Lanna was terrified. She stared up into the swirling purple vortex that had appeared in front of her. She felt her body being pulled and she leaned back automatically, turning her skate blates parralell to the pull, trying to stop her momentum. It didn't help. Her blades scraped across the ice and she slid closer to the portal. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as she felt her feet leave the ice. She tipped and spun as the unnatural wind picked her up and carried her towards the yawning mouth. It closed around her and she felt as if she were falling. She twisted, trying to see where she was going, but she soon lost all track of direction. Up and down lost all meaning for her as she fell helplessly in the mysterious tunnel.

And then it was over. She was lying on her stomach, irrationally hoping the synthesizer still strapped to her back hadn't been damaged. Cold soaked through her light brown feathers, but the hard surface beneath her wasn't ice. It was metal. Loud noises assailed her ears and she picked herself up on her elbows and looked around. Her thick braid had come loose and her soft chocolate hair fell into her sable eyes. She shoved it back, trying to process the chaotic scene before her. The first thing she saw made her scream voicelessly again in terror. The giant red Saurian loomed over her, but his back was to her and he hadn't scene her. Lanna started to scramble backwards but was forced to leap to one side instead when a large gray blur tackled the evil lizard. The two rolled, and Lanna got a clear look at both of them. One was definitely Saurian, but the other was an huge, muscle-bound, gray-feathered duck.

She ducked reflexively as blaster fire rang out to her left. She twisted around and saw a smaller, green Saurian with olive patches on his skin. Her eyes widened as his form warped and grew to the size of the red Saurian still wrestling with the other duck behind her. He discarded the blaster and rushed his opponent, a blond duck about her own age that leapt out of the way just in time. She saw the duck land, and roll, then pull out a puck launcher with a jubilant cry.

Suddenly, she felt a rough hand seize her arm. Cruel claws dug painfully through her feathers and into her skin, and for a second time that day her feet left the ground involuntarily. A musceled, scaled, and armored Saurian arm snaked around her waist, and the grip on her arm moved to her neck. Something poked her cheek, and straining her eyes to that side she caught the tip of a blaster pressed against her face. Lanna trembled, scared witless.

"Stop right there," her captor growled loudly. He swung around, and Lanna's field of vision shifted to reveal two ducks in battle armor, one a red-headed girl and the other a white-feathered man with an orange goalie mask obscuring his features. His eyes glowed red and Lanna recognized the fabled Mask of Drake DuCaine. They both froze as the Saurian released his grip on her neck long enough to fire a shot from the wrist blaster he'd been threatening her with upward.

"Call off your team, Wildwing," the evil voice instructed. Lanna shook with sheer terror. She knew that voice. She'd heard it only once before, but she wasn't likely to forget. Not when the ship it had emanated from dropped a building on top of her the second after it had issued the command for the planet to surrender. The white duck barked an order, and he was joined by four others. One was the grey duck she'd seen before. Another was a blond female with purple glasses, the third an older dark brown duck with an eye patch and a chip in his beak. The last was the blond boy that had narrowly avoided being crushed by the shape-shifter.

"Let her go, Dragaunus!" Lanna's worst fears were confirmed as the white duck's authoritive voice rang out. She felt hot, sulfurous breath on the top of her head as the warlord laughed.

"Siege!" The laugh cut off abruptly as the cruel voice snapped an order. "Relieve our feathered friend of his Mask, won't you?" The burly red Saurian moved forward with an evil smirk.

Suddenly Lanna's brain caught up with her. Dragaunus had only a half second warning as her limp body tensed, then she swung her legs upward and bent her knees. Her aim was perfect as she brought her legs back down and kicked back into his knees. He howled in pain and almost dropped her, but he managed to catch her wrist as she tried to get away. Lanna twisted and used his arm as a lever to give her roundhouse kick a little extra momentum. This time she hit the back of his knees, and the mighty warlord tumbled ignominiously to the ground. She didn't give him time to recover. She ran, sprinting as fast as she could toward the six ducks. The ground shook and she knew one of the Saurians was after her. Glowing pucks whizzed by her and she almost lost her balance as whoever was after her hit the ground, shaking the room. But she kept running until she was past the ducks, then she skidded to a stop and turned. All the ducks were firing on the confused lizards, and Lanna wished desperately for a weapon of her own. Neither the dagger in her boot nor the extending staff in her wrist guard would do her much good if one of the larger Saurians got close enough for her to use it.

