Playing for Time - Part One
by Nylessa Drakeley

	Nosedive dodged behind a crumbled wall, the red Saurian laser
fire missing him by a feather width.  He stood up and fired a
few times at the drones, most shots going wide but he did manage
to take out one hunter.  Dive couldn’t see the others anywhere,
the thick choking mech-dust clouded his vision as well as his
lungs.
	Something with rough scales brushed against his leg, and he
looked down to find Zelda gazing back at him.  She held one of
her front legs off the ground; he could see a trickle of blood
on the side.
	“ You okay?” he asked, firing again at the drones.
	Zelda nodded; “ I can’t believe we fell for this trap!” she 
snarled.
	It had all been *so* simple, so disgustingly simple!  Drake One 
reported teleportation energy at an electronics warehouse, and
the Ducks had gone to investigate it.  They’d blasted their way
in, found no one, and then suddenly the whole warehouse erupted
drones!  A lot of the electronics got blasted, causing this
horrid smoky mist. 
	“ Where’re the others?” Nosedive asked.
	“ Hiding in similar places I expect,” Zelda said.
	A shape loomed out of the smoke.  Wildwing ran towards his
brother.
	“ Dive?  Dive, we’ve got to get out of here!” he said.
	“ You’re telling me!” Nosedive shouted over the sound of the 
laser fire. “ But which way is the Migrator?  I can’t see a 
starsborn thing!”
	“ I just came from there,” Wildwing said.  “ Mal, Grin and
Tanya are already on board, we just have to find Duke.”
	“ I’m right here,” Duke said, appearing out of the smoke.  “ 
Man, I’ve never seen so many drones before!  The place is
crawlin’ with them!”
	“ We’d better get out of here right now,” Wildwing said, “ 
while we’re all still together.”  The four of them dashed out
from behind the crumbled wall, towards the crumbled doorway.
	Suddenly, a blast of laser struck Nosedive in the chest; he
sailed backwards, hit the wall of the building hard, sank into
sitting position and gasped for breath.
	“ Dive!”
	A second blast of drone fire hit the wall itself.  The brick
wall exploded out, falling down towards him.
	“ *Nosedive*!” Wildwing yelled.
	And then suddenly, everywhere, Time stopped.

	Nosedive opened his eyes.  There was a brick hanging motionless
about three inches from his beak.  He crawled out from under it,
and stood up.  Bricks hovered unmoving all around him.
	He could see blasts of laser fire just sitting in mid-air.
	The drones were still.  The swirling cloud of electrical sparks
was still.  His friends and bro were still.  Nothing, and no one
moved.
	“ Hello?” he asked.
	No one answered, because no one could.  Time had stopped dead
in its tracks, but it seemed to have left him out.
	He walked up to his brother, and put a hand on his shoulder.
	“ Bro?  Come on, snap out of it.”
	“ He can not hear you,” a voice said - a voice that made
Nosedive think immediatly of slippery eels.  He shuddered. 
Turning, he saw an elderly creature which looked stunningly
draconic standing beside him.
	But it wasn’t a dragon like Zelda.  For a start, it was bigger,
had a snake-like neck, and a sharp thin head; it was covered in
dark blue scales, and had a row of small red spines down its
back.
	He stared at it.
	It smiled.  It spoke.
	“ Yes, you will do perfectly.”
	“ Uh, what for?” he asked.  “ And for that matter, who and what 
are you?”
	“ I am the Eternal Keeper of Time.  Your little dragon friend
would know of me.”  The ancient dragon glanced at the frozen
figure of Zelda.  “ And you are mine now.”
	Nosedive stepped back nervously.
	“ What for?”
	“ You will be my servant.”
	“ Uh, uh.  No way.  No one’s turning this Duck into a slave!” 
Dive turned to run.  He didn’t get far.  The blue dragon
appeared in front of him.
	“ You can not run.  You can not hide.  I have stopped Time.”
	“ I can have a d*** good try!” Nosedive yelled, turning to go
the other way.
	He found himself standing over a jungle - the Amazon; over, as
in standing on air about five hundred feet above the topmost
canopy leaves.  He gave a cry of shock, and thrashed about. 
There was nothing to hang onto, and then something grabbed his
wrist.
	“ Careful,” the Eternal Keeper of Time said, “ I don’t want you 
hurt.  An injured servant is of no use to me.”
	“ I am not going to be a slave, can you get that?  I am no
one’s servant...”
	The scene changed again.  He was now sitting on a sand dune,
possibly in the Sahara Desert.
	“ What the heck *is* this?  ‘Environments of the World’?”
	“ No, I’m just trying to illustrate a point.”
