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Written by Zelda
Nosedive panicked as he struggled to find some sort of handhold. But there was nothing. He tumbled head over heels, plummeting down and around in the flashing blue and swirling magenta. A dimensional gateway. If he never got sucked up in one of these things again, it would be too soon. He saw his teammates flying past him, even crashing into him at times. Suddenly though, he felt a cool wind across his face, and fell, landing in something mooshy.
No wait, it wasn't mooshy. He sank down into it. He tried to close his beak, but was greeted by the harsh grating of sand. Sand, so that's what it was. He sat up and spat it out violently. He thought they were at the beach, but he heard no roaring surf, and the sand didn't taste salty at all. He blinked the sand out of his eyebrows and opened his eyes to see a vast strech of sand and a few yellow, rocky hills, 360 degrees around him.
Great, they were in a desert.
Zelda sat up beside him, shaking the sand out of her scales carefully.
"Great." Mallory said. "I'll NEVER get this stuff outta my hair."
"You're not the only one." Nosedive sympathised, shaking his own head about. Wildwing stood up slowly and looked around.
"Yup, a desert alright." he muttered. "Where do you think we are Zelda?" he asked.
"Well, we could be anywhere. Even if we're still on earth, we could be in a different time...." she trailed off, sniffing at the sand. The team stood up, silouetted by the deep blue, desert night sky, which sparked with a thousand stars.
"Well, at least we're safe." Duke sighed, dusting the sand off of his clothes. Suddenly, a breeze whipped past their faces.
"Perhaps you spoke too soon." Grin said. Zelda inched away from the dune they had fallen on, hiding behind the others. The wind whipped past harder and more constantly.
"We'd better get outta here!" Tanya yelled. She snapped her beak shut as a small amount of sand found it's way down her throat. The sand blew into Grin's eyes. He snarled and ducked, blinking hard. Zelda suddenly leapt up on Wildwing's shoulder.
"Fire your grappling puck!" she yelled. He oblidged, and she caught it, tying it around her neck.
"Everybody grab on!" she yelled. One by one, the Ducks fought through the stinging sand, and grabbed onto the rope. Clawing at the sand to prevent from being blown away, Zelda shoved forwards towards what she thought was an outcrop of rocks. They would be safe behind it. Her claws finally scrabbled against the rock. As Zelda began to climb, she saw somthing through the haze of sand. A cave? Zelda decided to go for it. She dove out against the wind, flapping hard and squinting to keep the sand out of her eyes. Zelda fought, and finally reached the mouth. Suddenly out of the wind, she tumbled into the sand and lay panting. Grin was next. He and Zelda poised themselves at the edge of the cave, pulling the others on the rope in, hand over hand, or claw over claw. Slowly, the others pulled themselves in, until Wildwing heaved himself into shelter and the struggle ended.
Tanya held her Omnitool's florescent light abover her head. The team gasped. They were in no cave! The walls were square and level, and were covered with hyroglyphs!
"Well, whadda ya know?" Nosedive said, suprised.
"At least we're outta that sandstorm. Let's try and get some rest team." Wildwing suggested. As the team tried to make themselves comfortable in small piles of sand, Zelda looked over the ancient pictographs.
"Can you read those?" Mallory asked.
"Yes, although I'm a bit rusty." Zelda admitted with a smile. "They're interesting though. Sorta like reading an ancient comic book."
"Did someone say comics?" Nosedive shot up. Zelda giggled.
"Well go ahead, read them to us." Duke said. Zelda traced the path of the pictographs with her claw, and read slowly.
"The eternal tomb of Bastet lies within these secret chambers. May the eternal soul live on through the toil and endless labor of those worshippers who strained to build the monument for the dead."
"Quite a welcome mat." Grin commented. Zelda moved further down, to paintings on the wall.
"Look here, they show the embalming and mummifying of the cat goddess, Bastet. And this must be all the servants preparing her tomb..." Zelda moved over to more writing. "But those who enter this sacred ground after the tomb has been sealed will face a fate worse than a thousand deaths! This for endangering the resting of Bastet!"
"Uh oh." Mallory muttered.
"Are any of these curses true?" Wildwing asked nervously.
"I don't know." Zelda started. "King Tut's tomb was cursed, and a lot of the diggers died of a strange disease, but people think it may have been planted...." she trailed off. Suddenly, there was a loud grinding noise. Tanya yelled out in alarm as a huge slab of stone fell from the overhang of the cave, covering the entrance completely.
