Mighty Ducks-The Second Line A New Threat, A New Hope
Part 2
Homecoming
"How could he do this?" Duke questioned, scratching his head.
The Ducks were all trying to solve the mystery of Stivz's departure to PuckWorld.
"How the heck could he actually find a way back to PuckWorld?" asked Nosedive. Wildwing went over to the bartop and sat down. Tanya was wondering when she finally stepped forward.
"I think I know." she said. "Earlier this evening he asked me if there was a way back. I suggested one and said that it was almost impossible, but I guess he did it!"
"But why would he leave without telling us?" asked Duke again. Wildwing spoke without looking at anyone.
"He's on a mission."
All the other Ducks had blank looks on their faces. Nosedive spoke. "What do you mean, bro?"
"Stivz said yesterday afternoon that he was jealous of me and Mallory." he began. "He also mentioned someone back on PuckWorld."
Mallory snapped her fingers. "That's right!" she said. "Her name was Tiffany!"
"Right!" said Wing. "And Stivz must have gone back to PuckWorld to find her."
The Ducks fell silent. Wildwing sighed a little. "I just hope he's alright."
Stivz saw the end of the purple and blue tunnel and braced himself. He finally was at the realm of his home: PuckWorld. The ground could have greeting him a bit gentler, though.
Stivz landed on the hard, cold surface with a thud. He winced as he lifted himself up from the ground. He brushed the dirt off of his black leather jacket and looked about him. He had arrived in PuckWorld in an alleyway. "How appropriate." Stivz said.
Stivz decided to scout the area. The authority didn't know that he was there, but Stivz was still a "convict". He walked down the street. There was no ice in this area. "I must be in the wrong side of town." Stivz smirked.
Stivz then remembered what he was there to do. He was there to find Tiffany, and bring her back to Earth to be with him and the other Ducks. She wouldn't mind.
Stivz turned a corner and found the main street of the city. He could follow the street right to where Tiffany lived. Stivz walked down the street, eagar to see his love once again. She would be so surprised to see him once again.
Tiffany was in her house sweeping and watching TV. All was peaceful on PuckWorld, and the Ducks went back home after Dragonous was chased off the planet. Across the street from her house, was a fallen Monitor tower. The little kids of PuckWorld used it as a playground.
Tiffany dusted off a hockey stick mounted on the wall when she heard a knock on her door. "Who could that be?" she asked. She looked up a the clock on the wall. It was the middle of the afternoon. Tiffany shrugged and walked towards the door.
As she opened the door, she faced a Duck with his back turned. "May I help you?" she asked, removing a lock of brown hair out of her face.
Stivz turned around with a flower in his hand. He looked up to face her. Tiffany gasped.
"How did.." Tiffany stuttered. "What are you.."
Stivz smiled and extended his arms. Tiffany rushed into his arms. "Stivz!" she said. "Are you alright? How did you get back here?" Stivz smiled and held her in front of him.
"It's a long story." he said.
Tiffany stood back to get a better look at Stivz. She then brought her hands and grabbed her beak. That was when Stivz noticed something on her hand. It was a ring, but not the one he had given her. Even worse, it was a wedding band.
At that instant, a Duck came to the doorway. He had heard Tiffany's cries of joy. "What's going on here, honey?" he said. This Duck also had a wedding band on. "Who's this?"
Stivz pulled away, shocked. His jaw dropped and his eyes were empty. "What's this?" His feelings of happiness were shot down. Rage began to flare up in the back of his mind. Tiffany's face fell as well.
"Stivz." she said. "I'm sorry. But I never believed that you were coming back."
Stivz still didn't say anything. He looked at his "replacement" and glared at him. As he looked at him, he spoke to Tiffany.
"I thought that we had something." he said, tears forming in his eyes. "I trusted you. It's only been a year and a half and you have already found someone? And even worse, you have married him? I trusted you."
Tiffany looked away. "I can't say anything but I'm sorry."
"Who is this man?" the Duck behind Tiffany said. "I'm calling the Authority!"
The Duck went back inside and grabbed the phone. He dialed only one number and hung up. He came back to the door with a smile. "You're in for it now, asshole."
Stivz heard the distant wails of a siren. The Authority was already on its way. Stivz took off running down the street right after taking a last look at Tiffany. As Stivz turned the corner, the Duck yelled at him. "Stay away from my wife!"
Tiffany watched Stivz as he turned the corner. She didn't know he was going to be back. Had she made the right decision by marrying so soon after Stivz's banishment? Did she chose the right man?
