The Light, part 4

Written by Zelda

 

 

 

                She felt her stomach drop like a stone when she saw it. So that was it. So crude and rough-looking in the fading green shadows. She doubted Dragaunus had even bothered to perfect the mechanics. Then again, maybe he didn't need to. The whole team seemed to take a few steps back, quickly realizing there was nowhere to run to. Tanya followed them anyway, still transfixed by the machine. Trying to ignore Chameleon's hideous grinning, she focused on the machine itself. It was more like a cannon, braced on his shoulder, a huge searchlight bulb and lens poised in the front. If she could only understand what was behind it... must be some wattage accelerators, maybe a spectrometer to control the output, everything was whizzing through her head. Chameleon's laughing wasn't making things any easier. Daring to break her concentration for a moment, Tanya snapped back to reality and threw a glance up to Wildwing. He was quickly becoming lost again in the overtaking darkness, and she couldn't quite read the look on his face. But she was sure he was afraid. She was too.

                "Awww, what'sa matter Duckies?" Chamelon tisked. "None of you wanna play with me now?"

                Behind him, there was Dragaunus's low growl again, his beady yellow eyes flaring up in the dark. "You idiots." he sneered. "Did you ever think you'd have the upper hand against me? Now I've gotten you right where I wanted you, and I can finish you off all at once."

                Breaking from the paralysis of a sudden wave of fear, Wildwing was the first to recollect himself, grab the arm of whoever was closest to him, and spin in retreat. But the Saurians were one step ahead of him, and as he turned, he was suddenly frozen again by a loud whirring noise. Glancing back, Wildwing saw the hallway dimly lit again, the bulb of the device on Chameleon's shoulder slowly warming up.

                "Not another move." Dragaunus demanded coldly. "Or it will be your last."

                "We'll see about that!" Tanya snapped back at him, continuing the retreat Wildwing had started. "Come on guys, let's make a break for it!"

                The whole team broke ranks and fled, spinning around a corner and charging off down the hall. They could all hear Chameleon and Dragaunus arguing behind them.

                "Why didn't you blast them!?!" the Overlord bellowed.

                "The thing's not totally recharged! I hadda warm it up!" Chameleon squealed back.

                "You fool--- You won't get far, Ducks!"

                The entire team was still close enough to hear his distracted threat.

                Zelda was breathing heavily as she trailed the pack, making a desperate attempt to catch up by nipping the back of one of Grin's pant legs, and hanging on.

                At this, he quickly stopped, and triggered a chain reaction that caused the team to also stop and turn.

                "He's right---" Zelda was trying to catch her breath. "I'm still bleeding---he'll track the scent---"

                "C'mere Zel..." Tanya knelt down, feeling along the floor until Zelda nuzzled against her right shoulder. This was awful, one of her teammates was hurt -the way she sounded, badly- and Tanya couldn't even see... "Where'd he get you?"

                "Shoulder---flank---" Zelda let out a low snort. "I should stay behind and stall them--- maybe split up and mislead them--"

                "No." Wildwing shook his head. "We just got everyone back together again, I won't lose anyone from here on out. Our priority is taking down that weapon, then we won't have to run."

                "Well, any ideas?" Duke asked him. "I mean, how can we not get in the way of it when they can track us?"

                "If we had our weapons back..." Mallory started.

                "We can still run." Tanya scooped Zelda up in her arms. "That thing'll take a few minutes at most to warm up, we can get a headstart!"

                "Dude, this place is a maze!" Nosedive reasoned. "Zel and I were runnin' around here forever, look how long it took us to find you!"

                "It's a prison, they're all built with a similar infrastructure." Mallory corrected him.

                "You mean you might be able to find your way around in here?" Duke asked her.

                "I'm not the one who's been in a lot of these places." Mallory growled back. "But there's gotta be a command room, some place where the guards could coordinate their shifts and stuff. I bet that’s where the Saurians are operating out of."

                "Do we simply seek to find it as we are running?" Grin asked.