"Can we start worrying now?" Nosedive whined.
"Hang on bro." Wildwing said. He raised his puck launcher and fired a shot. The puck exploded on impact and shattered around the room. "What?" Wildwing said. He loaded another one and shot, with the same results. Duke drew his sabre and took a strong hack at the stone, but the sword bounced off, vibrating wildly. Duke scratched his head.
"It can slice through concrete but not this?" he muttered, staring at the quivering metal.
"Wait, there's more writing on this stone." Zelda said, hopping up to look. "There is no escape for the cursed intruders! You will be ripped into a thousand pieces by the Cats of Bastet, and your bones ground into sand!"
"What were you saying about a WELCOME MAT!?!?!?" Nosedive wailed at Grin. Suddenly, the old torches on the walls burst into flame, lighting the corridors. Tanya put away her light.
"Is there some other way outta here?" Wildwing asked.
"There usually was a tunnel for the workers, it might be sealed off or bueried."
"We have to try, let's go." Wildwing said. The others picked up and moved nervously through the eerie corridor, hoping this was all just a big trick.
The walls glowed and pulsed with the flickering shadows. It made for a frightning scene, but the Ducks were becoming more and more at ease. The three passageways they had explored had either been dead ends or lead to empty store rooms. It seemed that there was no fabled danger. With each passage they covered, they got closer to the exit. Slowly, they tracked down a dimly lit passage, and came to a dead end. The walls were coated thickly with hyroglyphs, and paintings of black jaguars. "Maybe these have directions on them..." Zelda started, going over the symbols in her head. As she ran her claws over the pictures, she suddenly yelped and leapt back. The jaguars actually felt furry! As the Ducks stared in horror, about a dozen of the inky black cats peeled themselves off of the walls and took full form. "The Cats of Bastet..." Grin started, remembering the reading back on the rock slab. The team backed off from the cats. Their teeth and claws shimmered silver on some cats, gold on others. Their eyes burned white. "Maybe we took a, well, a wrong turn back there..." Tanya started, stuttering in nervousness. Wildwing drew his puck launcher and held it out, but the creatures were fearless. "Run." Wildwing ordered. "Split up in HERE?" Nosedive asked. "We'll try and outrun the cats and then regroup. Call if you need help." Wildwing explained. It soon looked as if they had no choice but to run. The Ducks split and took off, with the cats not far behind them.
Duke drew his sword as he ran. At least he could see. But if he could see, it also meant the cat running about 20 feet behind him could too. He needed somewhere to hide. He leapt and scrambled into a store room, and crawled behind a large urn. He'd kill the creature, if he needed to. He felt the thing meant business. But at least he had somewhere to hide. He felt safe hiding, he had made a living out of it. After a period of time, Duke felt the cat must have passed the store room by. "Huh, I managed to shake one of earth's greatest predators, eh?" he chuckled to himself under his breath. Suddenly, he felt he was being watched. He glanced into the corner behind him, over his shoulder, and saw nothing. Suddenly, two slits of burning white burst out from the black. Before Duke could react, the creature leapt on him, pushing him beak first to the floor. He struggled and rolled over as the creature tried to bite at his neck, and brought his sword in the way. The jaguar reared up and snarled, digging its hind claws into Duke's legs. Duke winced and hacked the jaguar in the shoulder. It howled and dissapeared into the shadows. Duke got up and stumbled out of the store room in fear. He hadn't been hurt as badly as he thought, but he had to keep going.
Zelda panted. This animal was unlike other jaguars. Consistent, deadly, and yet it seemed as if it would never tire out and never give up. Zelda was uncomfortable. There was so little space to manuver in this tunnel! As she ran, she was formulating a plan of attack. Finally, she acted. She braked hard and swooped upward, flipping over and landing on the back of the jaguar. But it didn't throw the creature. It rolled over, slamming Zelda to the ground. She bounced up, but was pounced on immediatly by the jaguar. Knocked back to the floor, she roared in pain as teeth entered her right shoulder. Zelda tore away and snarled. The jaguar backed off, sizing up its prey. Zelda whipped around hard and caught the jaguar's jaw with her tail. It roared and clawed at her hide. Zelda leapt away. The jaguar shook itself, and then sprung. Zelda leapt aside, and the jaguar slammed into the tunnel wall. She swirled around, prepared to take on the cat again, but it had dissapeared! Zelda stood silently for a moment. She heard a scuffle down the corridor, off down another passage. Limping a bit, she turned and ran off to help.
