Tomorrow Comes Today

Written by Zelda

 

Author’s Note: You must be living in a cave if you’ve never heard of the Gorillaz or their hit single “Clint Eastwood”. They are currently the world’s most successful virtual band, and I say virtual because in front of the dozens of artists that give the four band members life, they’re cartoons! Check out their studio and home at www.gorillaz.com, and enjoy some unique music from some unique ‘toons. This story is a Ducks/Gorillaz crossover, enjoy the weirdness!

 

 

                Duke frowned slightly as he stood near a poster on the Pond wall, freshly put up by one of their advertising company employees earlier that morning. “Who are these guys? They just look like a bunch of comic book characters.”

                “Dude, you’ve never heard of these guys?” Nosedive asked. “I am so thrilled they’re dropping by the Pond.”

                “The Gorillaz…” Duke read with a puzzled look. “What’s the ‘z’ on the end for, they a rap group?”

                “Not really.” Nosedive said. “It’s like a whole buncha music blended together! It’s weird, but neat!”

                “Yeah, like those blended shakes you make?” Duke smirked. “I don’t wanna explain to you again how sardines and yogurt don’t go together...”

                “Don’t hold down my culinary creations, man!” Dive jested back, and then pointed at the poster as he read from it. “’Laugh now but the future belongs to them’… and people like me!”

                “Ahh, youth.” Duke chuckled. “Well, I’m laughing while I can. These guys do look weird, never really been into the whole concert thing.”

                “Shame shame, you’re missing out!” Nosedive wagged a finger at him.

                Smiling, Duke turned and walked off, leaving Nosedive looking over the posters as he headed back for his bunk. Having concerts roll through wasn’t uncommon, after all theirs was a fully-functioning arena. The Los Angeles Clippers played here during the offseason, they hosted conventions, and concerts packed the building on an almost weekly basis. Phil made sure the place was always playing home to some sort of event. But Duke had never really taken an interest in any of that stuff. He was a hockey player, not a music junkie like Nosedive. Still, things had been a little boring around here lately. They had had an unusually long break in the game schedule, and even practice was turning a little dull. Maybe he would take in a concert with the kid, although the thought of spending an evening with hundreds of screaming teenagers was already giving him a headache. Then again, he did that every time they played a game anyway! Still thinking, he continued on his way.

 

                “Hey guys?” Tanya leaned back from Drake 1’s console. “There’s a big white van that just pulled up in the parking lot… yeesh what bad driving!”

                “A white van?” Wildwing looked over from reading a paper. “That’s odd, I wonder who that could be.”

                Tanya tapped a few keys and brought up an image from one of their security cameras on Drake 1’s huge screen. The driver’s side door to the van swung open, and a skinny, unkempt-looking man in a black shirt stumbled out and sat on the ground. He started banging on the side of the van, shouting something to whoever was left inside. “Eww, who is that?” she looked over at Wildwing, who shrugged back.

                “Maybe they’re lost?” he suggested.

                As he spoke, one of the many doors to the Ready Room hissed open, and Zelda clipped in. She glanced up at the big screen, and then beamed. “Hey, why didn’t you tell me they were here!”

                “That ugly guy?” Tanya gestured. “What do you want with him?”

                “Them.” Zelda corrected with a light smile. “You’re looking at Mr. Murdoc Niccals, he’s the leader of the band that’s playing tonight!” As the other two Ducks took a second glance at the skinny man, Zelda opened her com. “Dive, heads up, the band’s here!”

                “Coolella, I can’t wait to meet these guys! Race you out to the lot!”

                “Oooh, I’ll get there first, you know it!” Zelda sneered, and with that, quickly shut her com and started out again. “Don’t worry about the tour guys, Dive and I will take care of these four!”

                “There are four of them?” Wildwing asked as she left, watching the screen. “Wonderful. Just the type I need Dive hanging out with…”

 

                “Get yer bloody arses outta the van!” Murdoc pounded the side again, the pain in his fist not being enough to overcome the alcoholic semi-haze that he was currently in. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and sucked on it as he searched for a lighter. “2-D, stop combin’ your hair and get out here!” he rasped, his English accent thick.

                “I’m right here, Murdoc.” a far gentler voice replied, as the passenger door shut. “No need to shout.” The man that rounded over to Murdoc’s side of the van was a little taller and skinnier, with bluish-purple hair and hollow black eyes. Although his accent was the same, his handsome, distant look was quite in contrast to the ragged, unkempt appearance of the bassist that sat on the ground beside him.

                “Like hell I don’t, t’ get anything through to ya with your eternal migraine, you face-ache.” Murdoc growled back.

                “Stop it Murdoc, will ya?” another deep voice rumbled from the back of the van, as the back door swung open. “You’ll wake Noodle up.”

                “Yeah, I’m kinda surprised that she could sleep through th’ drive.” 2-D commented.

