DIB, part 3

written by Zelda

 

                From the second Nosedive found the duck, he knew he wasn't getting up again.

Grin lay flat on his stomach, not rolling, not really doing anything.

                "Grinster!? You okay buddy? Come on, talk to me!" Nosedive shook the duck's meaty gray shoulder.

Grin gritted his teeth shut and slowly started to roll over.

                "They're coming for us! Let's go!" Jay suddenly shouted. "Get him up!"

Nosedive grabbed Grin's arm and tried to pull him, but the duck groaned and pulled away. Nosedive took another look at the charred hole in Grin's back.    "We can't move him, we'll have to hold out here and hope the others are on their way!" he yelled at Jay.

                "Are you CRAZY man?" Jay yelled. "We don't stand a chance here! We'll be cremated by those lasers in less than a minute! We've gotta make a run for it!"

                "I'm not leaving him." Nosedive pointed to Grin. "I've got a launcher and you've got that.... thing... That's good enough."

                "You aliens are insane. I'm not stayin' here on this suicide mission!"

                "Hey who are you calling the alien, mister.?" Dive snapped. "I'm sick and tired of you secreting all your info. from us, just to lead us around by the beak! We're staying here!"

                "The heck with you ducks!" Jay snarled. "I'm going!" he threw down his arms and turned to leave, when the edge of a laser-tipped staff was suddenly shoved in his face.

                "You're not going anywhere HUMAN!" a loud voice roared. "Hands up, everyone!"

Jay slowly raised his hands, turning back to shoot a poisonous look at Nosedive.

The duck curled a lip back at the human as he too surrendered.

A dozen large, bipedal jungle cats made their presence known, their black armor and silver staffs gleaming in the fading sunlight. Two herded Jay off, poking him in the back to keep him moving. Nosedive had his launchers torn from him and thrown on the ground. He was shoved off too as the rest of the guards attended to Grin with yells. He refused to get up, eyes still shut. One of the guards jammed the tip of his staff into the wound on Grin's back. The Duck twisted and yelled in pain.

                "Hey cut that out!" Nosedive shouted at them. He yelped as he felt a bolting shot to his rear end. The duck seethed and kept walking. Looking carefully behind him, he saw Grin somehow be pushed up and forced to walk, teetering drowsily. At least he hadn't hurt his back too badly. Dive was relieved in one sense. But this sucked. They were captured. What now?

 

                The dragon was rather alarmed at the violent change in the landscape. Where there was once a ship concealed in the leafy green, a large crater and pieces of shrapnel everywhere. Mallory looked out upon it and grinned. The two guards were dumbfounded. Duke rejoined them, dusting the dirt and leaves off of his uniform. He shouldered his sabre as Mallory opened her com.

                "Hey Wing!" she spoke happily. "Mission accomplished, my bogie's down in flames."

                "We've got bigger problems." Wildwing sighed, and started to explain.

 

                He was actually angry at Kay in a secondary way. Wildwing shook his head as he closed his com and leaned back against the cool, metallic wall of the Migrator. He tilted his head back and let it hit the wall softly. He heard Kay russling at the maps on the floor.

                "Let's hope it was the party that Duke and Mallory spotted that ambushed our three. They'll come back looking for their ship and your Ducks and those two guards can attack, maybe get our three back." Kay traced his fingers over the map slowly.

Wildwing seethed quietly. How dare he! Those were people out there, and he sat here in perfect safety, playing with them as if they were chess pieces. And his brother.... Wildwing was very close to yelling at the suited man... and then his anger slowly disassembled itself as he remembered that this man played a pivotal role in lightening those stupid restraints. Wildwing rolled his eyes. "Let's be careful now." he cautioned. "There are only five out there, and they are at least a dozen guards, maybe more. Those aren't good odds."

                "What would you do?" Kay asked wryly.

Wildwing paused in thought.

 

                The reaction from the Charg guards was audible long before they came into sight. Angry yells of confusion echoed through the woods as they guards came crashing though the underbrush, inspecting their exploded ship. Tanya gasped quietly as she saw Jay and Dive shoved into the clearing. Grin followed, he slowly collapsed on his side, flopping in the seared dirt.