                "It's a better option than staying and getting fried." Wildwing nodded, armor clanking. "We'll stay together, and if any trouble does pop up, everyone get behind me, and we'll hope my shield can block that weapon."

                Tanya gently lifted Zelda up onto her shoulder, and started off with the others as they began to run again. The dragon had left a bloodstain on the sleeve of her left arm, but what worried Tanya most now was the lack of noise in the hallway behind them. Was Dragaunus even bothering to chase them? She had known that the machine would take some time to warm up, nothing with such a compact size could deliver a powerful punch without some time to generate the needed power. But it should be good to go by now, why wasn't Dragaunus coming after them? She began to feel a knot grow and twist in her stomach as she thought things over, the sure sign that something was rotten about this whole situation.

 

                It was like they were being hunted, chased around like rats through a maze by the Saurians. There was a much bigger plan to this, Duke could tell that by now. Dragaunus had them beat in that hallway, Dragaunus had them beat with that weapon. And he'd really let them get away! Dragaunus was just toying with them, seeing how far they could get before he fried the whole team. Duke knew that they wouldn't just stumble across the control room in this place, Dragaunus wouldn't let them. It was just some game of his. And Duke hated this. The agony he'd been put through before had been enough, the agony of his teammates was enough to really irritate him. But that had been temporary, and now Dragaunus had really managed to hurt Zelda. Running through the hallways, not able to see two feet in front of his beak, Duke was fed up. Maybe Mallory would be able to help them navigate, but he did not like prisons one bit, and every one he'd been in had been different, each a challenge to break out of. This would not be easy, and they did not have the time to figure things out. He wished there was another way.

 

                How did she get herself into situations like this? Mallory was internally cursing, an arm cautiously out in front of her, in case she bumped into anything as she led the charge. She did not know where she was going, and the team was looking to her for a way out. Just great. Mallory dodged around another corner, trying to sort things out, looking for anything that might give her a clue as to where they were headed. After what seemed like forever, when Mallory was starting to run out of breath, she suddenly spotted a faint light, illuminating a doorway in the blackness down a passageway.

                "Is that it?" Nosedive whispered, freezing hopefully at the sight of it.

                "Maybe..." Wildwing muttered. "Move in slow." He kept his shield inactive, if it gave off any light and the Saurians were waiting in there for them, they would give themselves away.

                "Smell anything Zel?" Tanya whispered up to the dragon on her shoulder.

                She sniffed slowly, carefully. "No..." she answered. "--But they might have teleported in..."

                "Yikes." Duke muttered. "She's right. Stay sharp."

                Slowly, as silently as the team could manage, they started creeping towards the light, the doorframe becoming more and more defined as they got closer to it.

                Wildwing edged the lead from Mallory, not that it mattered much. No matter who was ahead of who, if the Saurians were in there with that weapon charged, they would be defenseless. Wildwing really hated this. Seconds ticked by as if they were hours, each footstep bringing them all closer. Finally, Wildwing had the option of peeking around the doorframe, and holding his breath, did so as quietly as he could. Emptiness greeted him, and it felt like a weight had been removed from his shoulders.

                "Wing?" Mallory whispered, peeking around with him. She saw a small room before her, octagonal in shape, lit only by blinking buttons and a few small TV screens. "This is it."

                "The control center?" Duke came up behind them.

                "Let's get inside before we're seen." Wildwing ushered them both in, and the rest of the team followed.

                Seeing as how there was at least a little light now, Tanya glanced up to the dragoness on her shoulder, hoping to assess her injury. Zelda was lapping the blood from a duo of wounds that stretched from the front of her shoulderblade to the top of her withers, along her back. Fortunately, they didn't look too deep to her. "Eww..." Tanya started.

                Zelda blinked back at her, realizing the Duck was unsettled by her licking the gashes. She shrugged and cleaned off her teeth.

                "Done it enough times. You get used to it."

                "That doesn't look too comfortable girl." Duke shook his head. "Better let Tanya patch that up while we have some light."