                “Hehehh.” Murdoc let out a characteristic low cackle. “Got us here in record time, I did, and without the cops catchin’ on too!”

                The van rocked as a large weight left the back, and a heavyset man folded his arms as he emerged. “You better not be startin’ trouble out here Murdoc.” he warned. “The states ain’t like it was back in England, not by far. You gotta watch you back out here.”

                “Because this is the bloody hood, is it Russel?” Murdoc rolled his eyes.

                The heavyset man came out from behind the van and walked up, frowning to Murdoc, and adjusting a yellow and white baseball cap to shade his bone white eyes. “Hey, you watch it.” he spoke lowly. “The hood’s what killed my boys, you dig? This may not be New York City, but the west coast and the gang war they brought started it.”

                “Right.” Murdoc sighed as he pushed himself to standing. “Just wake Noodle up and get her out here? We’ve still got to unpack…”

                Stretching a little as Murdoc went towards the back of the van, 2-D looked around the empty parking lot and yawned. The humidity wasn’t helping his terrible headache. As he reached into his pocket for a few painkillers, he spotted the doors to the Pond opening, and two figures coming out. “Looks like we got visitors already.” he started.

                “Wonderful.” Murdoc growled from inside the van. “We come t’ bloody Disneyland for a gig…”

                “Hey!” Nosedive yelled, waving to them as he approached. “Welcome guys!”

                Through a back window, Russel looked out to see Nosedive and Zelda both approaching the van. He blinked and then reached over into the back seat to gently shake the shoulder of a sleeping ten year old girl. Russel had sat in the back, with a good deal of the band’s equipment, so that she could stretch out and have some room. With some coaxing, the girl yawned, stretched, and sat up.

                “Russel-san?” she blinked.

                “We’re here Noodle.” he explained.

                The girl took one look out of the window and spotted the approaching Ducks, then she beamed and clapped an odd-looking MP3 player hat onto her head, leaping over the backseat and out of the van. Within a few footsteps, she had ran and sprung up into the arms of a very surprised Nosedive.

                “What the---?” he stuttered.

                “Nosedive-san!” the girl cheered, and hugged him.

                “Whoa, so you’re Noodle!” he grinned back at her.

                Russel emerged from the van and folded his arms, smiling a bit. “She’s taken a liking to you already, heh. You have no idea how excited da girl’s been to get here.”

                “So you’re a Duck fan too?” Nosedive asked the young Noodle.

                She responded in a stream of overexcited Japanese that left the Duck scratching his head.

                Coming up behind him, Zelda laughed. “She’s a big Ducks fan!”

                Nosedive put Noodle down and approached the other three members of the band. “Dude, you have no idea how awesome it is to have you guys playin’ here tonight. I’m a big fan, my name’s Nosedive.”

                “Ta very much, nice to meet you.” 2-D waved as he came back around to the other side of the van.

                “Yeah man, thanks for the warm welcome.” Russel nodded.

                “Brilliant.” Murdoc growled, still  inside the van. “You wouldn’t happen to have a pack of Yankee Teamsters around to move our gear, would you now?”

                “Well, you’re kinda early.” Nosedive explained. “Our regular concert crew won’t show up for a few hours more. But Zelda and I could help out, if that’s any good.”

                “Zelda-san!” Noodle responded by wrapping her arms around the laughing dragon’s neck.

                Murdoc leaned out of the back to glance at the pair, looking amused for a moment. “A feathered and a scaled pack mule, brilliant.” he sneered. “Let’s all get to work then, I wanna find a good liquor store around here before the show.”

                “Murdoc, you have really got to stop de drinkin’ before our gigs.” Russel shook his head.

                “Do I tell you how to drum, Russ?” Murdoc asked.

                “All the time.” he grumbled.

                “It’s my band, and that’s my job!” Murdoc jabbed a thumb into his chest. “So you leave the big decisions to me.”

                “Whatever dawg.” Russel shrugged. “Here, I ain’t even touchin’ yer grubby bass.”

                Murdoc caught his beloved guitar as Russel tossed it to him, and slung it over his shoulder.  “Right then, let’s get started.”

 

                Mallory yawned and watched Drake 1’s big screen, tuned in to one of the Pond’s security camera feeds. She watched as people assembled a giant stage like little ants on the arena floor of the Pond. In just a few hours, the building would be full of people, and pulsing with loud music. She could already tell there was no way she’d be getting to bed early tonight. But then again, why would she want to? The Ducks pretty much owned the building, they could get the best seat in the house that hadn’t already been sold out. And if things were too crowded upstairs, they could watch a private screening here from Drake 1. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted, by a loud beeping sound coming from the console.

                “Uh oh…” Mallory knew exactly what that meant. A button on one of the keypads was blinking red, and she pressed it to bring up another screen. Staring at a large schematic map of Anaheim, she raised the lid of her com. “Wildwing?” she asked.