                "What do we do now?" a guard asked. Another burly lion picked up a piece of the wreckage and sniffed it.

                "This isn't Alterian weaponry." he snarled.

Zelda cocked her ears, worried.

                "What do you mean?" another guard asked.

                "There's someone else here. MIB possibly."

                "All guards FLANK OUT!" one suddenly yelled. "You three, guard these captives. I want those humans found!" With loud roars, nine Charg guards clomped off into the brush, spreading out.

Thirty feet from the exploded ship, Zelda peered down to Duke, and then to Tanya and Mallory, behind a tree on the ground. Mallory was signaling across a small clearing to the Alterians. She was signaling them to arms. Zelda curled her lips. This was going to be tricky business. She turned back to watch the approaching guards, and the four that remained to look over Dive, Jay, and Grin. One of them was talking on a com.

Suddenly, that one yelled out. "ALL RETURN! I've got fresh orders, we're moving out of here!" The guards spun on their heels and trampled back through the foliage, returning to the ship. Zelda gave a panicked look down to Mallory as they forced their captives to walk again. The duck looked back and shrugged helplessly. Zelda gulped slowly as the Chargs trooped off into the woods.

 

                Nosedive would have some choice words he could have said at the moment, but he kept his beak shut in mind to the laser that was pointed at his back. He was shoved again by a paw, pushed over the terrain. The duck tried hard to think. Why had that ship been blown up? Was it more MIB? Was it Zelda and Tanya, or Mallory and Duke? By the stars, he wished it was. He wanted to be back in sunny Anaheim more than anything now. It was getting harder and harder to see in all this coming darkness, but Dive could tell that they were close to wherever they were headed. The guards were on constant contact with their destination through their coms. Squinting through the large trees, Dive thought he saw a large outcropping of rocks in the distance. He nearly stumbled over a root and was shoved on for his clumsiness. He decided to keep his eyes on the ground, not looking up for several minutes. When he did glance up, he was alarmed to see that the outcropping of rocks was actually a very large ship! That must be Charg headquarters. Nosedive continued to think hard, and snuck a quick glance at Grin behind him. To try and run would be suicide in the first place, but Grin couldn't be able to manage an escape with him and Jay. And Wing would kill him if he ran and left Grin behind. Man this sucked! Nosedive pouted as he walked. They approached the main door of the ship, a panel in the side of the saucer-shaped object folding down to serve as a ramp. They paused at the door while a guard tried to contact someone on his com. Nosedive looked at the foliage around him. There had to be SOME way outta here. This was his last chance. Suddenly, his eye caught something. There was something weird in a bush near the ship. He squinted to make out a small circle of blue in the dark leaves. He suddenly realized it was an eye! Zelda's eye! The dragon took form instantly to him.

She put a talon to her lips and signaled for him to wait.

Dive nodded slightly. Suddenly, he was jabbed in the back again.

                "Let's go Duckie." a guard snarled.

They were moving! Not here, not now! He bent down instantly.

"I said MOVE!" the guard barked.

                "Umm... I haveta tie my shoe." the duck blabbered. He saw Zelda dart off into the bushes. Suddenly, he felt the searing electricity curl around his neck, creeping up to his head. Nosedive felt electric fingers of pain surge through his skull and suddenly the world went black around him.

From the bushes, Zelda gasped as he fell limply to the ground and the guards threw him inside.

 

                Kay was disheartened slightly as he heard the news, Mallory whispering it scratchily over Wildwing's com. Great, now the leader duck would probably be mad at him. Kay was worried slightly about Jay. He'd gotten himself into quite a few scrapes before, but he was just a rookie, and knew nothing about the Chargs. Zedd wasn't going to like this. Kay had thought dozens of times over about calling in reinforcements. MIB had them in droves. But he wasn't sure what they were dealing with yet. He could put a lot of lives in danger. And from what Mallory and Zelda had gathered, he was doing so already. He glanced over at Wildwing, musing blankly over the maps. He slowly started going over his options again.

                "Mallory, come in." Wildwing suddenly opened his com.

                "Mallory here, orders?"

                "Tenative ones." Wildwing sighed. "Is there any way you can get to Kazor? He's the only powerful one I see being able to help us now."

