The ducks took to the ice for practice. They were slowly getting used to the idea that the mask was gone for good. None of them were happy about it, but Mallory seemed more upset than the others.
"Take it easy, Mallory," Wildwing admonished after yet another puck hit by her nearly clocked him in the head. "We're on the same team."
"Sorry, Wildwing," Mallory grumbled. "I just can't believe there's no way we can get the mask back. There has to be a way!"
"Tanya's still working on making a viable power supply for the new mask," Duke reminded her.
"Yeah, well, unless Wildwing wants to wear, like, a ten pound battery on his back, it's not happening any time soon," Tanya admitted disheartedly.
"Hey, Duke, you were pretty close to Amber, weren't you?" Mallory asked suddenly.
"I guess so," Duke answered, confused by the sudden change of subject. "She was a nice kid. She seemed to have a bit of hero worship after I saved her. I tried to disillusion her of that. I was nobody's hero."
"Don't sell yourself short, Duke," Tanya stated. "You did pull her out of her destroyed home."
"A home that I then tried to kill her sister with," Duke reminded them. "I'm not proud of what I did that day – or what I tried to do that night."
"What do you mean?" Wildwing questioned.
"That night, after we found a safe place to hide," Duke started as he got a faraway look on his face "I went out, claiming that I was going to go look for more survivors. But I wasn't. I went back to Amber's home to make sure that the job was done."
"Hey, cool!" Nosedive exclaimed. "A flashback scene!"
Duke crept through the dark. He went slowly, ever mindful of the rubble on the ground. What should have taken him an hour to traverse, had taken nearly three. Not that he was in any rush, but the sooner his task was completed, the better.
The moon had come up a short time ago, but it was hard to see because of all the smoke from the still burning buildings. The night had never frightened him, but tonight he was extra cautious. Who or whatever had attacked his world was still out there and he had no real desire to meet them, at least not yet.
He knew he was close to Amber's home from a street sign that had somehow escaped the carnage from earlier. Now it was just a matter of finding the correct pile of debris. Luckily, his mechanical eye helped him discern one ruined building from another in the dark.
As he got closer to his goal, a strange ball of light suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Duke immediately hid behind a half destroyed wall and stopped moving. He watched the light nervously; worrying that Puckworld's enemy had a new type of weapon. If so, he wondered if he could escape it to warn the others.
The ball of light grew from a puck sized disc until it was as big as an adult duck. A sudden flash of light forced Duke to close his good eye, his mechanical eye automatically shutting down. He cautiously opened his eye as his mechanical one came back online. Only years of being stealthy kept him from gasping when he saw what had happened.
The disc of light was now a glowing ring, the center looked like a doorway into brightly lit snowy field. Not that Duke was really paying attention to the scenery through the portal. It was the ducks that emerged that held his attention. There were half a dozen of them, four drakes and two hens, and they all had blue beaks.
Their clothes all appeared to be home made and most certainly not of the latest fashions. In fact, the material looked to be home spun, not that he was an expert on cloth. No one in the group wore jewelry and only the hen in the lead had a leather bag slung across her torso.
"Great Mother of Ducks," one of the drakes gasped as he looked at the destruction around him. "What happened?"
"It doesn't matter," the larger and much older of the two hens stated gruffly. "We need to find the new mage and get out of here as quickly as possible. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Elder," the other five mumbled.
"Good, now spread out," Elder ordered.
Duke knew where they were headed. Using all of the skills he had learned as a thief, he snuck his way over to the remains of Amber's house. He had almost made it when the young, pretty hen got there first.
She slowly circled the pile of rubble, her eyes glowing as she stared down at the ruined home. Duke didn't want to kill her, but the only good blue beak was a dead one. He quietly pulled the hilt off of its holster on his arm. With his thumb on the button that would activate the blade, he slowly started toward her.
"Elder!" the young hen exclaimed excitedly and Duke quickly backed down. "I found something!"
"Where?" Elder asked as the intimidating female carefully made her way over.
"Under all of this rubble," the pretty one stated.
The drakes quickly joined the hens. Once they reached the pile of debris, their eyes started to glow. Duke was doing his best not to run, but it was hard. This was downright creepy.
"There's someone down there all right," Elder confirmed a moment later. "But the energy is fading. We need to get him out of there and quickly."
The other five nodded and then their eyes glowed even brighter. The remains of Amber's home started to shift and float into the air. Duke had no idea how they were doing it, but he knew he had to stop it.
With all of the cat like stealth the thief had, he snuck up behind Elder. The six blue beaks were so engrossed with the remains of the house that they never even noticed him. When he was within striking range, he activated his blade and swung with all his might.