                As Zelda obediently dropped to the ground, Wildwing and Mallory were both quickly scanning the consoles around them.

                "This looks like the security station here." Wildwing started, peering into a few dim, tiny TV screens.

                "Do you think you can locate the Saurians with it?" Mallory asked.

                "I can try." he started pressing a few commands into a nearby keyboard, flicked a few switches, and watched the images change. "This may be how Dragaunus tracked us in the first place."

                "Hey, which means they could be back here soon bro!" Dive interjected, placing a hand on his brother's armored shoulder.

                "I agree." Grin said lowly. "I'm sensing more bad vibes about this place. If they weren't here recently, it means that they are approaching."

                "Wonderful." Mallory snorted.

                "We can't leave just yet." Wildwing shook his head. "You guys get to work, see if you can't get the lights on around the place, give us a bit of a guide."

                Duke was already thumbing through some files in a nearby cabinet, looking for schematics or a possible way out.

                "Well well..." Wildwing started. He had found a security camera that had been trained on a wooden desk, upon which lay all of their weaponry, and the Mask.

                "Jackpot!" Nosedive grinned. "Okay, so how do we get to our gear?"

                "Duke, this camera's code is 39-J, I think that might be the number of the room. See if you can find it on that map of yours." Wildwing nodded, continuing to look through other images.

                Duke grumbled in reply, unfolding a huge, moldy and yellowed piece of paper out onto the small floor. "Gimme a second."

                "I'll see if I can't hack through the security codes." Tanya spoke up, sliding into a rusty chair. "They may have locked the place down..."

                Sneezing and fussing with the gauze that was now wadded thickly around her middle and across her chest, Zelda limped away to watch the door, sniffing into the hallway. She let out a surprised snort as a series of harsh track lighting snapped to life over her head, flooding the hallway with a murky florescent light.

                "Wahoo, lights are on!" Dive celebrated from a nearby console. "Now if only I can get the cable to work..."

                "Good job baby bro, how's that room location coming Duke?" Wildwing asked.

                Duke let out a frustrated sigh from a tangle of yellowed papers. "It's coming."

                Tanya was frowning as she peered up at one of the small computer screens on her console. "Doors might take a bit too Wing. Wherever we are, it musta been a pretty high-security place... they've encrypted the code that I haveta use to get around the system passwords..."

                "Sooner the better." he reminded, still cycling through camera pictures.

                Zelda leaned out further into the hall, sniffing suspiciously. Suddenly she started, limping backwards into the room. "Better make it very soon--- they're close!"

                As she spoke, Wildwing found a camera that was perched in the entrance to the hallway they had come down, and stalking past it was a fuming Dragaunus, with Chameleon in tow, with the Light. He realized that they'd be trapped if they stayed here, all in this small room. "We've got to book now, if we have any chance."

                "Where are we going?" Dive dropped his voice to a whisper.

                "Away from here. Duke, take those maps with you. Tanya, do you have the doors?"

                "Yeah, but hang on a sec..."

                "Tanya, we've gotta get out of here!"

                "One second!" she snapped, and after that, shoved herself away from the console.

                Most of the team was already out into the hallway.

                "What were you doing Tanya?" Duke snorted. "We've gotta book!"

                "Altering the password for system access." she sniffed back. "Now the Saurians can't use the systems to track us anymore!"

                "Good call Tanya." Wildwing nodded. "Now let's see if we can't get a good lead on them before they spot us."

                Grin scooped Zelda up and planted her on his shoulder. "Now you stay there." he whispered gently. "And keep your eyes open."

                "This way." Duke waved them, still trying to contain a fluttering mess of papers in his arms. "I think the room with our gear is about halfway across the complex."

                "Shh, just go." Wildwing gave him a curt shove, and they were all off and running again. As they silenced, they could hear Dragaunus just down the hallway. No doubt he expected them to be in the control room, but as soon as he found out they weren't, the real chase would be on.

