, pick up some things from Electric Land first."
"Fine, but take someone with you," Wildwing instructed. "From now on, we travel in pairs. Until we figure out where Ruby went and what her plans are, we don't go anywhere alone."
"Ruby?" Tanya asked in surprise and confusion. "As in Ruby Rotente?"
"Turns out there was a reason the blue beak looked familiar," Mallory responded bitterly. "Ruby Rotente isn't dead, like we were lead to believe."
She glared at Duke.
"Hey, it wasn't for lack of tryin'," Duke replied with a shrug.
"You want to tell us what happened the day you found Amber?" Wildwing questioned.
"It was the day Dragaunus and his goons first came to Puckworld," Duke started. "I wasn't in the direct line of fire, but I was close. After the ships moved off, I joined a search and rescue group. We heard a couple of girls screaming for help. We were able to dig a hole down to them, but I was the only one small enough to fit. When I got down to them, there was this weird glow. The older sister was a blue beak and her eyes were glowing. It looked like she was holding the debris away from her sister. I got the younger sister out and handed her off to the other rescuers. Then I went back and knocked the support beam out which caused the house to cave in. I barely got out of there alive. Never thought that she'd survive having a house dropped on her."
"She told me that mages are fairly indestructible," Wildwing stated. "From what I've seen so far, I have to believe her."
"Mages?" Nosedive asked.
"That's what they call themselves," Wildwing answered. "Calling her a blue beak to her face will likely get you zapped."
"So, why didn't you tell us that this was Amber's sister we were dealing with?" Mallory demanded of Duke.
"Would it have really mattered if you had known her name?" Duke counter questioned. "She would still have the mask. Besides, I wasn't one hundred percent sure it was her. When I dropped the house on her, she was a good deal bigger. She's a lot thinner than I remember."
"None of that matters right now," Wildwing interrupted before Mallory could harangue Duke any more. "Let's get back to base."
"Who wants to go with me to Electric Land?" Tanya inquired.
"I'll go with you," Mallory offered. "I'm not quite ready to go back. Maybe I'll get another crack at her."
"All right," Wildwing said. "If you do run into her, call for back up immediately. Do not engage her in a fight unless you have to. Klegghorn was right, we could have hurt someone today. We need to be more careful."
"Will do," Mallory agreed with a nod.
Wildwing and the other males headed toward The Pond while Tanya and Mallory went off to the electronics store. They never thought that their day wasn't over by a long shot.
With a sigh of relief, Ruby shut the motel room door. She carefully placed her bags on the bed and tossed the room key onto the nightstand before turning back toward the door. She was so tired, but she needed to ward the room before she would feel safe. Once that was accomplished, she would finally feel at peace. She needed to be calm before she could start aligning her energies with this planet's energy. She couldn't be calm if she didn't feel safe.
She placed her hand on the door and cast a spell that would only let her and those that she allowed into the room. She repeated it for the window. Then, for good measure, she reinforced the walls, floor and ceiling. They wouldn't be completely impervious to an all out attack, but it would slow the enemy down.
She tiredly sat on the bed and gave in to the need to scratch the back of her hand. It had been bugging her for hours, but she didn't dare show weakness in front of the other ducks. She remembered how she had to get her hand out of the protective bubble so she could hide The Mask. She got a scratch on the back of her hand for her troubles.
The scratch was so minor that the doctors hadn't even bothered to put a bandage on it. She gave her hand another scratch and felt a strange anomaly there. She turned on the light next to the bed so she could examine her hand. Her heart nearly stopped and she definitely stopped breathing for a moment.
Three feathers on the back of her hand were broken and half of them were missing. She fought off going into a blind panic. She got up and started to pace the room. Chances were those feathers were lining some animal's nest or blown far away. However, she needed to be sure.
She got the maps out of one of the bags and spread them out on the floor. She lined the edges of the maps together as best she could. She touched the most central map and sent the magic through the paper. It took a few minutes, but when the spell was done, she had one large map.
"Show me," she commanded the map and spot appeared on the map where she was.
"Show the Mighty Ducks," she ordered and a moment later, six more dots appeared.
Four spots were fairly stationary at a place the map labeled The Pond. The other two were moving toward the first four. She could find out which two, but they weren't important at that moment.
"Show The Mask."
It took her a moment to find the dot at the edge of the map. The dot wasn't too far into Weir Canyon Regional Park, but the park wasn't within walking distance of her current location. She was going to have to figure out how to get there and quickly.
With a wave of her hand, the dots disappeared and the map folded itself up. By the time it was done, it was the same size and shape as one map would have been. She grabbed it and headed back to the bed. She dug around in the bags until she found the messenger bag she had bought. After transferring some of her money into it, she put the map and room key in too. She took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves.
The broken feathers were probably blowing in the wind. She was just going to get The Mask. It wouldn't do for someone to damage the tree just to get at the object within it.
She gave a snort of disgust at herself. Sometimes it really sucked not being able to lie, especially to one's self. She knew if the wrong person got hold of those feather fragments, she would be in big trouble.
