Good Intentions

Part 4

Written by Zelda

 

                She had checked things over at least twenty times. The Migrator was armed to the teeth, every weapon she could find being ready to go, including the multi-puck launcher. It was about time they had a chance to use this in a true combat situation. But Mallory leaned back and sighed, thinking that this was not the circumstances she wanted to use it under. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate, her thoughts kept drifting back to poor Nosedive and Zelda, tied up to those treadmills and locked in the brig. She wished more than anything that they could be out here and fighting with them now. Mallory was actually a little nervous about having to face the Saurians down in a situation like this, and she didn’t quite know why. After all, she had seen much worse. Why did she just have a bad feeling about this? Mallory also kept thinking back to what Duke had said earlier, in Tanya’s lab, about the team having weaknesses. She didn’t like that at all. Mallory had always thought that, although this team was no military operation, they were pretty well-rounded. Over the years, they had come to be familiar with each others’ strengths and weaknesses, they had learned just how to play off of one another in battle and in peacetime. This whole magical thing had always been present from Wraith, this wasn’t new. But were they really so defenseless? Dragaunus only had three henchmen, it kind of threw Mallory off thinking that they didn’t have any way to fight back against one of them. “That’s it.” she muttered, grumbling to herself. “I’m through with thinking.” She stood up and dusted herself off, looking around the empty hangar. Now, she was faced with the waiting game again. Waiting for Wildwing to finally pick out the Raptor. And if the Saurians were looking for a fight, they wouldn’t be hiding for long.

 

                No, she didn’t like the way this was looking at all. Tanya frowned and peered into her microscope again. She had resolved to keep looking for answers until the very last moment, until Wildwing called them to the hangar. She was not willing to accept that a little hocus-pocus was what was responsible for this. There had to be a better answer, science could beat out a few spells anyday! Frustrated, Tanya banged a fist on the lab table beside her, nearly upsetting a few beakers of acid. The scare caused her to pause for a moment, and just accept what had happened. Maybe she had just been looking to hard. Maybe it was her fault, that she had never thought of magic in the first place! Well, she would make up for that here and now. As soon as Wildwing found the Raptor, Wraith was hers. She was going to ram that leathery old spellbook of his right down his leathery old throat. She was determined to make up for whatever weakness the team possessed right then and there. The only problem was coming up with that opportunity… Tanya sighed heavily, and resigned herself to the long wait.

 

                Duke walked in to find Wildwing squinting in concentration, his Mask on his bill and hooked into Drake 1 at the same time. Seeing the flashing Mask, Duke could tell instantly that his leader was having a hard time locating the ship. “Any luck?” he tried.

                “Not yet.” Wildwing grumbled. “I don’t like this… they’re still hiding from us.”

                “Which means?”

                “Which might mean they might have more planned. They could be trying to figure a way around what we’ve done to the others downstairs, with the treadmills.”

                “Great.” Duke sighed.

                “But if that’s their gameplan, in a way, I suppose it’s good. If they aren’t out of options yet, they’ll be concentrating on solving the problem we’ve given them, instead of looking out for us.”

                “And the fact that they still have a trump card left is comforting to you?”

                “Well… you’ve got a point…” Wildwing started.

                Duke sat down in another one of Drake 1’s console chairs, the next station over from Wildwing. “Look, Wing, I dunno if you’re gonna want to hear this, but I think you should…”

                Wildwing turned and frowned a little. It wasn’t like Duke to mince words. He tried to figure out what the older Duck would say, before he could say it. “No, I know it. That whole ‘hidden weakness’ thing was your call. I should have thought about it more, maybe we could have reached our conclusion without wasting so much time.”

                “Naw, that’s not it.” Duke shook his head. “Although I’ll take the credit for that one.” he smirked slightly.

                Puzzled, Wildwing opened his eyes and paused his search for a moment. “Then what?”

                “Well… I was walking by the brig on the way up here. I couldn’t sleep so I was just wandering around. And Grin’s in there, right? I don’t get how he can talk to Zelda mentally or anything, but he was just sitting on the floor, speaking out loud to her, and then listening as if she were talking back.”

                “Well, I told him to let both of them know about what was going on.” Wildwing nodded.

                “I guess he did that, yeah.” Duke agreed. “But he was talking about something else with Zelda… I dunno if she’s really in that great of a mindset to be going through this.”

                “What do you mean? She doesn’t have a choice.” Wildwing shook his head. “What was Grin saying to her that got you concerned?”

