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Later
that night................
The seats for the Ducks'
game were sold out completely. Between the screams and cheers of both the crowd and the cheerleaders, one could
not think straight because it was so loud.
"Who rocks the Pond?! I
say the Ducks rock the Pond! And when the Ducks rock the Pond, they rock it all - the - way - down!" the Mighty
Ducks' cheerleaders were cheering. A few minutes later, both hockey teams were skating back out onto the ice.
"And the Mighty Ducks
are tied with the Concord Jellymen, at two points a piece as we head into overtime," Roy Firestone, the Mighty Ducks' announcer
said over the microphone. Right before the play started, the Ducks' cheerleaders were doing another cheer.
"W - I - N, fight to win!"
they chanted. Ariana and Duke were sitting on the players' bench, watching the game.
"What I would give just to play," sighed Ariana.
"Be patient kid," Duke
cooed. "You'll get your chance to play soon enough."
"Yeah, okay, when?" Ariana
rolled her eyes. "When this planet freezes over?" she chortled.
"Don't hold your breath
sweetheart," Duke said jokingly. "With Dragaunus still looming around out there, who know what could happen." The
two ducks fell silent and turned their attention back to the game.
Angelwing was at center
ice, getting ready to take the face off. Mallory and Nosedive were on either side of her, with Tanya and Grin behind
them. Wildwing was waiting patiently as well, in front of his net. "Come on Angel, win this face off
for us," Wildwing whispered aloud, as if Angelwing could hear him.
Within the next few seconds,
the referee dropped the puck. Angelwing swerved her stick aound and was able to win the face off, passing the puck
back to Mallory. Mallory darted up the side, along the boards, and avoided being checked by an opposing player. She
then passed the puck over to Nosedive, on the other side, setting him up for a one-timer.
Nosedive took a hard slapshot
at the net, right before getting hit by the other team's left defenseman. Unfortunately, the goalie was able to
block Nosedive's shot and the puck was deflected to the Jellymen's center forward. The center skated straight up
the middle, not paying attention to where he was going. Grin stood in front of him and easily knocked him over. But,
yet another Jellymen player, their right-winger, was able to beat out Tanya in a race for the puck. He skated around
the back of the net, behind Wildwing, and passed it to his counterpart, left-winger, who deked around Tanya and shot the puck
at the net.
Wildwing dived to make the save
and covered the puck, hoping to stop the play and force a face off in the Ducks' zone. The referee blew his whistle
and retrieved the puck from Wildwing. Then, Wildwing signaled for a time out and rounded up his team. "New
game plan team," Wildwing said as his teammates huddled around him. The Ducks quickly discussed their plans, then
took their respective places for the face off.
Angelwing glanced over
at Nosedive and nodded. She began fighting the other player for the puck before the ref even dropped it. A
whistle was blown and the referee motioned for Angelwing and Nosedive to switch. Now, Nosedive was at the center
of the circle waiting for the puck to be dropped. Once the whistle was blown again, Nosedive won the face off and
passed the puck to Mallory. She skated forward a little bit, then faked a pass to Nosedive, but she actually passed
the puck off the Angelwing. As soon as Angelwing recieved the puck, she took off like a race car. Angelwing
sped down the center of the rink, making a bee line for the goal. She glanced around her and noticed she was all
alone. She was on a break away, just like they had planned. As she crossed the blue line, she deked
left and right, trying to confuse the goalie. Angelwing faked a shot to the goalie's left side, then deked to her
right and flicked the puck up and over the goalie's right shoulder with a wrist shot, landing the puck in the net.
A light went on behind the net
and a buzzer sounded. Roy Firestone jumped out of his seat and shouted into the microphone. "ANGELWING
SCORES! DUCKS WIN! DUCKS WIN!" The crowd roared as they all jumped to their feet as well. The
cheerleaders were jumping up and down, screaming. Cheers could be heard all throughout the Pond. Wildwing
waved to his team as Duke and Ariana skated out to meet them. The Ducks circled around and raised their sticks
in the air.
"DUCKS ROCK!"