Full realization of what was going on finally hit Lanna, and her knees went suddenly weak. She sank to the floor behind the other ducks, still panting. The room reeled and she felt sick. Dragaunus was gone, his command center had been destroyed and the Monitors defeated, the Rebellion had triumphed Puckworld was being rebuilt and its people were making new lives. How could he be here--who were these ducks--Lanna vaguely heard a few harried shouts, then she felt someone pick her up again. The hands this time were gentle, and feathered instead of scaled, and she looked up into the gray duck's surprisingly calm face. He was running, and then her stomach leapt as he jumped. He landed on his feet and hit something solid and hard, jarring Lanna's teeth. He dumped her unceremoniously in a padded seat and disappeared again. Lanna tried to untangle herself from her synthesizer. The instrument was the size and depth of an electric guitar, but it was wider and box-shaped at the bottom. The lower edge was caught on the seat arm, holding her arm in an uncomfortable position. Two of the ducks rushed past her as she struggled out from under the shoulder strap and lowered the synthesizer to the floor in front of the chair. Finally, she was able to get seated in the right direction.

"I'm in!" a female voice called, then the white duck's unmistakable voice yelled,

"Alright, baby bro, we're outta here."

"Whoo-hoo! Time to rock and roll," a third, younger voice answered. The seat lurched beneath her, and Lanna felt her body pressed to the seat as it accelerated forward. She fumbled for the safety restraints and managed to get them buckled. Three more ducks ran past her, and this time she was able to see that they were rushing forward to seats in what looked like the cockpit of a military aerowing.

"They're going down," the red-head shouted triumphantly.

"They've gone back into hiding," the white duck sighed. "Damn."

"Hey, don't sweat it, bro." The blond male duck turned to grin at the white duck and gave him a thumbs-up sign. "We'll get 'em next time." The white duck didn't look convinced, but he just sighed again and said, "Let's go home." Then he glanced back at Lanna and jerked his head toward Lanna. "Tanya?"

The blond girl with glasses unbuckled her restraints and walked over to stand in front of her. She shook her head. "Uh, if she's a spy, Wildwing, then I've never seen a file on her." Lanna's face clouded with indignation. Spy? She folded her arms.

"How'd she get here?" Wildwing, the white duck, wanted to know. Tanya shrugged.

"One of us must have triggered the gateway on accident. I guess it was still set for Puckworld and she just, you know, kinda got picked up off the street." Lanna nodded. It sounded like what had happened to her.

"I don't buy it," the red-head's eyes narrowed. The dark brown duck rolled his eyes.

"For Pete's sake, Mallory, she's just a kid." Lanna studied the brown duck. He looked familiar. Then it hit her and her eyes widened in recognition. Duke L'Orange! she mouthed silently in surprise. The notorious jewel thief. He looked at her. "What's your name, sweetheart?" This time she noticed the accent. There was no doubt left in her mind. Lanna. Where am I? Duke cocked his head at her. Lanna slapped a hand to her forehead. They didn't know sign language. She untied the bandanna around her neck and pointed to the scars that showed through the dusty brown feathers. Duke sucked in a breath. "Can't speak, huh?" Lanna nodded and replaced the dark green cloth.

"Gimme the controls, Dive, and go talk to her," Wildwing nudged the blond guy. He got up and let the older duck take the pilot's seat. He turned toward her, running his fingers through his shoulder-length hair. Hi, he waved, I'm Nosedive. She nodded and signed, I'm Lanna.

"Can you tell us what happened?" he asked her aloud. Lanna told him what she could and he turned to his teammates. "She said she was just walking down an empty alley, then all of a sudden she got sucked into this whirlpool thing and landed on the Raptor."

