//------------------------------// // 100. Gremlin Grapple. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Earth, flight to Britain, hijacked airliner, Spot- “You sure you can help her Bentley?” That was a lot of blood and she likely has an armor piercing bullet lodge in her spine. If she ever walks again, I’ll consider that a miracle as it was lucky enough that she hadn’t bled out yet. “Given enough time and the medical kit Mops found for me on such short notice… she just might make it. Now let me concentrate.” Bentley went quiet after that and kept working on the victim, a poor female mink biped that was probably coming off of her vacation days from the look of it. “Put pressure on the wound here Mops. This is going to hurt a lot ma’am, but we need to get this bullet out of you and then patch the wound. You’ll definitely need help getting to a hospital, but this will help you live long enough to do so.” As they worked on the victim that luckily didn’t have jellified bones in her spine, I looked towards the ceiling and the holes in it. It was not enough to cause the plane to crash or depressurize business class entirely all at once, but it was still pretty bad. Which is why Murray was busy corralling people to economy class in case enough were fired to cause a pretty bad incident. At least the rear of the plane should be secure enough. “What could they have possibly needed armor piercing bullets for, a gremlin?” Mumbling this to myself I considered what else they could be using the armor piercing rounds for, maybe if these guys needed to bail on their mission and take down the plane while doing so. They could have just prepped explosives for that though. People thought Gremlins were small, I would quickly disabuse them of that notion if I knew one was actually present. “This plane, thankfully enough, doesn’t have one of ‘those’ on it. Saw enough of them in Russia that I avoided using any machinery as much as I could around that region.” These guys screamed special ops with this kind of ordinance, but what were they here for? It’s bugging me, if they were here for the newest version of the Cooper Gang then it would be blaringly obvious and they’d be searching for them far more actively. No, it was definitely something else, something that required a stealth expert like that Sabu Taj’s presence and warranted a ludicrous amount of firepower. If Bentley hadn’t accessed that Camera quickly we wouldn’t have known of her presence on the plane. We’re missing a key piece of information and I swear on my rank as a Sergeant of the Bark Brigade that I will find out what that is before it comes to bite my new friends in their backsides. I never thought I’d see a day when I’d actually be missing Lieutenant Pug and the more fun times of my youth. I looked at the nearby radios, they were far too silent for my liking and I suddenly had a hunch as to why. “Sly… did you ever see any of them go for their radios when we attacked them?” My question made Sly look to me questioningly, I think I might be onto something here. After checking the radios, I would have to investigate first class to be sure… and I would have to do it quickly if I was right. -Airliner, Pom- My mimicry of the monsters wool wasn’t perfect, but it made moving moderately easier. I had several things going through my mind at the moment, the biggest two being that I was doing this both tired and hungry. The others were what would happen to the people in the airliner should I lose my hoofing on the airliner and fall away, another is what would happen to Dolly if I die. I had a lot of pressure put on my tired body. I had to fight a monster after clinging to this large flying metal tube for the last few hours, after fighting a bunch of robotic mandrills and a few robot gorillas before that. How did it even get up here, it certainly wasn’t up here before and I’ve been here for the last hour or so! It doesn’t help that the creature looks fine in this environment while I’m likely to get hypoxia by doing too much too fast. The wooly lizard surged forward and I shifted my right rear leg forward, sliding it over the metal and clamping down as I slung my right hoof upwards into its right claw coming down at me. I managed to barely knock back its arm when my strike hit its wrist, leaving no visible damage done by me and the blow showed how strong it was as it staggered me in place. I can’t let this thing damage the airliner and I really don’t want to be taking unnecessary hits. I also couldn’t fall onto my back, because it might crush Dolly by jumping top of me. I feel like I’m fighting with all four of my hooves tied behind my back, wearing a turtle shell and my concentration on my wool has to be iron tight to even be able to move around with less strenuous effort. Can my life ever be simple?! I stared the monster down, I moved forward and tried to swipe with its left claw. I put up my right leg, took the blow and wobbled out of the way of it bringing its right claws into an overhead swing. I shifted my rear hooves one at a time and the claws dug into the metal between my legs, as I slid my left hind leg forward and then thrust my left