	“ What point, exact?” Nosedive asked, turning around.
	“ I can cross time and space in less than a moment.  This
dragon shape is merely the one I use for this world.  I have
been to all that support life.  From each one I have taken a
specimen back to my realm.”
	“ Hey, if you’re looking for a human, you got the wrong
species!”
	“ Not a human.  I was looking for a suitable Puckworlder, but
those on your home planet were not... adequate.  Far too
involved in their own difficulties.”
	Nosedive folded his arms; “ What difficulties?”
	“ You realise that we have all the time in the world,” the
Eternal continued, ignoring him, “ indeed, in the Universe.” 
The merest flicker in the dragon’s eyes, and Dive was standing
knee-deep in an unmoving sea.  “ But, your friends do not.”  The
Eternal reappeared on the beach.
	“ Wait,” Dive said, walking out of the ocean, “ if time’s 
stopped for them, how can they..?”
	“ They will slowly turn to dust as the time does not pass. 
They will wither away to nothing.  By this futile childs’ game,
you are condemning the lives of every living, breathing creature
in this Universe.  Can you really hold your head high with that
weight around your neck?”
	The scene changed again.  They were.. in space?  Yes, in space, 
floating tens of thousands of hundreds of miles above...
	“ Puckworld!” Nosedive gasped.
	“ Yes.  Puckworld.  A little too cold for my liking, but still, 
Puckworldians are a sentient species, knowing of time, so they
can be catalogued.”
	“ ‘Eternal Keeper of Time’, my beak!” Nosedive snorted. “ 
Eternal Keeper of an Intergalactic Zoo, more like!”
	The Eternal chuckled in a dry, wispy laugh.
	“ In a way, that is merely a past-time,” he said.  “ To pass
the years.  An immortal can not die, we live on, and on, and on,
and on, and on...”
	Nosedive turned to look back at Puckworld, and found himself
staring into his brother’s face.
	“ ‘Wing,” he whispered.
	He looked down at the ground, and then glared angrily at the 
blue-scaled draconic figure behind him.
	“ All right.  I’ll be a speciman in your ‘Zoo’.”
	The Eternal smiled.
	“ Wise choice,” he said.  A thin gold chain appeared around 
Nosedives neck, a small silver disc on the end of it.  Three
words were engraved on the disc, along with a wavy, snakish
pattern.
	He turned the disc upsidedown to look at it.
	“ Evamo, Denaer, Kha... whoa, whoa, are these like some kind of 
spellwords or something?”
	“ They could be,” the Eternal said craftily.  “ However, they
are not.  Evamo Denaer Khanrar.  Life, Matter, Time.  The three
things which make up the whole Universe.”  He smiled again.  “
You are mine.”
	There was a jolting sensation, and then things started moving.

	“ *Nosedive*!” Wildwing yelled, as the bricks collapsed onto
the ground.  He ran towards the pile, scrabbling furiously to
try and unearth his younger brother.
	“ Whoa!  Wing, I’m ok!” Nosedive shouted, wondering why he was 
still here and not someplace else.  “ Wing?  Duke?  Zelda? 
Yoohooo, O Teammates!  Guys?”
	No one could hear him.  And likely no one could see him,
either.  And why was he lying flat on the ground like this?  He
stood up, and then found he was still not far enough off the
ground.  He looked down.
	“ Oh boy.”  His beak dropped open.  If you could still call it
a beak. “ Oh boy, this can not be happening!  I’m a dragon!”
	“ Not quite,” the Eternal said, materialising in front of him,
“ you are, in fact, a polymorphrodite.”
	“ A shape-changing parrot rock?” Nosedive frowned.
	“ No.  A sentient being which can change shape at will.  Like
myself, but without as much power.”
	“ But.. you said slave.. a speciman..”  Dive noticed that the
world around him seemed to be fading away slowly into a cloud of
purple fog.
	“ I *said* servant.  There is a difference.”
	“ I don’t wanna be a polywhatsit!” Nosedive almost wailed.
	“ Change back, then.” the Eternal’s dragon form shimmered, and 
then turned into that of an elderly Duck, with slate grey hair
and feathers and deep black eyes.
	Nosedive concentrated on his normal body, and felt that jolting
again.  And then he was back to normal.  Sort of.
	“ Why,” he asked, “ am I glowing?”
	The Eternal shrugged.
	“ It is an afteraffect of the recieving of your powers,” he
said.  “ It shall wear off eventually.  It took me only two
hundred years.”
	“ Two hundred?” Nosedive spluttered.
	“ You are immortal.  It also comes with the job.”