"Sounds like the gateway, all right," Wildwing observed, his eyes focused to the front. "Strap back in, guys, we're home." With a reassuring smile, Nosedive took the seat next to Wildwing, and Tanya returned to her seat as well.

"Hey Nosedive," Mallory called over the engine noise as they entered a lighted tunnel. Lanna tried not to shudder, but it reminded her of the trip through the vortex. "How'd you learn sign language, anyway?"

"I took a class or three back home," Nosedive answered nonchalantly. "I had a crush on a deaf girl once."

"I should have known," Mallory replied dryly.

The Aerowing slowed and finally halted, and Lanna unbuckled her restraints and stood up. She almost fell, but Duke moved to catch her. "Hey, take it easy sweetheart. That gate's no picnic, you know?" He held her steady until she could stand on her own, then she picked up her instrument and followed him carefully out of the ship. As soon as they were out Lanna turned to get a good look at the ship. She backed up a little to see more of it, and bumped into Wildwing. She turned. Sorry, she signed, before she remembered he couldn't understand her. She turned back to the ship, feeling completely alone and out of place. She sighed and crossed her arms, looking up at the powerful machine. She'd always wanted to see one up close. She had all the diagrams and specs for just about everything that had ever flown back home--or she did, before the occupation. Her home, like so many others, had been destroyed. It was a miricle she'd been able to come thorough it with her synthe intact. If the resistance hadn't cracked her out when they did, she would have lost it, too. Of course, if they had rescued her a day earlier, she would still have her voice . . . Lanna shook away the regret and self-pity, angry at herself for letting it in.

She slipped the shoulder strap of the synthe over her head and felt the smooth weight settle accross her back, then let her eyes travel the length of the Aerowing again.

"Cool, isn't it?" Nosedive was next to her. Lanna started, then forced a smile and nodded. "Come on," he told her, "Wildwing told me to show you around." Lanna immediately felt guilty, certain there were more important things he'd rather be doing. Thanks, she signed, I don't want to be any trouble, though-- He waved that away with a wide grin. "Hey, don't mention it," he said, putting an arm around her shoulders and directing her toward a door. "Gives me an excuse to go to my favorite hangout. So, where do you want me to start?" Lanna shrugged away from him so that he could see her hands. Where are we? she asked. "Oh, yeah," he chuckled. "That would be a biggie, huh?"

Nosedive gave her the whole story as they went through the Pond. How they'd come to Earth, how they'd been tracking Dragaunus ever since chasing him off Puckworld, how they'd become the biggest thing in professional hockey since the invention of the puck . . . "Hey, do you play?" he wanted to know. Lanna shook her head. Dancer, she told him. "Oh. Well that's cool too." She didn't bother to inform him that she *could* play if she wanted too. She was from Puckworld, after all. Everyone on Puckworld *could* play hockey, and everyone loved the game. But if everybody played, who would watch?

"Ok," Nosedive said brightly, "So that's the Pond. Now for the good part . . ." He opened the glass doors and they emerged into the sunlight. The bright, *warm* sunlight. Lanna's eyes widened at the heat. Nosedive watched her, grinning. "Yep. No more freezing cold snowstorms--heck, this part of Earth doesn't even get that much rain!" He paused. "Well, there was that one time that snow aliens tried to conquer the planet with their weather machine--" Lanna cocked her head at him, and grinning, he gave her the whole story, although she had to suspect he'd embellished his own role just a bit. He seemed like the kind of guy who would; she'd heard the same type of hot-shot story from a dozen other guys. Although she had to admit this was a little more creative than most, and after the day she'd had she was much more inclined to believe anything.

They'd been walking the whole time, and Nosedive paused in his story every now and then to draw her attention to points of interest along the way. "And this," he said, stopping in front of a store with a giant man in tights on top of it, "is my home away from home--away from home." Lanna cocked an eyebrow at him, then shot a meaningful look upward at the man in tights. Nosedive flushed a little and said, "Hey! All Earth super heroes where tights." Lanna just laughed noiselessly and shook her head.

