"You did it! You’re sure?"

"Yup!" she laughed, hair flying as the spun in tight circles. "Any universe in this dimension! I’m getting so close to a Dimensional Gateway Dive! So close! A few more years…"

He put her down. "*Years*?"

She pushed her hair back. "Well, yeah, I mean, making a Dimensional Changer is a big job. Look how long it took the Saurians."

"Yeah, but YEARS!" Nosedive sighed, and headed for the door.

Jadestar grabbed his arm, and turned him to face her. "Nosedive, do you have any idea how hard it was for me to even build a Universal Changer? It took me ages! I’m not Tanya, you know!" Jadestar released him, and turned to sit down at the small table, starting to cry. He’s probably right, a Universal Changer isn’t much, and a few years is a long time…But I worked so hard, and he was happy before…Does he want me to do the impossible?!

"Oh, Staaaaaaaaaar…." he moaned. "You *know* I can’t stand it when you cry."

"Well then gr them! You can do it! Tanya and you spent so much time on Drake One I’m surprised she didn’t tell you how to get it to self-destruct." He was joking, but she refused to look at him. "Oh MAN! It HAS a self-destruct?"

Suddenly Drake One’s alarms went hay-wire. They started to race out of the room, but were pulled up short by Wraith at the lab door. They backed up, and Nosedive slammed the button to close the door. It closed just in time, taking a round of fire. The twins morphed into battle gear, Nosedive complete with the Mask.

"Uh oh." Jadestar mumbled.

"Uh oh is right girlfriend! Those doors aren’t going to hold, especially when Dragaunus shows up!" Nosedive looked desperately around the small room, refusing to panic.

The door shuddered as the Saurians kicked and fired at it.

"Guess we’ll be seeing Wildwing and the guys sooner than we expected!" Jadestar screamed.

"Not if I have anything to do with it!" Nosedive yelled back, eyes falling on the small golden sphere she was holding. He rushed over. "How does this thing work?"

Jadestar’s eyes flashed. "Dive, you GENIUS! Quick, grab on to me!" She started furiously pressing small buttons on it’s surface.

"Is this going to work?" he yelled over the increasing noise.

"We either change universes or we explode."

"Ah, win-win situation."

The door fell in, and Siege, Wraith and the Chameleon stepped in.

"Time to join your ducky friends, kids." Siege raised his gun. Nosedive stared at him, frantically trying to think his way out. Jadestar didn’t even look up until the sphere started to glow.

"Here goes." she gulped, knowing that she could be sealing their fate.

"Wish us luck!" Nosedive said, gripping her arm, the Mask reflecting the light of the ball.

"I make my own luck. I just hope it’s *good*." she cried back as her feet started to disappear. Suddenly they vanished, and Siege’s shots sailed through the now un-occupied air and smashed the test-tubes behind.

***

Nosedive and Jadestar materialised in the same place they’d been before. Nosedive kept his pucklauncher at the ready.

"Where are we?" he said softly.

"I have *no* idea. All I know is that our universe is coded MD24R, and this is MD14R. I only had time to go random."

"So the Ducks here…" He left the sentence unfinished.

"May be violent." Jadestar looked at the puckshooter Nosedive was holding, and the one in her holster. "Well, more so than us, anyway."

Nosedive pressed his ear to do the door, and heard footsteps running down the corridor. "The security’s picked us up. I wonder how? I mean, we should be able to pass through…" As he was saying this he hustled Jadestar behind a small cupboard that was there.

The door opened and a female human stepped in holding a small weapon that she’d grabbed on her way to the lab. She held the gun in her left hand and carefully covered every inch of the room with her aim.

"Human?" Jadestar breathed into Nosedive’s ear. He scanned her and nodded.

"I don’t know who you are, but it’s no good hiding in here, it’ll be 6 to 1 when the others get here, and that’s going to be soon. In the mean time, I’m not afraid of a little hand to hand."

"One? It only picked up one of us." Nosedive whispered.

"So where’s the other?" Jadestar said, shivering slightly.

"I’m going to find out if she’s friendly. *You* stay here." He shot her a look through the Mask that he hoped you banish any thoughts of her disobeying. He stepped out from behind the cupboard, training his aim on the girl’s legs. "I don’t want to hurt you," he told her. "But I will if I have to."

Surprise flickered across her face. "Nosedive?! What the heck are you DOING? Why are you wearing the…uh oh."

"You know me?"

"I’m MARRIED to you!"

There was a small snuffling sound from behind the cupboard, Caro glanced at it. She quickly grabbed an exploding puck from one of the benches and showed it to Nosedive. "Either they come out from behind there, or they explode. Pick." Caro bluffed.