	“ Job?  Wait, I’m like, an... uh, that tale of the sorcerer’s
kid who tried to swamp his masters powers... um...” he snapped
his fingers a few times, “...oh, yeah, apprentice!  I’m like one
of them?”
	“ You could say that.”
	“ If you’d said that at the start..!” Nosedive began.  He shook 
his head; “ I was thinking, you know, in chains plowing the
fields, sort of thing.”
	The Eternal laughed.
	“ I had the same thoughts when I was chosen.  My master was
much stricter than you will find me, though.”
	Nosedive hesitated.
	“ What about my bro?” he asked quietly.
	“ He will get over your disappearance.  Already he is on his
way back to your residence in the Anaheim Pond.”
	Nosedive shuffled his feet.  In as much as you could when you
floated in non-existant space.
	He had immortality!  He had power!  The two things most people,
and especially most villains, craved.  But he didn’t want them,
as far as he was concerned, immortality could go and dig its
grave.
	“ I can’t do it,” he said.  “ Find someone else.  I have a 
fight to fight, and apprenticeships can’t get in the way.  Maybe
when its over,” he added, although in a tone that was anything
but hopeful.
	The Eternal studied him carefully, and sighed.
	“ Almost what I was looking for, but too headstrong,” he said.
“ Very well, you may leave.”
	There was a flash.

	Nosedive hit the pavment hard on his back.  He didn’t feel too
much pain, however, because he was busily checking around for
some sign of that Eternal Keeper.
	There was none.  Now he could concentrate on the pain.
	“ Ow!” he winced.  “ Aw, man, that *hurt*!  He could have at 
*least* dropped me on a bush.”
	The scenery registered in his brain.  Outside the Pond.  Well,
at least that was a little compensation.  He stood up, and heard
something clink.  Looking down, Dve saw the gold chain and
silver disc still around his neck.
	“ Oh no.  That had better not mean..” he thought about changing 
shape, but recieved, (thankyouthankyouthankyou!) a negative
reply.  “ So he just *gave* me this; why’d he do that?”
	He walked in through the Pond doors, and came face to face
with... an unfamiliar face.
	“ Holy tacos!” he yelled.  “ Who the *stars*?”
	“ Nosedive?” asked the figure in front of him.  “ It can’t be.”
	The figure was a Duck about Dive’s height, with black feathers
and searing electric purple hair with a red lock, that was now
slightly dirty and matted.  It was also a girl, and dressed in a
tight green bodysuit with purple ‘gauntlets’.
	“ Um, who are you?  And what are you doing here?”
	The Duck gave him a mildly startled look.
	“ You don’t *remember* me?” she asked.  “ I’m Amethyst MacTeal! 
Of the Mighty Ducks, of your *Team*!”
	Nosedive frowned.  He didn’t know the girl at all, not even
from Puckworld; something was fishy here.  Like 
oceanic-restaurant-fresh-seafood fishy.
	“ Is my bro around?” he asked.
	The look this Amethyst girl gave him now was one of pure shock.
	“ Nosedive, Wildwing died of Eignduks Plague seven years ago,
before the Saurians came to Puckworld!  You were at his
funeral.”  She frowned.  “ You don’t remember anything, do you?”
	“ No, you’re quite right, not a *single* memory!” he said 
happily, as his mind whirled away and explored the comfy pink 
surroundings of near-insanity.
	Amethyst looked worried.
	“ I think we’d better get you inside,” she said.  “ Come on, 
I’ll take you to see Blizzard, he’ll know what’s wrong.”
	Blizzard.. the name rang a faint and far off bell.
	“ Blizzard Muscovy?” he asked as he was dragged through the
doors.
	“ Yes!” she smiled.  “ You remember him!  But why not me?”  Her 
smile faded away.
	“ I’m sorry.”  He shook his head.  “ I just know him because he 
was a world-famous scientist on Puckworld.”
	“ Yep, you got the right Blizzard,” Amethyst said. “ He was a 
professer in the Mandirin Laboratories, working on dimensional
planes and all that stuff.”
	“ Who else is here?” Nosedive asked.  They had reached the
inside of the rink, and were heading for the Mighty Ducks Locker
Room.
	“ The same as before, I mean, we haven’t lost anyone but you,” 
she said.  But she gave him the list anyway.  “ There’s Rouen 
Pochard, flight sergeant and weaponry expert.  Chloe Wigeon,
musician, plain-feathers policewoman and your... oh, never
mind... and Cayuga ‘Magpie’ Orpington, champion weightlifter and
now Saurian-smasher.”
	“ And Blizzard is a scientist,” Nosedive said. “ So that leaves 
you as..?”