Nosedive pulled her inside. "Hey guys!" he waved to catch the attention of the two--she supposed they were humans, though they didn't look much like the ducks' manager, Phil, whom she'd met earlier--behind the counter. One had a purple mohawk, the other the oddest looking pair of sunglasses she'd ever seen and an earring in one ear. They turned and grinned. "Nosedive!" the guy lifted his glasses and set the stack of comic books he'd been carrying on the counter. "Hey man, what's happening?" He looked at Lanna and then back to Nosedive. "New friend?" he asked. "Yeah," Nosedive pulled her forward. "Lanna, this is Thrash, and that's Mook," he indicated the girl with the purple hair. Lanna nodded, smiled, and took the hand Thrash offered her. "Cool," he said with a grin, "Another out of this world super hero." "Fer sure," Mook also came to shake her hand. Lanna glanced at Nosedive, not sure how to take that last comment, but his beak was buried in one of the books Thrash had been carrying. "So, like, you like comics?" Thrash reached over to pick up the next one on the stack, a glint coming into his eye that Lanna recognized all to well. 'Funny how the look of a salesman paid on commission transcends galaxies,' she thought absently.

Lanna was saved as everyone's attention was drawn to Nosedive's beeping wristcom. "Yeah," he asked, as the device opened and Wildwing's picture appeared on the screen. "Dive, where are you?" The older duck asked gruffly. "You're late for practice." Nosedive ducked his head. "Oops! Be there in a flash, bro!" He seized Lanna's wrist and pulled her out of the comic book store. They ran across the mall and back to the Pond. Nosedive ducked into the locker room and Lanna went out to sit on the bench and watch.

***

When Nosedive finished gearing up and left the locker room, the new girl was sitting on the bench, engrossed in the short-handed play the rest of the team was practicing. She had tied her hair back in a loose ponytail, and now only her bangs brushed the sides of her face, coming down to her cheekbones. She was pretty, he couldn't help but notice. Her darker coloring was a nice change from the other two girls, and the forest green sleeveless jumpsuit she wore complemented her mahogany hair and contrasted nicely with the softer brown of her feathers. He tossed a wave at her as he hopped over the boards and skated out to join his teammates.

The six ducks set up for a face-off. Nosedive and Duke squared off over the face-off circle. "So what do you think of her?" the older duck asked.

"She's quiet," Nosedive answered flippantly, slapping his stick on the ice for the count-off. Then Nosedive was off with the puck on his stick. He took it out to the blue line, as the rules of the practice Wildwing had created dictated, then came back in again and looked for an opening. Tanya was guarding Mallory, but Grin couldn't keep up with both Dive and Duke if they stayed far enough apart. Duke sensed it, too, and he split off back towards the point. Grin, as expected, stayed on the puck carrier, and Dive managed to send the puck to Duke before swiftly evading the massive duck's body check. Unexpectedly, he found himself in front of the goal, and Duke sent the puck back to him. Tanya managed a deflection, but Nosedive had just enough time to compensate and send the puck top shelf on the stalwart goalie's glove side.

He wasn't surprised when Wildwing stopped the shot; glove was his strong side. He *was* surprised when Wing failed to control the rebound, and Nosedive was able to poke the puck through to score. Wildwing grimaced and slapped the puck out of the goal, knowing he should have had that one.

"What's the matter, bro? Old age getting to ya?" Nosedive teased, pouncing on the rare opportunity to make fun of his older brother. Wildwing cuffed him playfully with a crooked smile, and they set up again. Bending over the face-off circle, this time on the opposite side, a movement caught Nosedive's eye. He stood up and looked to the bench, where Lanna was waving her arms at them. Nosedive squinted down the ice, straining to see Lanna's signs.

"What is it?" Wildwing came up behind him. Nosedive looked at him, a confused look on his face.

"She wants to know if Mallory's all right," he answered. All eyes turned to the right winger, who had a familiar stubborn look on her face.

"I'm fine," she snapped with more force than was really necessary. Nosedive handed Duke his stick and stripped off his gloves. It was easier to sign than shout halfway down the rink. Lanna answered him, and he frowned, turning back to his teammates.

"She says that it looked like Mal was in pain for a minute. Something about the way she was handling her stick."

