The Shockwave, Part 2

Written by Zelda

 

                He cringed as he felt it, bracing his legs, his hand on the back of the Ready Room chair. He almost wanted to close his eyes, but was watching Drake 1's screen swing gently back and forth. The earth under him was swaying in unison, vibrating.

                "Not again..." he heard Tanya whisper, fear obvious in her voice. There was a rattling from somewhere behind the supercomputer, and Wildwing's hand moved to Tanya's shoulder, pulling her up.

                "Come on, we've gotta get out of here..."

                Tanya stood quickly, backing away from the looming screen. If it fell--- "The door frame." she pointed, and they both moved quickly to the side, opening the double doors and standing helplessly in between the much bigger Ready Room and the much smaller hallway.

                Wildwing was tensing by the second, thinking about the others. He hoped no damage was being done, he couldn't hear anything falling. Yet. There was a rising sizzle noise from Drake 1, a popping, and a thin smoke drifted from the back of the huge mainframe.

                Tanya frowned as the huge machine whirred. "I've gotta turn it off." she looked up to her leader.

                "Are you crazy? You can't go out there." he frowned.

                "It could explode Wing, it would destroy this whole floor!"

                Wildwing processed this pretty quickly, and raised his ice shield over her head. "Let's be careful then."

                They ran out together, dashing to the console, and Tanya was quick at the keyboard to put in the needed codes to shut the supercomputer down. It relented, silencing almost gratefully, the monitor going black. But as the two turned back from the door, their surefootedness returned as the ground quieted. Was it over this quickly?

                "Impossible..." Tanya drew in a breath, as if still expecting something. "That was too powerful a quake to last such a short time..."

                "But it's artificial." Wildwing reminded. He put away his shield and opened his com. "Report in Ducks."

                "I'm fine here Wing." Duke checked in. "Just shaken up."

                "Thanks for the pun." Wildwing frowned.

                "You got a mess in the lab, Tanya." Mallory popped up on his com's screen. "Glass everywhere."    Tanya smacked her forehead and mumbled something under her breath.

                "All is in order here." Grin nodded quietly. "These vibes are strange."

                "Dive?" Wildwing asked nervously.

                "I'm here bro, don't worry about Zel either, I wasn't ten feet away from the infirmary, sheesh!"           Relieved, Wildwing smiled. "Good to hear, all of you. Meet us up in the Ready Room." He shut his com and looked over to Tanya, who had since rebooted the computer. "Is that a good idea?"

                "I'm just running a system diagnostic." she shook him off. "Because if that noise came from where I thought it did, we've got another big problem."

                Wildwing sighed and looked at the ceiling. "I'm really getting tired of this."

 

                A claw scraped over his leathery chin. Dragaunus raised a yellowing talon and scratched again, pondering.

                "Do you think we were successful, M'Lord?" Wraith asked slowly.

                Dragaunus kept staring for a moment, as if Wraith weren't even there. "Only one way to find out, as they say." His footfalls were heavy on the floor of the Raptor as he stalked to the console of the control room. He pressed a few buttons, checked a few numbers, and then raised his wrist com. "Anything?" he asked.

                Siege's face appeared on the other end of the line, etched in static. "Nothin, not so much as a peep." he shook his head and grinned. "I think we got 'em."

                Again, the Saurian Overlord paused, deep in thought.

                Siege blinked at him. "So, what now?"

                "Give me a moment, you peon." Draguanus snapped coldly at him, his eyes still shut in concentration. "None of these calculations are easy. The dynamics have to be just right. If we did fail, the Ducks know where we are. Wait five minutes. Any activity, pull out and contact me, we can always try this again." He shut his com, and with a flutter of purple robes, Dragaunus was pacing back along the floor. It required patience, this plan, and that was never something he had in spades. But it was a devious way to go, and an obvious one. The Ducks had been too shortsighted to see that, and the dragon as well, which almost surprised him. The topography, the fault lines, the geology of the whole area had the Ducks in a possible death trap, and Dragaunus had made sure to construct it well. The only problem was that it required patience. Wraith was the one for patience, not him. It was a shame that he was so narrow-minded. Chameleon was either too frightened or too stupid to be able to hold much of a scheme in his head. And Siege was a joke for constructive thought, there was too much feral instinct and bloodlust crowding his tiny brain. But one-sided as they were, he played his henchmen like cards. He was the one who had all of their traits combined in him. He had the brains, the physical force, and the bloodline to lead. But most importantly, he had the driving rage, the brooding, the obsession. That was why he had been able to fight the Ducks to a standstill, time after time. But there would be a time when he would push them over the edge. And their end would be deviously simple. Dragaunus sighed, and admitted that he had a delicious wait ahead of him.