Stivz was runnning for his life. If the Authority ever caught him and found out who he was, he would be executed on the spot. Stivz ran and jumped into an alleyway just as a patrol unit turned the corner, its lights flashing. Stivz hid under some dried out balnkets and waited for the unit to pass. After the unit was out of sight, Stivz got up from under the blankets. He started to walk deeper into the alley, still facing the street outside. When he turned his head, his beak ran into the barrel of a puck blaster.
"Hold it right there, Duck!"
Back on Earth, Dragonous and his henchman were confused. What had activated the Dimensioanl Gateway Generator, and who could it be? Siege looked at his readings.
"Sensors indicate that the object inside the gateway is from Dimensional Limbo." he said. Dragonous pounded on the console and the display screen flashed a view of the skyline of Anaheim. A whirlwind was building up and a shadowy figure began to emerge from the vortex.
"But the only person from the Limbo who could..." Dragonous stopped and gasped. "No, it can't be him!"
As they all looked on at the figure, the vortex began to close. Wraith recognised the object. "It appears to be a Saurian WarCruiser. The largest of all the Saurian fleet."
The ship disappeared into thin air. "They've cloaked themselves." said Chameleon. Dragonous looked around his command chamber. He seemed to be expecting something. Then, the tachyon blasters on the wall of the command chamber began to shake, and afterward, the entire room began to shake. A powerful noise was eminating from outside of the Raptor.
"The ship is landing right next to us." Siege reported. Dragonous dropped his head and sighed. "I know who it is."
Inside, the Raptor fell silent. All the lizards were listening for the slightest sound. The lights in the command chamber stared to flicker, and suddenly, the air pressure of the Raptor changed dramatically. Someone had opened up the ship's hatch. Siege turned toward the only entrance to the command chamber. It was dark, but Siege could sense movement. He then heard a low, terrifying growl. A pair of red eyes glowed in the distance. The Chameleon drew his sidearm and aimed at the pair of eyes. He was about to pull the trigger when a flash of red hit his hand. Chameleon dropped his blaster and clutched his hand.
A lizard stepped into the chamber, his snout was long, and his long, sharp, jagged teeth gleamed in the dim light as he sneered at Chameleon. He was wearing a black Saurian suit, and a duck feathered tie. His tachyon hand blaster was still smoking. The lizard put the blaster in his coat. Then, two more lizards stepped into the light. One was a very large lizard with an arsenal of Saurian weapons strapped to his body, and the other was small, but similar to the Chameleon. He had knives all over is body. Hunting knives, steak knives, carving knives, switchblades, you name it. Finally, a huge, massive lizard stomped into the chamber. He was all dark, and just like his associates, he resembled a Tyrannosaur. His scales were a deep, blood red, and he was dressed in black and grey Saurian battle suit. He smiled at Dragonous, who was much shorter than he.
"Where'd you go, you scrauny, little reptile?" the lizard said in a deep, jagged voice. "You left without telling me!"
Dragonous looked up at the lizard. "Now Diablo, I'm sorry if I left prematurely."
"Forget that!" Diablo roared at him. "You took the entire supply of bulyrium crystals and left us all to rot in that stinkhole called Dimensional Limbo!!"
"But big brother," Dragonous stuttered. "I can explain-"
"Enough!!!" Diablo roared agian. The command chamber shook a little. Diablo walked around Dragonous, observing him. He took hold of Dragonous's clothing and inspected it. "Still wearing this stupid purple robe, I see. You always had bad taste in clothes."
Dragonous looked at Diablo's men. The lizard with the suit had his arms folded, and the other two still stood, guarding the door. "Care to introduce your pals?" Dragonous said up to Diablo.
Diablo smiled. "Why sure." he began. "My right hand man is the gentleman in the suit. His name is Donovan."
Donovan bowed and adjusted his tie. Diablo pointed at the large lizard. "And the musclebound mass over there is Uvalde. I picked him up in the Saurian prison houses. He's the worst of the worst."
Siege looked over at Uvalde. Siege couldn't believe the size of this guy. He was huge, and his arms were to big to fold!
Diablo rolled his eyes as he extended his hand towards the last small lizard. "And finally, we have Muerte. He's a bit of a slow one. I decided to bring him with me so I could have someone to torture." Diablo faced Muerte, and Muerte cringed a little.
"So, how did you get here?" Draggy asked.
Diablo turned and grabbed Dragonous, and lifted him up to where his face was even with his own. "Well, after you left us in the Limbo," Diablo said. He then dropped Dragonous on his rear. He continued. "I was so furious that I tore apart your quarters. That's when I split your mattress and found your plans for building the Dimensional Gateway generator. I decided to build my own and construct a ship. I figured that if you could do it, I could do it better. Which brings us to here."