"She did take that slash from LaCrashe that last game," Tanya remembered. Wildwing's expression darkened. Again, Mallory insisted she was fine. Tanya made her rotate her stick parallel to the ice. Mallory did as she was instructed, but when Tanya made her try her left hand, the stubborn red-head only made a quarter turn before her face twisted in pain and she dropped the stick to the ice. She folded her arms defensively and scowled.

"You're benched," Wildwing told her flatly. Mallory started to protest, but Wildwing cut her off. "I can't risk you hurting yourself worse. We need you in top condition and nothing less. You're out of action, Mallory. No argument. Hit the showers." Seething, Mallory headed for the bench. She glared at Lanna as she passed. The younger duck bit her lip, but was not sorry. Mallory shouldn't have been hiding the injury from her teammates. The team tried one more face-off, but there was no real heart in it, and afterwards Wildwing sent them all in. An uncertain Lanna followed them into the locker room, not really knowing what else to do.

I didn't mean to upset her, Lanna apologized when she saw Nosedive looking at her. He grinned, pulling his jersey over his head. "Don't worry about it," he told her. "Mal just hates to be sidelined. She'll get over it."

"You did the right thing." Startled, Lanna whirled to face the team captain, who had come up behind her. "Mallory could have put us all in danger by hiding that injury. That wrist'll heal, but the guilt she'd be going through if it got one of us injured might not." There was a haunted look behind the white mask, and Lanna remembered Nosedive telling her that Wildwing had never really recovered from losing Canard. She nodded and smiled uneasily, and the older duck turned away. "Come on, team, let's get changed and get something to eat, I'm starving." Lanna's stomach growled loudly, punctuating the statement, and she covered her midsection with her hands, blushing vividly as the other ducks chuckled.

***

The ducks chattered back and forth across the table. Only Mallory and Lanna were quiet. Mallory ate her food in sullen, moody silence. Lanna pushed the food around on her plate, ignoring most of the conversation around her. Her eyes and thoughts were turned inward as she contemplated her situation. She forced down mouthful after tasteless mouthful. Her earlier hunger had faded as the reality of her situation finally dawned on her. Every time she lifted the fork, another gloomy thought came to her. Finally she set the fork down, unable to get another bite past the painful lump in her throat. Absently she reached up and fingered the silk cloth hiding the scars that had stolen her voice.

***

Nosedive paused with his fork halfway to his mouth when he noticed the look on Lanna's face. She seemed to have forgotten they were there. Tears brimmed in her ebony eyes and her grip tightened on the bandanna around her neck. One by one the conversations stopped as the other ducks caught sight of the girl's expression. For a moment nobody moved, then Tanya got up and went around to crouch by Lanna's chair.

"Go ahead," the blond duck murmured. "You'll feel better if you do." Lanna's face froze for a heartbeat before she collapsed into a sobbing heap in Tanya's understanding arms. With a start Nosedive realized that the cool-headed technician was near to crying herself. "We'll get back someday," Tanya whispered thickly, "We'll see them all again. Someday." Nosedive wasn't sure if she was talking to Lanna or herself. Realization slowly dawned on him, and he looked at Wildwing.

Coming to Earth hadn't been that big a deal for Nosedive, aside from the obvious lack of datable females. But, Wildwing was the only family Nosedive had. His parents were dead, and as far as he knew he didn't have any aunts or uncles. But Tanya, and Mallory, and Grin, and Lanna . . . they must all have someone who cared for them, somewhere back on Puckworld. No wonder Tanya had been so anxious to get home, that time that Dragaunus had offered them safe passage in return for leaving him to Earth. Sympathy was in Wildwing's face too, and impulsively Dive reached a hand out to his brother.

Grin had left his seat as well now, too, and he stood behind the girls with a hand on each of their shoulders. Mallory remained in her place, her eyes dull and lifeless. Trained military personnel were used to being away from their families for extended tenures, but Mallory was still young, and the indefiniteness of going home was starting to get to her.

Duke sat silently, watching. The former thief had no family, on Puckworld or elsewhere, as far as Nosedive knew. The Mighty Ducks had become his family, just as they had become Dive's and Wing's.