                “Well, he was talking about how he wasn’t going to tell us, I guess she wanted to give us a message or something, but he was really being insistant about it, he actually got kinda angry.”

                “He’s withholding information?” Wildwing asked. This was definitely unlike the big Duck indeed.

                “I dunno, that’s just the way it sounded to me.” Duke shrugged, raising his hands a little as if to indicate his innocence in the matter. “I could only hear one side of the conversation, you know. But he was telling her that he wasn’t going to talk about ‘that’ to the rest of us, that he didn’t want her talking like that anymore.”

                Wildwing rubbed his beak and was silent for a moment, thinking. After a long pause, he closed his eyes and spoke again. “I think we’ll wait until we’ve found the Raptor. We can’t do anything at that point. If the information Zelda’s trying to pass along is critical to the mission at hand, Grin would tell us. We’ll confront him about it when we’re in the Migrator.”

                Chewing on his leader’s decision, Duke sat back and thought for a moment. Wildwing had gone back to concentrating on looking for the Raptor, when Duke spoke up again. “Don’t take this the wrong way Wing, I’d never accuse that guy of anything, Grin’s been one of the most steadfast Ducks on this team. But let’s just hope that whatever he’s not telling us isn’t critical to this mission. Until we ask him, we’ll never know.”

                Wildwing suddenly started as a blaring alarm went off on Drake 1. Standing, he unplugged the Mask from the computer, and folded his arms as he looked up at the screen. “Looks like we won’t have to wait to find out, not anymore.”

 

                Bad vibes emanated throughout the entire hangar. Grin was wary the instant he walked in, and approached the Migrator very slowly.

                “Come on!” Mallory waved at him, almost annoyed. “Waiting for a written invitation? Let’s get going!”

                Grin hopped aboard and had the hatch close behind him.

Mallory shoved a puck cannon into his arms. “And make sure you stock up on some other rounds before we go in. It could be a good hard fight, this time around.”

                “You got that right.” Tanya was fiddling with her Omnitool’s laser at a side console. “If they’re expecting us…”

                Grin glanced up at Wildwing, who was revving the engine in the driver’s seat. He didn’t say a word. And Duke sat in one of the passenger seats, looking rather relaxed for such a fight. Grin cocked his head a bit and sat down in another seat, strapping on his seatbelt.

                Wildwing gunned the thrusters, and the Migrator shot out of the hangar and into one of the transport tunnels that would take them to the surface.

                Grin was just about to go into some pre-battle meditation, when he heard Wildwing suddenly speak.

                “Grin.” he started. “I’m not used to this, so I’ll be frank. I heard that you were discussing something with Zelda that you refused to tell the rest of us. Is that true?”

                Grin shifted a bit in his seat. Now he knew what those vibes were, and where they had been coming from. He glanced around to his other teammates, and they all wore rather surprised looks except for Duke, who remained with the calm, detatched face he had earlier, staring straight ahead into space. The big Duck took a deep breath, and answered. “I will not lie, that is true.” he nodded. “But I don’t think it’s important to the fight we have ahead of us.”

                “What do you mean Grin?” Tanya asked. “What did she say? Does she have an idea about the chips? About what Dragaunus is planning?”

                “No.” he shook his head. “It’s not like that.”

                “Then what is it?” Duke asked, frowning a little. “Look Grin, I don’t mean to pry or whatever, I know how it feels to keep secrets and all. But coming from her, in her situation, I think it’s pretty important that we know how she’s doing, and what she’s feeling.”

                “I’ll second that.” Mallory nodded sharply.

                Wildwing turned to glance back at him only for a moment, before the Migrator shot out onto the roadway and he had to turn back. “It’s your decision whether or not to tell us Grin. Zelda trusted you alone with whatever information she gave you.”

                Grin sighed, and looked at the floor. “I originally did not feel that this was important. But over time, she became more serious about it, to the point where it was rather unlike her, and I resolved not to share that with anyone else. I’m quite sure she doesn’t mean it, she’s not completely in her right mind…”

                “What’s ‘it’?” asked Mallory. “What doesn’t she really mean?”

                “The link we share is mostly telepathic.” Grin started. “But through her, I can feel a bit of her emotional state. Ever since we discovered the chips, she’s become very depressed. I think that out of desperation, she began asking me to tell the rest of you that the chip should just be pulled out of her.”

                “But that would kill her! She knows that by now, right?” Tanya asked.

                Grin nodded, a little sadness now creeping into his posture. “She knew that you would be the first to know, Tanya, whether or not there was a solution to getting those chips out safely. She told me that she didn’t want to be a risk to us, and that if no way could be found, then the chip should go regardless.”