 

                "Now what?" Mallory threw up her hands angrily. "Of all the things that had to get busted..."

                "Be glad it wasn't your head." Duke cut in quietly. The verbal check invoked a stare from the younger Duck, and Duke stared right back, blankly. It was enough to settle his winger back into line. He would expect this kind of unchanneled frustration from Nosedive, but it had been a long day.

                "Well Mal's got a point, this isn't a good thing." Tanya turned around. "Without our teleportation detectors, we won't be able to track the Saurians. One more advantage lost... if we had any to begin with."

                "What I'm concerned about is why." Wildwing shrugged. "That quake must have lasted twenty seconds at most, and it was pretty strong. Why would the Saurians intentionally cut things short?"

                As if to serve as an answer, there was a thud above them.

                "Was that from the stadium?" Grin asked.

                Duke shook his head, the Pond conducted sound very well.

                "The roof..." Grin muttered in agreement.

                Mallory suddenly spun around. "Tanya, if our teleportation detectors are down, aren't our shields down too!?"

                Tanya's helpless realization made her stomach drop, and those of her teammates followed shortly.   And without hesitation, the shaking began again.

 

                She had barely heard the noise, trying to drift off into some kind of sleep. In fact, she had just gone to lay her head back on the pillow, when some sensation gripped her, and moments later, the earth convulsed with her quickened heartbeat. Zelda was thrown from the Medicom bed as the ground tilted, rising up in a fluid wave and kicking her away. She hit the ground and rolled, every injured part of her body protesting loudly. Lights flickered, and from somewhere there was the sound of shattering glass. Panicked and alone, Zelda latched her claws into the floor and froze, looking around her as cabinets were shaken empty. There was a creaking noise, and she barely had time to shove herself away before her bed came crashing down as well, slamming inches from her. Somehow, despite the heaving ground and her broken leg, she managed to gain her feet and limp under a lab table. It was bolted down. There was a snap, and track lighting came down before her, glass spraying everywhere. Zelda curled up against the wall, spreading her wings over her like a shield, and praying they would function as one.

 

                Chaos really took over as the light went out. Things came hailing down, echoing all around them, and in the Ready Room as well. The team scattered, tripping over each other, yelling out as the lights came smashing down, as Drake 1's workings squealed in malfunction. There was a loud, metallic tearing, a creaking, and then something very big fell.

                Duke was jolted as it hit the ground, and he recognized Grin's sharp cry. He stopped in his tracks, searching in the abject blackness.

                "Grin?" He called out.

                The big Duck groaned, in as much pain as frustration, and there was a metallic creaking again.          In his mind, piecing together the thousands of sounds, he could almost see what was going on. He had been trained to do that, and despite the unsteady ground, he walked forwards, boots crunching on glass, hands out until they met up with some large piece of metal. Dusty and wrinkled, Duke quickly realized it was a chunk of the ventilation duct. A big chunk. Another snarl from Grin and Duke put two and two together, finding the big defenseman in a few footsteps and kneeling beside him. "You okay?"

                "At least it's not... crushing my aura.." he growled, pushing against the duct above him.

                As Duke joined, the emergency lights flickered on, dim but red, and he could see the crumpled metal clearly.

                "Duke! What happened?!" Mallory was pushing as well, on the other side of Grin.

                "Fell on him! Let's get it off!" He nodded, and all three of them pushed together, the hollow rectangle of metal creaking as it tipped on its side. The two helped Grin to his feet, which was none to easy as the ground buckled under them again.

                "I'm okay." he assured them, rubbing his ribs gingerly. "We must get to safety."

                "Wrong!" Wildwing called, punching a door open and ushering the team to join him. "We've gotta get to the roof!" As more bits of lighting and pieces of equipment came shaking loose, the team fled into the hallway, bathed in a blood red light. "Listen." Wildwing paused to catch his breath. "The Saurians are on the roof with the last shockwave, I can see them!"

                "This place is gonna fall apart Wildwing!" Tanya gasped. "What if we can't stop the machine in time? What about Zelda?"

                Their coms crackled.

                "--Go-----orry about--me"

                "Zelda?" Nosedive was amazed that she had found a com in the mess.   

                "--I---get out--join you."

                Glass was smashing in the background.

                "Zelda you're breaking up, we're coming for you." Wildwing eased.

                "No--ime!" she snarled. "Get out---else you'll---ll be killed!"