Duke blinked the stars out of his good eye as his mechanical one tried to recalibrate. It took him a few moments to realize he was lying flat on his back, a good ten to fifteen feet away from where he had been standing. He felt like he had that time when he had first become a jewel thief and had touched a live wire by accident.
"I certainly hope you learned something from this, you fool," Elder growled as she glared down at Duke.
Duke tried to sit up only to find himself slammed back down by an invisible force. He blinked a few times and then looked up into the face of the scowling older hen. Boy was she scary looking.
"I think you'd best be staying right there," she growled.
"Elder! We found him!" one of the drakes called
Duke attempted to get up as soon as Elder turned her back, but try as he might, the only part of him that he could move was his head. He looked over as the unconscious form of Amber's sister floated out of the wreckage of their home. The masonry dust that covered the female almost made her look like a ghost.
"It's a girl!" the younger hen excitedly exclaimed.
"There's enough hen there for two," one of the drakes muttered to one of the other males.
With a startled yelp, the drake that spoke was suddenly floating upside down.
"You care to repeat that, boy?" Elder snarled angrily.
"No, ma'am," the drake hastily replied with a nervous head shake.
"Elder, she's barely breathing," the little hen called worriedly.
Elder turned toward Ruby who was lying on the ground at that point. The drake that had incurred Elder's wrath barely managed to not fall on his head as whatever that had been holding him up suddenly let go. He got up off of the ground and glared at the back of the older female as she leaned over the prone figure.
"It's a good thing we got here when we did," Elder stated a few moments later. "She was slowly suffocating on the dust."
Elder held her hand just above Ruby's nostrils. A few seconds later, Ruby out a loud cough and a cloud of white dust came out of her beak. With a satisfied nod, Elder stood back up and Ruby started to float into the air.
"Elder, she's bleeding, too," the little female stated, pointing at the dark, wet stain on the back of Ruby's shirt.
"Use this to put pressure on it," Elder instructed as she pulled a wad of cloth out of her bag. "We'll deal with the bleeding when we get back."
With that, Elder turned and headed back to the portal. The other hen, with her eyes glowing, walked beside Ruby as the unconscious girl floated along. Duke wondered how they could see with their eyes glowing like that.
One of the other drakes stopped next to Duke and stared down at him. The drake's eyes started to glow and a large chunk of wall floated over Duke. The thief started to struggle for all he was worth, but he still couldn't move.
Duke let out a shout as the block fell towards his head and he instinctively closed his eye and turned his head. A sudden blast shattered the chunk of masonry into bits, giving Duke's beak a good clip in the process. The thief coughed as the pebbles and dust settled onto him.
"One of these days, boy," Elder snarled as she grabbed the blue beaked drake by the back of his collar and gave him a good shake. "I'm going to enjoy meting out the justice you so richly deserve."
"But he could tell someone he saw us!" the drake whined as he was dragged toward the portal.
"Let him," Elder snapped. "Nobody'll believe him."
The young male continued to protest while he was half pulled, half dragged back through the magical entryway. As soon as all of the blue beaks passed to the other side, the portal disappeared with a brief flash of light. Then darkness and silence settled on the area once more and it was unnerving as when the enemy ships had moved on earlier that day.
With a shaky breath, Duke realized he could move again. He carefully sat up and took stock of his situation. Other than a chip taken out of his beak, a few bruises and being covered in masonry dust, he was relatively unharmed.
He carefully got to his feet and brushed himself off. He found the handle to his saber several feet away and quickly reclaimed it. A brief scan with his mechanical eye let him know that he was the only witness to what had happened there.
He went over to the hole the blue beaks created and stared down into it. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or not that he wouldn't be adding murderer to his resume any time soon. One thing was for sure, Elder was right. No one would believe what he just saw.
Without a backwards glance, he went off in search of an excuse to give the others about why his beak now had a chip taken out of it and he was covered in dust. Maybe he could find some pain medicine while he was at it. Getting wacked in the beak hurt!
"Dude…" Nosedive muttered in sympathy.
"Thank you, Mr. Exposition," Mallory grumbled. "But that isn't what I was interested in.
"What did you want to know?" Duke asked.
"Did Amber ever talk about Ruby?" Mallory asked.
"Why?" Duke questioned. "Amber talked about her family all the time, but I tended to make myself scarce when she started talking about Ruby."
"I was just wondering if there was something we could use against Ruby, some type of weakness," Mallory replied.
"Like what?" Wildwing inquired a bit defensively.
"I don't know!" Mallory retorted in frustration. "Something! Anything! We can't just give up on getting the mask back. There has to be a way!"
"Mallory, none of us wants to admit defeat," Wildwing tried to sooth his weapons specialist. "But Ruby made it very clear that unless we can get back to Puckworld so one of us can take this challenge thing, it's not going to happen."
