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Written by Zelda
Tanya jumped up with a start as Zelda finally withdrew, having sheared through the ropes. The dragon leaned heavily against a treetrunk, spitting out shards of rope, trying to catch her breath so she could join in the fight as well. Suddenly, high over the clamor, Zelda heard a sound. A signalling whistle. Mallory's. She stood and limped off as fast as she could, bypassing the fight. She loped over to the edge of the clearing, and was about to enter the brush, when Mallory burst out of it, blood on her hands.
"What is it?" cried Zelda, alarmed.
"Duke's hurt, I left him a ways back." Mallory replied quickly, pointing off into the woods. The two nodded sharply and parted, Mallory running for the fight while Zelda dove into the bushes.
Zelda skidded to a stop as she burst into a small clearing. Duke lay with his back towards her in the middle of it, wounded side up. She limped around to face him.
"Duke? You okay?" she asked, shaking him on the shoulder gently. Duke moaned. Zelda looked down to see blood soaking his stomach. She whined and moved farther down, rearing up over the wound, using her tail to hold her weight instead of her left leg. She gently lifted Duke's hands away to reveal the wound. Filled with blood, it looked like nothing but a small tear. But Zelda knew better. Duke wouldn't be floored by a simple scratch. Slowly, she lifted up the torn clothing around the wound. Ruffling Duke's brownish grey feathers for a moment, she saw a radical discoloration in the skin. Bruising. Bad bruising. She gently pried the wound further open. Duke rolled towards her, and tried to put his hands up to make her stop. "Easy, easy Duke." Zelda said slowly. Now she could see clearly. That wound was about 4 1/2 to 5 inches deep. Zelda pleaded to the forests around her not to have that puncture screwing up Duke's internal organs. It was like a hole in Duke's side. And he was losing blood fast. She limped to his feet and gently ripped a strip of cloth off of one pant leg. She limped back and lay it over the wound. She placed her claws over the darkening cloth and pressed down firmly. Duke snarled and tried to roll again. "Stay still." Zelda muttered. As she stayed with Duke, Zelda watched the clamor beyond. Through the gaps in the brush, she could see the battle still swirling at a sickening pace. Suddenly, the bushes crackled and snapped. Zelda jumped in alarm as Wildwing skidded to a stop on his back, sliding into the clearing and rolling up quickly, shaking himself.
"What's wrong?" he asked quickly.
"Duke's been hurt bad, we gotta get him outta here now." Zelda said quickly. A laser flew inches over Wildwing's head.
"We're workin' on it!" he yelled, running back into the fight. Zelda looked back down at Duke. He was misrable. His eyes were dully shut, his hands loosely clasped over his stomach as if he were going to be sick. Now and then, he shook slightly. His beak was opened slightly, breathing shallowly. Zelda placed her tail on the cloth and lay down beside Duke. She stroked his hair back. He winced.
"Come on Duke, stay with me. You'll get through this." Zelda said gently.
"Yeah." Duke breathed, not opening his eyes. "S'not like my eye's been poked out or anything." Zelda's smile at Duke's sarcasm faded quickly. She'd never heard of Duke speak of his now absent eye. But at least he was talking. Zelda whined and lay back down. The fighting was horrible. She closed her eyes and just listened for a minute. Suddenly, there was that all-too familiar whooshing sound. Zelda's eyes flew open again as the fighting stopped. The team came trampling back to her and Duke.
"What happened?" Grin gasped.
"I saw Siege hit him twice." Mallory started.
"One was like a stab, the other was a regular hit. He's in pretty bad shape." Zelda nodded.
"Right." Wildwing said. "Let's get him out of here." Grin shouldered Duke carefully, while Zelda was scooped up by Wildwing. Quickly and warily, they headed off through the forest.
Dragaunus slammed angrily on the armrest of his chair in the Raptor's control room.
"Blasted Ducks!" he snarled. He climbed down to walk over to Siege, who lay, still unconcious, on the floor. Dragaunus seethed for a moment, then kicked Siege hard in the side. Siege groaned and rubbed his head. "At least YOU hurt one of them. Not bad." Draguanus snapped, walking away. The Chameleon hid behind Wraith as Dragaunus came towards them, muttering things under his breath. Suddenly Dragaunus stopped and turned away, walking over towards the control panels. Relived slightly, Wraith stepped forwards, trying to hide his still shaking knees.
"Lord... we have."
"WHAT?" Draguanus interrupted, spinning around with smoke curling from his nostrils. Suddenly, he heard a high squeak, and a tiny robot leapt up onto his shoulder.
"We have another cage of those robots." Wraith finished. Dragaunus grinned.
Grin heaved himself up into the Migrator through the back hatch. Still supporting Duke on his shoulder, he went over to a panel of buttons on the wall and pounded it. Nothing happened. Slightly frustrated, he tried pounding it again. Tanya came up behind him and sighed. She pushed him away, pressing a small green button on the panel. A sheet of metal in the floor receeded, and a cot rose up. Grin sighed and placed Duke down on it. He collapsed on the bed and lay still.