                "We can't leave you." Grin protested.

                "I'll join--ou up--ere!" she snapped. "No ti---to argue!"

                The emergency lights started to flicker out.

                "We've got no choice." Wildwing ruled, an obvious tinge of regret in his voice. "If we can't stop the Saurians now, we may all be destroyed if this place goes up. Now all of you, come on!" He turned without another word and went charging for the stairs.

                A violent ripple through the ground set the rest of the team after him.

 

                For the first time since this whole mess started, Tanya was really starting to get scared. There was so little time to rationalize, so little time to think as the Pond was being shaken from its hinges and thrown down around her, piece by piece. All she could do was keep in line with the others, tearing up the stairs, driven half by fear and half by determination to save the crumbling arena. Drake 1 surely lay in smoldering pieces on the Ready Room floor by now. Thank goodness they were all in the stairwell, there was nothing to fall, it was such a tight space of emergency lights and concrete. But their feet were splashing in something, she could hear it. Seconds later, charging around a landing, water sprayed down on her in a wide fan. A pipe must have cracked! The earth lurched violently, and Tanya couldn't grip the railing in time. She slid over, behind Mallory, and hit the wall.

                "Tanya, you okay?" Mallory's hand gripped hers and pulled her back up.

                "Yeah, keep going!" She fought the stars that rattled around in her head for a moment, and continued running. The ground rocked back into place, ramming her ribs into the railing on her right.              There was a metallic thud as Wildwing pushed his way through a pair of doors at the top of the flight, and the team piled out behind him to find the arena ringing out before them. Lights were crashing down everywhere, splintering into glass and wire. The boards themselves were swaying, windows were breaking up in the luxury boxes and the press rooms. They cast a very doubtful glance up to the Jumbotron, and then wheeled about for the stairs again.          

                "We've gotta get to the roof..." Wildwing was breathing heavily with all of this climbing. "Everyone be ready for a fight!" But going up to the roof meant a trek across.... Wildwing shoved open another door, and it was before them, terrible and high, swaying like an untrustworthy rope bridge across a chasm in the jungle. Only the catwalk was of dusty steel, and hundreds of feet below them was a dark, shattered field of ice. Even the leader in DuCaine's Mask paused, afraid.

                "You think it's safe Tanya?" Duke asked.

                Tanya lay a hand on the side of the railing, feeling it sway. "It's not going to get any safer..."

                Another light sparked and fell from the ceiling, plummeting right past them.

                "Single file." Wildwing ordered. "And if anything snaps, just keep running. You're last, Grin." With a nod from the big Duck, Wildwing stepped out onto the violently shaking catwalk, and broke into a sprint.

 

                Grin merely watched as his teammates left his side, one by one, packed as close as they could get. And within second he was off with them, footfalls thundering unwillingly against the metal,  the supports that held it up shaking. The whole Pond lurched, the ice cracking underneath. A fall would kill them for sure. Grin knew he had to keep his concentration, knew he had to complete that mad dash across the length of the stadium. But his mind couldn't help wandering, one of his teammates was still trapped in the bowels of the collapsing arena. Or was she? Grin couldn't muster the state of mind to search for her. He was shaken back to the present by a violent noise, the pinging snaps of metal. He glanced ahead of him, to his left, to see one of the support cables unwinding, snapping and falling away like a metal rope. Others saw it too, not half the team was past the point! But before anyone could even yell out, the cable was swinging free of its hold, and the catwalk dropped, his stomach going with it, tilting violently to the left and down. Grin flailed out his arms, grabbing the handrail to his right. He felt a hard thunk as most of his teammates hit the other railing, sliding down.

                Nosedive's legs kicked in the open air, the railing against his stomach being the only thing that kept him from falling to the ice. He scrambled quickly back up, shoving against the railing.

                Grin tried to maintain a foothold with the radically dipping catwalk, but the dip leveled out further on, as soon as the next support cable could be reached.

                "Move it Ducks, before these other cables go!" Wildwing turned back and offered a hand out to the closest teammates, pulling them to more level ground.

                Grin shifted, hand-over-hand, moving to join them at an agonizingly slow pace. More lights fell, and the earth lurched again. He was grateful when the catwalk leveled out enough for him to run again, and he did as soon as he could. But there was more snapping, more ropes giving way. It was only a matter of time before the entire catwalk went, with all of their weight on it. Grin could only continue running, buckling back in a moment of panic as the catwalk sagged behind him, this time to the right. Another rope had snapped! But they were in sight of the end, and the door to the roof. Grin thankfully left the shaky catwalk, for the slightly less shaky concrete platform.