"What about your ship?" Draggy asked again.
"The Talon is operational only on auxillary power, because some idiot took all the bulyrium crystals!" Diablo shouted into Dragonous's face.
Diablo kept on. "So, what is your status right now? What have you been doing, and what has kept you from conquering this planet so far?"
Dragonous coughed. "Well, big brother. There's a group of Ducks who followed me here Earth, and they've been in my way ever since."
Diablo wheeled around. "What!?!! There are Ducks on this planet?" Dragonous nodded.
Diablo looked at the viewing screen of the Raptor. He saw the skyline of downtown Anaheim and then the Anaheim Pond. He grinned. "Let's say that we teach these Ducks not to mess with Saurians." Donovan nodded and bowed behind him. Diablo cackled, and the sound echoed throughout the empty hallways of the Raptor.
The alarms sounded inside the Pond and the Ducks aimed their weapons at the entrance way to the Rec. Room. Wildwing raised his arm to the doorway, and waited for the doors to open. Duke stared at the metal doors with his one eye from under his brow.
"Who can it be?" asked Tanya. "Could Dragonous know that Stivz is gone?"
"I don't know." said Wing. "But with or without Stivz, we have to keep our guard up!"
The Ducks held their breaths as the doors came open. The Ducks gasped as they saw another Duck!!
She was a short, young Duck. A teenager. She wore a denim jacket and hadbrown hair with a red streak on the front. The other Ducks just wondered questions. Was this Stivz's replacement? How could she have gotten here?
Wildwing immediately scanned the new Duck with his mask. When the Duck checked out alright, all the Ducks lowered their weapons. Nosedive frowned.
"Not another kid to take care of!" he said. The new Duck stepped forward and tripped Nosedive with a smooth sweep. "I can take care of myself, thank you."
Duke turned with a snicker, and Mallory covered her beak to conceal her laugh. Nosedive stood to his feet and looked at the young Duck. "Don't make me have to hurt you." he said.
The new Duck just smiled. Wildwing stepped forward and started the usual questions.
"Alright, who are you? And where did YOU come from?" he asked.
"I'm glad you asked." The Duck smiled. "My name is Erin, and I was sucked up in one of those crazy, loopy dimensional gateways that I hear about. Strangely enough, I landed at the east doors of this building, and I saw the name Ducks, I had to check it out."
She continued. "I come from a little planet called Impossi-World. I was part of a band of freedom fighters, but the gateway pulled me to here. What is this place? What's been goin' on here?"
Wildwing sat Erin down on the couch. All the other Ducks sat down around him, and they began to tell the story of how they got to Earth, and how Stivz came and promptly left.
Stivz found himself looking down the puck tunnels of two puck launchers. "Who do you think you are bringing the cops by here?!" said the dark figure behind the two guns. Stivz blinked as the two weapons came closer to his beak. Then, Stivz's rage began to bubble up inside of him again. He had been betrayed by his fiancee, her new husband sent the Authority after him, and now he has some punk pushing puck launchers in his face. Stivz had had enough!
A silver flame burned on Stivz's beak, and when the attacker backed up, he saw that Stivz had changed into some sort of "super-duck"! A Duck with a silver model of the mask of Drake DuCaine on his beak. The next thing the attacker knew, he was swept from under his feet by this strange Duck.
"Get up!!" Stivz yelled, his eyes flaring a fiery red. The young attacker staggered to his feet and stood back from Stivz. His eyes were trembling with fear, and his beak hang low. Stivz realized that he over-reacted and sighed. He then morphed out of his battle gear and turned back into his normal self when his mask disappeared. He looked up at the gun-toting Duck and apologized.
"Sorry about that, you just need to think about who you're attacking before you jump into action."
The other Duck nodded, still shaking. Stivz looked at him and rolled his eyes.
"What's your name, kid?" asked Stivz. The Duck put away his guns and introduced himself. "Call me Dusty." he said.
Stivz started walking down the alley. "What do you do for fun around here besides jumping people? And why are you so tense about the Authority? You don't look so dangerous."
Dusty looked up at Stivz. "Well, I run a street hockey gang in the inner alleys, and the Authority is always trying to catch us. They don't appreciate rollerbladers."
"Most people don't." Stivz said. "But it's something I've always wanted to fall back on. I used to play a little ice hockey."
Dusty looked up at Stivz again. "Were you on one of the international teams?"
"No, I played professional hockey."
Dusty scratched his head. "Anyway, our little hideout is right around this corner."
