Shared Enemies, part 2

Written by Zelda

 

                Donatello kept clicking the keys with a buzzing kind of urgency. On he computer screen, the view shifted. The green lines of the city streets shuffled around slowly.

                "With our eye in the sky, we can locate Raph in no time." he explained.

                "You have a satellite too?" Tanya asked, rather impressed.

                "It's been pre-programmed to locate our own separate signals..." Don said, still clicking away. Raph had to be around somewhere. Venus sat down on a nearby couch and sighed. Wildwing was dully flipping channels on the TV near her.

                "Worried?" he asked.

                "It was my fall, I should never have left him there, or Zelda alone to protect him."

                "That's "fault" Venus, and don't worry too much. You don't know Zelda. She'd never let anything touch one of her teammates." Wildwing tried to reassure her. He knew what he said to be a bit of a fact. But he wasn't sure what to expect from the Dragon Lord. Leonardo paced about the floor nervously. Splinter sat pondering at the table.

                "Indeed this is a drastic situation. We must find Raphael as soon as possible, and Zelda as well."

                "I'm working as fast as I can Splinter." Don complained, still clicking away.

                "But what will that overgrown salamander do to them?" Nosedive asked, rubbing a bruised shoulder.

                "The Rank have a long-standing belief that they can gain our 'mutant powers'.... by eating us." Leo started.

                "Eating you?" Mallory said, disgusted and surprised.

                "That's right. If we don't hurry, Raph'll be... dragon chow!" wailed Mike. Wildwing frowned deeper now. This was indeed a problem.

 

                Zelda stood staring. She knew that the Dragon Lord was still watching her, still standing somewhere in the room. She wanted to move, but the pain along her back wouldn't let her anymore. It seemed as if it were leeching into her veins, pumping though her blood and feeding slowly into every part of her body. Slowly, Raph started to stir below her. She looked down. Maybe this time he would wake up. She watched his eyes carefully as they opened halfway. Raph spat out a curse and groaned. The Dragon Lord proved his presence again as he growled, as if he were savoring the sound in the air. Zelda nuzzled her friend gently, silently.

                "That dragon jerk..." Raph muttered. "Zel... where... where are we?"

                "Shhh...." she whispered sharply in his ear. Raph suddenly realized where he was. He growled and tried to roll up, but suddenly snarled in pain and flattened out again. The Dragon Lord suddenly erupted into laughter.

                "What a treat." he breathed. "Charbroiled turtle... with a possible entree of dragon as well!" he grinned.

                "Kiss my shell you filthy lizard." Raph spat, still trying to grit out the pain.

                "I'd much rather crack it!" the dragon roared. "And that will happen soon enough!" With a swish of the cape and a click, he exited the room, a sudden beam of light washing into the room from beyond the door. Then, he was gone.

 

                Raph immediately rolled over and grunted as soon as the door had closed. Zelda staggered to her feet again and tried to calm him.

                "What... what happened to the others?" he asked.

                "I don't know Raph." Zelda sighed. "How bad is it?"

                "Bad enough." he grunted, his voice cracking under the pain.

                "Please just relax... the others'll come, you know that." she pleaded with him.

                "Well they'd better get their shells... and feathers over here fast." he breathed heavily. "I just don't want to end up on Dragon Lord's plate."

 

                "I could swear, Dragon Lord's almost as bad as Dragaunus." Mallory sighed, watching as Donatello still was wracking his brains over the computer.

                "Dragaunus?" Venus asked. Splinter supported himself with his staff as he stood up.

                "Zelda told me a little about your enemy..." he started.

                "Dragaunus is the last of the Saurian Overlords." Wildwing explained with a sigh. "He broke out of his prison in dimensional limbo and destroyed our planet. We chased him through dimensions...." He paused for a moment. Grin raised his head and wondered. Wildwing could never forget the fate of his dear best friend. Grin sighed. "And we ended up here." Wildwing finally finished.

                "Huh, two lizard enemies?" Michelangelo grinned.

                "Guess we're pretty lucky the 'evil gene' skipped Zelda's species." Nosedive joked back.

                "I found them!" Donatello yelled suddenly, standing up.

                "Where?" Leo asked.         

                "They're in the dragon's lair!"

                "You didn't look there in the FIRST PLACE?!?!" Venus asked him.