Everyone turned to look at Tanya.
"Hey! Don't look at me," Tanya huffed. "I've been, you know, trying to make a gateway generator ever since we got here."
"And it takes forty-nine mages to create a portal like the one that brought Ruby here," Wildwing sighed.
"So?" Mallory demanded. "Why haven't they made another one?"
"Mallory, if it takes forty-nine mages, guess how mages there are," Duke tried to explain.
"Forty-nine!" the red headed duck snapped back.
"I'm no expert on mages, but I bet they have to all be together to do the spell," Nosedive pointed out and Mallroy did not look like she was the least bit pleased with that.
Drake One started to beep a warning and Tanya quickly changed into her regular clothes. Using her Omnitool, she turned on the Jumbotron. A few moments later, the local news channel came up.
"…at least a dozen children from the Anaheim, Long Beach and Los Angeles areas have been abducted," the news caster stated seriously and the Mighty Ducks activated their armor. "Witnesses are claiming that large, reptilian creatures are appearing out of thin air and taking the children. Authorities are trying to find a connection, but currently, there don't appear to be any. Police have advised a shelter in place for all schools, daycares and parents with small children. Early reports have the ages of the children from pre-school to middle school. We will bring you more news as it becomes available."
A commercial came on and Tanya turned the Jumbotron off.
"What does Dragaunus want with a bunch of kids?" Nosedive asked, horrified of the new low that the Saurians had sunk to.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out, baby brother," Wildwing sternly replied.
"Time to kick some scaly tail," Mallory stated as she took out her blaster and checked it.
"Before we go charging off, shouldn't we figure out where they've got the kids?" Duke questioned.
"Tanya?" Wildwing inquired hopefully.
"I'll have to, you know, check Drake One for unusual energy readings," Tanya started. "It could take, like, hours to figure out where they are."
"By then Dragaunus could have done who knows what with those kids!" Nosedive exclaimed worriedly.
"I know, Dive, but we have to know where they are before we can form a plan," Wildwing reminded him.
Wildwing took a breath to start issuing orders just as the one of the doors leading to the lobby burst open. Ruby, followed by Raleigh, came charging down the stairs towards the team at full speed.
"Gipsy!" Ruby gasped. "Danger!"
The door separating the stands from the ice opened on its own just before Ruby stepped into the rink. She realized her mistake about a second too late.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the mage yelled as she skidded across the ice.
Wildwing caught her before she could fall onto her tail feathers. She stared up at him surprise and blinked. Neither one of them could move or speak, both too shocked by being so close to each other.
"What are you doing here?" Mallory demanded.
"My daughter and a bunch of other kids have been kidnapped by these Saurians," Raleigh answered heatedly from the edge of the ice. "Listen, I know you guys don't like Ruby, but she says she can find my daughter and that you've been fighting these monsters since you got here. So, if you could put your animosity on the back burner until I get my little girl back, that would be great."
"How can you find Gipsy?" Wildwing asked as he lifted Ruby up enough that her feet weren't touching the ice and then skated her back to Raleigh.
"The promise I made to her will allow me to track her," Ruby told him as she regained her footing.
"Fine, you tell us where she is and we'll go get her," Mallory nearly snarled at the mage.
"I wish it was that easy," Ruby replied. "I have to go with you. And trust me; I'm about as thrilled with this idea as you are."
"We don't have time to argue," Wildwing stated, heading off another verbal attack by Mallory. "We need to find those kids and now."
Wildwing stepped off the ice and headed for the locker room with Raleigh, Ruby and the rest of the team right behind him. Raleigh was a bit confused about why they were in the locker room, but said nothing. The team captain walked up to the back wall before turning to look at Raleigh.
"What you're about to see only a few humans have seen before," Wildwing stated. "I want your word that you'll tell no one about what you're about to see."
"If it'll get my baby back, I would promise to make you chocolate chip cookies for the rest of my life," Raleigh replied and the ducks could hear the barely controlled rage in the man's words.
"Good enough," Wildwing nodded.
The goalie turned back to the wall and used his body to shield how he opened the secret elevator. Raleigh glanced at Ruby and saw that she wasn't the least bit phased by what she saw.
"You knew about this, didn't you?" Raleigh asked the mage as they squeezed into the small room.
"I've been down in their headquarters once before," Ruby replied while she did her best to keep the human between herself and the hockey playing ducks.
"And you didn't tell anyone about it?" the man questioned, noticing that the other ducks had no problem using him as a buffer between the blue beaked duck and them.
"Raleigh, I spent over a year living under a mountain," Ruby said. "If they want to live in a hole in the ground, who am I to criticize?"
Before the man could say anymore, the elevator doors opened and he saw what he could only describe as stepping into the future.