hoof into its face. I only staggered it in place and black blood splattered out on the metal in the sun as three claw marks opened up in the things right cheek, it didn’t even stumble back and slapped me in the chest with its left claw in an attempt to force me onto my back. I took the blow and grunted, the claws stuck fast to my wool and I bit down on its wrist to tear a chunk of flesh out of it with my teeth. I spat it off to the side as the taste was nasty and indescribable, even worse than when I took a bite out of those wolves back in the southern territories of Yellow Dog. It roared in my face and brought its other front claw around I caught it on my blocking left leg and it stuck fast. The best option I had here was to pin it in place. It wasn’t going to make this flying vehicle crash for food, but that might be one reason for why it was here. I needed to do some serious damage as this thing was clearly a malevolent magical entity of some sort. The creature tilted its head and tried to wrench me apart, I flexed my wool and pinned us both unyieldingly in place as it tried to move its arms and failed. I heard Dolly whimpering and tried to send her reassuring thoughts, I currently wasn’t doing a good job of that. It narrowed its eyes at me and flicked its chameleon like tongue out and I snapped at it with my teeth before the monster could whip me across the face with it. It reeled its tongue back in and looked thoughtful. It surged forward and opened its mouth unnaturally wide with its needle like teeth that would likely pierce through my wool and take my whole head off. It was putting its weight on my chest and trying to pull its left claw back from my leg. I leaned back and to the left as I pushed on its right arm, which was hard to do because of Dolly’s skateboard keeping my back mostly straight. Narrowly missing the snapping teeth graze the wool on my forehead, it immediately turned its head an unnatural ninety degrees and open its mouth again to attempt biting down on my neck. Going from feeling scared to suddenly aggressive, Dolly lunged upwards with her front paws pulling the wool on my back upwards and my body forward as her body stretched outward with my wool beyond my head. The Dalmatian just put herself in the path of its mouth grabbing the upper and lower portion to leverage herself into position on its sideways turned head. Dolly quickly slammed her helmet forward and down onto its right eye and jerked her head to the left, creating a snapping noise, before losing grip on the upper and lower portions of its mouth with her paws. My badly stretched wool immediately pulled Dolly back into position on my back and I huffed out some air as she slammed into me roughly with a yelp. The creature pulled hard and roared loudly, I quickly released its claws from my left leg and chest. The creature went up on its hind legs and stumbled backwards away from us with its black blood streaming down between both its claws pressing up against the right side of its face. The roar it was making sounded like a thunderous storm was happening despite the clears skies and the sun being late day. “I have a new appreciation for how scary thunder is now.” Looking at Dolly, who had a wide eyed look of fear on her face as she cowered on my back, it seemed like she just realized that she could have just been snapped in half saving me. A portion of Dolly’s face was now splattered with the monsters high pressure blood like the area around my mouth when I bit into it. A large portion of the sharp shard of glass that had been sticking out of Dolly’s helmet like a jagged crystal unicorn pony horn was now in the monsters utterly destroyed right eye. In a sign of intelligence, the monster gripped the thick shard of glass roughly in its right claw and ripped it out to toss it off the side of the airliner. In the now emptied eye socket had a sickly yellow glow of magic. “P-P-Pom… should its eye socket be g-glowing like that?” Dolly ducked down on my back and continued to whimper and shiver. If you had to ask Dolly… well the answer was quite fairly obvious. The thing whipped its bladed tail about and started to approach me more slowly and methodically, no longer looking like it had an amused grin in its sharp teeth as it came at us again. I went to placing my front hooves down and readied myself for its next attack by preparing to move on all fours. It lunged leading with its right claw in an overhead strike that dug into the metal as I quickly maneuvered to the side. It swung the back half of its body away from me, its tail whipped around and blocked it with both my legs and winced at the numbness that came over them as I held the tail in place with both my front hooves. The monster lashed its tongue at us, Dolly quickly interposed her helmet in the way of the tongue before it could strike my face and it cracked with the impact where the bit of glass was sticking out of it. The monster’s tongue spewed forth blood as large section of it had rubbed up against the sharp bit of glass still stuck in Dolly’s helmet and reeled back in. The monster swung its left claw for me and, balancing my body against its