The Mighty Ducks and all related characters are the property of Walt 
Disney Corporations. No copyright infringement is intended.

I recommend you read my other story, 'Earthquake,' before this one. It 
is not necessary to understand the story, however.

There is an *extremely* mild warning for language. Like, one word.

This story takes place shortly after the Mighty Ducks episode 'The 
Final Face-Off.'


Anniversary


"They're up to something," Mallory stated.

"Definitely," Tanya agreed.

Mallory frowned slightly as she gazed at two of her teammates, 
Nosedive and Grin. The youngest and mellowest of the  team, 
respectively, stood at the far side of the rink, suited up for practice. 
While the team waited for their team captain, Wildwing, to arrive, 
Dive and Grin had separated from the rest of the team and appeared to 
be absorbed in conversation. Dive's gestures were even more animated 
than usual and even the normally imperturbable Grin looked excited. 
They were definitely up to something.

Wildwing arrived at that moment and they split into teams for a 
scrimmage. Mallory glared at Nosedive, on the opposite team, who 
returned her glare with a confused look. She *hated* not knowing 
what was going on.

***

It was still early Saturday morning when Nosedive was awakened by 
the piercing wail of his alarm clock. One glance at the clock confirmed 
what he'd suspected - it was *way* too early to be awake. He'd halfway 
convinced himself he was still asleep and this was just a weird dream 
when the snooze alarm went off. He reached above him blindly and 
found the 'off' switch, then dragged himself out of bed before he could 
fall asleep again. He ran a hand through his hair, instructed himself 
not to look into a mirror until he'd gotten his hands on a comb, 
grabbed his robe and beat Duke to the shower by half a second.

20 minutes later, showered, combed and dressed, but still not awake, 
he took off on a Duckcycle, studiously ignoring Tanya's entreaties to 
watch his speed and wondering why he had agreed to this. Of course, 
it *had* been his idea.

It was a beautiful morning, though. Early September was the time of 
year when Anaheim's sometimes stifling heat and humidity began to 
lessen, yet it was still warm enough to do pretty much whatever you 
wanted. Snow would hit the mountains in a month or so, although 
none of it would cover Anaheim itself. Too bad, too. More than once 
Dive had found himself missing the heavy winter storms of 
Puckworld. But right now, weaving his way through the early 
morning, pre-rush hour traffic, returning the smile from an attractive 
red head in a convertible - by the stars, but he liked being famous! - 
and tossing a jaunty salute to Klegghorn as he drove by in his patrol 
car before turning off into the Anaheim Mall, right now he would be 
hard pressed to make things better. Well... if he'd gotten a little more 
sleep...

Captain Comics didn't open for another hour, but Dive got there just 
as Mook arrived to set up. He parked at the curb directly outside and 
entered the store. In the year he'd been going to the comic store he'd 
earned the reputation for buying whatever he wanted, whenever he 
wanted and always having the money to pay for it. He also knew more 
about plots, storylines and which ones were collector's items and how 
much they were worth than most people who'd been doing this their 
entire lives. The owner loved him, had even offered him a job before 
hearing about the Mighty Ducks. Hal Gruber, owner of Captain 
Comics was a great guy, but a hockey fan he wasn't.

But Dive pretty much had *carte blanche* to come and go as he 
pleased, and it wasn't that uncommon for him to drop by before 
opening just to hang out and help set up. Mallory teased him for 
spending so much time there, but Mook and Thrash were really the 
only people he knew ell enough to really talk to. There was Wildwing, 
true, but there were times when your older brother was the last person 
you wanted to talk to.

Sometimes, like today, he was just up to something.

"Hey, Mookie," he greeted the young woman with a smile. "Wake up 
Thrash. I need your guys' help with something."

***

When Grin returned to the Pond after running a few errands - or so 
he'd told the others - he was unsurprised to find Nosedive sacked out 
on the couch in the main room, the TV playing just loud enough to be 
heard without being disturbing. He leaned against the side of the 
couch and calmly shook his young accomplice by the shoulder.

Dive knocked the hand away. "I'm awake. How'd it go with 
Klegghorn?"

"Fantastic," Grin said dryly. "Dragaunus is more pleasant."

"But is he going along with it?" Dive pressed. "I know it sounds kind 
of crazy, but it feels like he really ought to be there."

"I agree," Grin said. "Despite his initial hostility, he has proven 
himself to be a useful ally. And yes," he added, "he has agreed."

"Cool," Dive said. "I already called Sunnyville and Chip's gonna be 
here. Phil's been sworn to secrecy. Mook and Thrash are in. 
Strazinski's gonna come. Who does that leave?"

"Dr. Huggerman."

Dive grimaced. "I don't suppose he's gotten a phone?"

"He withdrew from society," Grin pointed out. "That's kind of hard to 
do with salesmen calling you up all the time."

