Safe at Home?
Part One

"She shoots, she scores!" The announcer's voice rang through the arena.

"Nice shot, Mallory." Duke congratulated his teammate on the winning score.

"Nice! That was incredible!" Mallory responded, her smile nearly splitting her face in two.

"Well, I won't disagree with you." Wildwing said as they moved into their locker room. "It was just nice to enjoy the game without having to worry about Dragaunus for a change."

"You got that right, bro!" Nosedive chimed in as they changed into their ordinary clothes.

But something was bothering Duke. "That's just it kid. It's been too quiet."

"Hey I thought I was the one who was supposed to be the joker!" Nosedive cried in mock surprise.

Duke gave his apprentice an affectionate smile. Then turned to wait for Wildwing's comment, his leader had his head tilted to the side, which usually meant he was deep in thought. The others must have noticed to because the room got suddenly quiet.

"The way I see it, I wouldn't be surprised if Dragaunus was up to something big. His activities have been close to nothing for the last few days, like Duke said it's been way too quiet. I think we should do patrols, split up into groups of two and have one out looking for Dragaunus at all times. Duke and Nosedive you'll go first and stay out there until I call you to come back. When you do Tanya and I will take over and than Grin and Mallory. Everybody is to report back at the first sign of trouble, no heroics." Wildwing stated calmly, the others nodded in agreement.

"We'll take the Duckcycles, Wildwing. The Migrator can stay here, in case we need the Calvary. C'mon kid, let's go." Duke spun on his heel and headed towards where they stored their vehicles, with Nosedive trailing behind.

"What do you think Dragaunus is up to Duke?"

"He's probably been working overtime on his 'portal machine' so he can bring his Saurian pals through the dimensions to Earth." Duke couldn't keep the bitterness from his voice and he knew Nosedive had to have heard him but since becoming part of the Brotherhood of the Blade, Dive had become more tactful and he had learnt when to leave him be.

"Where do you want to look, first?"

"Ourskirts of town. Dragaunus wouldn't want to be in too public a place if he wanted to lie low."

"So we'll start at the warehouse district."

"Sounds good." Duke said slapping his young friend on the back.

________________________

For the first two nights of their patrol nothing happened. Duke was beginning to wonder if Dragaunus was even still in Anaheim. Him and Nosedive were patrolling the area using the cycles when they finally caught a Saurian energy signal on their sensors. At first Duke had to blink a couple of times in order to be sure he wasn't hallucinating but it was still there. "Hey Nosedive are you picking up anything on your monitor?"

"Yep, and judging by the magnitude of the energy level I'd say it was the big one."

"The Raptor." Duke caught his apprentice's nod of agreement. "Then lets go. I'll contact the others on the way."

Following Nosedive's bike Duke quickly opened a communications link between his and Wildwing's com units. The staticy image of the screen was soon replace with a clear picture of their leader. "Hey, Wildwing, Dive and I have picked up a fluctuation on our sensors that looks like it could be the Raptor. We're on an intercept course right now."

"Tanya says she can pinpoint the location by using the Migrator's targeting systems to tap into the Duckcycle's sensors. Duke, I want you to be careful and take care of Nosedive for me. Don’t' go in until we get there."

"All right Wildwing. We'll wait for you. Duke out." Instantly the screen went black and he was able to follow the twisting path Nosedive had picked out with a little bit more accuracy.

It seemed like forever until they reached the area the blimp indicated. The building was a run-down hotel or at least that was what it appeared to be. Duke may have dismissed it as that if Wraith, Chameleon and Siege weren't out front fiddling with some strange machinery. Before Duke had a chance to warn his companion away, Nosedive had already started forward, his puck launcher drawn.

Shaking his head, Duke followed suit holding his sabre at the ready. They were maybe five feet from their enemies when a portal suddenly formed out of no where. As quickly as the portal had appeared, Dragaunus's goons disappeared leaving them to deal with the vortex.

The gravitational field was incredible but they were too far away to be effected by it. That's when Duke felt hands on his back, twisting he managed to catch sight of Siege as he fell into the portal. He came out the other side with a loud smack, his body slammed into cold, hard pavement. Getting up he looked around but before he had time to register his surrounding there was another loud crashing sound as Nosedive landed beside him, with a sucking sound the portal folded in on itself.

"Well, so much for listening to Wildwing and staying put." Duke grumbled to himself as he gazed around.

"Where exactly are we?" Dive said as he came up beside Duke.

Seeing a sign not to far away Duke swallowed hard. "I'd say we're back on Puckworld, Kid. We're home."

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