Nosedive glared at her, looking very threatening behind the Mask, but he reached behind the cupboard and pulled out what looked like himself.

"Okay…You cloned yourself or something…"

"I resent that!" Jadestar protested, and moved fully out of the cupboard’s shadow.

"You’re a girl." Caro muttered. Jadestar folded her arms.

"Nice work." Jadestar said sarcastically.

"Let me guess. Another universe, right?" Caro sighed. "This could get complicated."

"We don’t want to hurt you, and you don’t really want to shoot us, am I right?" Nosedive decided they’d been standing there long enough.

"Yeah, I guess." Caro muttered.

"OK, on the count of three we put our weapons away. Star, you count."

Caro nodded. She and Nosedive both tensed, and locked eyes as Jadestar counted.

"1…2…3." Both the duck and the human lowered their weapons. Caro heaved a sigh of relief, and was about to comment, when the door opened behind her, and five more weapons were pointed at the twins. The two immediately whipped out their guns and held them in front.

"Nice trick," Nosedive told Caro. "Get us relaxed while the re-enforcement arrives.&o away, like you were going to." she mumbled, feeling the feathers on her arm become damp.

"Look, fine, I’m sorry, OK?" he sighed. Her hormones are just so darn unpredictable these days…"I thought you meant that we’d be out of here in a few months, and then you said years, and I just didn’t think…"

She stood up and silenced him. "S’OK. I know I haven’t been the best person to live with lately…"

"We’re both kinda messed up."

"Maybe. But you know, the DC wont be the answer to our problems. We’ll be able to get home, sure, but Dragaunus is still here, and we’re evicted in a week."

"I still can’t believe Phil’s gonna kick us out!"

"Dive, he’s not even gonna be here! He’s *moving*."

"Still…I mean, if it wasn’t for us, he’d be on the dole!"

"Blaming Phil wont do anything either."

"It’ll make me feel better." Nosedive grinned. "Anyway, I’ve been thinking about our little shelter problem. Why don’t we just hide out in here anyway? I mean, if we put the security up…"

"It’s *illegal*."

"It’s survival baby."

"It’s dumb. Remember how we cleared Klegghorn? He won't let us stay. Phil can pass through too!"

"So we *un* cleaquot;

"Excuse me?! I believe it was your idea!" Caro said in a tone of outrage, hands on hips.

"What the…" Duke started, seeing three ‘Nosedives’ startling him. "How many of you ARE there Dive?"

"What is WRONG with you people?" It had been a good day that had gone rapidly downhill for Jadestar, and her normally quite long fuse had gone straight to the end. "I’m not Nosedive!" she screamed.

"Keep it cool girl." Nosedive didn’t look at her, but tried to calm her down.

"It’s alright for you, you exist here!"

"Everyone CALM DOWN!" Caro yelled over the rising confusion. "How about we all put our weapons down and talk this over, OK?" All the ducks nodded, and slowly replaced their weapons into their various holders, though the twins kept their hands at the ready.

"This is going to get confusing." Nosedive said, noting himself in the pack of ducks. "Call me Dive. And this is my twin sister Jadestar." Jadestar tried to smile, but her nerves made it look very fake.

"Huh?" Nosedive was very confused. "I don’t have a twin sister!"

"That’s terrible!" Jadestar said. "I never existed? How totally sucky!"

Dive looked at the ducks in front of him. "Where’s Grin? And who is SHE?" he asked, pointing to Caro. She stepped forward.

"Caro Roberts." she held out her hand for him to shake it.

"Uh, Nosedive Mark Flashblade." He shook it.

"Jadestar Isobel Flashblade." She laughed suddenly. "This is kinda funny." she walked over to Nosedive. "Hello!" she grinned.

Nosedive stared at the identical face. "You got green eyes." he mumbled. She rolled them, and inspected the other ducks.

They felt rather silly. She finally went back to Dive.

"You know, if we ever get lonely, we could just change universes and see them all again." she said to her brother.

"Yeah." he looked at the Ducks, who were getting more confused by the second. "It’s weird…"

Wildwing’s stomach twisted with apprehension as he noted the Mask on Dive’s face. "How about we all go to the Ready Room for a few explanations?" He left the room, and the others followed.

***

"You first," Wildwing pointed to Dive. "Why are you here, and where’s your team?"

Dive sighed, and closed his eyes for a second. "OK, here goes, but you aren’t going to like this." He picked his words carefully. "I’m not the original leader."

"You took over from Canard?" Nosedive interrupted.