Lanna cried herself to exhaustion, and Grin carried her to Tanya's room as if she were a child. She let him lay her on Tanya's bed, and fell into fitful dreams.

***

Nosedive was whistling to himself as he poured the batter on the griddle; it was his day to cook. He heard the automatic doors slide open and he shoveled a couple of pancakes onto a plate. He turned to hand it to whoever had entered, and paused for a moment when he came face to face with Lanna. Uncertain what to say, he offered her the plate. She took it with a shy smile and sat down at the table. Nosedive watched her out of the corner of his eye as he mechanically flipped the sizzling buttermilk disks. Her hair was braided and twisted up at the back of her head, leaving only her long bangs free, framing her face and hiding her eyes from his view as she leaned over her plate. Nosedive felt like he should say something, but words failed him and all he could do was throw sympathetic glances in the newcomer's direction.

One by one the other ducks filed in, most of them bleary-eyed and sullen. Of the entire team, only Dive was what you could call a morning person--once he dragged himself out of bed. Mallory was absolute hell to deal with before 11, and Duke was incoherent until he downed two or three cups of coffee. Wildwing was silent and moody, although before the war he'd been just as annoyingly cheerful as his younger brother in the early hours. Grin was as passive and difficult to understand as he always was, regardless of the time of day.

Lanna stood and took her plate to the sink as Tanya came in. Nosedive offered her a cautious smile, and the look she returned to him was genuine, if a little sad around the eyes. Dive relaxed a little, relieved. Looked like she was going to be all right, after all. She tilted her head toward the sink that was rapidly filling with dishes and signed a question at him. He tossed her a towel in response and filled the basin with soapy water. Before long, however, the two switched places, since Nosedive knew where all the dishes went and Lanna did not. Dive continued to watch the dark-haired duck out of the corner of his eye as he dried the dishes she passed him and put them away. Her face was haunted as she scrubbed the syrupy plates, her eyes not really seeing the pile of dishes in front of her.

Nosedive sighed, his own thoughts drifting back to the hazy memories of his parents buried deep in his mind. He strained for a glimpse of his mother, his *real* mother, reaching deep into the shifting mists of his early childhood. It was so long ago, he'd near forgotten how he'd felt when--

A hand on his arm brought him back to reality. He shook himself and gave an embarassed smile in answer to Lanna's concerned and questioning look.

A ringing alarm saved Dive from having to explain. "Alarm," he barked shortly, catching Lanna by the hand and dragging her with him into the Ready Room.

"Dragaunus's henchmen are attacking downtown!" Tanya cried.

"Let's get to the Migrator!" Wildwing called. He frowned slightly when Lanna followed them, but decided it was probably not a good idea to leave her alone anyway.

The seven ducks jumped into their road machine, and raced to the site of the disturbance.

Klegghorn was already at the scene when the Mighty Ducks arrived, crouched behind the crumpled remains of his police car. He glared up at them as the ducks rushed past, but didn't call them back. Wildwing raised his pucklauncher and the doors of the single-story warehouse exploded inward. Nosedive motioned for Lanna to stay near him as they fanned out in the apparently deserted building.

"Hurry up, Siege, before that cop calls the ducks," Chameleon whined, tugging on the larger Saurian's arm.

"Shut up!" Siege snarled. "Quit distracting me." Wildwing chose that time to make an entrance. A puck slammed into the wall just beyond the burly lizard, and he whirled with a roar of hatred.

"Sorry to spoil your concentration, Siege," Wildwing said sarcastically, "but you'll have plenty of time to concentrate on your crimes when we put you on the wrong end of a containment field!" Nosedive rolled his eyes. He'd heard similar speeches a thousand times, and they always ended in a firefight. Why even bother? Especially if he couldn't come up with anything more origional than that--

Dive threw himself to the side as a laserbolt splashed to the ground where he'd just been, accompanied by a threat as unorigional as Wildwing's speech. 'Am I psychic or what?' he thought grimly, taking cover behind a pile of wooden crates and sending a volley of pucks at the Saurians. He ducked as Wraith sent a fireball in his direction, and was forced to leap away as the crates caught fire. "Finish it, Siege," he heard the old wizard yell, "We'll take care of these--" Wraith's call ended in a sharp cry as he jumped back to avoid the dagger that embedded itself in the floor in front of him, pinning the sorcerer's robe to the ground. He pulled free and turned with a snarl and a fireball in hand.