                Wildwing's eyes cast over them with an uncertain glance. "Everyone still in one piece?" he gasped.

                "Think so..." Mallory nodded.

                "Listen, the three henchmen are up there, Dragaunus may join us." Wildwing briefed the team. "Those who can, take on a henchman, and the rest of us try and take down that machine! The sooner the better!" The team locked and loaded their launchers amidst the sounds of crashing glass below them. "On three team!" And when Wildwing's countdown ended, he shoved open the door and was out into the light.

 

                It was obvious that the Saurians had been expecting them. Fire hailed down from everywhere. They were caught, as if they'd been herded into a pen.

                Nosedive heard the sound of his brother's shield go up as he put his back to the rest of the team, and began firing back into the blinding sunlight. Wraith was hovering somewhere up there, Dive targeted him and started blasting.

                "Where's the shockwave!?" Tanya yelled out.

                "Other side?" Mallory called back. A laser slit between them, and Mallory hit the deck.

                "No!" Wildwing ducked behind his shield. "It's here!" But he didn't have time to reach up to the Mask and direct them further. Fire was coming from everywhere, it seemed impossible that the henchmen could generate that much by themselves... unless... Wildwing frowned. "They've cloaked their drones!"

                "So that's where this fire's comin' from!" Duke snarled. He curled up and rolled to avoid another laser that streaked just over his back. But he rolled forward, away from the team's circle of protection. That was his mistake. In a matter of seconds the blasts struck him down, even before he had the chance to fully regain his feet. He collapsed back onto the roof, his jumpsuit charred right through to the skin in several places, still holding his sabre.

                Mallory reached out and grabbed him, one hand still shooting, exploding the invisible drone in front of them. She dragged him back to safety, and he staggered up with a groan, trying to press all the places that hurt.

                "This is impossible!" Nosedive snarled. "We can't even see 'em!"

                "Forget that." Wildwing yelled over his shoulder, catching another drone. "Shutting down the shockwave is our first priority!"

                "Too many of them!" Mallory argued. "We can't split up with this fire, we're pinned!"

                "Not if I can help it." Wildwing snarled, lasers snapping across his armor. "Gimme a few seconds of cover fire!" Wildwing dropped his shield, team falling in behind him, and activated the Mask. He quickly rearmed himself and pointed.

                "Twenty degrees to the right, about thirty feet away!" he ordered. "That's our hit point!"

                But as he shut his beak, the rumbling beneath them became louder, louder than the crossfire. The whole roof started to buck up and down, slowly, in waves, as if the corrugated metal were rolling on top of ocean breakers. Everyone quickly lost their balance, and panic hailed down on them like the lasers from the drones.

                Tanya staggered back up, shooting down a drone before her. "The waves are getting stronger, the whole roof'll give at this rate!"

                Grin pulled himself up and stood. "Then let us not waste any time." He lowered his head, drew in a deep breath, and charged for where Wildwing had pointed earlier.

                The drones shifted their fire to follow him.

                "All of you, come on! We may get through if all of us move!" Wildwing pulled up his younger brother and was off running after him.  It was working! They all started to pick off the drones as they stopped moving, to readjust their aim. At this rate, they would make it through to the shockwave! Even the henchmen were succumbing to the amount of fire the team was putting up.

                Grin leapt clean over a wave in the roof, reeling back to punch the invisible machine into oblivion. It had to be around here somewhere, he could most definitely feel it. But his fist met something else instead, something that grabbed his hand and crushed it without hesitation. Grin cried out as the team looked up, and a wave of green light appeared before him, towering at least two feet taller.

                Dragaunus's toothy sneer was the first to materialize, like a big, scaly Cheshire cat. He unceremoniously lifted Grin into the air by his crushed hand, waving him dauntingly. The henchmen and drones, seeing their Overlord with the upper hand, ceased fire.

                Wildwing crouched, bracing himself against the shaking roof, and snapped up his launcher. "Let him go Dragaunus!" he demanded.

                "Does it matter anymore, Wildwing?" The Overlord grinned back. "In a few more minutes, this building will be nothing but a pile of rubble, and you will all be buried within it."

                Grin snarled and swiped for Dragaunus with his good hand, but Dragaunus simply held him out farther, squeezing the captive fist until Grin was forced to recoil from the pain.

                Wildwing frowned, his options disappearing. What would he do? Either way the Pond would be destroyed, he could feel the roof giving way beneath him, slowly.