                "Great move in turning the lights on Dive..." Mallory hissed.

                "Wouldn't matter..." Zelda blinked, the slight edge of fatigue wearing on her voice. "Could see us in the dark anyway... Better for you guys with the lights on..."

                "Hang in there girl." Duke whispered back to her, still trying to organize the papers. "We'll get out of here yet."

                He was interrupted as another furious roar rattled the cinder block halls around them. The lights flickered for a few moments.

                "...We get out of here now..." Zelda whispered. "Or we won't at all..."

 

                He was still reeling in a weird sorta way, and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. They had been wandering around this place for hours, he and Zelda, and had run around long enough with the rest of the team. Despite all of that, he still hadn't managed to get his head screwed on right, there was a lot about this mess he still wasn't able to remember clearly. He couldn't remember how they got here, and he sure as hell was struggling with how they were going to get out. One, big, crappy mess, that's what they were in, and nobody seemed to have answers but Dragaunus.

                Duke quickly pointed them down another hall, and they were off running in a different direction.      At least the lights were on, no more clinging to a spoke of Zelda's wing, no more being a follower. But he certainly wished he had his launcher, that would add a good deal to his confidence. Hopefully, he'd be getting it back soon.

                "Here, this is block J." Duke pointed into a long, wide corridor of cells. "There should be a storeroom or something, that's where our gear is."

                "Flank out team, let's try and spot it as quick as we can." Wildwing motioned out, and everyone spread out and started searching.

                "There's two floors to this block, Wing!" Tanya pointed up a flight of stairs.

                Wildwing sighed and glanced around. "Alright, Tanya and Grin come with me, we'll look around up there."

                He and Grin started to walk over for the stairs, Zelda still riding on Grin's big shoulder, when Dive called after them.

                "Hey bro, but if we split up, what'll we do if we run into Big Red?"

                "We won't be far from each other." Wildwing hitched quickly halfway up the flight. "If he does find you, yell."

                Frowning, Duke mumbled something as the four of them disappeared up the stairs.

                Visibly a little nervous about splitting up again, Nosedive shuffled a bit and looked down the long block of cells.

                "Come on you two, let's get started." Mallory gestured down the hall. "Nosedive, Duke, you two recon the cells, I'll go for the room at the end of the block." She started off at a brisk clip, Nosedive and Duke both shrugging behind her.

                "I'll take this side kid." Duke nodded, walking over for a row of cells. "Let's get this over with. I dunno about you, but I'd feel a heck of a lot better with my sabre back."

                "Same here." Dive agreed, then smirked. "You better have read those maps right!"

                "Ehh, if I didn't I'll tell Wing it was your fault, you distracted me."

                "That's not fair!"

                As the two continued to argue, Mallory rolled her eyes and walked towards the end of the block by herself. Even with the harsh track lighting above, the cells still had eerie shadows to them, and it was still creeping her out. But there was a door at the end of the block that didn't look like it lead to any cell, and she was betting that was where their gear was being kept. Cautiously swinging open the door with a rusty squeak, she was surprised to find the room in total blackness. There had to be a light switch somewhere around, and swinging an arm out, she brushed against one and flipped it. The room was illuminated by a single incandescent bulb that hung uncovered from the ceiling. Spooky. Gulping a little, Mallory looked around to find several dusty tables and pieces of furniture covered with thick canvas cloths. Weird, she didn't expect there to be furniture in an old prison... but then again, the Saurians were a weird find too. Mallory pulled up one of the cloths on a table, to find nothing underneath but some neatly coiled lengths of old leather strapping. Moving on to a piece of furniture against the wall, Mallory let out a gasp as she uncovered it. This was not furniture. It was an electric chair. As crude as this place was, this must have been one of the execution chambers... or at least a storeroom for its supplies. Very creepy. Taking in a deep breath and stepping back from the chair, she looked around to see two more like it, against the wall. One of them had something in a pile on the seat, under the cloth. It was a little less dust-covered than the other two. Could that be their gear? Nearly on tiptoe, Mallory walked over, and in one move yanked the cloth away. As the dust cleared, their gear lay in plain view on the chair. "Whew!" Mallory reached for her puck cannon, when she suddenly noticed something else in the dust above her. She let out a startled yelp as she recognized Wraith's form, materializing out of the cloud.