She yanked the broken feathers out of the back of her hand. She called the fire and evaporated the ruined feathers. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Without a backward glance, she exited the room and made sure the door shut firmly behind her. She headed down to the lobby to find the best way to get to the park. Time to fulfill her job as a Keeper.
"Awwww, look at the duckies in love," Chameleon cooed at the screen.
"Will you shut it?" Siege snarled.
"What's this?" Lord Dragaunus demanded as he entered the control room.
"Just some video the humans got of Wildwing and Mallory getting to be more than team mates," Siege answered with disgust.
"How vile," Dragaunus grumbled as he turned the monitor off. "WRAITH!"
A cloud of mist rose up from the floor and the Saurian wizard stepped out of it a moment later.
"Yes, my lord?" Wraith responded.
"How is that little project of yours coming along?" Dragaunus asked.
"Preparations are almost complete," Wraith answered.
"Excellent, " Dragaunus chuckled evilly. "Soon there will be at least one less duck on this wretched planet."
Ruby stepped out of the cab a few blocks from the park entrance. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she didn't want to chance the Mighty Ducks finding out she was going after The Mask. She wasn't up to another fight.
She paid the driver with a generous tip and watched him drive away. As soon as he was out of sight, she turned and headed toward the park. The spirits of the air danced around her joyfully, glad to be out of the confining space of the vehicle. She couldn't help but smile at their silly antics.
She had befriended them in the cab. They weren't the best allies as they tended to be flighty and a bit air headed. However, they were a start and they were everywhere. They also made excellent spies if you could keep them focused.
It was fully dark by the time she reached the park entrance. Getting in wasn't a problem, it was the lack of light. The moon wasn't up yet and it was getting darker the further she got from the street lights. She went around a bend and the darkness became almost absolute.
She decided to risk creating a light to help her see. The ball of light wasn't much bigger than a puck, but it helped her see the path she was on. She kept the light low to the ground and started to walk again.
She ignored the air spirits as they fluttered around the ball of light like moths attracted to a flame. She was concentrating on locating where The Mask was. She knew it was in the park, but it was hard to feel where exactly because it was so far away from her.
She could hear water nearby and decided to make a little detour. It was a long shot to get the water spirits to accept her, but she had to try. They were mercurial, always changing and very temperamental. They would be great allies, but they could be very dangerous enemies. With the light leading the way, she carefully made her way down to the creek.
She found a fairly flat spot and sat down. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She let all of her worries and concerns go, bringing a calmness to herself.
When she felt she was ready, she reached for the water. Where it should have been, there was only air. She moved her hand a bit, but again, the water avoided her.
The air spirits danced around her and the small light. She ignored them and kept her calm. She wasn't surprised that the water wasn't willing to accept her, at least not yet.
She waited until the moon came up, but still, the water spirits refused to come to her. With a sigh, she stood up, brushed herself off and headed back to the path. Once there, she could see that the moon was just past full and was casting enough light for her to see the path. She extinguished the magical light and continued on.
When she came to a fork in the path, she sent the air spirits to look for the tree that felt like her. She stood there for some time waiting. When they did return, less than half had come back and of those that did return, only few remembered what they had been sent to do.
Once she got a coherent answer, she took the right path and started to climb. She repeated the process several more times until, at long last, she could more accurately detect the tree on her own. It was part way up a hill on the other side of the river. The same river that nearly took her life.
She could feel the animosity from the spirits in the river. They didn't like the fire she carried within her. She sent the air spirits off in search of a bridge. While the creek was small and avoided her touch, the river was large and could easily attack her. If she was ever to make peace with those spirits, it was best not to anger them right now.
Fortunately, the air spirits returned with the location of a bridge. To reward them for being so helpful, she gave them a little bit of her energy. She took a chance of having some of the spirits follow her around for the rest of whatever, but that was fine.
The more one became attached to a mage, the brighter and more focused it became. They could become a type of magical pet. The down side was that given enough time and energy, spirits could become Elementals. Elementals were nobody's pet.
She soon found the bridge and crossed the river. She wondered if the river was normally this active at this spot or if it was upset that she was so close to it. She crossed quickly so as not to rile the spirits any more than she had to.
She could feel the energy of The Mask close by and she followed it as best she could. She created another light so that she could walk the narrow area between the cliff and the river. The loose rocks and dirt made for hazardous walking and she'd rather not have a twisted ankle. She still had to get out of the park after she got The Mask and checked on the feathers.
She slowly made her way to the spot under the tree and looked up the cliff. The moon was almost to its zenith, but even with it and her light it did not look like a fun climb. With the way her luck had been running lately, she'd probably end up back in the river.
Not wanting to go for a midnight swim, she looked for an easier way up. The spirits were of no help since they couldn't understand how she couldn't just fly up to the top of the cliff like they could. It took her over an hour to finally find a way up and it was still pretty steep going.
When she finally got to the stand of trees, she was hot, sweaty and out of breath. The sandwich she had for dinner was hours ago and her stomach rumbled in protest from all of the calories she had been burning. Using magic could be just as exhausting as a heavy work out.