"No. I took over from Wildwing. You see," he paused, trying to think of a good way to put it. "You’re all…dead." The Ducks stared at him, and he hurried on. "The Chameleon shot you on the ice, about three weeks ago. Wildwing made me leader just before he died…" Jadestar sniffed, but didn’t cry. "Well, things are going pretty hopelessly for us now. We can’t play hockey, because there’s only one player left, me…"

"I can’t play. I figure skate." Jadestar put in.

"So we have one week left before Phil kicks us out. He’s moving to Florida or something."

"What are you going to do?" Wildwing asked, voice full of concern. They weren’t really his siblings, but they both looked so much like Nosedive, so he couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for them.

Dive shrugged. "I dunno."

Jadestar took up the story. "I’ve been trying to make a Dimensional Changer, or Gateway, for about a year. This morning I finally succeeded in making a Universal Changer. The Saurians suddenly attacked the Pond, and we got stuck in the lab. I turned on the UC, and we ended up here."

Dive grinned. "We were this close to meeting DuCaine," he demonstrated with his thumb and finger. "But, we pulled it off again, as always." He clapped his sister on the back. "Nice work, by the way."

She blushed. "It was your idea."

"Wait a minute," Mallory interrupted. "You’re all alone? And *you*," she pointed to Dive. "Are in charge?" She folded her arms. "Good luck Anaheim and Puckworld."

The Mask on Dive’s face glinted. "Are you suggesting that I’m not a good leader?" he asked in a low voice.

"We’re capable of looking after ourselves. We’ve always seen trouble, and we always will." Jadestar glared at Mallory.

"The thing is, you’re here now, what are you going to do?" Wildwing asked them, having quietly scanned them long ago, he knew them to be ‘Nosedive’ and a duck with very similar genetics, so he trusted them.

Dive looked to Jadestar. "We have to get back. Wing told us to defeat Dragaunus, and we plan on doing that."

"What if they’re still in the Pond?" Nosedive asked.

Dive shrugged. "Probably are. We’ll just have to use the UC hopefully in a place away from where Dragaunus is."

"That’s sounds pretty foolish Dive." Mallory muttered.

"What else can we do?" Dive said, questioning with his hands.

"We defeated the Saurians a few years back." Wildwing offered the only piece of information that seemed different.

"You guys never lost a team member? Other than Canard." Nosedive asked.

Wildwing shook is head. "Never."

"So where’s Grin?"

"Who on Puckworld is Grin?" Caro asked.

"Didn’t you replace him?" Jadestar frowned.

"Nope."

"Huh. Well, our team consisted of me, Wing, Duke, Mal, Tanya and Grin, with Jade as a late edition." Dive said.

"Hmm. We have me, Mallory, Nosedive, Caro, Duke and Tanya." Wildwing thought about the differences for awhile, but another thought struck him. He drew Dive aside. "Why don’t you stay here for tonight, and we’ll see if there’s anything we can do to help in the morning." Wildwing put a hand on Dive’s chest, forcing the young leader to look up. "Some of us might be able to go back with you."

Dive stepped back. "Hey, we can handle it!"

"Dive, you haven’t defeated the Saurians with a full team! How do you expect to do it now?"

"You’re not my older brother, you can’t tell me what to do," Dive said through clenched teeth. "And we can do it! We have to do it." he whispered.

"Dive, think of your team, not your pride."

Dive turned his head to look at his sister, who was talking a mile a minute to Caro.

"You think you can risk her?" Wildwing asked softly. "I couldn’t risk you."

The duck looked up into Wildwing’s eyes. The Masks stared, face to face. Duke was the only duck watching them, and a prickle went up his spine. They were both so definitely leaders. Duke turned to look at Nosedive. Could our Nosedive ever be forced into that?

"If you can come, being sure you can get back safely, then come." Dive turned away, and walked over to the others.

"Does he do that little snuffling noise about 1am?" Jadestar was asking Caro. Both were giggling.

"Oh yeah. He does that. Does yours insist on reading a comic as a bed time story?"

"Yeah, but I think that’s kinda cute. Besides, so do I."

"I guess there are worse things. But I think the snuffling is cuter." Caro grinned.

"I do not snuffle!" Both Dive and Nosedive said at once.

"Of course you don’t!" Caro and Jadestar said patronisingly.

"Am I the only one who is getting freaked?" Mallory asked, pointing to the three blond ducks and the human.

"I’d like to say I’m not, but that’d be lying." Tanya smiled.

***

It as about 8pm, and Jadestar was mooching through the Pond. She wanted a bit of time to herself. After being in a house of two for almost a month, being suddenly thrown into a household of eight felt very cramped.