Wildwing tumbled, locked in a ring of pushing and shoving with his gold-clawed hunter. He snarled, struggling to raise his puck launcher up high enough to fire. The jaguar sprung up and slapped him to the floor, Wildwing landing hard on his back. The jaguar spun around, claws glittering, and bit down hard on his ankle. Wildwing kicked furiously with his other foot, but the jaguar pinned it down with a paw. Wildwing cried out in pain as the jaguar crunched down harder, knawing on the bones. He still couldn't raise his arms, the cat was pinning them down with its feet. Wildwing snarled and strained upwards, but to no avail. Zelda roared and charged in from his right. She slammed into the cat, tearing it off of him. Wildwing rolled up slowly as Zelda locked up with the cat. Angry from the suprise attack, it slashed her hard across the face. Zelda roared and leapt on top of it, biting the back of its neck. The jaguar whipped her around and threw her to the floor. It was about to jump on Zelda, when the sudden light of blue pucks snapped across the floor beside it. Finally, one of the pucks hit the cat and exploded. The black animal seemed to melt away, as the smoke curled around it. Silence. Wildwing sank down, his puck launchr still smoking. He gripped his ankle and snarled, gritting his teeth in pain. Zelda stood up and shook her head slowly. She loped over to him and looked at his ankle. "Jeez, you've got some nasty cuts there Zel." Wildwing started, still wincing. "Not as bad as your ankle." Zelda replied. "Looks like that jaguar did a number on it, sheared through a tendon or two, maybe a few cracked bones." she said, examining the wound gingerly. She wanted to clean it, check it from different angles. But she couldn't move it. It would hurt Wildwing too much. She looked around, but there was nothing to spint it with. Wildwing would never be able to walk with it. Zelda sighed. "I'm going to check with the others. Now might be a good time to regroup." Wildwing started, opening his com. "Team, full report." he ordered. "Okay here, took down two of those things." Mallory reported. "A few bruises here, nothing big." Tanya said. "Took out one, but it got me in the legs." Duke said. "You okay?" Wildwing asked. "Yeah." Duke grunted in reply. "I can walk. "Grin and I got like three of 'em." Nosedive said. "Excellent." Wildwing said. "I've got a bit of a mobility problem at the moment, regroup here if you can." "Roger that." Mallory said. Wildwing closed his com and sighed. Zelda was gingerly rubbing her snout in the dust on the floor, trying to clog up the three gashes down the top of her head. She turned and continued examining Wildwing's wound. They would be out of here soon, she hoped.
"Jeez Bro., what happened to you?" Nosedive asked, kneeling beside Wildwing. "You don't wanna know." he sighed, frowning. "I can't find anything to splint it. Nothing sterile anyway." said Zelda, gingerly wrapping the wound with a piece of cloth. Grin helped Wildwing up and helped to hold him. Wildwing could limp on his one good leg. "Well, let's pick up again, shall we?" Tanya asked. Slowly, warily, they started to walk through the halls again. Grin and Wildwing, Duke and Zelda stayed in the center of the group, to keep them safer if they were attacked. Zelda watched Duke carefully, but he seemed okay. They continued for a while. Zelda noticed Wildwing was really getting worse. If the jaguars attacked he would be in trouble. She bayed slowly in concern. Wildwing looked down and snorted. "I'm fine." he growled. "Keep going." he told Grin, who olbiged slowly. They came to a dead end. "Great, all that walking for nothing!" Nosedive snarled. "Well, at least it was good for the execise..." started Duke sarcastically, rubbing his legs. "I guess we'd better turn back." Tanya sighed. "No wait! I smell fresh air." Zelda said, sniffing carefully. "Any air would be fresh considered to this ancient stuff." joked Nosedive. Zelda sniffed around the walls, then looked up. "There!" she pointed. The Ducks looked up to see a square tunnel leading strait up, blocked by several old rafters. But beyond it, the deep blue of the desert night sky, dotted with stars. "That must be the other exit." "Great. Let's see how we're all gonna get out of here." Wildwing praised. Duke shot his grappling puck up, hooking it artfully around the top rafter. "I'll go up first." voulenteered Mallory. "Then I can pull the rest of you." Wildwing nodded. Mallory hitched up the rope and out of the hole. Soon, her silouette appeared in the square. "All clear!" she said back. Dive went up next. "Come on Wing, let's get you out next." Tanya said. Wildwing frowned. He grabbed the rope and began to pull himself up. As he reached the midsection of the tunnel, he suddenly heard a loud commotion below. Looking down, he saw the jaguars again! "Keep going!" Zelda yelled. She flew up and spread her wings over the entrance, sealing Wildwing off from attack. Wildwing turned around and climed up again. Mallory and Dive heaved him out and lay him down on the sand, returning to the tunnel entrance afterwards. Wildwing tried to roll up and crawl over to help, but was forced to remain where he lay. He listened intently to the fighting below.