                "Lemme ask this guard here."

There was muffled speech in the background.

                "We can contact Kazor, they tell me he's en route to his main ship after a scouting mission. We can meet him, but we'll have to leave the others."

                "Then do so." Kay said. He took up a pencil and marked the coordinates of the Charg heaquarters, a rough two miles from the scout ship Mallory had exploded.

                "Make it fast Ducks, we need Kazor in on this." Wildwing said. "Keep me posted."

                "Will do Wing, over and out." The connection ended.

                "You think this Kazor will side with you under these circumstances?" Kay asked.

                "He's one of the last options we've got." Wildwing leveled Kay's gaze. "Besides." he asked with a wry smile. "What would you do?"

Kay paused in thought.

 

                Now in the true darkness, the Alterian headquarters was hard to see, but it was nonetheless impressive. It was big and black, crisscrossed with purple wiring and shaped like a giant spearhead. A door slid open and the four were marshaled inside by even more guards, which the place didn't seem to lack at all. Inside, the silvery gray halls were rectangular, padded with fabric and lit with green and purple neon lights. Guards marched too and fro, each wearing a different and sometimes scraggly uniform. Aliens of different species were scattered about as well.

Duke was very impressed. Could the rebel force be this big?

                "Move fast or you'll get lost in here." one of the two guards told he and Mallory gruffly. "Kazor is very busy, but he does wish to speak with you."

The two were whisked through twisting corridors and past many different rooms, until they finally came to a great gray metal door. It opened slowly to reveal a large, long room. At the end of this, Kazor himself stood putting his guns away in a compartment in the wall.

He turned to see the four and smiled. "Well well, a long time it's been, eh Ducks?" he addressed them warmly.

                "It has Kazor." Mallory returned the smile. "Unfortunate we'd be meeting again under such circumstances."

                "I know that you and the MIB are working together." Kazor walked up to meet them. "But I assure you, this battle was not of my choice! The Chargs forced us back to this planet after we'd been battling them around the Crab Nebula."

                "We also didn't enter this battle by choice Kazor." Zelda said. "But now we're in the thick of it. We come to you seeking help."

                "What has happened?"

                "Two of ours, and one MIB agent has been captured as well." Duke reported. "As we said, not good circumstances."

                "A shame my friends." Kazor shook his head. "We've had a few of our men taken as well. Some will never return. They have died trying to gain the location of the Charg headquarters." He turned around sadly.

                "Well you happen to be in luck." Mallory smiled.

                "You have seen it?!" Kazor was amazed.

                "Yes. It's surprisingly well unguarded." Duke grinned. "We'd be happy to help lead your forces there... if ya'd help us get our friends free."

                "A very good deal!" Kazor shook the duck's brown hand. "It's been so long since we fought together... you still remember?"

                "I still have a mark where you threw me against the boards." Duke joked. "How could I not remember?"

Kazor chuckled and walked back through the room, opening the hatch to his weapons cabinet. "Prepare yourselves my friends." he warned. "Unless you object, we launch an immediate attack."

                "We're ready." Tanya told him.

 

                Dang it. Dang dang dang dang. Jay's mind reeled with boredom as he sat Indian-style on the floor. Dang dang dang. He couldn't believe it! Captured, and all because of that stubborn Duck. He snorted in the direction of the figure that still lay unconscious on the other side of the cell. Jay shifted himself a bit and looked outside, through the blue energy bars. A guard leaned around the corner and sneered at him. Jay growled under his breath. Jeez, Zedd was probably going to have his head on a silver platter for this. Of course he'd blame nothing on Kay. If this whole operation blew sky-high he'd find some way to nail it on the rookie. He was sick and tired of sitting and thinking. He wanted out. He wanted to get his gun back and blast these scum into the next lifetime! He sighed and hung his head, knowing he was stuck in here. Suddenly, the gray duck moved beside him, shifting an arm from his face-down position and letting out a low groan. Jay frowned slowly. That Duck had taken a pretty bad hit back there in the woods, maybe it was simply right for Nosedive to have stayed with him. Then again, maybe they shouldn't have cowered behind him when the Chargs attacked. The Duck shifted again. He must be waking up. It was about time. Slowly, the Duck rolled onto his side and lifted his head. Jay tried to recall the Duck's name.        "You okay Grin?"