                "Boo."

 

                "You find anything yet, Tanya?"

                The blonde duck sneezed violently. "Nothing accept some major allergens..."

                Wildwing sighed, and kept searching. "Grin, Zelda?"

                "I fear we have found nothing as well..." The big Duck's voice echoed back down the block hallway.

                Wildwing sighed and kept searching himself. All of these cells were exactly alike: empty, dusty, and creepy. He had a growing nervousness, and wasn't sure whether it was from the surroundings, the Saurians, or both.

                Suddenly, there was a noise, and it sounded like it had come from the floor below.

                Wildwing poked his head out of the cell he had been inspecting, and listened further. "Guys?" He called, trying to aim his voice for the stairs.

                Tanya quickly emerged from her cell, followed by Zelda and Grin seconds later, all listening.

                Zelda sniffed the air, narrowed her eyes, and growled.

                Wildwing knew what that meant, and started immediately back for the stairs. As he neared them, the sounds of a definite scuffle echoed up from below. He waved to his teammates and called down. "Hang on guys, we're coming!" The leader didn't wait for backup as he vaulted down the stairs, and didn't even get to the bottom before Mallory was thrown into him, sending them both toppling to the floor.

                "Wing!" Tanya galloped down the stairs next to them both. "What's going on?"

                Mallory rolled up slowly, pointing. "Wraith! Back there!"

                The others looked up all at once to see Nosedive and Duke doing their best to hold back the ghastly Saurian, who had his flaming sword in one hand, and was hurling fireballs with the other.

                Mallory rubbed her head and rolled to her feet, pointing now to the door from which Wraith had emerged. "There-- in that storeroom, that's where our gear is!"

                "Good work Mal." Wildwing nodded. "Just hope we can get past tall, dark, and ugly here..." Gritting his teeth, he lead the charge forward.

 

                Nosedive spun around and out of the way, just in time to avoid the blade of Wraith's sword from slicing through his chest armor. He could feel the feathers on his arms singing. "Man you are gonna PAY for that!"

                "You fools." Wraith sneered, floating higher to avoid a kick to his back by Duke. "You fell right into my trap!"

                "Yeah? Doesn't look like we're the ones cornered here, Wraith!" Duke snorted back up, frustrated that he couldn't catch the old lizard. For someone his age, he sure was a good fighter.

                "Oh really?" he grinned, eyes blazing as red as the fireball he held in one hand. Pitching forward, the Saurian sent it hurtling right for Nosedive, who had managed to get himself pinned against the bars of a cell.

                Dive gasped and retracted, when there was suddenly a flash of blue light in front of him, and his older brother's shield intercepted the fireball.

                Wildwing was thrown back against his brother with the force, squashing them both against the bars. "Mallory!--" he coughed. "Our gear, go!"

                With a curt salute, Mallory skirted the fight as best she could, and dashed for the musty storeroom.

                "You're alone on this one, Wraith." Grin announced darkly. "The other Saurians have not followed us here."

                To this, the floating lizard's grin widened.

                "You left them the best kind of trail to follow!" he cackled, pointing at Zelda. "A blood trail."

                Furious, the dragon let out a roar, spread her wings, and pounced into the air to challenge Wraith, swirling around him and snapping her jaws.

                As the two started exchanging blows, Wildwing's eyes darted around for something he could use to formulate a plan. Wraith was out of reach, they didn't have any weapons back, and he was feeling incredibly helpless. There was a voice behind him, a chill down his spine, and that feeling got a thousand times worse.

                "Ahh.." Dragaunus let out a vicious growl. "There you are..."

                Wildwing barely had time to turn, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Wraith had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

                And then everything was lost in a blinding white.