She sighed, and turned to go watch some TV, wondering if they had the same programs here.

The TV was on, and she walked in to sit down. Mallory and Wildwing were on the sofa, cuddling and talking softly, not noticing the young duck enter.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!!" Jadestar screamed, causing the snuggled ducks to jump, and to stare up at her, but not to release each other.

"What are you talking about?" Wildwing asked, trying not to yell back.

"Oh, great, act all innocent! What’ll Duke say! Mallory, how COULD you? This’ll break his HEART!" Jadestar was practically crying. The other five ducks rushed in, Dive to stand next to Jadestar. He raised an eyebrow at the ducks on the sofa.

"Gees, Wing and Mal, never expected to see that." Dive said, slightly amused.

"I’m sure she still loves you Duke!" Jadestar turned to the fascinated Duke. "She’ll come back to you!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, time out! Come back? What’s the matter?" Duke was puzzled, and Jadestar looked at him like he was crazy.

Nosedive quickly crossed the room to stand on the other side of Jadestar. "Look, Jadey, I don’t know about in your world, but Wing and Mal are married."

The three identical faces stared at one another. Jadestar and Dive looked at each other. Dive suddenly burst out laughing.

"Really? Whoa, man…" he couldn’t stop laughing. He tried his best, realising that laughing at two people because they were married wasn’t really the best way to make friends. But the idea…

Tanya leaned on the top of the sofa. "They aren’t where you’re from?"

Dive was still chuckling, so Jadestar answered, looking quiet bewildered. "Well, no, I mean Duke and Mallory were going out, but no one ever got married."

"Not even close?" Mallory found her voice.

"Well, OK, they got engaged, but that was only for about 10 seconds when we…never mind. Anyway, they died straight after, so no, no one ever got married."

"We’re *all* married." Caro grinned.

"Hey yeah, that’s right. Dive, you’re married to Caro!" Jadestar told her leader.

"I’m *what*?" He stopped laughing immediately. "Hey, no offence Caro, but I’m in no hurry to get married."

Nosedive smiled. "The other one was."

"Huh?"

"Me and Caro went to another universe where the Nosedive there got the hots for Caro."

"Does that sort a few things out for you?" The couples all stood together and showed their rings. The twins eye’s widened, and Dive started pushing Jadestar out of the room.

"Exit stage left." he muttered, shoving his sister along.

"I’m sorry!" she called behind her. "Sorry! Misunderstanding! Sorry!"

The team looked at each other. Mallory and Duke looked at each other, and started laughing. Relieved, the other joined in.

***

"Well, how was I meant to know?" Jadestar angrily pulled her arm free of Dive’s grip. "It’s not my fault! I *said* sorry!"

Dive sighed. He wasn’t really sure why he was so angry. He slumped against the wall of the hallway. "We have to fight with these guys, we have to get on."

Jadestar pointed back down the hallway. "You laughed at Wildwing and Mallory! And they’re laughing now! They don’t mind!" She suddenly realised what Dive had said. "Fight?"

Dive massaged his forehead with his feathers. "Wildwing wants to send some of his team with us. Just to make sure that we kick the Saurians out of the Pond successfully."

"You agreed to this?"

"We had a small argument in the process, but yeah, I agreed."

"How are they going to get back here?"

"I have no idea."

They stood in silence. The disagreement had blown over, as most of their conflicts did. Dive pushed his back off the wall. "I’m tired. Let’s find out where we’re meant to pad down."

"Nifty."

***

"Where do we sleep?" Dive asked the Ducks, who were still in the lounge.

"Um, we hadn’t thought of that." Tanya said stuffily.

"Well, look, if you have a room with a couple of sofas, that’s all we need." Dive shrugged.

"You sleep in the same room?" Nosedive asked.

"Yeah." Jadestar confirmed.

"Any important reason why?" Mallory quizzed.

The twins looked at each other, and shrugged. "We always did, for security, on Puckworld, Wing too until we were 12. Guess moving families all the time, just made us feel safer." Dive said.

"Families?" Duke crossed his arms.

"Foster families. Our real parents…weren’t nice people. Look, do you have a room or not? We don’t *have* to sleep together." Dive didn’t feel like telling his life story.

The Ducks conferred. "I guess they could just have my old room." Caro said.

"It’s only got one bed," Mallory pointed out. "The other could have my old one."

"There you are, you two, one in Caro’s and one in Mallory’s. Who’s where?"

The twins seemed to communicate with their faces, and Jadestar turned to Mallory in a few seconds. "Lead on Mal. See ya in the morning, Dive, guys."

"Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite." Dive answered with his usual reply, forgetting the others.