tail on my left hind leg, I kicked my right hinged up into its swinging claws and wince at the impact as I clamped my hoof onto its forearm at impact. The right claws surged straight for my throat, I tilted my head out of the way and bit down on it again with my teeth and then it darted its head forward. I quickly got my right leg freed up from its tail and slung it upwards into the monster’s chin snapping off a portion of its tongue on its own teeth in a grisly shower of gore. The monster roared in my face and started to push at me despite being in pain, it was trying to push me over and it was starting to succeed. My right hoof was clinging to its chin to keep its head away, my left hoof was wrapped around its tail carefully as to not touch the blades on it, my right hind hoof was stuck to its left forearm to prevent it from clawing me with it, my teeth had its right arm and I was biting down as hard as I could on it. I must have looked ridiculous standing on one hoof holding all of this back while slowly being pushed down and my one leg wouldn’t keep me upright. I had to let go of something or else it was going to try and crush us under its weight. It brought up its left rear legs and made a motion to kick it forward. I saw the look in its physical eye. It kicked its left leg forward, I released my grip on everything except for one specific point on its body and kick off with my left hind leg. Pivoting onto the top of its head using my hoof still connected to its chin, it suddenly became unbalanced and was now flailing on its right hind leg. Quickly stomped down on its skull with my front hooves, I make it swing both its claws up at me and I quickly crawled onto its neck, down its back and onto the airliner again using its right hind leg. I planted my front hooves and bucked as hard as I could behind me. The monster flipped upwards and away from the airliner. About to sigh with relief, I watched as it spun and whipped its tail downwards into the airliner and pulled itself down into a standing position facing me. I slowly turned around and backed up and looked to my side, I clambered down to the right wing backwards while making sure not to take my eyes off the monster that followed. The chopped off portion of its tongue stopped leaking blood out of its vicious grinning visage and I see that the tongue had regrown a bit and sealed off shorter than it had been before. Making my way along the right wing of the airliner, I could feel the pressure on my body was getting worse. The monster must have felt it too as it slowed down when it approached me. I was standing on the edge of the right wing and waited while looking at it. I thrust its left claw forward and I swung my body off the end of the wing, having clamped my front hooves onto its edge. Slammed my rear hooves up into the underside of the wing, I bent myself backwards while releasing my front hooves to avoid it trying to stab me with its tail. Eventually my front hooves made contact with the underside the wing and I clamped on and released the grip on my rear hooves to start hanging by my front hooves. I slowly moved inward on the underside of the wing using my front hooves and avoided the tail slapping over the edge of the wing into my body. “Pom… what are you doing…?” At the sound of Dolly questioning my actions, I tried not to look down like she was currently doing. When I did eventually look down, I gulped. For below my dangling rear hooves was nothing but air, clouds and hopefully the ocean far below. I looked up at my front hooves clinging to the underside of the wing and considered my position and why I moved into it. A shaking happened, I looked towards the end of the wing to see the creature followed me down gripping both front and back edges of the wing. That’s why Dolly, I had to get that thing off the airliner and this was a much harder place for it to fight me. It reared its back half and launched its tail up at me, I kicked it with my right hind leg to the left and it suddenly got tugged up into one of the cylinders that was likely helping this thing fly. It started screeching and I started lashing both my rear hooves rapidly into its tail and clawed it up until are large portion of the tail ripped off entire. The right most cylinder on the airliner started to catch fire and I seriously hoped that didn’t do too much damage. I moved my front hooves so that I got closer to the monster and it lashed up its rear legs in an attempt to claw me off, I planted my rear hooves and scampered backwards to find myself above the monster. I dropped my right rear leg into its face, then I lashed out with my left and then it jammed its left set of claws into the side of my chest. I took my left leg off the wing and slashed my left hoof across the back of its wrist knocking its claws out of me and, gritting my teeth, I put my left hoof back on the underside of the wing, scrunched up and then lashed out both legs into the monsters skull with a squelching noise. “Pom, you’re bleeding!” Can feel that Dolly, can’t do much about it at the moment. It was bad enough that I was lightheaded from the lack of air up here! If I lose too