                "Dead end, featherbrain!" Dragaunus cackled. "I knew you wouldn't be able to handle the sequel." He started to lift Grin even higher, when two purple wings flashed up from behind his back.

                With a surprised yelp, Draguanus went tumbling to the roof, Grin rolling out of the way, and Zelda stumbling up on her broken leg. Draguanus flipped himself over halfway, bellowing angrily as he saw her. "You!" he declared. "Not dead yet?"

                Zelda pushed herself backward, her cast leg bumping awkwardly on the shuddering roof.   Dragaunus was quickly up, sensing that she couldn't run away. She squealed as he stalked forward, trying to organize her tangled wings. The Overlord crouched and sprung, but as his taloned feet left the ground, an explosion knocked him sideways. The shockwave! The shaking came to an abrupt halt, and the Ducks charged through what remained of the machine's skeleton, launchers smoking. Dragaunus shook the debris off of him and staggered up.

                "The game's over Dragaunus!" Wildwing yelled. "You're finished."

                Surrounded, the Overlord stomped the ground angrily with a foot.

                "Beat it featherbrain, before our security systems come back online!" Tanya declared.

                Dragaunus sneered back at her. "Don't think you've seen -or felt- the last of me, Ducks!" And with that declaration, he disappeared.

                Nosedive turned back to see the henchmen and drones gone as well! "Dude! They all just went like that? Cowards!" he laughed.

                "Eh, Lizard Lips knows by now he can't beat us in a straight fight." Duke patted his shoulder. "I'm just glad 'dis is all over with."

                Wildwing gave Grin a hand to help pull him up, and Grin took it with the one Dragaunus hadn't grabbed.

                "You okay Grin?" Tanya asked.

                "I believe so." Grin rubbed it. "I wasn't expecting that."

                "None of us were..." Zelda slurred voice was tired as she limped to the group.

                "Girl, how on Puckworld did you get outta there?" Mallory knelt down by her.

                "Carefully." she cracked a smile. "I flew... where I could... damage isn't too bad, underground."

                "Man, the stadium must be a mess!" Nosedive lamented.

                "Yeah... we'll have to get inspectors in here." Wildwing shook his head.

                "Hey, don't worry guys." Duke shrugged, stepping over a fold in the metal. "Phil knew how to take care of the insurance when we built the place, I'm sure he won't mind it now."

                "At least he's good for something." Tanya nodded with a smile.

                "Yeah, but that leaves us with the mops and brooms." Wildwing pointed back inside.

                "Awww man, do we have to!?" Dive whined. "Why didn't I have the building fall on me!"

                "Still think you're the lucky one?" Zelda sneered, and hobbled weakly to the door.

               

                The arena was almost totaled. The Jumbotron hung, swaying dangerously by just two of its four support ropes. The catwalk was a complete loss, and the team carefully took a separate set of stairs back underground. Miraculously, the Ready Room just looked shaken up. Drake 1 had suffered some more damage since the major quake began, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed. Tanya's lab and the infirmary had the worst of the damage, mostly broken glass. The bunks and galley were all in disarray, but restorable with some simple elbow grease. It was amazing, and Wildwing was increasingly thankful as he descended deeper underground, carrying Zelda back to a safer place to rest in his bunk. His own floor was littered with hockey sticks, and he stepped over them, crunching on broken glass, to set her down in her hammock.

                She blinked mildly and looked back up at him.

                "You were worried there for a sec, weren't you?" he nodded.

                Zelda shifted her gaze downward. "More than a second..." she slurred. "But it is over now. We are safe, things are rebuildable."

                "And what about you?" Wildwing asked with a smile, standing up.

                She grinned back at him. "By the time that arena's ready for show, I'll boardrun again." she promised him.

                Wildwing turned, as if to go, but then he remembered something and squatted beside her.

                "You know Zel, Dive told me about that story of yours."

                Zelda blinked her one good eye again. "Your brother." she began. "Is a gift, Wildwing."

                "You two seem to have bonded a lot lately." he nodded.

                "I guess I realized... how important he is to this team. He's not innocent anymore, Wildwing. We've been... fighting too long. But... he has not lost his energy. That energy... may have helped to bring be back... from my spiritfall."

                "He told me about what you said to him up there."

                "I don't remember much of it..." she shook her head. "But what I do... helped to change me. He is a gift, Wildwing. All of you are..."

                "I know Zel." he patted her flank gently and stood again. "I know." He crunched over the glassy floor again, and shut the door behind him as he exited his bunk. She was absolutely right. They didn't merely all have gifts, but were them. And thanks to each other, they'd get through this, and many other situations, just fine.

 

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!