Once upon a time... no, that’s not the way to start. You’ll think I’m telling a fairy tale, but it’s not! It’s very important that you know our history, because it leads to the fact that the very fate of your planet is at stake. Now let’s try that again...
In the beginning, there was hockey.
Yes. That’s good. Very good.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (pardon the cliché), an icy planet known as Puckworld was home to a peaceful race of hockey-playing Ducks. Puckworld was a utopian civilization, advanced in technology far beyond the human race, and the sport of hockey was not only a way of life, but an art form, and fair play and sportsman-like conduct were observed by all. The greatest of these was the legendary warrior Drake Duquesne, a young Duck from the Keltorian regions of the northeast. All was peaceful throughout the Puckworld galaxy, as she and the other planets continued to grow and prosper.
Then, a dark time began.
The Puckworld galaxy was brutally taken captive by a dominant reptilian race known as the Saurian Overlords. Led by the evil High Lord Rafaar and his lady Jezielle, they conquered their foes with sorcery and sinister forces that enabled them to "cloak" themselves in darkness. Virtually invisible, the Saurians attacked at will and ruled in complete secrecy. They enslaved Puckworld and her interplanetary sisters, and immediately set the inhabitants to work, mining spice and precious metals and laboring in warship factories, so they could expand their forces and rule the universe (why do the bad guys always want to do that?).
The work was intensive, the conditions harsh, and the treatment unbearable. Many attempted to escape, to flee to another planet, any planet. Many perished.
Eventually, the Ducks and their companions learned to steel themselves, one dreary day melding into the next for innumerable amounts of time, the months, the years lost in one bleak, hopeless mass of work. But, secretly, a revolution was building, an undermining force that would soon overthrow the Saurians and restore peace to their galaxy.
They called themselves the Deliverance, led by none other than Drake Duquesne himself. He banded together the noblest of rebels from his home world: Kiranonai Djo, the Amazon warrior, fearless (and humorless); VanDoren Elzier, the blind but cunning wizard, drawing his power from the fabled Wand of Merlin (and his pet griffin D'elvii); Terrance vonWebb, Drake’s oldest and most trusted friend, a mentor in many aspects; and Terrance’s daughter Mariko, very outspoken and rebellious, but extremely skilled in doctoring and medicine.
But five were not enough. Drake began to seek out and recruit rebels from Puckworld’s sister planets: twins Ru and Jadir Voran of Thrae VI, Sephurai Becon of Felinda, Silvan of Nom Kalanti, Falcor Cotell of Raptria. Each of these started a base on their home planets, and soon the Deliverance was strengthened throughout the galaxy. And then, Drake revealed the ultimate weapon, something he had been working on since the first appearance of the Saurians: THE MASK. Seemingly a normal goalie mask, it was a bio-mechanical cybernetic interface device, programmed with all the noble qualities this heroic Duck had learned from a lifetime of practicing the sacred art of hockey. Most importantly, the Mask had the power to penetrate the Overlords’ mystical "cloaks." To ensure its safety even if it fell into enemy hands, Drake programmed the Mask to respond to and cooperate only with the chemical makeup of Ducks. Once he donned the Mask, Drake was able to locate the Overlords and, with the help of his fellow rebels, attack them in their secret lair. It was a long and difficult battle, but at long last, they managed to defeat the evil ones and imprison them in a dimensional limbo.
The inhabitants of Puckworld were once again free to follow that noblest of callings -- hockey. As time passed, the accomplishments of the Deliverance, Drake, and his mighty Mask faded into legend. So, when the last remaining Saurian Overlord, the evil Lord Dragaunus, escaped the dimensional prison with his henchmen Siege, Wraith, and the Chameleon, his reign of terror took Puckworld by surprise.
Again, the Ducks were enslaved, this time with no leader, no Mask to save them. There was another undermining force, the Resistance, but they were weak, causing a malfunction here and there, stealing something now and then, and served only as a nuisance and no threat whatsoever to Dragaunus. Only one brave young Duck, named Canard, remembered the stories of Drake Duquesne and the Deliverance. He began a quest to find the Mask. Uncovering it in an ancient tomb in the mountains called Twin Beaks, Canard decided to assemble a new band of rebels to defeat the Overlord.
The first partner he went seeking was his best friend, Wildwing Flashblade. Wildwing was reluctant to join his friend, but after being shown the Mask, agreed to join on the condition that Canard would also take his kid brother, Nosedive. Canard was the team captain; now all he needed was a team! Together, the three searched for a crack strike force to face off against Dragaunus.