                "I... I thought they would have tried to secret them away...." Don backed up.

                "I thought they might have too." Wildwing said. "But come on, where is this lair?"

                "It's heavily guarded.... follow us and we'll lead you to it!" Leonardo said, already heading up the ladder to the sewer above.

 

                The old building seemed like quite an obvious place for an evil mastermind's headquarters. As the Migrator pulled up in an alley beside it, Duke looked up at the gray tower cautiously. Man, if the Raptor were half as detectable, or stationary as this, Dragaunus would have been history a long time ago! Suddenly, Duke got a sick feeling in his stomach as he realized why the Turtles probably hadn't been able to shake the Dragon Lord off: if he had the power to occupy such an obvious base, and defend it... Duke shook his head and stepped out with the others. The Turtles were already huddling, planning out a way in.

                "The best way in is through the top." Donatello informed the group. "And we should proceed in from the west."

                "The top?" Mallory asked. "How are we gonna get up there?" Michelangelo grinned as Don raised a large gun in his hands. He fired it, and a grappling hook went racing up into the sky with a puff of smoke. It disappeared over the top and caught on something.

                "Certified Turtlefied." Don grinned, and started to climb. Leo and Mike took two grappling hooks on rope out of the back of the Hummer, and flung them up as well. Duke raised his arm, and fired his grappling puck. The others shrugged collectively, grabbed the ropes, and started proceeding up.

 

                Wildwing's arms ached as he finally threw himself over the top of the building. He must have gone up more than twenty stories!

                "Next time." Nosedive pointed to Donatello. "We take the elevator." Leo put his finger to his lips to silence him.

                "This place is probably crawling with guards!" he hissed. Crouching on the gravel coated roof, the four Turtles and six Ducks froze and listened. Nothing. Slowly, Duke crept up and peered over an air conditioner. Still nothing. The roof was in plain view, but nobody was there.

                "It's all clear." he whispered behind him. Leo frowned and stood up beside him.

                "This is weird Leo, I don't like it." Don frowned. Grimly, Leo drew his sword and proceeded to another structure on the roof. It looked like a door.

 

                Zelda shoved her snout farther through the bars. Raph kicked again, feebly. She snarled at the dragons who were carrying him away.

                "Come on you stinkin' dragons, lemme go before I shell shock ya!" Raph spat. The dragons merely growled and tightened their grip on his arms, dragging him on his back, out of the room. Zelda howled angrily. The dragons acted like they never heard her. They were through the doorframe now, Raphael still yelling and fighting their grasp. Zelda withdrew her snout from between the bars and backed up, suddenly charging and slamming full on into the side of the cage. Nothing. She spun around and retreated again, ramming into the bars with her side. Suddenly, Wick popped up next to her, cackling evilly and sticking his thin snout through the bars at her.

                "Ahhhahahaha. Look who can't get out!" he teased in his usual high and whiny voice. Zelda drew up in fury, and struck. Wick leapt away from the cage, barely avoiding Zelda's claws. "Oooh, a feisty little one aren't you?" he laughed, losing none of his demeanor. "Maybe we'll have you for dessert!" With that, the door slammed, and blackness reclaimed the room.

 

                Tanya glanced about nervously. High in the rafters of the building, perched like a rather uncomfortable cat, she could see the entirety of the floor below. It was actually two floors. The one closest to her was a simple floor, with a wood surface. There were patches of hay here and there. But the floor did not extend beyond about five feet from the wall before it ended, and dropped down to the next floor. The next floor was surfaced with concrete. The floor was black in most places. Tanya could see the Dragon Lord's throne on one end of the rectangular room. Not too far from that, a hallway led off beyond view. But the room was silent. Empty.

                "What the heck is going on?" Nosedive whispered to Venus, who shrugged.

                "No guards, nothing. I REALLY don't like this." Don frowned. Duke dropped silently to the loft floor and started to look around again. Slowly, the others lowered themselves too. Mike crept onto the lower floor. He looked up and shrugged. Nobody was there either! Leo shook his head as he lead the others down. Suddenly, they all froze, rigid as a loud but blotted out roar faded into the room.

                "Zelda?" Wildwing questioned.

                "Down here!" Grin said, pointing to the hall.

 

                The door was kicked open, a great rectangular beam of light slitting into the black room. They could see Zelda in plain view, in a suspended cage.