                “Sounds nuts to me.” Duke shook his head. “And what about the kid?”

                “That thought calmed her down for a while.” Grin said. “But not for long. By the time I had gone to tell her about the possibility of magic being involved, she had become very withdrawn, almost angry at the fact that I was still refusing to tell the rest of you about her request.”

                “So that’s it…” Duke chewed on the thought for a moment.

                “Well it’s a request we won’t honor, at any rate.” Wildwing frowned. “I don’t know what’s got her thinking that way, but we’ll snap her out of it. At least she can’t hurt herself while we’re gone.”

                Grin nodded, and bowed his head. “I apologize for not speaking up earlier…”

                “No, it’s alright.” Wildwing interrupted. “You were right about it not being important to the fight. But that must have been hard on you to keep to yourself.”

                Grin shrugged slightly and fell silent again, but his folded arms and his distracted eyes were proof that Wildwing was correct.

                Silently, Duke was feeling rather apologetic himself. After all, he’d been the one to blow the whistle on Grin. He had always known the big Duck to be the noble one of the bunch, why would he suspect him of keeping information from the rest of the team? He mentally gave himself a kick. One would think that he would have been more trusting of his teammates, after all these years.

                And Tanya had missed out on most of the tail-end of the conversation. She had left off at the point where Grin had said that Zelda left it up to her to determine whether or not there was hope in removing the chips. Even Zelda had been counting on her to come up with an answer to this! Had her failure been the cause of the dragon’s downward spiral, to the point where she felt suicide was the only viable option left? She was seriously disappointed in herself at this point. Not only might she have delayed the team from discovering what was at the bottom of this chip thing, but she let it get so far that Zelda was starting to go nuts!

                Wildwing sighed, obviously thinking himself. “We’ve all got to focus here.” he started, snapping everyone else out of their individual stupors. “I hate to say it, but we all know Zelda’s prone to thinking like that, taking the worst situation and going with it. We can’t think about that now, she’ll be fine the way we left her. Right now, we need to focus on getting this problem solved. We know where the Raptor is, we know that Wraith cast a spell to do this to Zel and Dive. All we care about is getting them both back to normal, at this point.”

                There was a moment of silent agreement in the Migrator.

                “From here on out, we forget about what’s going on back in the Pond, okay?”

                Three other Ducks nodded in reply. They had needed that, Mallory thought. Who’d have thought it would be Wildwing giving the rallying speech. Usually, that was Zelda’s job. But they had all needed that, to clear their minds and focus their thoughts. Mallory was secretly thanking Wildwing for that little statement. It had already helped her get back on track. And she’d need to be in the zone, the Raptor wasn’t far. In fact, it was waiting for them on a construction site for a strip mall, in one of Anaheim’s sister suburbs. Just perfect, she thought. Tree-lined streets, cul-de-sacs and the Saurians looming over it all with enough destructive power to reduce it all to a giant crater. And they would be waiting for them, when the Ducks finally showed.

 

                Grin felled one side of the bay doors in a single punch, a feat which he had never managed to accomplish before. The other Ducks stood a little surprised, but didn’t question him about it. It was clear that the big Duck had some payback in mind on this mission. They would all have some pot-shots to take at the Saurians for this one. Each Duck was armed to the teeth, ready to fire, but as the smoke cleared in the Raptor’s main bay, there was nobody there to greet them.

                “Wow…” Duke started. “Could we be gatecrashing in a situation like this?”

                “Not if I know Dragaunus…” Wildwing growled, activating his Mask and scanning the shadowed corners of the bay. “They’re somewhere…” but he trailed off as his scan revealed the bay to actually be empty! Not a hunter drone or henchman in sight. Unwilling to believe the data, Wildwing squinted a little, the Mask’s inner mechanics flashing as he refined his search, trying to look beyond the bay walls. And as far as he could push the Mask’s scanners to go, he found nothing. “… Just not here.”

                “Stay sharp.” Mallory whispered. “If they haven’t set a trap for us already, they have to know that we’re here by now.”

                The team silently began to flank out, Wildwing leading them out of the bay and into a giant, arching corridor. They had been fighting in the Raptor long enough to know its major passageways, and could navigate the rest using a simple rule: the worse it smelled, the closer the bad guys were. The unlucky soul who stumbled into Chameleon’s quarters probably wouldn’t be able to smell straight for a week. But the most important thing was that they knew the way to the Raptor’s control room, and that was their target now.