"Okay guys." said Wildwing, about to get in himself. "Let's......" Suddenly, something scrabbled up his shoulder and bit into the base of his neck. He yelled in pain and wrenched backwards, dropping Zelda. The purple dragon hit the ground and rolled quickly away, almost underneath the Migrator. She was about to get up, when she was slammed down by about 5 squeaking little creatures. The robots.
Duke moved like a sloth. He didn't open his eyes as he raised an arm slightly. Suddenly, he felt something jumping up, clamping onto the edge of his shoulder blade. For a few seconds, he almost didn't feel any pain. Grin ran forwards and smacked the robot gently off of Duke. It rolled away, jumped up, and sprang for Grin again. Pitting himself between Duke and the ramp to the Migrator, Grin watched as more creatures came running at him.
Siege adjusted the ice pack on his head grumpily, watching the little robots on the Raptor's viewing screen. As The Chameleon walked by him, he thought he noticed something.
"Gimme that controller." he said, ripping the control for the robots out of The Chameleon's hands. As he stared at the remote, he groaned.
"You idiot!" he yelled. "That thing's not set on a high enough attack level mode! If those robots aren't set to kill, the Ducks'll trash 'em in no time!"
"So I'll switch it already." The Chameleon snapped, grabbing the controller back.
"You can't all the way from here you moron, the signal won't reach that far!" Seige snarled.
"So I'll go down there!" Chameleon yelled.
"Fine!" Seige snapped, turning and walking away. "But don't expect me to come with you! Just don't screw up and get your head blown off!" Siege stormed out of the room. Chameleon snorted, and teleported off in a huff.
Tanya snarled and slammed a robot into the wall of the Migrator, sending little pieces of metal parts everywhere. There weren't that many of the little guys, Tanya thought, maybe 20 or 25. But they had to be destroyed now. As if they didn't have enough problems...
Nosedive jumped high into the air, coming down on his back and squashing two of the robots underneath him in the process. He stood up and dusted himself off, admiring his work.
"Squishified to a crisp-ola!" he grinned. Sudddenly, a nearby bush was illuminated with a green shadow. Nosedive spotted it and whipped his launcher up. Two more shots left. He'd have to whale on this one. With a "Banzai!!!!" he leapt into the bush with a flying kick, hitting something. Hitting the ground and rolling away, he looked up to see the Chameleon rolling around on the ground, holding his jaw. A few feet away from him was some kind of remote. Chameleon reached his hand out to get it, but Dive ran forwards and stomped down on it. As the lizard withdrew in pain, Nosedive scooped up the remote and waved it in his face.
"Lookin' for this bad boy?" he teased. As The Chameleon grabbed for it, Dive tossed it over his shoulder and grinned.
Mallory snarled as something hit her on the head. She bent down and picked up some device, it looked like a remote control, but she had no idea what it was or how to use it.
"Hey Tanya!" she called. Tanya popped her head out of the back hatch of the Migrator. "Catch!" Mal tossed her the controller. Tanya fumbled with it for a moment, but finally caught it and turned it over in her hands, examining it carefully. She grinned, and started pressing buttons. The robots suddenly squeaked wildly and wheeled about, charging away from the team. Wildwing stood up, suprised at the sudden retreat of the creatures.
"Whad' you do?" he asked, breathing hard.
"A little target adjustment." Tanya grinned.
Chameleon stood up, panting. Stupid duck, he'd nearly put a hole in his head before running off like that. And now he had to find that controller. If he screwed this up, he'd be in deep. But then he always was. As he stood up, he suddenly realized he wouldn't be so hasty to look for that controller anymore. About 15 of those robots came charging across the hotel parking lot, strait for him! The lizard panicked and ran blindly, only to be thrown to the ground seconds later by the creatures leaping on him. He rolled around yelling for a few seconds, before he teleported out, taking the creatures with him. Grinning as he watched, Wildwing turned and walked up the ramp, into the Migrator.
Duke breathed softly, sleeping. Zelda looked on as she licked the last of the pine tar off of her claws. Three fractures in her lower left leg. She snorted angrily at those little creatures. The cast she had made of moss and pine tar would have to harden. Until then she had to lie still.
"So how's Duke doing?" Nosedive asked Tanya, who was standing at the Medicom's computer.
"Quite well." she relplied. "No injuries to internal organs, and he's stabilizing out quickly."
"He should only have about 3 weeks of down time at the most." Zelda agreed.
"That's pretty good." nodded Wildwing, applying another band-aid to his arm, and letting the plastic wrapping drop to a little pile on the floor.
Chameleon covered his head and shivered like a chihuaua as he cowered on the floor.
"I have no idea how low your IQ must be to have screwed this plan up!" Dragaunus roared at him.
"Well, back to the old hunter drones." the little green lizard said reapoproachfully. Dragaunus snarled loudly and was about to reply, when something squeaked behind him, and bit into the tip of his tail.
The End
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!