******************************************************************************************
Siege and Chameleon returned
to the Raptor grinning boastfully. "Did you get it?" Dragaunus questioned them.
"Did we get it?" Chameleon chuckled. Siege
whacked him on his head.
"Cut it out you dimwit! Of
course we got it." Siege walked over and handed the Proteus chip to Dragaunus.
"Yeah," Chameleon chimed in
again, "we found it in the rubble of that arms factory you destroyed."
"Excellent," replied Dragaunus
as a malicious grin spread across his face. "With the real Proteus chip back in my clutches, I can rebuild the
lazer cannon and finally destroy this wretched planet." He paused momentarilly and frowned. "Though
our first attempt was thwarted by those mangy mallards."
"That and your most trusted
spy, Lucretia, did not deliver," Wraith added, interrupting Dragaunus.
Dragaunus growled and turned
around swiftly to face Wraith. "Silence!" Then he continued on. "However, they merely won
that battle. What they did not do was win the war. For, with our second attempt, we will prevail! And
the Ducks will go down with the planet they choose to defend!"
"Then Wildwing and the Mask
will be no more," Siege mentioned. Dragaunus glanced at him, still grinning malevolently.
"Precisely!" he hissed as he broke
out into a maniacal laughter.
After the game, the Ducks returned to their locker room, full
of energy and excitement.
"Whoo hoo! Way to go girly girl!" Nosedive cheered as he
slapped a high five with Angelwing.
"Great play Icefeather!" Duke chimed in.
Angelwing blushed a little. "Thanks guys. But it wasn't
all me. I mean, you guys helped too. Besides, it was Wildwing's idea."
"Yeah, but you were the ones who pulled it off," Wildwing pointed
out.
Nosdive shrugged his shoulders. "Who would've thought the plan
would actually work?"
"Because we played like a team and we made it work," Grin answered truthfully.
"Hey, even I have to admit," Mallory added, taking off her helmet, "I
thought that Angelwing did some pretty fancy skating out there tonight."
Angelwing turned to face Mallory, removing her own helmet. "Thanks
Mal, that means a lot coming from you." She was surprised to hear something like that from Mallory.
Mallory frowned slightly. "What's that supposed to mean?" she retorted.
Angelwing was taken aback by Mallory's question, but she managed a smile.
"I was just simply thanking you for the compliment."
"Oh," Mallory was a bit shocked, herself. She felt somewhat guilty
and a bit foolish for jumping to conclusions, so she apologized. "I'm sorry. I just thought..." she trailed
off. Then she changed her tone. "Well, you're welcome then, I guess," she said as she smiled.
Angelwing smiled back, feeling a lot better than she did earlier that
morning. "Maybe she actually means it this time," she thought, trying to convince herself. After all, this
wasn't the first time Mallory complimented her. But Angelwing had felt that Mallory's first compliment wasn't very sincere.
Perhaps Mallory was trying to change now.
But, Mallory, herself, wasn't sure if she had meant it. She knew
that she sincerely thought that Angelwing had played very well that night. Yet, she still strongly felt that neither
Angelwing, nor her sister, Ariana, could be trusted.
***************************************************************************************
Back in the arena, the cheerleaders had decided to practice a bit
before the zamboni machines came through. So, they had asked the drivers to hold off for about a half hour as they
pulled out their mat. Their team had a competition coming up in a couple of weeks, so they wanted to get in
as much practice as possible, without over working themselves, of course.
The stands were empty by now and the arena was empty as well, with the
exception of the clean up crews and the security gaurds. Ariana, after having changed, had wandered out of
the locker room and back out onto the ice. She watched in awe as the cheerleaders tumbled across the mat and
tossed others into the air.
Once they were finished with their routine, Katherine, one of the
cheerleaders, had noticed Ariana standing by the boards. "Hey, what she doing over there?" she asked, as if Ariana
wasn't allowed to watch them.
"Chill out Kat!" Karissa retorted. "She's one of the Ducks," she
paused, "well, sort of."
"Obviously," one of the guy cheerleaders remarked sarcastically.
"I mean, she is a duck, isn't she?!"