While searching the memory banks of the old military central computer, they came across Mallory McMallard, a captain and flight/weapons specialist who hated machines. Next up was Duke L’Orange, the most notorious jewel thief on Puckworld, renowned leader of the Brotherhood of the Blade crime ring. But he had a good heart, and since Dragaunus had hit, he’d been putting his skills to good use. He left the Brotherhood to join Canard, dubbing his protégé Leila DeSilver the new leader. Canard returned to the Resistance only long enough to find his friend Tanya Vanderflock, an expert in science and all things considered even remotely technical. She was the mechanical brains of the Resistance, and they were sorry to see her go, but Canard assured them it would only be until they could free Puckworld once and for all. And the last member of the team was a guy named Grin. He was strong. Very strong. And big. Very big.
Using the last military Aerowing, the seven new Mighty Ducks headed seemingly to the middle of nowhere. Dragaunus had used his ancestor’s "cloaks of darkness" not only to make himself invisible, but now to conceal the whereabouts of his headquarters. But with the newly acquired powers of the Mask, Canard piloted them to safe landing. They proceeded to sneak into the tower, leaving Nosedive behind, reluctant. Upon hearing his brother’s complaints, Wildwing consoled him with the fact that "somebody’s gotta watch the ship!"
Breaking into the master computer chamber, Canard assigned Tanya the task of shutting it down, carelessly sending Mallory as an assistant. He then sent a very unsure Wildwing to draw Dragaunus out, so the team could ambush him. But the plan backfired, and Dragaunus captured Wildwing and ordered his cronies to take care of the remaining three...
Tanya was having little success instructing Mallory how to set a timed detonator. Mallory ended up setting it off instead, causing a chain reaction with little escape time. Elsewhere, Dragaunus had shackled Wildwing to a hovering platform descending upon micro-incinerating rays, but at the sound of the explosion, ran to see what had happened.
Meanwhile, Nosedive was getting impatient. He decided to try and launch the Aerowing himself, and proceeded with varied results.
Thankfully for Duke, Grin, and Canard, the scuffle with Dragaunus’ goons was cut short when they teleported out to their ship, the Raptor, to escape the soon-to-be-space-dust stronghold. The three rushed to find Wildwing, meeting up with the girls along the way. Just before certain doom, Duke swung down on a fibercord, Indiana Jones style, freeing Wildwing of his chains with his Ducksaber. They made their way outside, only to find no Aerowing! Canard turned on Wildwing, but was interrupted by the dropping of the Aerowing’s boarding ramp. Nosedive to the rescue!!!
With the Ducks on his tail, Dragaunus put to use the newest modification to his battleship: a dimensional gateway generator. Opening a passage into our own world, he tried to escape, but the Ducks continued in hot pursuit. So Dragaunus destabilized the gateway, releasing an electromagnetic worm which attacked the Aerowing. Tanya deduced that it would have to consume some sort of matter to get it to leave them be, but they couldn’t jettison anything, having nothing to jettison. Canard sacrificed himself, leaping overboard, so that his comrades could follow the Overlord. The remaining Mighty Ducks vowed to protect the inhabitants of Earth from the terrible devastation suffered by their home planet.
Searching for a home on Earth, the Mighty Ducks were naturally drawn to a place called California and a man named Phil Pomfeather. Phil was a lost soul -- a manager whose hockey team had moved to Piscataway, New Jersey. After witnessing their amazing ability on the ice, Phil signed the Mighty Ducks as the new home team of the Anaheim Pond. Now, in our own time, the Ducks continue to search for Lord Dragaunus and other foes from their central command center.
Pooling the profits from their games, the Ducks have built a high-tech headquarters beneath the Pond. The headquarters’ central room (known as the "Ready Room") is dominated by Tanya’s brainchild, the supercomputer Drake One. In addition to its information-gathering functions, the computer is tied into a surveillance satellite that aids the Ducks in locating trouble spots around the globe. But Drake One isn’t all-knowing or all-seeing, and the Ducks are often forced to fall back on their own ingenuity to uncover information, solve mysteries, and track down evil-doers.
In addition to the Ready Room and their living quarters, the domain contains a state-of-the-art Tech Room, where the team can devise new gadgets and vehicles or repair/modify existing ones; a Rec/Workout room, to keep the team in fighting condition; a hangar bay in the roof of the Pond for the Aerowing, and a garage below for the Migrator, an all-terrain battle vehicle; an underground emergency entrance connected to (ugh!) the Aneheim sewer system; and a hydraulic elevator-tube to the Pond above.
Even with all their high-tech gadgets, the Ducks’ most prized possession is still the legendary Mask of Drake Duquesne, which Canard left in the keeping of his faithful friend Wildwing. What he doesn’t know, but may come to understand, is that all the leadership qualities he seems to get from the Mask already exist within him.