Zelda was torn away from the entrance and thrown to the ground. Grin smacked the jaguar that attacked her away, but another one leapt onto his shoulder.
"Go, go!" Duke yelled to Tanya and shoved her to the rope. Tanya hesitated and then started to climb up. Grin was good at fighting off the jaguars, but he had to climb up next. Zelda and Duke were left to fend for themselves. The jaguars, numbering around nine, dogpiled on the two. Those on the surface started to pull Duke up quicky. Zelda leapt up behind him, staying just feet above the pack of jaguars. Finally, she dragged herself to the surface and lay panting a few feet away from the tunnel.
"Whew! At least that's over with!" Nosedive exclaimed, flopping down in the cool sand. Suddenly, loud roars echoed from within the tunnel. All nine jaguars shot out and soared upwards into the air, powered by feathered white wings! The Ducks panicked and began to run. Wildwing stumbled up but fell. He watched in horror as three jaguars swooped down and strait towards him. Grin suddenly thwacked at them. Two fell away, but the third one landed full on Wing. Grin picked the cat up by the back of the neck. It roared and swatted at him, catching him across the arm. He snarled and winced in pain, and then threw the jaguar back down into the tunnel. Mallory and Zelda stood nearby to defend as Grin picked Wing up again, and began to stumble through the sand. The other Ducks were trying their best to keep ahead of the jaguars, tripping in the sand. They fired haphazardly behind them, keeping the cats a good 20 feet away. Suddenly, there was a loud noise overhead. The Ducks covered their eyes as a familair hissing could be heard. They opened their eyes to see the Aerowing landing beside them! Duke, Tanya, and Nosedive ran onto the ship and began firing at the cats with the lasers. Wildwing and his escorts got safely aboard, and the ship started to rise into the air. The cats pursued, swooping across the windshield. Mallory took the weapons controls, slowly shooting them all down.
"Now what?" Duke asked.
"Whadda ya mean, let's get outta here!" Nosedive yelled. Duke punched the thrusters, and sent the Aerowing shooting over the horizon.
"I have to admit, that was a smart move." Zelda grinned, checking the last touches on the wrap on Wing's ankle. No bones had been broken, thank goodness.
"Well, I was desperate. I thought that we had a shot of being in our own time, so I called up the Aerowing on autopilot and directed it here." Wildwing sighed and leaned back aganst the infermary bed. It was good to be back in the Pond. Tanya came in, toweling off her damp hair.
"Sheesh, was it ever good to get the sand outta there." she sniffed.
"Yah I can second that." said Duke, coming in behind her. "It was good to get outta there, period." Wildwing shouldered two crutches and lifted himself off the bed.
"Yowch, how long you gotta get around on those?" Duke asked. Wildwing turned back to Zelda.
"I'd say a week, maybe two. That brace will have to stay on until it heals completely. Could be up to a month." Zelda replied. She was trying to sugarcoat this. A team leader couldn't have any down time, at least by Wing's standards.
"Great." Wildwing sighed. He shuffled slowly out of the infermary, past Grin. Zelda trotted up and perched on his shoulder.
"Well he looks peachy." Zelda smiled.
"He'll get used to it. We all need to be humbled by our wounds sometimes." Grin smiled back. Zelda nodded. The two walked out into the Rec. Room, where Nosedive was flipping through channels. As he turned to reach for a bowl of popcorn, he paused on The Brain Food Channel.
"Tonight, we'll probe deep into the ancient myth and legend of Egyptiam lore!"
"That's it, I've heard ENOUGH!" Nosedive cried, throwing up his popcorn and scrambling for the remote. Zelda snarled gleefully and dove in, snatching it out of his hands and running away. Nosedive yelled and chased after her. "Come on, gimme that back!"
"It's education Dive, might do you some good." Zelda sneered, tumbing over the furniture to keep her prize.
"I've had more than enough 'education' on the last trip!" he yelled.
"I think we all did." smiled Grin.
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!