                "Get out of here!" she cried in urgent despair. "It's a--" suddenly, dragon warriors poured out of the black room, toppling the tightly packed Ducks and Turtles over easily. "Trap." Zelda trailed off.

 

                Mallory rolled up quickly and was on her feet, launcher drawn and firing. Dragons still poured out of the room. There were so many of them! Immediately she lost track of the others, swept away in a cloud of black. She looked behind her and suddenly jumped back, crouching as she braced her feet against a wall. With a powerful launch and a

                "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaa!" she flew forwards with a flying kick, knocking dragons left and right like bowling pins as she flew through the doorway. In the semi-darkness, she swung around, firing randomly, as the dragons picked themselves up and mostly exited. She had soon lay waste to those who didn't. "Stand back Zel!" she yelled to the dragon in the cage. With a twist of her launcher, she brought out her explosive pucks, and fired one. As the smoke cleared from the mangled cage bars, Zelda came thought the hole. Mallory helped her down. "Jeez you look beat Zel." she started.

                "I'm fine!" she snorted, shaking herself.

                "You know where they took Raph?"

                "No, but follow me!" Zelda yelled, as she leapt up and charged out of the room, into the swirling black again.

 

                Leo rammed his shoulder full on into the door, shoving it open despite pressure on the other side from the dragons. He kept plowing his way through a blockade of dragons about five deep, holding his sword in front of him like a rhinoceros horn. He rammed his way through and finally stood back up. The dragons, curiously, held their positions at the door, and didn't attack him. Leo frowned. Something weird was going on here. This was only reaffirmed by the howling laugh of the Dragon Lord, not too far away. Leo spun around to face him. He gasped upon seeing Raph, chained and sitting limply in a white bathtub, Wick shaking salt and pepper over him happily. The Dragon Lord himself stood on the shallow steps behind the tub, grinning.

                "You foolish Turtle!" the Dragon Lord howled. "Come to follow your friend to his grave?"

                "I'd sooner send you to yours!" Leo yelled, raising his sword in a ninja fashion.

                "Not another step." tisked the dragon. He walked over and placed his own sword right against Raphael's bare neck. "Or the next time you see your friend, they'll be nothing left but a few stray bones!" Leo froze. To risk the Dragon Lord's temper might be the death of Raph. Much as he hated it, he was trapped. Leo relaxed slowly and dropped his sword to the floor in dejection. The Dragon Lord's eyes burned red with malicious glee. "Now that's much better." He grinned. A dragon came up and took Leo's sword. "Now I can kill the both of you." Leo gasped. He had fallen for another stupid trap! Now the Dragon Lord raised his sword high above his head, preparing to strike Raph. It seemed as if there was nothing Leo could do. He closed his eyes.

 

                Suddenly there was a loud clang. Something hit the floor close to Leo, the turtle opening his eyes just in time to see a blue flash whiz past. The Dragon Lord's samurai sword went spinning away across the floor. Leo looked up in surprise to see Mallory hanging from the rafters overhead, blowing the smoke off of her launcher. Zelda howled and swooped down, tackling the dragon and knocking him squarely away from Raph. Leo scooped up his sword and dove in with Zelda. But suddenly a wall of dragon warriors held him back. Leo growled and stepped back, lowering his sword in preparation to strike.

 

                Wildwing knew the fight was there the moment he ran past the room. The goalie skidded to a halt, fought back through a barricade of dragons, and joined the three in the room where they were fighting. Finding a quick break, he opened his com.

                "Ducks! Meet up in the long room in the hall, we need backup!" he ordered, and barely had time to shut his com before he was tackled.

 

                Donatello was quick to assess the situation as he entered the room. And he certainly didn't want to be in the Dragon Lord's shoes right now. His forces lay mostly on the ground and out of commission. And those that didn't were quickly being put in their place. But Don was worried. He wanted to find Raph. He thought he had seen Zelda about the clamor, so that was a hopeful sign.

                "Donatello!" Tanya called across the room. Don spotted her quickly and ran up to her. "I found Raph! Help me to get him free while the others are holding the dragons off!" she told him quickly. The other Ducks and Turtles were creating a ring of protection around something, and all the dragons were vying to get through. Tanya blasted her way through the black creatures, Don following close behind. She knelt beside Raph, still chained in the tub. She tapped at her Omnitool to bring out her sonic metal cutter.