                “I’m here Mallory.” he responded. “There’s an alarm from Drake 1, are you up there?”

                “Yeah, there’s alarms going off in a hotel in downtown L.A., reports of some kind of security problem.”

                The com channel was silent for a brief moment. “Why the alarm then, if it’s just a break-in at a hotel?”

                “Because it’s a break-in with teleportation energy.” she replied.

                “Never a day off, is there?” he sighed. “Alright, I’ll contact everyone else, pull Dive and Zelda away from the band upstairs. Get to the hangar and start loading some weapons, will you? With the stadium floor set up, we’ll have to take the Migrator.”

                “Roger that one.” Mallory nodded sharply. “I’ll meet you and the others down there.”

 

                Nosedive nearly clapped his com lid shut in his brother’s mid-sentence, not wanting to hear the rest of the bad news. “Aww, I don’t believe it!” he grumbled.

                “Come on Dive, you heard him, we need to meet up with the others ASAP.” Zelda hopped down from one of the lighting rigs. “Let’s go!”

                “Go?” 2-D placed a keyboard on its proper stand. “Go where?”

                “We’re just checking out a possible situation.” Zelda looked over to him. “Got a break in at the La Casa hotel up in L.A.”

                “Nani? La Casa?” Noodle repeated, sticking her head up from behind an assortment of guitars.

                “That’s the hotel we’re stayin’ in.” Russel sighed. “Brothers always gotta be makin’ trouble…”

                “Hey, chill out you guys, we’ll handle things.” Nosedive waved. “You’ll still be able to stay there tonight!”

                “We’d better.” Murdoc grumbled from behind an amplifier, sweeping his black bangs out of his eyes. “I hate crossin’ the pond here for gigs, I’m tellin’ ya, I shoulda brought my good ol’ Winne with me…”

                “Your Winnebago?” 2-D looked back. “But that one can’t float Murdoc, how would you have gotten it over?”

                “In a bloody cargo plane or something!” Murdoc snorted. “Go take some more pills, Stu-Pot you muppet, I think you’re slowly losing consciousness again.”

                2-D rolled his eyes and went back to tooling with the keyboard, while Noodle approached Zelda and started something in Japanese.

                Nosedive was distracted as his com beeped again, and he popped it open. “Yeah?”

                Mallory was frowning back at him. “What’s keeping you two? We’re waiting!”

                Murdoc stood over Nosedive’s shoulder, and regarded the com with a devil-may-care glance. But he quickly did a double-take upon seeing Mallory. “Oi.” he broke into a sly grin. “I didn’t know you had ladies in yer flock…” He let out a light cackle and waved cutely with his fingertips. “’Allo darlin’.”

                “Ugh, do yourselves a favor and get a restraining order against him now, before you really need it.” Russel sighed, standing up and walking over from his drums, offering Nosedive and Zelda an apologetic half-smile. He then quickly turned and elbowed the bassist in the ribs. “You’re sick  man.” he hissed. “Don’t you have any kinda focus? They ain’t even human!”

                “Can’t be picky now, Yankee.” Murdoc sneered, and stalked off towards a stack of amps.

                “Gotta jet guys, but we’ll be back to help you out!” Nosedive closed his com.

                “Yes, we’ll be back before the show.” Zelda smiled. “Don’t you worry about us! Come on Dive.” She tugged at him, and the dragon and duck were off running towards one of the exits to the arena.

                After they had disappeared from sight, Russel calmly tapped at one of his drum cymbals, sitting back at his set. “Odd bunch, aren’t they?”

 

                The Migrator screeched up into the parking lot of the hotel to find several windows broken on an upper floor.

                “Guess that’s where they are!” Nosedive pointed, jumping out of the side hatch. A couch went hurtling through another window, and landed uncomfortably close to the Ducks and the Migrator. “Heh, and they’re redecorating too!”

                “Why would they be ransacking a hotel?” Duke frowned.

                “Doesn’t matter at the moment.” Wildwing loaded some extra pucks into his arm launcher. “Our number one priority is stopping them.”

                “What are we waiting for, then?” Mallory was already running for the door to the hotel. “Let’s go!”

                “Good idea, Zelda, fly up to those windows and wait until you hear us up there, we’ll run a sneak attack!”

                As the dragon nodded and shot into the air, the team charged after Mallory into the hotel, past screaming tourists who were streaming out through the hotel’s lobby. The Ducks raced up the stairs to the hotel’s fifth floor, the highest the building went. They all had to scrunch into the relatively narrow hallways, drawing their weapons as they neared a set of doors that were obviously busted in.

                “Split up!” Wildwing hissed. “Don’t start the charge until I give the signal!”

                He and Mallory halted just before the first door, as Nosedive and Duke ducked across and halted at the second, Tanya at the third, and Grin stopping at the fourth.