Nosedive followed his line of sight and saw Lanna standing on another stack of crates, a silver staff held at the ready in her hands. Wraith hurled the fire towards her and she jumped down to avoid the arcane bolt. She rolled and came back up to her feet just in time to knock Wraith's second shot away with her staff. Dive brought his pucklauncher to bear and fired, giving Lanna enough time to get back under cover.

Wildwing was wrestling with Siege, and it was a match Grin knew he couldn't win. The massive duck charged and knocked the Saurian to the ground. Wildwing jumped back just in time to avoid their swinging fists, but was grabbed from behind by the shape-shifted Chameleon. The gangly little Saurian had mutated into a musclebound giant. He raised Wildwing over his head, probably intending to throw him, but dropped the team captain instead as Mallory slammed into his stomach with a flying kick that knocked the Saurian to the ground. The two ducks were back on their feet instantly, but the groaning Saurian returned to his normal shape only to disapear in a sparkle of teleporter energy.

Nosedive spotted Tanya examining the device Siege had been fiddling with, near oblivious to the fighting around her as she tried to discern just what the lizards had been doing and how to stop it. Duke was on the far side of the room battling Wraith, and Dive could see his mentor was not faring well against Wraith's firesword. He started to make his way forward through the chaos to help the former thief, but the going was slow and he wasn't sure he could make it in time. His voice caught in his throat as Wraith forced Duke to the ground. Dive raised his launcher but couldn't get a clear shot. He ran forward, dodging the blaster bolts and pucks filling the air. Wraith raised his hand and fire flared up as the Saurian grinned evily at the stunned duck on the ground before him. Nosedive knew he wasn't going to make it.

Then Lanna appeared, running and hitting the twisted sorceror full force. Her slight body didn't do much more than knock Wraith off balance, but the blow from her staff hit him in the back of the knees and the followup pinned him to the ground with her boot on his chest and the tip of the staff at his throat. With an angry snarl Wraith activated his own teleporter, and Lanna lost her balance and fell nearly on top of Duke as the Saurian disappeared from under her foot.

Grin was left clutching air when Siege also disappeared, and Tanya's triumphant cry ended the battle as she disarmed the bomb the lizards were building.

Nosedive had made it to where Lanna was now kneeling by Duke's side. The former thief was winded and a little stunned, but not seriously hurt. Dive helped him sit up and Duke pressed a hand to his forehead. "Oh, I'm gonna feel that in the morning," he groaned. He glanced up at Lanna. "Thanks, kid." Lanna smiled sheepishly and shook her head.

"Gettin' a little slow in your old age, eh, Duke?" Nosedive teased as Lanna retrieved her dagger, slipping it back into the sheath in her boot.

"Watch it, kid," Duke glared playfully at him. "I still got enough of an edge to kick your sorry tailfeathers." Nosedive grinned and watched curiously as Lanna deactivated her staff and it shrunk to a palm-sized rod that fit in the slot on her left wristguard. She noticed him watching and offered him the object. He took it and examined it. Lanna hovered nearby, probably trying to make sure he didn't do anything stupid that would get himself or someone else hurt.

It was a good thing, because Nosedive accidentally hit the thing's trigger. The staff extended and Lanna reached out just in time to twist it away enough so that it narrowly missed hitting him in the face. Dive grinned sheepishly as she gave him an exasperated look. He offered the weapon back to her. She took it and deactivated it, then slipped it back into her wristguard. Wildwing called and they all trooped back into the Migrator. Grin carried the explosive, which Tanya would dismantle at her leisure back at the Pond.

"Congrats," Dive clapped her on the shoulder as they took their seats. "You made it through your first battle with a bloodthirsty dictator and survived. Welcome to Earth, kid."