 

                Duke hit the floor hard, on his side, his head bouncing off of his shoulder. It was as if his knees had completely failed him. It was as if everything had failed him. Stars whirled before his eyes, beyond the aftershock of the white, and the feedback from the pain, he could barely make out anything. But suddenly a huge, red, three-taloned foot slammed down inches from his face, and he saw that. Dragaunus's low growl was like a wave of thunder through his head, and Duke was too weak to even flinch as the taloned hand caught on the front of his suit, pulling him up. Vertigo enveloped the Duck as he was lifted completely off of the ground, up high enough to smell the stench of rotting meat on the Overlord's breath.

                "Much more cooperative like this, aren't they?" he heard Wraith chuckle.

                "Very much so." Dragaunus grinned, flashing his yellowing teeth. "How pathetic."

                Duke went wheeling through the air as the Saurian tossed him nonchalantly to the side, and he landed with a thud on the concrete block floor, rolling up next to Zelda. Barely able to comprehend anything through the radiating pain that was feeding into him from everywhere, he was at least able to register his teammate beside him.

                And she wasn't moving.

                Thoughts swimming, Duke was trying to piece things together as he lay on the floor in agony. Were the effects of the Light worse when you were already injured to begin with? He desperately wanted to call out to her, to shake her and see if he was awake, but he couldn't muster the strength to move an inch, his muscles already tight as every nerve screamed at him. Duke's vision was fading quickly, although he could still make out Dragaunus, stomping around to each of his teammates, inspecting them. Wraith was still hovering over their heads, and Chameleon hopped obediently behind the Overlord, carrying the Light on his shoulder. He was saying something, in some brooding tone, as he looked over the bodies, but the electric pain in Duke's head wouldn't let him understand. All he could feel was the stone coldness of the concrete against him quickly numbing body. This had happened to him before, he had to stay cool and try to focus. As Dragaunus was once again approaching him and Zelda, Duke suddenly felt something bump up against him. A rattling pain went up through his arm as he felt it merely brush his skin. Difficult as it was, Duke forced his head to flop over, and saw something shiny and white resting near him. A pucklauncher. How...? Where...? Straining to look upwards and focus his vision, he saw something falling over to the floor, out of the doorway of the storage room at the end of the block. Mallory. Mallory must have used the last of her strength to get the weapon over to him, maybe she wasn't as badly affected because of the distance... But Duke couldn't muse things over now, he was trying to work up the energy to grasp the launcher. It would be impossible for him to aim like this... But he had to try... and he was running out of time. As he forced his head upwards, he glanced over to see a blurry form of Dragaunus leaning over, picking something up. His laugh was earsplitting as he took Wildwing, limp and seemingly helpless, and lifted him by the chest armor.

                "How pathetic." he sneered, repeating himself. "What a true shame it has to end like this, Wildwing. But your team will be broken by having you go first." The Overlord held up the Duck as if he were as lightweight as a pillow, giving him a slight shake, eliciting a weak moan.

                Thank DuCaine... he's still alive... Duke thought. But Dragaunus was approached by Chameleon, and Duke watched the bulb of the Light being placed against his leader's skull. He realized that the Overlord didn't intend for Wildwing to stay that way for much longer.

                Dragaunus's sneer widened as Wildwing started to struggle in his grip, unable to move without bringing himself an obvious deal of pain. "Poor Duck, don't struggle." he hissed. "You'll meet your fate here and now. I'll get rid of you just like I should have gotten rid of your real leader." He took a few steps back, distancing himself further from the weapon. "Chameleon, are we ready?"

                "Ready as ever boss!" The spry lizard morphed a black hood onto his head. "Let's get ready to execuuuuteee!" He hopped and squeezed the trigger, but suddenly a loud explosion erupted behind him, spraying the two Saurians with shards of metal. Shocked, Chameleon pulled the Light from his shoulder to find the back end of it had been totally destroyed!

                "Not---today--" Duke growled as loudly as he could manage, his arm shaking from the recoil of firing the launcher.