"Shut up Mike! You know what I meant!" snapped Karissa.
"Well, I've never seen her before," Mike said simply.
"That's because, well uh-" Karissa searched for the right words.
She knew that Ariana had actually been there for a couple of weeks. But, she remained locked in her room during games,
on account of the Ducks being unsure of whether to trust her just yet. That night was the first night they let her come
up to the ice to watch their game. She had shown no signs of trying to contact Dragaunus. So, the Ducks had let
her out on good behavior, knowing that at least one of them would be sitting on the players' bench with her. That way,
they could still keep a close eye on her.
Jess could tell that Karissa was having difficulty telling the other
cheerleaders about Ariana without giving away any information about the Ducks' headquarters below them. So, she decided
to help her friend out. "Because she just arrived here today," she lied, cutting off Karissa.
Karissa turned around to find Jess standing behind her. "Thanks,"
she mouthed to Jess in appreciation.
Jess nodded to show she understood. "No prob," she mouthed back
and smiled.
"Who is she anyways?" someone else asked.
Jess turned to face them. "Long story short, her name
is Ariana and she's Angelwing's younger sister," she answered.
"How do you know?" Kat asked her suspiciously, standing with her hands
on her hips. Other than Jess and Karissa, none of the other cheerleaders really spoke to the Ducks, nor did
they know anything about Jess and Karissa helping the Ducks with their fight against Dragaunus.
Jess smirked, but was a little shy about answering. "Well, because-"
"We're friends with the Ducks," Karissa finished, then smiled reassuringly
at Jess and Jess smiled back to show her gratitude. Then, Mike opened his mouth to speak, but Jess spoke out before
he could.
"Okay team, practice is over. Let's roll up the mat and call it
a night." The entire team, except for Jess, stayed to help with the mat. Jess, however, ran over to talk to Ariana.
"Hey girl! What's up?" Jess greeted her. Ariana did not answer back. She was still staring passed Jess.
"Ariana?" Jess waved a hand in front of her face. "You okay?"
Ariana finally snapped out of it, shaking her head. She turned
to look at Jess. "That was awesome! How do you guys do that stuff?"
Jess looked at her with a confused expression. She thought about
it, then realized what Ariana was talking about. "Oh, that?!" Jess chuckled, feeling dumb. "Well, a lot
of practice, for one thing," she explained.
"I bet," Ariana replied. "It looks like fun."
"It is!" Karissa came prancing over cheerfully. Jess looked
back over her shoulder. The mat had been put away and two zambonis were now driving out onto the ice.
"Where is everyone?" Jess asked Karissa.
"Oh, they all went out to celebrate," Karissa answered. "They
asked if we wanted to go, but I told them maybe next time."
Jess smiled. "Well, come on, we should go and see what the Ducks
are up to." She and Karissa grabbed their bags and strapped on their wrist coms. Then, they followed Ariana into
the Ducks' locker room, but there was no one there. "Hmm," Jess shrugged her shoulders. "They must've gone down
below already." She walked over to the Mighty Ducks symbol on the wall and started to punch in the code for the elevator.
As soon as the doors hissed open, Drake One's alarm sounded.
"What the-?!" Ariana shrieked.
"It's Drake One!" Jess answered sharply.
Karissa flipped open her com. "Looks like Dragaunus is still up
to his same old tricks." Suddenly, Jess' com beeped and she opened it.
"Are you girls coming or what?!" Wildwing asked.
"Yes," Jess replied quickly. "We're at the elevator. We'll
be there a.s.a.p."
"Where's Ariana? Is she"
"She's with us, don't worry," Jess cut in. Then she lowered her
voice to a whisper. "I know what you're going to say. 'Make sure she comes along with us, and keep an eye on her.'
Right, gotcha!"
Wildwing smiled faintly. "All right, Wildwing out." Jess
and Karissa closed their coms.
"Come on girls," Jess turned to Ariana and Karissa, "let's go!"
The three entered the elevator and went down to the Migrator to meet the others.
To be continued..............
Disclaimer: All original characters are owned and copyrighted by Disney,
all others are owned by me. |