                “Even if Wraith’s magic is responsible for this.” Tanya explained in a whisper as they went along. “It only accounts for half of the matter. They still have to be using some sort of technology, like a remote or something, to be able to control Zel and Dive.”

                “Which means that giving the Raptor’s control computer a makeover should solve a few problems.” Duke nodded.

                The team grew silent again as they passed through another huge set of bay doors, and entered the next section of the corridor. Here, the path split three more ways, and the team hesitated.

                “Which way is it?” Grin asked, looking around.

                Wildwing took care to aim his launcher down each hall before he took a more careful look at them. “This one to the left, here.”

                Quietly enough to hear a pin drop in the belly of the stinking, burning red metal ship, the team crept through one section of hallway, then another, and another, working their way through the maze of corridors. Finally, they spotted the doorway to the main control room, the toothed bay doors sealed shut.

                “I betcha that they’re all inside.” Duke growled, seething.

                Wildwing dropped his guard for just a moment, and activated the Mask to scan for their enemies. But after a few seconds, he frowned, and dropped his arms.

                “Empty too?” Tanya raised an eyebrow.

                “No, I can’t tell!” he whispered back. “They’ve either really reinforced the walls, or found some sort of substance that the Mask can’t scan through.”

                “Wondeful.” Duke rolled his eye. “You ain’t Superman, they can’t just line the ship with lead or nothin’.”

                “Not a concern now.” Grin ruled, glancing around for a moment before he walked up to the sealed doors. “We enter here as we entered the ship.” With one more monsterous punch, another door came toppling down in a metallic crash, and lay on the floor of the darkened control room with a huge dent in its center.

                “Now him?” Duke smirked slightly. “He may be Superman!”

                “Come on!” Wildwing motioned the three other Ducks to quickly flank Grin out and seal off the doorway. If a fight was go to down, it could happen now. In seconds, the four Ducks crossed the room, and stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, bristling with weaponry. Tanya passed off her multi-puck launcher to Wildwing, who shouldered it with an air of authority, and yelled out into the center of his enemy’s stronghold.

                “Come out and face us, Dragaunus!”

                Nothing but silence was his reply.

                The leader frowned for a moment, and then took a few tentative steps into the room. He wanted to scan the place and see where they were all hiding, something told him that there was someone or something else in this room with them. But he couldn’t let down his guard. Should a fleet of hunter drones suddenly come at them, the four other Ducks would be overwhelmed. He glanced back for a moment, motioning for Tanya to help them with some light.

                She nodded back, holstered her puck launchers for just a moment, and popped out a florescent light from her Omnitool. Although it wasn’t much help, the extra light did make some things clear. The main computer was still active, a few lights and buttons flashing on the console, but the screen was dark. Dragaunus’s throne was empty. Silence still reigned.

                “I said get out here!” Wildwing raised his voice. “Face us, you coward!”

                Another pause, no answer.

                Duke huffed a little, and broke ranks to go investigate the computer.

                Grin stood watching the door, to see if anyone might try to come in and trap them in the control room.

                Tanya started for the far corner, her light in one hand and a launcher tentatively in the other.

                And Wildwing went for Dragaunus’s throne. Even a Saurian wasn’t dumb enough to ignore symbolism. If Dragaunus would appear to gloat at them, he’d do it there.

                Duke drew his sword, so that its golden luminescence would provide a little light for him as well, and he used it to scan over the console of the Raptor’s control computer. To him, it looked idle. The huge screen was on, giving off a hum of energy, but it was black and inactive. But there was something that didn’t look to be in place… Duke spotted a few cables that were plugged into two ports on the console. Maybe these were the remote controls they had been using! Walking over, Duke picked up one of the cords and started to follow it. It ran along the floor, coiled in a circle a few times, and then oddly enough, ran up into the ceiling, right in mid-air. Frowning a little, Duke walked over to where the two cords were hanging side by side, and looked straight up. The two cords both ran into a grating, an opening into one of the Raptor’s ventilation ducts overhead. He was about to call Tanya over, when all five Ducks were silenced by a squeaking sound from that panel of grating. It sounded like it was moving. Like someone was moving it.

                There was a loud squeal of metal as the grating was shoved away from its proper place, and something very large fell to the floor, right on top of Duke. The four other Ducks spun around, reacting in shock as they found this object to be Seige, holding a video game remote in one hand and a laser blaster in the other.

                “Crashing the party already?” he sneered. “But we’ve only just started to play!”

 

End of Part 4

 

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except me) 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!