Stivz sighed and took a look around the building. He saw a huge street blading "complex" just for rollerblading. Inline skating Ducks were found all over the place. They all were either practing street hockey, or showing off on the half pipes. Most of the Ducks were tennagers. The complex was protected from the mean streets and the Authority by the backs of large office buildings. Stivz gazed in amazement.
"This is some sort of street hockey haven, isn't it?"
Dusty stood tall. "Yep!" he said proudly. "A few of us discovered it about 6 months ago. We decided to turn it into this, where all troublemaking street hockey players could come and hide and chill out from the outside world."
Stivz kept on looking at all the Ducks. "What happened to PuckWorld? Why isn't there any skating anymore?"
Dusty nodded his head. "After Dragonous was kicked off the planet by the last of the resistance, no one knew who would take over the rule of PuckWorld, so some guy that the public doesn't know, developed the Authority. They restricted everything. Their order is now THE order."
"What do they do to violators?" Stivz questioned.
Dusty sighed and looked straight ahead of him. "Let me put it this way," he said. "We've lost three of our best skaters to the patrol units that circle the building complex. The Authority shoots on sight."
Stivz's sprits sank. What had happened to this world that he once belonged to?
"How many members strong do you have?" Stivz asked.
"We only have about 15 players left." Dusty said. "We can't go on like this much longer."
Dusty then stopped and looked around at his fellow street hockey enthusiasts. "So," he said. "You wanna meet the team?"
"You see, baby brother. Your problem is, that you always attempt something without eliminating your problem." Diablo said. "You have to destroy those wretched Ducks before you start on one of your hairbrained ideas."
The lizards were now in the Talon, Diablo's Saurian Warship. The interior was a dark black, with dark red linings and corners. Donovan was sitting on his own little "throne", watching his master pace around his command chamber giving Dragonous a toungelashing. Uvalde and Muerte were sitting, quietly as usual.
"What do you intend to do?" Dragonous asked his larger, taller brother.
"First." Diablo said. "We hit the Ducks where they roost."
Diablo turned to Donovan and the other two henchman. "Donovan!" Diablo said. "Take Uvalde and Muerte to the Anaheim Pond and give those Ducks our calling card."
Donovan straightened his feather tie and held out his hand. In his hand was what appeared to be the handle part of a sword. Donovan clentched the handle and a long, wide blade shot out of the handle. The black, shiny blade was surrounded by a greyish, silvery flame. Uvalde and Muerte soon teleported. Donovan bowed to his master and then did the same.
Dusty had Stivz follow him throughout the maze of skate paths and half pipes. They finally arrived at the most beautiful street hockey rink Stivz had ever seen. The complex was far more impressive than any of the hockey rinks back on Earth. Stivz suddenly remembered. Earth. What could happen to his only friends? Is there any trouble back on his former home planet? Should he go there, or stay on PuckWorld and help protect his newfound friends from the Authority?
"Stivz" Dusty said. "I would like for you to meet my team."
Stivz looked at the line of hockey players. Their young faces reminded him of all his friends back on Earth. Dusty pulled a very tall Duck out of the line.
"This is our goalie. His name is James. He used to be a spy for the Authority, but he found us and decided to stay. According to PuckWorld Authorities, he's a dead Duck!" James Pond smiled and stepped back in line. Dusty then looked at the rest of the line. Stivz did the same. They were all girls!
"At first, they may look a little soft," Dusty continued, glancing at the girls in the line. "But they have it where it counts. And they could fight too!"
Dusty walked down the line pointing out each of the Duck's name.
"Here, we have Betsy, a communications expert. Chance here can crack into any security system. And finally, Nylessa Drakeley and Blade L'Orange are members of the Brotherhood of the Blade."
Stivz stopped Dusty. "Wait a minute. If all these nice, young ladies have special skills of their own, what about you two guys?"
Stivz was answered by a pair of clicks, followed by two puck blasters in his face.
"We're weapons specialists." James said with a grin.
Stivz took another look down the line and remembered. Blade L'Orange?
"Blade," Stivz asked. "Do you have any family members by the name of Duke?"
Blade's eyes lit up. "Do you know where my brother is?"
Stivz couldn't do anything but nod. Blade went to him and grabbed his jacket. "Where is my brother?"
Stivz reached into his pocket and pulled out his Saurian teleporter. He saw the button labeled "Return". He could be back to Earth with a simple push of a button. Stivz thought about the decision. Stay and protect? Or go home and finish fighting Dragonous?
Stivz looked up and saw the rest of Dusty's team. He saw the pride in their eyes, and the joy they had for seeing a new face.