"So we have to make a house call?" Grin nodded. "All right. We 
might as well get it over with then." Dive grinned. "I'll let you tell 
Wildwing why we need the Aerowing."

"Thanks a bunch."

***

"What happened to you two?" Tanya couldn't help but stare as her two 
teammates stepped out of the Aerowing, clothing torn, hair in disarray 
and smelling suspiciously of brimstone and TNT. They looked like 
they'd been set on fire. "You didn't damage the Aerowing, did you?"

Nosedive glowered and was half a breath away from telling Tanya just 
what she could do with the Aerowing when Grin, using reflexes 
usually seen only in battle, clamped a hand over his young friend's 
beak, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the room, all the 
while assuring Tanya the Aerowing was fine.

Tanya watched them go, hands on her hips. Mallory was right. They 
were up to something. Personally, Tanya didn't care. But if they'd so 
much as *scratched* the Aerowing...

***

"You must learn to control your temper, young friend," Grin 
remonstrated. "All it would take is one slip of the tongue for the others 
to realize what we've been up to. Then all this work would have been 
for nothing and I would be forced to kill you. Frankly, I'm not looking 
forward to that much bad karma."

Dive's reply was muffled and unintelligible. Grin realized he still held 
the boy's mouth shut. "Sorry," he apologized, releasing him. "What 
did you say?"

"I said," Dive hissed, "'I can't breathe.'" He took a couple deep 
breaths and glanced sideways down the hall, making sure no one else 
was within hearing range. "So we're all set?" he asked. "Nothing 
we've forgotten?"

"I believe we've covered everything."

Dive grinned. "Day after tomorrow then."

"Day after tomorrow," Grin agreed.

***

Everything was running on track.

After four days of planning, arguing, cajoling and running around, the 
plans were finally set, and it looked like they could just sit back and 
take it easy for the next two days.

So, of course, something *had* to blow up in their faces.

Or so Nosedive had explained to a skeptical Grin whom, now faced 
with the flashing lights and piercing alarms of Drake One, had to 
admit that Nosedive's pessimism did indeed have a basis in reality. A 
valid one.

Damn.

It was late Monday morning, only a few hours before everything was 
slated to start and Dragaunus had just attacked a scientific laboratory 
in Los Angeles.

Damn.

Assuming that they left within the next 30 seconds, Dragaunus would 
still be long gone by the time they got there, and asking questions, 
searching for clues and following up on leads would take well into the 
afternoon, maybe even the evening. By then it would be too late to pull 
everything off.

*Damn.*

The alarms had summoned the others and Wildwing and Tanya were 
trying to figure out what Dragaunus was up to while Mallory got the 
Aerowing ready for takeoff. Nosedive suddenly appeared at  Grin's 
side. "Grinster, what're we gonna do? This'll ruin everything!"

"Indeed," Grin said quietly. "But I do not see anyway to avoid it. We 
cannot shirk our responsibilities."

"Maybe *you* can't-"

Grin gave him a slightly reprimanding look.

"All right. No shirking. So... what?"

"Could we perhaps enlist the aid of our associates?" Grin suggested.

"You mean have them set everything up while we're gone?" Dive 
asked. He brightened considerably. "That could work! This may end 
up better than we originally planned!" He glanced past Grin. 
"Wildwing's getting ready to pull out. I gotta grab the phone!"

Two minutes later they were airborne. Grin gave Dive a questioning 
look. They couldn't talk inside the close quarters of the Aerowing, 
where someone was guaranteed to overhear, but Dive gave him a 
thumbs up. Hopefully, everything would be clean sailing from here.

***

"Thrash, what are you, stupid? *Don't touch that!*" Mook dragged 
Thrash away from Drake One, not sure whether to be scared or 
furious. "Don't you pay attention to anything? Dive said that 
Dragaunus once used that thing to control missiles! You want to set a 
couple of those nukes off downtown? Maybe start a war with Russia or 
something?" She physically dragged Thrash out of the Ready Room, 
ignoring his protestations of innocence. First Phil treating her like 
some sort of hired help, now this! Nosedive had better be damned 
grateful.

***

'Clear sailing. Everything's all set. No problems.' Grin forced himself 
not to glare at the equipment before him. It was not the Aerowing's 
fault that this had been a horrible day. He would not take his 
aggressions out on a piece of machinery. He would not take his 
aggressions out on anything or anyone. It was not his way. He was 
much more evolved than that. If anything it was his own fault. He 
should have seen the car Siege threw at him... He sighed and pressed 
his hand to his forehead. This day had already been several hundred 
hours long and there was no end in sight.

Behind him he heard the others moving slightly. Tanya and Wildwing 
had both been injured, albeit not seriously and Duke and Nosedive 
were tending to them while Grin and Mallory handled the Aerowing's 
controls. Someone slipped into the copilot's seat beside him. He looked 
up and saw Nosedive sprawled in the seat, eyes closed, head leaning 
back against the headrest, the picture of exhaustion. Grin regarded the 
boy sympathetically. Being buried under an entire apartment complex 
couldn't have been fun.