	“ I am the all-around rogue, small-time pickpocket and
professional thief,” she said with a smirk as they entered the
lift.
	“ And I was with you guys?”
	“ Yes!”
	“ What was my job?”
	She gave him another incredulous look; “ You’re the leader!”
	This hit kinda hard.
	“ Me?  In *charge*?  I mean, what..?  Whoa, wait a second,” he 
interrupted himself as the doors slid open.  “ I think I’ll take
it in much better if I could have a nice little snooze, and
perhaps a bowl of triple spicy tacos.”
	“ A bowl of what?”
	“ The best food in the galaxy, Ame,” Nosedive said, flinging
his own grin back at her.  “ So, I’m gonna go raid the kitchen,
and.. uh, could you point me toward the kitchen?” he asked, as
he found a blank wall in the direction of where the larder had
once been.
	“ Thataway, fearless and hungry leader,” Amethyst pointed down
the hall, in the opposite direction.
	“ Uh, yeah, thanks!” he cried, walking towards where he
sincerely hoped there might be a packet of tacos lying about.
	About five minutes later he was sitting on a chair, munching a
handful of salted chips - to his *horror* there hadn’t been a
single taco in the whole kitchen! - when he felt someone tap him
on his shoulder.  He spun around, and found himself face to face
with a pair of white... no... very light grey, eyes.
	“ Hello Nosedive,” the Duck said, pulling a chair over an
sitting down. “ Nice to see you again, finally.  We all thought
you were dead.”
	He had, in addition to his pale eyes, stark white hair, and, of
course, white feathers.  He was dressed in a pair of denim
jeans, a long sleeved pale blue shirt, and a - white - lab coat.
	“ Uh, hi,” Nosedive said.  “ You’re Blizzard, right?”
	Blizzard Muscovy nodded, and gave Dive a speculative look.
	“ You really don’t remember us, do you?” he asked.  “ A 
possibility of amnesia, here.  Or, perhaps not.”  His pale eyes 
narrowed.  “ You were asking where your brother was, yet he’s
been dead for seven years.  Why?  You don’t know any of us, but
you know the Pond very well.  Why?”
	“ You some kind of psycho-analyst, or somethin’?”
	Blizzard smiled briefly.
	“ Working that way,” he said.  “ But back to what I was saying.  
How come you know the Pond, know we’re on *Earth*, but not know
your own history, or us?”
	“ Um.. look, I’m not exactly certain ‘bout this,” Nosedive 
said, as a nasty little feeling crashed a few pots’n’pans
together at the back of his mind. “ But, I don’t think this is
my dimension, ya know?”
	“ You mean that you are the Nosedive from an alternative
dimensional plane of existance who has somehow found himself in
this one?”
	“ Yeah, exact!  I think.”
	“ It’s happened,” Blizzard said.  “ Our Team found ourselves 
wound up in a dimensional plane which had everything the
opposite of what it is here, a negaverse, of sorts.  It’s
possible that there are hundreds of alternative presents out
there.”
	“ So you believe me?”
	“ Yes.”
	“ Great, so how do I get back to *my* ‘alternative present’?”
	“ I expect you’d have to program a dimensional portal to send
you back to your exact location, but that would be rather
tricky.”
	“ Scaleface still has control over that technology, right?”
	Blizzard nodded again, glanced at a wristwatch, and then rose
from the chair.
	“ I must go, Rouen is expecting me to help him with.. well, I 
needn’t bother your time.”  He smiled.  “ I expect we’ll be 
seeing a lot of one another,” he added, before disappearing out
the door.
	Nosedive sat in his chair for a moment, and then picked up the
disc that hung around his neck.
	“ Great little joke, Mister Eternal Keeper,” he whispered.  “
But I don’t find it very funny.”
	:::That’s not my problem:::  the words seemed to echo in his
head;  :::I put you there to do a job, you have to help the Team
get rid of their Saurians:::
	“ Their Saurians?  What do you mean, *their* Saurians?”
Nosedive asked. “ And I thought you said you were returning me
to Earth!”
	::: And I did.  I never said that it was going to be your
dimension, however:::
	Tricked with words.
	How humiliating.
	::: You are to do this job I ask of you :::  the Eternal
continued,  ::: Or you will not get back home.  When the
Saurians are defeated, then we shall see about sending you back
to your dimension.  And yes, at the right Time, too :::  he
added, apparently reading Dive’s mind.
	“ Fantastic,” Nosedive muttered.  “ You *are* one for
blackmail, aren’t you?”
	::: Perchance :::  and he was gone. ::: Only you have the power
to go home :::
	“ Fantastic,” Dive said again.