                "Wow, some gadet you got there." Don said, impressed.

                "Thanks." Tanya smiled. "I made it myself. Now I'll cut the chains, get that lock off of him, will you?" There was a large and heavy lock that held Raph's chains together on the side of the tub.

                "No problemo!" Don said, and shoved his staff into the loop of metal. He pulled and pushed, wrenching the metal back and forth. Finally, the lock hinged open, and Don pitched it away, hitting a dragon square in the forehead. "Got it!" He stood up to see Tanya gently and carefully cutting through each chain. She finally withdrew her Omnitool and pulled the chains off of him. Raph was awake and moving, just groggily and slowly.

                "Easy Rapheal, we'll get you out of here." Tanya told him. They gently helped him up, she and Don each supporting an arm in a type of fireman's carry. They plowed forward until they were all safely out of the room. Zelda landed beside them, panting.

                "What's up?" Don asked.

                "The dragons are falling back." she gasped, catching her breath. "How is he?"

                "I'll be fine." Raph spat. Zelda smiled and turned as a good deal of the team came up behind them.

                "Let's get outta here!" Wildwing ordered. The team and the Turtles turned and flocked en masse for the stairwell exit. Grin punched the door open with one swat, and they started quickly down. As they neared a landing, a huge flume of fire burst from the ground. The Dragon Lord reappeared for one more go at it.

                "You think you're going to get away you foolish beasts?" he howled. "You Turtles already have one foot in the grave!"

                "Would it happen to be this foot?" Michelangelo yelled back. He leapt over Nosedive's head, spun in the air, and landed a kick flat on the dragon's chest. The creature flew backwards and hit the wall, sinking down and disappearing magically into the floor. Mike cheered and slapped hands with Mallory and Dive. They continued quickly out of the building, and reached their vehicles outside. Raph was lain in the trunk of the Hummer. Zelda quickly hopped up to have a look at him.

                "I tell ya Zelda I'm fine!" he said.

                "You certainly don't look it to me." Venus laughed behind him. Leo drew Wildwing aside quickly.

                "Look Wildwing, if I were you, I'd collect my team and split back for Anaheim.

                "What?" replied Wildwing. "And leave you here now? Why?"

                "You've never seen the Dragon Lord when he gets mad." Leo smirked. "He's likely to overturn the whole city within a half-mile radius looking for us. Trust me, Raph's in good hands. Our headquarters is miles from here."

                "Are you sure? You don't want us to come back with you?"

                "No offense, but it's hard to stay hidden in the sewers..." Leo started. Wildwing realized his point.

                "Very well, I'll round mine up." he said, and shook the Turtle's hand.

               

                Nosedive leaned against the Migrator, next to Mike and Mallory who were sitting on the ground.

                "Man, I've been waiting to get a shot at old Lizard Breath like that for a long time." he said proudly.

                "Yeah man, that whaled." Nosedive said.

                "How on earth did you learn to flip like that? It can't be all too easy for a turtle." Mallory asked.

                "We were trained to be ninjas ever since we were mutated." Mike said. "I guess we've just sorta perfected it..."

                "Perfected it my shell." Leo peeked around the corner. "Come on Mike, we're moving out." Mike got up quickly. Dive and Mallory followed. "You two can stay here, Wildwing's rounding up the rest of you."

                "We're splitting?" Mallory asked. "Already?" Suddenly, a booming voice rumbled out from the building before them.

                "WIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCKKKKKK!"

                "Huh, that's our cue." Mike grinned and ran off. "And I'VE got the better comics Dive!"

                "Do not!" the duck cried back.

                "Do too!" Nosedive was about to run after the Turtle when Wildwing grabbed him.

                "Come on Dive, we're outta here." he laughed. The team was already in the Migrator and waiting as the Turtles rolled off quickly. Zelda was the last up the hatch.

                "Still worried?" Tanya asked.

                "They'll take care of him." Zelda smiled, as the Migrator started up and pulled off. "It was just so nice to see them again."

                "Zelda." Duke said. "You nearly got yourself killed!" The dragon laughed.

                "Yeah, yeah that's true." she said. "I suppose it's nothing short of the norm with them."

 

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!