                Furious, Dragaunus dropped Wildwing and stormed over for Duke, his footfalls sending waves of pain through the Duck as he approached. "You idiot." he hissed, eyes flaring yellow. "You'll pay with your life for that!!"

                "Like he said---" Mallory's voice was nearly lost over the sound of a bola puck going off, and snagging Dragaunus firmly around the middle. "---Not today."

                Duke's eyes flew back to the doorway, where Mallory was struggling to support herself against the doorframe to the storeroom, a puck cannon braced on her shoulder.

                "Another one?" Wraith snarled. "Allow me, Lord Dragaunus." He swooped down gauntly in a cloud, holding his staff before him, preparing to strike. He didn't expect Mallory to be able to move much, which made his surprise even greater as he found a bola choke his midsection as well, causing him to drop his staff and tumble to the floor.

                Chameleon's eyes grew wide with panic as he realized he was alone, but they narrowed with opportunity as Mallory lost her balance, exhausted, and fell to the floor as well. "Heh, looks like it's up to me now!" he hopped gleefully, ignoring the shrapnel embedded in his shoulder and back from the explosion.

                "Hurry up and untie me, you fool!" Dragaunus boomed at him, struggling with the bola.

                "Aww come on boss, lemme have a little fun with 'em first!" the green lizard protested, bouncing over Grin as if he were on an invisible pogo stick. "What harm can they do now?" He gripped Zelda's tail, and lifted her with surprising strength, holding her upside-down in the air. "Whaddaya think boss? She'd make a great hackey sack for good 'ol Siege!"

                "Speaking of which..." Wraith hissed, trying to use his claws to shear his way through the bola that had tangled him. "Where is that lumbering oaf?"

                "I sent him to fix whatever these fowl did to the control room." Dragaunus glowered in the direction of Tanya's body. "No matter. Now that we have the entire team back under our control again, we can get rid of them under more comfortable circumstances."

                "And the Light?" Wraith asked.

                "It has served its purpose." Dragaunus sighed. "A shame we have no replacement. Now for the last time, Chameleon, get over here and UNTIE ME!!"

                Chameleon scrambled with the booming of his Overlord's voice, so much so that he dropped Zelda and then tripped over her, landing eye-to-eye with Duke. He snorted and stood, dusting himself off. "You lookin' at me, kid? I don't see any other free Saurians around, you must be lookin' at me!" With a grin, he went to grab the launcher from Duke's hand. "I'll just take that, thank you!"

                As he grabbed Duke's hand, the Duck realized that Chameleon had just solved the aiming problem for him. He channeled what little of his strength he had left into squeezing the trigger, and in seconds, Chameleon's laugh turned into a muffled howl as he stumbled backwards, a bola choking around most of his face and torso.

                Seeing this, Dragaunus let out another angry growl. "Simpleton, if you want someone killed you have to do it yourself!" Managing to stand again, the Overlord stomped over for Duke, glaring at him, and finally raising a foot and resting it lightly on the Duck's side. "Never mind how much it's going to hurt." he hissed. "I'm simply going to crush you flat."

                Even the talons brushing against him was enough to send Duke to the edge of consciousness. His thoughts fled from him, his entire mind seemed to go numb with the pain. Even if he couldn't register it properly, he could still hear Dragaunus, a low, predatory rumble growing from his throat as he sensed the kill. But suddenly, something took the weight off of Duke completely, and sent Dragaunus toppling to the floor beside him with a surprised howl.

                "You must have a hearing problem...." Grin snarled at him, socking him right in the jaw. "Not today."

                "What?!" Dragaunus was incredulous. "How are you---"

                "Pain is an illusion." he smiled lightly, before delivering Dragaunus a knockout punch right to the face. As the Saurian went into dreamland, he stood with a heavy sigh.

                Immensely relieved, Duke made another attempt at trying to move, or speak, but Grin quickly knelt beside him.

                "Hold still." he said quietly. "I believe that this will pass, like it did last time."