"Very cute." Duke sniggered. Dive blushed.

***

Nosedive waited till after Caro left to knock on Dive’s door.

"Come in if you’re a gorgeous female duck that isn’t called Mallory, Tanya or Jadestar." came the grumpy response. Nosedive entered anyway. Dive had taken off his armour, and was about to climb into bed in his body suit.

"Hello." Dive said continuing to hop into his bunk.

"Can we talk?"

"Of course we can talk! I’ve been able to since I was one. I don’t know how long you’ve been doing it, but you did it just then, so yes, we can talk." Dive lay down and pulled the covers up to his waist, closing his eyes.

"That’s the kind of thing Tanya would say." Nosedive sat on the floor.

"No, it’s the kind of thing I say."

"All the time?" Nosedive knew that this duck had been the same as him once upon a time, and maybe he still was. He just wanted to know more of why Dive was so…so…bitter sometimes.

"Why would you care?"

"I want to understand you. You aren’t like the other Nosedive. Well, I mean, in some ways we’re all the same, but you don’t like Rebecca, and sometimes you go…weird. I want to know why."

Dive opened his eyes and sat up. "You want to hear the life story of Nosedive Flashblade? Fine. Parents beat me and Jadestar up a lot. Ended up with Star in hospital. Got fostered out more times than I can or want to remember to families who treated us like scum. You wanna know why we sleep together? Jade had a room of her own at one place. The ‘father’ came in one night. She’s lucky Wing was still awake in the next room. She was only 8. After that we were finally given to some decent parents. Only people I’ve ever called ‘mum’ and ‘dad’. Things were great for awhile! Then, come six years, Saurians attack. Me, Jade and Wing got put in a camp. Saurian started using Jade for target practice. We thought she was dead for almost two years. Left Puckworld without her. Then she came to Earth through an old friend, and that was great. Then we’re just playing on the ice. Jade’s sitting watching, just finished her little half-time-support-the-team-and-make-some-money act." Dive’s eyes were wide and staring, seeing it all again. "We’re having a pep talk. Suddenly they were all shot. One after the other. Murdered under my very beak. Just like that," he snapped his fingers. ‘We’re out of a job, home, family. Stuck on a planet in the wrong dimension. And I’m meant to be leading a team of two to fight Dragaunus." He switched his gaze to Nosedive, and Nosedive was caught be the intensity of it. "You try all that and see how wonderful you feel."

Nosedive sat silently, watching. "You can cry, you know." he said finally.

Dive shrugged, and slid back down into his bed. "I’ve done more crying than I thought was physically possible. I don’t need to cry anymore, I need to learn to live with it."

"Ask God to help you." Nosedive offered the only comfort he could give.

To his surprise Dive began to laugh. "What’s so funny? You don’t believe in God?"

"Oh MAN! That’s who I forgot in all of this! I forgot God! How could I be so DUMB?!" Dive whammed his head against the wall. "I mean, I was wearing his reminder the whole time!"

"His reminder?" Nosedive asked, but Dive didn’t hear. He was jumping out of bed and heading for the door. "What are you doing?"

Dive stopped at the door. "I’m going to tell Star of course! I can’t wait till morning to tell her this! What if she was feeling as bad as me?"

"You’re only wearing your body suit."

"So? She won't care." Dive started off again.

"What if you run into Mallory or Tanya?"

"Good point." Dive ran over to where he’d dumped his gear, and started pulling it on. Nosedive watched.

"You really love her, don’t you." It was a statement, not a question. Dive paused, and looked up.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. She’s all I have left." He started getting into his gear again. He was ready in less than a minute, and grabbed Nosedive’s arm as he hurried past. "Show me the way."

"Sure." Nosedive headed off down the hall. They jogged side by side. Nosedive looked down, and saw Dive’s com. "I wonder if out coms would connect?" Dive shrugged, and barged through the door. Nosedive stopped short, thinking that that wasn’t such a good idea. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard a squeal.

"Dive! Close the door, I took my shirt off!" a slightly annoyed Jadestar said. Dive came to the door, and grinned at Nosedive.

"Excuse us." he said as he shut the door. Nosedive stared.

"Uh, shouldn’t you wait out here till she’s ready?"

"Why? I mean, this sure isn’t the first time we’ve walked in on each other!" Dive said as the door closed.

Nosedive stood outside, wondering if that could have been him if someone had done something different along the line of time. Having nothing else to do, he put his ear to the door, and tried to listen. He could hear Dive saying something quietly, then nothing.

"Well, I feel like a doofus." came quite clearly through the door from Jadestar. Nosedive couldn’t help but grin.