much blood then I was dying of anemia instead of hypoxia. I looked down and saw that I had split the scales on the creatures head, some chunks of bone fell away and I think I could see its brain which started to glow a sickly yellow now and it narrowed its good eye up at me. What was this thing that it was ready to continue with exposed bits of brain after I cracked its skull open?! The airliner started to tilt and I quickly climb up onto the top of the wing and started bucking at its right claw, soon it’s claw let go and I saw the left claw had gripped the back of the wing and soon it’s right claw joined it. I started to clamber up the wing that was now at a steep downward angle as the monster crawled onto the wing behind me and looked to be enraged. It lunged upwards and grabbed me by the right hind leg and tried to crush it in its right claws grip. The airliners wings were almost vertical, I seriously hoped it wasn’t going to crash because of all this. It pulled on my leg and I looked up to see various people looking out the windows of the airliner at the sight we must have presented to them, all the fear and uncertainty in their eyes. I looked down at the creature place its left claw and started to pull itself up towards me. A grim frown found its way onto my face, I looked down and narrowed my eyes at the monster and ignore the smoking cylinder. For when it next tugged on me… I let go and immediately slammed into its chest using the strength of its own pull where it lost its grip on me with its right claw, I clung onto it chest got up on to my hind legs and lashed out my right hoof with a straight into its left claws and we fell away from the plane as the monster lost its grip due to its blood slickening the back edge of the wing. The creature tried to scrape me off its chest with its left hind leg as we fell, I turned and clambered up to its right shoulder brought up both my hooves and dislocated it with a double hoofed blow. I glanced up and saw the airliner in the distance righting itself, good news at least, now to deal the monster with the flopping left arm. It flailed and tried to claw at me with its right claw, it only scored a hit against its own shoulder as I swung around to the back of its head and started to rapidly beat on it skull with both my front hooves. It twisted its head around like an owl and tried to bite me, I clambered backward down its back out of range of its snapping teeth and raised both my hooves overhead to slam them down on its spine. We both spun so that it was now underneath me instead of being above me it thrashed and screeched as I thrust my left hoof into the chin of its backwards facing head. And moved to its lower back, I looked down and saw the ground coming up quickly and clung to the creature’s wooly back. It wiggled and tried to spin us leftward, I stomped my right hooves and corrected so that it continued to be beneath me. It was not going to flip us around so that I take the brunt of the… Wait… what am I currently doing? I can float, I didn’t need to use the creature to take the brunt of the fall for me! In fact… I used all four of my hooves to kick away from the creature and puffed up all my wool, my falling slowed down immensely. I looked down as the creature let out its roar that sounded like thunder back up at me in obvious rage as it sped towards the ground even faster thanks to its aerodynamic wooly hide. I watched as it hit the top of a large pointed rock and splattered, a few minutes later I landed and saw the grisly remains of the creature. “Is… is it over?” Dolly asked while poking her head up and looking at the mess the creature made. The remains started to steam and I took on a guarded stance as I gasped and groaned in pain, trying to get some air in me. The remains turned into a white cloud and a pair of glaring yellow eyes opened in that cloud as it slowly rose to the sky glaring at me, but after a certain height the clouds eyes widened. I heard the agonized horrifying pained screeching that sounded like something dying and, in a flash, the cloud exploded in a powerful burst of air. “Did… did that thing just… turn… into a cloud?! Then it… exploded? What the dog…” Dolly was as confused as I was and nonetheless horrified. “What the dog did we just fight?! And… where are we? Are those elephants down there? No… no… this is not funny! I know me and my step mom were mistaken for hyenas once, because of a bad tanning accident with a machine, but there’s no way I’m believing that we ended up in…!” I heard growling and inhaled deeply, I exhaled and leapt off the large rock formation and glided away before the blue eyed lioness, that had climbed up the rock we were on, pounced at me and could dig her claws into my back. I’ve had enough fighting for one day thank you! “Pom, I think we’re in Africa.” At least Dolly had some idea where we were as we glided down to land among the many herbivores that were suddenly quite wary of me. I quickly opened my mouth to show that I didn’t have fangs and they all went back to ignoring me. Though they were wary of Dolly, she was far too small to be a serious threat to all the larger animals.