                “NOW!” Wildwing yelled, and all of the Ducks simultaneously threw themselves in the doorways, launchers out and ready to hit anything that moved.

                “Reach for the sky, lizards!” Mallory seconded him.

                From the view into his room, Nosedive saw Chameleon’s head pop up from behind a bed, under which he’d been rummaging around.

                “Aww man, not dem again? Can’t you let us do a little looting and pillaging in PEACE these days?!”

                “You’d better leave while you still can!” Nosedive laughed at him. “Cause I could turn you into one ugly suitcase cover.”

                “I think he’d make better wallpaper.” Duke chuckled, drawing his sabre and advancing on the surprised Saurian as he backed towards the window.

                “Really?” Zelda swooped by the broken window, close enough to snap at the back of the lizard’s neck. “He’d be best as an appetizer!”

                “Oooh…” Chameleon seethed and frowned. “Try eating this!” he grabbed his blaster out of its holster on his hip, but couldn’t get it more than a few feet in the air before it was sliced in half by Duke’s sabre.

                “Better call it a day, skinny.” the Duck advised, proceeding to line the blade up with Chameleon’s neck.

                “I’d say it’s lights out for you, duck.” A voice snarled from nowhere. Duke spun around to see a cloud of smoke erupt from the floor, Wraith pulling himself up into existence between he and Nosedive. “Goodnight.”

                Duke couldn’t bring his sabre around in time to block the fireball that Wraith had ready to throw, but Wraith never got his shot off, thanks to Nosedive and his ready trigger finger. Wraith turtled under the hail of pucks from his two launchers, and retreated further back towards the shattered window.

                “You two got it from here?” Zelda called, flapping to stay in midair. A chair nearly struck her from a nearby room

                “Go ahead!” Nosedive waved her off. “We can tie these losers up!”

                Zelda veered away by dropping down out of sight, and flapping back up in front of the window which the chair had been hurled at her from. As she expected, Siege was the cause. His huge body took up a good portion of the room, and he was fending the Ducks off by throwing everything he could at them. The dresser, TV, even the beds were overturned. But he was facing away from her, giving her a good shot at striking the only place which had the chance of giving Saurian pause. Snarling loudly, she swooped in through the broken window, and latched her jaws around the back of his neck.

Siege howled in surprise and pain, dropping the TV that he was holding right on one of his feet. This only caused his howl to reach a higher volume, and he started hopping around with the dragon still attached to his neck.

“We’ve got him now!” Mallory sneered.

“Nail him!” Wildwing ordered, and the three Ducks lit up the room in blue with the flashes of their pucklaunchers.

Bringing his arms up in front of his face to provide some kind of defense for himself, Seige stumbled backward, towards the shattered window. It wasn’t long before he was kicking broken glass, unable to fight back against the onslaught of fire.

The two Ducks were surprised as Siege suddenly toppled backwards, and with the snapping of more glass, fell towards the pavement below with Zelda still on his back!

“Zel!” Mallory ran forward after her, but the dragon swooped right back in through the window, and landed. “Mission accomplished!” She said, licking her teeth. “They teleported out, cowards.”

“They’re gone bro!” Nosedive celebrated, as he and Duke poked their heads into the room from the door. “Wahoo!”

“Well, we still have a little mystery to solve.” Tanya reminded, as she and Grin came into the room as well. “And that’s why those Saurians were here in the first place.”

“Anyone have any ideas?” Duke asked.

“This may serve as a clue.” Tanya dropped a suitcase on one of the beds, which looked like it had been half torn open. There were several stickers in different languages all over it, but most of them were in Japanese. Shuffling loosely through the contents, Tanya frowned slightly. “Stuffed animals, shrimp and rice chips, and lots of MP3 disks. Besides that, it’s just clothes and shoes. Why would Dragaunus be after this?”

“Because this…” Zelda frowned, snorting at the suitcase. “Smells like Noodle.”

“Hey, didn’t they mention this was the hotel that they were staying at?” Nosedive asked.

“Dragaunus must be after the band, or something that the band has.” Grin concluded.

“But they’re just a band.” Mallory shrugged. “Despite the weird attitudes, they’re harmless!”

“We’ll have to talk to them when we get back.” Wildwing nodded. “There’s definitely something up here, and whatever the reason, they need to know that they’ve been targeted like this.”

The team all turned to walk out of the now empty hotel, leaving the chaos of the destroyed rooms behind them, and regrouping in the Migrator.

“Hey.” Duke started, as Wildwing revved the engine. “If Dragaunus wasn’t able to find them here, what makes you think that he won’t come after them in the Pond tonight?”

Silence served as his answer.

 

End of Part One

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series is property of the Walt Disney company. The Gorillaz are property of Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, thank ya guys! All other characters are copyright of Zelda and The Dragon’s Den.