"What on Puckworld are you doing? She’s only sleeping!" Caro stood, hands on hips.

"Um…look, kinda a private chat thing that I had with Dive. Turns out they forgot about God. And Dive insisted on telling her right now. It was all I could do to get him to get fully dressed!"

"Then why are you out here?"

"Because Jadestar’s not dressed."

"Then why is he in there?"

"Well, he seemed to treat it as normal. He just barged on in, and she only made him shut the door."

"I was never like that with my siblings."

Nosedive had no answer.

The door opened and Dive came out, positively beaming. "Well, I don’t know about you two, but I need snack and sleep!" he halted in thought for a second. "Actually, I need a comic too. Can you lend me one, Nosedive?"

"Me too!" Jadestar yelled from inside her own room.

"Uh, OK. I’ll go find some. What do you want?"

"Anything." Dive headed off down the hallway.

"Do you have Garfield?" Jadestar called.

"No."

"Bob the Angry Flower?"

"No."

"Umm…Darkwing Duck?"

"Oh yeah, I got Darkwing."

"Really?! Nifty-o! I’ll take all that ya got! Thanks!" Jadestar started getting dressed again. The sound travelled through the door, and Rebecca, who was waiting outside the door, heard.

"OK, God, bet ya never thought you’d hear from me again! Well, here I am, and I’m *real* sorry about kinda ignoring ya. Thanks for forgiving me!" Sounds of someone jumping up and down followed. "Erg…God, I think I’m stuck. Remind me never to try and get my chest plate on over my head. Now what? I need some help. God, would you mind please getting this on me?"

Caro tried not to laugh as she knocked on the door.

"Nosedive, I’m kinda…uh…busy right now. Say, I know you probably feel like some kind of slave or something, but could you go get Dive? It’s important." Jadestar answered the knock with a slightly muffled voice.

"It’s me, Caro. Need some help?"

"Yeah."

Caro opened the door, and was glad she didn’t have to hide her smile. Jadestar had her arms above her head, and her chest piece stuck on her head and arms. "I’m stuck." she mumbled. "I was trying to take a short cut, and it backfired." She stepped backwards, as if in an attempt to shake it off, and fell backwards onto the bed. "Ow."

Caro started to giggle. "Stand still." She approached Jadestar, and the duck obediently stopped moving. "Do you want me to pull it off, or push it on?"

"You better get it off, I think my beak’s gonna break any sec. That’s what it’s stuck on."

Caro tugged and tugged, but the armour was stuck tight. She gave a mighty heave, and Jadestar was freed. Caro and the chest plate fell to the floor. Jadestar offered her a hand, and Caro got back on her feet.

"Thanks." Jadestar rubbed her beak, and put the piece on the normal way. She shook out her blond hair, blowing up a bit that flopped in her face.

"So much for sleep." Caro commented as they left the room.

***

Dive collapsed into bed for the second time that night, feeling better than he had for a long time. Who knew Nosedive could be so funny? Even though he *had* seen most of the jokes coming, and had even silently mouthed the words along a couple of times, he’d still found them incredibly amusing.

He moved his mind back to more serious matters: attacking the Pond. He wondered vaguely if it might be better to let the Saurians have the Pond, they had to leave in a week anyway. The thought of Dragaunus combined with the power of Drake One soon brought Dive back to reality. Still, it seemed foolish to risk lives on something that was not going to help them anyway.

***

Dive was making an extra effort to stay awake and alert. He continually doused his system with caffeine. His brave attempts failed however, and he closed his eyes at the breakfast table.

Wildwing decided to ask the duck what he had planned when the coffee had kicked in. He looked across the table, and was amused to find that both of the blond haired males were sitting in the exact same way, same sleepy expression on their faces, and the same amount of coffee left-none.

Jadestar and Caro were ignoring them, intent on their conversation and food. The others all seemed to be occupied in fact. Wildwing sighed, and supposed it was up to him. He suddenly realised he had no idea which was which. Dive wasn’t wearing the Mask. He nudged Mallory.

"Mal, which one’s Nosedive?"

She looked at them for a second. "I don’t know everything." she winked. "I guess you’ll just have to ask them."

"Great, I can’t recognise my own brother." He figured that his Nosedive would be the one sitting next to Caro, so he tapped the other one’s shoulder.

Dive jumped awake instantly, hand going to his pucklauncher as a reflex motion. Wildwing raised an eyebrow at his move, but didn’t mention it.

"Do you have any plans on how to get the Pond back?" he asked Dive. "Oh, and put the Mask on, it’s confusing having you two sitting opposite each other."

