Morning came and The Pond’s occupants began to stir again. Duke was a late sleeper, when he wasn’t hustling to Tawny’s lab with an extra bowl of cereal, so he was just now waking up. Wildwing was up and ready a good hour before anyone else but decided to lay off the others and let the mutants rest as long as they could. He was almost afraid of what the morning had in store for them.

Yawning Nosedive nuzzled closer to the soft object he’d fallen asleep by the previous night. Gentle breathing filled the air by the young duck’s beak as he continued to dream of being named Puckworld’s All Time Most Valuable Player.

Mallory sat up and stretched in the pale lighting of the infirmary. Noticing Tanya jotting down notes behind the equipment she recalled the two convulsing mutants. Worriedly she glanced down at the mutant she and Dive had been watching over to see that the convulsions had stopped. “Tanya, are they---?”

“Their vital signs have--uh, ya know--stabilized,” Tanya spoke with a slight grin, “they’re going to be fine.”

“Guess that stuff you and Dr. Harper gave em worked huh?” Mallory asked noting how cute Dive and Jazz looked cuddled up together on the opposite side of the sickbed.

“Actually,” Dr. Harper said packing her supplies, “those two managed to pull themselves through the seizures. What we gave them was enough to help, but not ensure that they’d last the night. Those two are fighters alright. But I’d recommend they take it easy for a week or so, just in case.”

Premnitia’s eyes flittered open just as Dr. Harper headed out, “Where am I? Where’s Jazz?!”

Grin awoke with a start as Prem flew up, her eyes darting around the room for her companion. “Jazz?!?”

“It’s okay,” Tanya stated calmly, “you’ve both survived the night. The worst is behind you now.”

A blast from down the hall suggested otherwise.

“I had ta open my big beak.” Tanya grumbled.

Mallory’d recognize the sound of that machine fire anywhere, “Hunter drones!”

Wing and Duke heard the explosion as well and came rushing down the corridor to find Dragonaus and his henchmen, along with about two dozen hunter drones, charging towards the infirmary.

“Not so fast ya bunch of over equipped tin cans!” Wildwing ordered firing the built-in blaster on his armor.

“Yeah,” Duke added, leaping in front of the infirmary’s entrance, “you’re not gettin’ through here without a fight!”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Dragonaus smiled devilishly, “Wraith, Siege, Chameleon! ATTACK THESE PESTS!”

“With pleasure.” Wraith chuckled darkly, producing a fireball in his decrepit hand and launching it at Duke.

“So it’s fire again eh?” Duke sneered dogging the blast as it singed the door, “Well I’m ready for ya this time ya walkin’ fossil!”

“What’s going on?” Jazz asked, sitting up with Nosedive.

“Sounds like Draggy’s back,” Nosedive grimaced, “And this time…it’s personal.”

“He loves saying that.” Mallory informed Jazz blandly.

“We’ve got to help them.” Premnitia declared getting to her feet.

“No,” Grin eased her back down, “it’s too dangerous. You’re still weak from the wristband. We’ll stop Dragonaus.”

If he wasn’t so adorably naïve I’d have to HURT HIM! Premnitia winced, reluctantly staying put.

Tanya remained silent while Mallory, Grin, and Nosedive charged out the doors narrowly avoiding getting barbequed by another of Wraith’s fireballs.

“We can’t let them fight that army alone!” Jazz cried, “Those creeps are after us! It’s our fight too!”

“So you wanna be Mighty Ducks huh?” Tanya finally spoke.

“If it means fighting Dragonaus and putting his whole stinkin’ crew back in their dimensional prison, then yeah. Count us in!” Premnitia answered.

“Whatever happened to all that peace and tranquility?” Jazz teased.

“To heck with karma, those Saurians are toast!” Prem exclaimed.

“My fellow mutants,” Tanya smirked, “welcome to the team.”

******

“Now the feather’s are gonna fly!” Siege announced hurling himself at Grin. “I’m gonna make pillow stuffing outta you duck!”

“I don’t think so.” Grin countered, catching the lizard in midair and twirling him around above his head as if it were some widely televised wrestling match, “Time for some karmic payback.”

“Way to go Grinmyster!” Nosedive cheered.

The Chameleon shifted into a body building form and grabbed Dive by the neck, “Now let’s see how you like getting pounded ducky. I will pump you up and spit you out!”

“Oh yeah?!” Mallory shouted from behind, “Well chew on this!”