                Duke's eyes flew over to Zelda, who still hadn't moved from where Chameleon had dropped her.

                Grin's eyes followed his, his brow furrowed, and he stood again, walking over to her and kneeling by her, giving the animal a gentle shake.

                "Is---is she?"

                "No." Grin looked back at Duke. "Unconscious. I suspect the force of the blast overwhelmed her aura."

                "Phew..." Duke sighed, and then out of the corner of his eye, spotted that Wraith had nearly shorn through a part of the bola. "Grin--- feel like throwing a few--more punches today?"

                "My pleasure." Grin said lowly, standing again.

                The big Duck lumbered away, and Duke let his head rest back, knowing full well that he could trust Grin to get the job done. Right now, he just had to focus on getting his strength back. The way that things worked last time, it was the most painful before it ended. Duke realized that he had a lot to look forward to...

 

                Wildwing sighed with relief as Nosedive, the last of them all to recover, had now gained his full mobility back. It was good to have them all back... well, almost all, Zelda had still to wake up. His thoughts were interrupted as Nosedive gave one last revengeful kick to the flank of the still-unconscious Dragaunus, and walked up to him.

                "Okay man, we're all back to normal, let's get the heck out of here!"

                "Just a moment Nosedive..." Tanya interrupted him, sifting through the remains of the weapon that had given them so much trouble.

                "Morbidly curious, are we Tanya?" Mallory looked over her shoulder.

                "I wanna see whether or not this is a weapon that Dragaunus could rebuild." she explained. "We wouldn't want to have to deal with something like this again..."

                "Heh, you got that right." Duke sniffed.

                "But the technology required to build something like this... it's amazing... I'm sure that even Dragaunus doesn't understand the process completely." She scooped the remains of the device up in her arms, and turned to the others. "Even if it's not working anymore, we should take it. A lot of resources went into it, Dragaunus won't be able to reproduce one of these any time soon."

                "Bonus!" Dive nodded. "We all need to get, like, lead-plated armor or something!"

                "Great, so Superman won't be able to see whether we wear boxers or briefs." Duke grumbled, and turned away.

                "I say we just get home first." Wildwing spoke. "Duke, do you still remember where the exit is, from those maps?"

                "Heh, that was the first place I looked up." the elder Duck smirked back. "Just follow me, we'll get outta here alright."

                "The sooner the better." Mallory huffed. "And I haveta admit, a prison is the perfect place to leave these guys."

                "Let's do just that." Grin nodded, carefully holding the unconscious Zelda in his arms. Not even waiting for Duke, he was the first to start out of the block.

 

                The Aerowing was waiting patiently for them, right where he had left it, Wildwing realized. There was a large stretch of cement inside a battered, rusty fence of barbed wire that stood more than a dozen feet high. The ship was parked near that fencing, silent and completely still in what appeared to be rising darkness.

                "Great... think we can't turn the lights on out here too?" Mallory shook her head.

                "It's past midnight out." Grin noted. "there's a light growing to the east."

                "Come on guys." Wildwing gestured them for the ship. "We'll find out where we are once we're on board."

                As they all began walking again, there was a light snort behind them, and they looked around to find Zelda finally waking up as well.

                "About time, little friend." Grin smiled at her as she shook herself, and sneezed.

                "You okay girl?" Duke asked.

                "At least I'm up." she replied, but did smile a little, flexing her injured shoulder and hopping up onto Grin's back. "And at least I was spared another round of recovery from that weapon."

                "I would call ya lucky." Dive started. "But nahh, you missed some great suspense!"           

                Wildwing couldn't help but chuckle at his brother's remark as he lowered the front ramp to the Aerowing. "Enough suspense for one night. Let's ride off into the sunset hm? Just get back home." As he let the team proceed him onto the ship, there were no complaints.

 

The End

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except mine) are copyright and property of Disney. You may copy, print, or whatever with this document, so long as it is not altered and I (Zelda) am credited. Thanks!