The Duck squinted for a moment. "Pain is an illusion." he managed.

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Okay... " he decided to leave well enough alone. "Pretty nasty hit you took there."

                "Yeah..." Grin eased himself to sit. "How's Nosedive?"

"I dunno..." Jay suddenly felt guilty for not trying to wake him up. After all, he was just a kid... But there was no more time to act as Dive began waking up himself. He reached up for his head and snarled.

                "Ow man.... talk about your ice cream headaches...." He sat up and opened his eyes.

                "Morning honey." Jay joked sourly at him as Dive looked around.

                "Real funny man, I'm laughing so hard I think I'm gonna die." Dive snarled back at him.

                "If it weren't for you we wouldn't even be here!" Jay yelled at him.

A guard stood outside the cell, watching amusedly.

                "WHAT? You humans are even lower than I thought you were? I was trying to help him!" Dive jabbed a finger at Grin, who glanced at Jay.

                "Hey, when you're given orders you follow them." Jay huffed.

                "If it were your partner, you'd stay too, orders or no orders." Dive spat.

Jay paused. The kid had a point. "That's different." was all he could come up with.

                "I sure don't see how." Dive straightened himself up against the wall. "Hey buddy, suppose you can't get me an aspirin eh?" he called to the guard.

The burly lion smirked and lowered his laser staff.

"Guess not." Dive sighed. He walked over to Grin and sat down by him.

                "So." Jay whispered. "How we gonna get outta here?"

                "Hmm, no weapons, a guard, and electric bars... your plan first." Dive said.

Jay sighed.

                "Worry not." Grin mused. "I am certain our friends are devising a plan of rescue as we speak."

                "Yeah!" Nosedive suddenly remembered. "I saw Zelda outside the ship!"

                "Aw so that's why you tried to stall them." Jay said.

                "Yeah... too bad it didn't work." Dive rubbed his head again.

                "So we know at least Zel's out there..." Grin said. "And she's got her com. Wildwing and Kay must know about this."

                "I'm suprised Kay didn't send in reinforcements ya know?" Jay said. "I mean, MIB's no backyard operation."

                "Neither is this." Grin swiveled his head towards him. "The less lives this fight puts in danger, the better."

                "Huh, tell that the Jay man." Dive snarled from around Grin's shoulder.

Jay scoffed at him lightly in reply. Conversation ebbed quickly. The three sat together in silence again. Jay felt as bored as he did when those two Ducks were out! He looked at the guard outside to see him checking his wrist com. Slowly, he shouldered his staff and walked out of sight. Jay wondered to himself. What was that about?

 

                The metal was cold at his back. There was a decidedly added chill to the night around here. Duke shivered a bit and hugged himself as he crouched next to the ship. He had to be totally silent. A patrol could come by any second. Duke glanced down to his left, to see Zelda lying in the leaves beside him. For the moment, she seemed to be napping. Well, he supposed she'd be used to all this cold, seeing as she lived only a few miles away. Slowly Duke began to think to himself. It was strange that he hadn't seen any of her kind. No snapped branches, no loose feathers, not even an old paw print. Could it be that they could have known about the aliens? And why didn't Zelda seem worried about her kind? Suddenly, his com clicked. Zelda awoke with a start.

                "Patrol coming your way Duke!" Mallory whispered on the other end.

                "Gotcha. How many?"

                "5 at least.. I can't see straight." Mallory was frustrated.

                "It's okay, we'll handle them." Duke closed his com and stood quickly.

Zelda was already sniffing around in the bushes. Suddenly she stopped. "In here!" she whispered. Duke looked down and saw a spot of black about five feet wide in the ground.

"It's a natural foxhole. Get in, they're coming!" Zelda ushered him in quickly, and then jumped in beside him. She reached out and pulled the branches of the bushes back over her.

In the pitch black beside her, Duke clicked something in on his wrist. He froze in his place as the sound of footsteps thudded gently off of the earth above. The patrol. He tried to see through the branches, but couldn't. Listening, he could hear them walk closer and closer, and then they stopped. Duke became worried. Did they see them? He suddenly heard one talking lowly.