"What're we gonna do, Grin?" Dive asked softly. "Back at the Pond?"

Grin forced back a groan. He'd forgotten about their little surprise. 
"Not much we can do," he replied, equally softly. "Even if we could 
reach Phil and the others to cancel, they'd likely kill us for putting 
them through all this." He gave Dive a slight smile. "After all, it's 
been, what?- nine hours since we left. They're probably bored to 
death."

Dive snorted. "Between Thrash and Dr. Huggerman the Pond's 
probably either burned to the ground or blown up."

"If that doesn't inspire confidence I don't know what does," Grin said 
wryly. He checked the navigation console and adjusted course slightly. 
"We're coming in for a landing. Grab a seat, everybody." Below, the 
Pond came into view, the entrance to the underground hangar having  
been opened by remote control. Grin banked and brought the 
Aerowing in for a landing.

Exhaustion partially dispelled by anticipation, Nosedive separated 
himself from the rest of the team and headed toward the main room 
while the others took their time. He heard music from the hallway and 
entered the room to see one of the more spectacular sights of his life: 
Mook teaching Sam Delaney, the Mayor of Sunnyville, how to do the 
Macarena. If it hadn't been so ridiculous it would have been funny.

Mook saw him standing in the doorway and ran over to greet him. 
"What took you so long?" she demanded. "It's been *hours!*"

"Sorry, Mookie, we got held up." Dive glanced around the room, 
impressed. They'd certainly managed to get this place looking festive. 
"The others will be here soon. Grin's herding them in our direction 
even as we speak. You guys ready?"

A murmur of assent was his reply. "We certainly are," Delaney 
confirmed. "You go join the others. Hurry now!"

Dive exchanged one last grin with Mook and ducked back out into the 
hallway. He met up with Grin and the others just outside the 
infirmary, where Tanya was limping on a newly bandaged ankle. 
Fortunately, in order to get to the private quarters you had to go 
through the main room. And he doubted any of his teammates had 
anything on their minds beyond sleep. "Everyone okay?" Dive asked 
cheerfully.

"More or less," Wildwing replied. "But definitely ready to crash." He 
stifled a yawn behind his hand. "From now on, maybe we should only 
save the world from within Anaheim."

"Be a hell of a lot less commuting time," Dive agreed. He repressed an 
anticipatory grin as they neared the main room.

Wildwing was the first one through. He called for lights through yet 
another yawn.

And nearly jumped through the ceiling when a roomful of people 
suddenly shouted 'Surprise!' while jumping out from behind various 
pieces of furniture. He looked like he was about to have the proverbial 
heart attack.

Dive couldn't take it. He cracked up.

"What," Wildwing asked carefully, as if he wasn't really sure he 
wanted to know, "is going on here?"

Mook spared Nosedive from having to answer. "Happy anniversary!" 
she announced cheerfully. Standing on tiptoe she kissed Wildwing on 
the cheek. 

"Anniversary?" Mallory asked. "Anniversary of what?"

Sam Delaney and his son, Chip approached as well to offer their 
congratulations. "Why, it's been a year, my dear girl," the mayor 
announced grandly. "One year to the day since you and your noble 
teammates arrived on Earth."

Mallory, Duke, Tanya and Wildwing exchanged startled glances. "Has 
it really been that long?" Tanya asked. "I never even thought about 
it..."

"This is what you've been up to?" Duke asked. "All those whispered 
conversations and sneaking out? An anniversary party?" He shook his 
head slightly and clapped Dive on the shoulder. "Good work, kid. I 
never suspected it!"

"I’ve had good teachers." Before Duke could reply to that Dive slipped 
away and reappeared a moment later. He handed Wildwing a 
champagne glass while Chip and Thrash did the same for the others. 
Accepting his own glass from Mook and seeing that everyone else in 
the room also held a glass, he turned to his brother. "Perhaps a toast, 
bro?"

Wildwing shook his head and smiled. Facing the people in the room, 
the people who had become friends over the course of this past year, he 
said, "One year ago we were travelers lost on a planet that wasn't our 
own, without a place to call home, without a friend in sight. All we 
had was a mission to accomplish and the hope that one day we might 
return to our own world. Since that day we have faced victories and 
losses, dangers, triumphs, lost causes and impossible odds. And with 
the help of all of you we have managed to overcome everything we've 
faced. From rampaging energy beings, to killer robots to perhaps our 
greatest challenge - isolation, loneliness. We are no longer the lost 
travelers we were this time last year. Thanks to you we have friends 
and allies. Without your support and friendship, this anniversary 
would not be something to celebrate."

As one they lifted their glasses in salute.
________


End