She was in much better shape now than she had been when she first became a mage. However, she still wasn't up to par to a hockey player. She put that out of her mind and did a quick spell to locate the broken feathers. When she came up with nothing, she moved on to the tree with The Mask.
She placed her hands on the trunk and felt the bark move under her hands. Could it be? Were the earth spirits willing to accept her already?
Earth spirits were slow, steady and stoic, but once their trust was earned, they were the most solid of allies. The problem was, she wasn't sure she had the time to make friends with these spirits. Aligning with earth spirits usually took hours and she had heard of one mage who had spent days becoming attuned to them. She decided that she didn't have the time or the energy to properly introduce herself to the earth spirits right at that moment.
"Mask, reveal yourself," she commanded.
She nearly startled herself with her own voice. After hearing the night sounds of the park for so long, it was a bit of a shock to hear something else. She silently laughed at herself and shook her head. Then she frowned.
The Mask didn't come to her. She knew she had the right tree. She could feel the magical energy about 10 feet above her.
"Mask! Reveal yourself!" she ordered forcefully.
She felt it try to respond to her, but it was being blocked. The spirit of the tree was holding it back. She tried for a third time, but the tree's spirit wouldn't cooperate.
She could try forcing the tree to give up The Mask, but that would probably end up damaging the tree and badly hurting its spirit. If she did that, her chances of making allies with the earth spirits would be shot to heck. There was no helping it. If she wanted to get The Mask back, she was going to have to align herself with the earth.
With a sigh of defeat, she settled herself at the base of the tree with her hands folded in her lap. She calmed and centered herself like she did before. She presented herself to the earth and expected to be there a long time.
What she got she could have never anticipated. A surge of energy so strong and powerful hit her and it set every nerve in her body tingling. She gasped and grabbed hold of the ground, digging her fingers into the dirt. Her heart was pounding and her breath came in short gasping pants. The energy became more and more intense and she could feel her body start to writhe under the assault. She was sure she was about to die just as the power gave one last burst and she let out a scream that echoed through the woods.
She collapsed onto her side at the base of the tree panting. She felt as if her bones were made of water and her muscles had turned to mush. Tears streamed from her eyes, soaking into the ground. She doubted she could move, even if her life depended on it.
Something landed on her before hitting the ground next to her and she didn't even flinch. It took her several minutes before she could gather her wits enough to see what fell on her. With a shaking hand she gently touched The Mask. With a relieved sigh, she pulled The Mask closer to her so she could put it away.
That's when the first hunter drone appeared.
Sweet blessed sleep, how Wildwing wished he could obtain it. He had tried warm milk. He had tried taking a bath. He had even tried reading one of Tanya's technical manuals in hopes that it would send him to dream land. Instead, the milk made his stomach upset, the bath had left him edgy and the book had made his eyes cross and gave him a headache.
His last ditch effort was to exhaust himself. He had set up an automatic puck launcher and was blocking shots for a couple hours. When he missed more shots than he blocked, he was pretty sure he was exhausted enough to finally get some shut eye.
He dragged himself back to his room, shed his goalie equipment and took a quick shower. He collapsed onto his bunk with just his boxers on and blissfully fell asleep.
Almost immediately he began to dream. The dream was a strange thing. He was walking along a nature trail at night with a small glowing light leading the way. Strange transparent things flitted around the light.
The dream faded out and when it came back, he was seated next to a stream. His hand was where the water should be, but the water was avoiding him. Some small part in the back of his brain noticed that the hand was the wrong size and color to be his own.
Another fade and he found himself facing a dark river. He couldn't understand why the river seemed to hate him. How could water hate?
Another fade and he was beak to bark with a tree. Those hands that weren't his own were on the trunk of the tree. Did that tree just move?
Suddenly, he was sitting on the ground, his back to the tree. He could feel himself relax. He felt good.
With a startled shout, he fell out of bed. He felt like he had touched a live wire with his bare hands. His feathers were all standing on end and he laid there gasping for air. As his head started to clear, the emergency klaxon went off.
He scrambled up off the floor and got dressed. He forced himself to move quickly despite how his muscles felt like jelly. He left his room hopping on one foot as he put his boots on.
He got to the control center first, but the others were right behind him. He let Tanya go up the ladder to Drake One before him. By the time he was standing next to her, she was typing furiously away.
"What have you got, Tanya?" he asked.
"There are strange energy readings at the meadow," Tanya replied.
There was no need to ask her which meadow. They all knew.
"Are the other mages opening another portal?" Mallory asked.
"I don't think so," Tanya answered. "The energy isn't exactly the same, though hers is there too."
Before any more can be asked of Tanya, another klaxon went off.
"What the heck was that about?" Wildwing demanded.
"Saurian teleporter readings in the same area!" Tanya exclaimed in surprise. "Whatever they're teleporting, it's big. I mean, like, huge!"
"To the Aerowing!" Wildwing ordered.
No one questioned his command. Mage and strange energy readings or not, there was no way they could sit by when the Saurians were on the move.