                "All clear at point C, heading to point D now." It was a guard, he must have been talking over a com.

 Duke waited a few seconds, and then the patrol started walking again. He grinned. Now came the fun part.

 

                The lion brushed a lock of his mane out of his face. He looked over to his lieutenant on his right. The equally burly and armored lion nodded back to him and signaled a troop to the ready. Crouching low in the night, they hussled off into the woods, following him.

Kazor stayed with the other half of his rebels. "That's the first branch out. And now for us."

                "Duke and Zelda have just spotted the patrollers, it should be easy for them to take them out and then meet with us." Mallory added, Tanya at her side.

                "Then let's not waste any time." Kazor shouldered a large disetegration gun. "Troop 2, move out!" A pack of about 30 rebels suddenly appeared from the foliage, and ran off into the night. Kazor suddenly joined up the run beside them.

Mallory scrambled to keep up, drawing her launcher. "Who’da thought, huh?" she panted as she ran. "That we'd meet again... like this...."

                "Not I." Kazor admitted. "It is nice to have you back fighting again. But I did never think it would be like this. The rebels are a determined band... but we are small."

                "So are we.... compared to Dragaunus's forces... You'd be surprised." Mallory said. "Persistence counts for a lot."

                "Well, let's hope we're a lot more than persistent tonight." Kazor ran ahead of her.

 

                The smoke puck created the chaos Duke wished it would. He heard the guards yelling, scrambling. Duke frowned, they were making too much noise! Duke tapped Zelda and they both sprung from the foxhole, leaping into the smoke. Duke seized a guard by the wrist and spun him around, slamming him into a treetrunk. Coughing, he went after another. Two down... he looked over to see Zelda smack the daylights out of another guard with her tail, and the fourth and fifth had run into each other in the chaos and now lay on the ground. The smoke faded quickly.

                "Woohoo, I'll never get tired of that." Zelda dusted her paws off as she leapt onto Duke's shoulder.

Duke smiled and coughed. "Come in Mallory." Duke lifted his com.

                "Mallory here, you guys okay?"

                "Never been better sweetheart. This patrol's down."

                "Excellent. Kazor's almost got his first squad in position. We're with the second one. I say we're 5 minutes or so from ground zero."

                "Got that. We'll move towards the doors and wait for you there."

                "Hang on a sec.... Kazor suggests you go in ahead of us, when the first squad strikes. Try and armor yourselves, we'll play backup."

                "Whatever you say Mal. What about Wildwing?"

                "I'll relay our plans to him in a second."

                "Alright then, over and out."

Zelda clicked her teeth. "So she wants us to sneak in?"

Duke ripped the shoulder armor off of a fallen guard and fitted it on himself. "Yup. It's not gonna be easy either." Duke shook his head.

Zelda started walking again. The entrance wasn't too far off.

 

                Kazor checked his weapon as he ran, putting his laser on full power. This time, he was playing for keeps. He wanted to find emperor Charg and punch him right between the eyes, once and for all. He mentally closed his eyes, leaving behind the whispered orders of his troops and the crunching of the leaves in the cold night. He ran over injustice after injustice that he had to deliver at the whim of that slug monster. He ran over the game Charg has played with him the whole time he had served as the Emperor's personal guard. He opened his eyes again to see his rebels running ahead of him, Mallory at his heels. This time, those injustices would be avenged. He looked at his wrist com to see that his first set of troops were in position. "Troop 2 halt!" he called sharply into the night. The entire band of about thirty rebels stopped in their tracks.

Tanya nearly bumped into him, panting. "What now?" she asked.

"Now all we have to do is wait for the first attack. Then, we'll give Charg the surprise of his life." Mallory nodded, and opened her com again." You catch all that Wing?"

                "Every detail Mallory." Wildwing responded. "We've got our end of the bargain on it's way."

                "Are you sure it's going to be on time?" she asked. "Kazor here isn't set for tardiness."

                "They'll be there alright." This time Kay responded in the same dull, grim voice. "Tell the Alterian he has my word on it."

Mallory nodded and closed the connection.

               

To be continued.....