Gulping the bulky lizard dodged a barrage of pucks that came flying out him via Mallory’s new Multi-Puck Launcher (recently redesigned to launch twice as many pucks, thanks to Tanya’s urge for upgrading weapons).

While the ducks were preoccupied with battling his henchmen Dragonaus ordered the drones to blast their way into the infirmary. “Once I have those two mutant warriors NOTHING will stop me from conquering this world---NO---the UNIVERSE!!!”

“Wanna bet?” Wildwing challenged sending an explosive puck straight at the drone closest to the entrance.

Snarling at the nuisance Dragonaus shouted to the drones, “Get in there and bring me those mutants!” turning to the team captain he added, “I’ll take care of this one, once and for all!”

Through the mask Wildwing could see the lizard’s hands start flaming, “Oh boy, this is gonna be bad.”

“Hey Wildwing!” Duke shouted after checking Wraith against the wall and grabbing his magical scepter, “Use this!”

“Got it!” Wing replied grabbing the scepter he used it like a hockey stick and sent Dragonaus’ blast hurtling back at him at twice the speed.

Dragonaus was sent flying into one of the drones just as another managed to blast apart the metal doors of the infirmary.

“NO!” Wing cried as Dragonaus got to his feet and dashed inside.

Smiling triumphantly the crimson tyrant entered the room only to find it unoccupied, “What the devil?!”

Wildwing ran in after him, relieved to find that Tanya and the mutants had somehow escaped.

“It’s called phasing Draggy,” Premnitia called from out in the hall, “Makes for a very effective last second escape.”

Seething with rage Dragonaus spun around and shoved Wildwing out of his way. “I will not be beaten by crippled avains!”

“So who’s crippled?” Jazz snickered booking it into the center of the drone army.

“DESTROY THAT DUCK!” Dragonaus bellowed.

The drones raised their laser cannons and focused them on the blonde. Jazz seemed unfazed by her attackers. Yawning she eyed the robotic fleet, “It’s a nice day for a twister wouldn’t ya say?”

Spinning around in circles the duck got increasingly faster until a raging tornado formed tossing the drones around like cheap toys.

“Now there’s a cool trick for parties!” Nosedive exclaimed, “Ya gotta teach me that one Jazzy!”

Siege hit the floor with a loud thud as Grin proceeded to body slam the scaly jerk, “Ready to surrender?”

“Never ya stinkin’ waste of feathers!” Siege growled beneath the weight of the well muscled duck.

“Very well,” Grin shrugged grabbing him by the tail and swinging him towards The Chameleon, “perhaps some social interaction will mellow you out.”

“AAHHH!!!” Chameleon cried shifting out of his body builder form just before Siege came crashing down on him.

Checking the readings on the side of her weapon Mallory chuckled and stepped over the two bumbling reptiles, “Good thing they’re down for the count Grin, I’m almost outta ammo.”

“Well I told ya not to fire off every shot ya had with that thing all at once.” Tanya scolded from the opposite end of the hall.

“Welcome to the party sweetheart,” Duke called, the last of the drones fell crumpled at his feet.

“Whoa,” Jazz muttered ceasing to spin, “so this is what the Tasmanian devil feels like.”

Dragonaus looked around at his injured henchmen and thwarted drones. Enraged he decided to make one last play for a victory. Maybe he couldn’t nab both mutants now, but if he could just get his claws on the blonde…

“HEY LET GO!” Jazz winced as Dragonaus sank his claws into her shoulder.

“Now duck,” he chuckled activating his teleporter, “your photographic memory will allow me to reassemble the gateway generator and summon forth my spies to deliver those mutant brats BACK to the Raptor!”

“FORGET IT SULFUR BREATH!” Jazz shrieked as they started fading out of sight, “I’D SOONER DIE!”

“JAZZ!” Dive leapt towards the pair latching onto Dragonaus’ ankle and teleporting out into the city.

“NOSEDIVE!” Wing yelled two seconds too late to save his brother.

Regaining consciousness the Saurians teleported back to the Raptor before the other ducks could bind them.

“Oh this is real nice,” Duke commented, “first we lose Dragonaus, then two members, and now those Saurian creeps have split on us AGAIN!”

“We’re going after them!” Wing clenched his teeth, “To the Migrator, NOW!”

*Yes, I’m getting so close to the end of this fic! And it’s about time since I’ve already started posting the sequels. ^_~ Make sure to review, your comments have been awesome!*

Part 8

Part 10 (Coming Soon)