Dive complied with Wildwing’s request, and poured himself more coffee. "I have a few ideas," he said lowly. "We can try and storm the place, but I’m not too sure on the percentile of success on that little plan. We could sneak in and try and pick them off. Or," he took a sip of coffee. "We can blow up the Pond."

Wildwing started, but kept his voice down, not wanting to draw attention to his conversation. "Why would you want to do that?"

Dive stared ahead. "We have to leave anyway. It’s no good to us. We wont have to engage in combat hopefully. If it’s blown up, then no one nasty is going to break in when we go. And if we just get the Migrator out first, possibly with money and some ammo, then we’ve still got a home. It’s just mobile."

"You can’t live in the Migrator."

"It’s better than the street. And we need something to fight with. We can get it fitted out with a couple of beds and a stove, and it’ll be like a caravan, ‘cept we don’t need a car in front."

Wildwing considered it for a minute, then patted Dive’s back. "Well, at least it’s original. I wouldn’t have thought of it."

"That probably means that it wont work." Dive finished his second cup of coffee. "Well, it’s time to go. Maybe you ought to tell your team what’s planned?"

"Hey, guys. I need your attention please!" Wildwing stood up. Everyone except Dive, who was absent-mindedly fiddling with the Mask on his face, paid attention with curiosity. It wasn’t often that Wildwing made breakfast announcements. "I’d like to send a couple of Ducks back with Dive and Jadestar. The Ducks that go can return with the digital relocator. If there’s no volunteers, then I’ll go by myself. Hands?"

Nosedive immediately put up his hand, looking excited. Caro, seeing her husband raise his hand, raised her hand too. Wildwing considered sending both of his youngest team members. "I guess you two have had more experience with the relocator. OK, you guys, on this little adventure, you answer to him," he pointed to Dive, who still didn’t look up. "Any problems?" Nosedive and Caro shook their heads, and Wildwing smiled. "Good. You four should get going, before the Saurians settle into the Pond too much."

Dive stood up, and checked how many pucks he had in his puckshooter. Satisfied with the count, he motioned his team to follow him. In the end all the Ducks did. He left them outside of the lab as he went to retrieve the relocator and something else. Once outside the Pond, Jadestar started to set up the UC.

"Why aren’t we leaving inside?" Nosedive asked. "Then we wouldn’t have to break in."

"Because we’d probably run into a Saurian or set off an alarm. And breaking in isn’t the main objective." Dive answered, turning to the Ducks staying behind. "Thanks for shacking us up. I promise to get Nosedive and Caro back to you safely. See you guys around."

"OK, grab onto me." Jadestar instructed the three Flashblades that were coming. The globe started to glow, and the four disappeared suddenly.

***

Nosedive blinked. "Hey, where’d everyone go?"

"We left. This is our universe." Jadestar told him.

"Looks normal." Rebecca noted.

"Yeah, everything’s OK. Maybe Dragaunus is waiting for us to come to him." Dive sat down behind a bush, and started to lead his council of war.

***

Jadestar smiled as Nosedive cut his way into the Pond via the tin garage door. "I guess the Chameleon was good for something after all." The two ducks stepped in.

"OK, you two go get the Migrator and some supplies if you can. But the most important thing is the Migrator." Dive told Nosedive and Jadestar from outside. They nodded, and headed off down a hallway, keeping close to the walls.

Caro held her package carefully. "What about security?"

Dive shook his head. "It’s not at peak condition. Jadestar knows a lot about Drake One, but we’ve had a few small glitches that only Tanya can fix. That’s probably how the Saurians managed to get in. And if they can do it," Dive grinned as he brought his puckshooter up to his chest, holding it with both hands. "So can we." He gave her a small push. "You go first, I’ll cover your back."

She nodded, and they headed off towards the sewers.

***

Caro wrinkled her nose. "This really stinks."

Dive shrugged. "That’s a good thing about not having a very effective smelling instrument." he joked. "I can practically stop smelling if I want."

"Some people have all the luck."

They continued on in silence, until Dive suddenly stopped, and opened the emergency entrances. "This was one of the small problems we were having: locking doors. Actually the whole security system has gone haywire, but that wont matter after this anyway."

The two walked carefully into the Pond.

***

"You a good aim?" Nosedive asked when they got beneath the ice.

"Good enough." Jadestar tried to smile, but her nerves had kicked in as normal.

"Is there any money down here?"

"Yeah, there’s a safe on the left wall. I’ll empty it if you keep me covered."

"Can do girly girl." They snuck over to the safe, and Jadestar started pulling out wads of notes.

"Shesh, how long have you guys been saving?"

"I don’t know, I think Wildwing did this. Insurance if we had to get out in a hurry." She finished, and shut the safe. "I’ll go get some extra weapons. You get the Migrator ready to leave."

"Yes madam!" he saluted, and scurried off, avoiding the slap that came his way.

***

Dive finished depositing the few exploding pucks that were needed to bring the Pond down quickly, and walked back over to Caro. She was putting the finishing touches to the main bomb, which was all set except for the timer.

"All set. Just need the signal."

Her com bleeped, and she opened it. "We’re outside waiting." Nosedive told her.

"Ask if anyone saw them." Dive told Caro.

"I heard that. Nope, no one saw…uh oh…I’d like to change that last statement. We have Dragaunus!"

Dive groaned. "I was hoping we’d get him in the blast."

"Sorry. Whoa!" The Migrator shook. "We’re in the Migrator, and Dragaunus is fighting. No sign of his little helpers. Gotta go." Nosedive signed off, and Caro closed her com.

"I think we better cut our losses and run." Caro knelt low over the bomb.

"I think you might be right."

Dive kept alert, looking for any signs of Saurians, knowing that the rest were probably looking for anymore intruders. Dragaunus had obviously decided that he could handle two ducks himself. Wait a second…

"Where are the other three?" Dive said suddenly.

"Probably looking for us."

"Why should they be?" Caro glanced up for a second, but continued with what she was doing.

"There’s a Nosedive and a Jadestar down there. As far as he knows, that’s all there is to fight."

Caro stopped. "Good point. Maybe more of the security systems are working than you thought."

"Keep going." he urged her. He held his gun at the ready, then stiffened. "He knows because Nosedive isn’t wearing the Mask."

Caro jumped up, grabbing Dive. "It’s all set. We gotta get out of here." They started running back towards their entrance. Suddenly they heard a voice behind them.

"Come to play, Nosedive? And you brought a friend? How nice." Wraith grated.

"Keep running." Dive ordered Caro. The Saurians fired, but missed. As soon as they were back in the sewers, Dive shut the door, and they pelted down the smelly tunnels.

***

Once outside they turned to see that the lackeys had not followed, leaving them to Dragaunus. The Migrator was being rocked back and forth violently by Dragaunus and his shoulder, who were obviously enjoying themselves. Nosedive and Jadestar were sitting inside, safe, but looking rather pale through their peach feathers.

"How long till the Pond explodes?" Dive asked Caro.

"I think maybe 2 minutes."

"Will we be safe out here?"

"We won't die, but we’d probably get hit by something."

"Then we better get Dragaunus away from the Migrator so we can get in." Dive muttered, bringing out an exploding puck he’d kept. He threw it at the doorway to the stadium. It exploded, giving the impression that someone was trying to break in. Dragaunus growled, and turned away from the Migrator. Nosedive slammed his foot on the accelerator, and screeched to a halt in front Dive and Caro. They climbed in.

"Welcome to the Flashblade Express!" Nosedive cheered as the two sat down. "Strap up folks, it’s gonna be a wild ride!" He put his foot down hard, and they screamed off down the road.

The Pond erupted in a massive ball of flame, which the four watched through the rear view mirrors. They saw Dragaunus teleport out just before a large piece of roofing hit him on the back. Jadestar wiped a tiny tear from her eye, but didn’t comment. Dive however, seemed very satisfied with the result.

"Scratch three Saurians." he smiled.

"They could have found the explosives and teleported out." Caro said practically.

"Nope, they’re gone." Dive said, a tremor of excitement in his voice. "Call it a gut feeling."

***

"Are you sure you two will be alright?" Caro asked one more time, as she held the digital relocator.

"We’ll be fine. With your help we evened up the odds a little, don’t you think?" Dive grinned.

Nosedive snorted. "You blew up your own headquarters."

"So what? We weren’t gonna use them! Phil’ll probably kill us though, no doubt he had some kind of plan for them." Dive was back in his carefree mentality, and he refused to leave it just then.

"How are you going to work on a gateway without a lab?" Caro asked Jadestar quietly.

Jadestar smiled sadly. "I can’t. Don’t tell Dive though, he’s feeling like a success now, I don’t want to spoil that. He deserves it." The two girls hugged.

"Thanks for helping us out. You can tell Wildwing that maybe we did need help after all. Tell him we’ll be fine." Dive said.

Caro and Nosedive returned to their own place, and the twins watched them go.

After ten minutes of quiet contemplation, Jadestar turned to her twin. "Which chair do you want?"

"Drivers seat girly girl. Let’s find a good spot to park this thing."

"Out of town. I feel like a bit of space."

Nosedive started up the Migrator again, and they headed for the highway.