//------------------------------// // 158. Cape Crashers. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Airship Mauled, The Witch’s Fare, Jade- So with a little bit of finagling, we’ve managed to solve some of the world’s economic crisis. It wasn’t a permanent fix yet and we still needed the lambkin and changelings to work together, but the lambkin delegate was being a problem. “Morning Fizzy, I know what happened with the Grogar cultists.” I stated before taking a sip of juice. Fizzle, who just sat down, froze. Her right eye twitched violently and she then quickly slammed her face against the table. “Yep, I’ve been meowing at you for an entire week. I’m not going to do anything unless you ask me to, I’m having enough problems trying to fix the world’s economy without doing math.” Which may or may not have been how we got into this situation in the first place. “Also if you want to know who spilled the beans, it’s Luna.” “… Luna dies tonight.” Fizzy stated slowly with her face still pressed into the table. “Oh come on, don’t be like that Fizzy, you can be angry at me you know!” She calmly lifted her head leaned in close to me and gave me a quick kiss on my left cheek before slamming her head back down on the table, creating a small hole when she did. It’s a good thing Arizona was an excellent carpenter, because I don’t think that’d buff out otherwise. “You love me that much? Wow, everyone was right, you are a glutton for punishment!” “Don’t make this morning worse Jade, unless it’s important to our continued survival.” Grumbled my upset Fizzy, I decided to be a good kitty and start snuggling her. On her other side we were joined by Maries, with little Silvers crawled up into Fizzy’s lap to snuggle against her belly. We all heard shattering glass and looked out the front door to see Jacky picking herself up from the ground and she walked inside calmly while dusting glass off of herself and collapsed into the seat across from us. “Tripped out a window again.” That was the third time this morning, my sister Jacky must be having a good day. At least her pirate crew was, considering nothing was happening to them directly. -Earth, somewhere in the sky, Pom- It wasn’t easy getting out of Duckberg without being seen, but we managed to do it stealthily enough. The only reason why stealth was apparently plausible is because everyone that would give us away was already at the airplane and the ones staying behind had been ready to give us a nice sendoff. Apparently Launchpad would be with us for our foreseeable adventures until we needed to come back to Duckberg or go to San Fransokyo to talk to Abigail Callaghan in person. Launchpad was noted as somehow always finding a way to the nearest vehicles to get anyone to where they needed to be. The mode of transportation was stated to hardly ever survive the ordeal intact. “Are you sure that we won’t be followed by mercenaries? They seem pretty dead set on chasing me to the ends of the earth.” My wariness kind of translated to the passengers with us, Ocellus, Smolder and Dolly were of course sitting with me. Thankfully I was completely inside the airplane this time. As for who was coming with us to Cape Suzette, we had Launchpad as our acting pilot. I was told we were in for a crash landing and that the plane would be completely fixed within the course of two or more days, something to do with the fact that Launchpad bought a fresh pack of chewing gum. I was a bit uneasy about this trip, but at least we’d be meeting up with Shanty and her group of completely noble thieves. “It’ll be fine, Launchpad is a good pilot, even though he’s never landed this plane without it looking a less than a pile of horribly twisted metal.” Ocellus really wasn’t selling me on the ‘everyone would be fine’ aspect of Launchpad’s crashes. I’ve been told several times that Launchpad just doesn’t do good landings. At least not on purpose and if we did somehow land without an incident, we should be completely wary of what’s going on in our general surroundings afterwards. “You do realize that I’m still healing right?” I asked while slightly wiggling my right leg in the sling and wincing in pain at the movement. “I barely managed walking onto this rattling rust bucket of a deathtrap.” “Hey, the Sun Chaser isn’t nearly that bad, she’ll get us there!” Launchpad announced as he sat at the controls reading a comic book, apparently he didn’t need to be at the controls near constantly but it was still iffy that he wasn’t paying attention to the sky. At least we had help ‘WHEN’ an inevitable disaster occurred in Cape Suzette, which would be why the others that came with us were here. Gosalyn Waddlemeyer Mallard, AKA Quiverwing Quack, owed us a large favor twice over according to her. The first favor we did her was the knowledge Dormarch found on Abigail Callaghan, the chance of being able to create a safe dimensional portal to retrieve Professor Waddlemeyer from wherever he was stuck increased dramatically at the news of there being a specialist in the field that survived her own portal experiences in a form of stasis. The second favor was thanks to whatever Dolly did to stabilize the dimensional stability of the entire world when we defeated Hollow. Not that I think that was the last I would ever see of the impossible to put down monstrosity that used to be a normal bat pony, but one can seriously hope. As such Portals could be safely created once more to possibly bring her grandfather home. The Taurus Bulba incident had caused the worst of the destabilization issues to the dimensional boundaries. Didn’t know everything revolving around it, but it involved the Duck family, Gosalyn and Drake dealing with villains being pulled from other places temporarily. Gosalyn wanted us to be safe, so she volunteered her services alongside her adoptive father, Drake Mallard. Drake was otherwise known as the crime fighter that doesn’t get enough recognition, Darkwing Duck. Drake had a slight narcissism problem, but the tall duck did want to actually help people and has done so successfully numerous times. He actively wanted to go out and be a hero, well more power to him because I certainly didn’t like the stress that comes with that particular job. The both of them were willing to protect us and keep us safe with their skills in crime fighting, they would probably be run ragged by the time we were done there. “Keen gear, at least you are rocking the eyepatch!” As she said this Gosalyn was going over her crossbows and her various trick bolts to make sure everything was working. “I would rather have the use of my left eye once it heals.” I was going to take it easy after we arrived, no fighting, no adventuring and only a little exploring until we could get into contact with Shanty’s group. -Hours later- “There it is!” Launchpad stated loudly. “Just ignore the cliff guns. Cape Suzette, this is Launchpad piloting the The Sun Chaser, are we clear to go through?” As I came up from the cargo area below climbing the ladder with an agonizing slowness to match my body’s suffering, I saw what looked like a wide mountain range with a crack in its side. “You’re clear Sun Chaser, fly on through and find a place to land and welcome to Cape Suzette!” A voice responded. Launchpad proceeded to fly us through the crack in the mountains and beyond it revealed that we were surrounded by a solid ring of mountains and at the base of some of them was the city that was Cape Suzette. The city was built inside an ancient giant caldera, the crack we just flew through was the only way in without flying over the mountains. The plane shuddered a bit, but it was still flying pretty well. “Did anyone hear that?” Dolly asked as she raised her left ear and looked about. “Hear what?” I asked. “Sounded like a weird noise coming from the right side of the plane.” Answered Dolly looking slightly nervous. “Ah… maybe it was nothing? I mean everyone has got to be exaggerating about this Launchpad guy right?” “So what’s the first thing we are going to do when we arrive?” The travel brochure Gosalyn was looking at was of some interest. “I heard ‘Danger Woman’s Death Defying Flying Circus’ puts on a really cool show.” “For one, I’m going to find a hotel that will allows dogs or I’ll just have to smuggle Dolly into a place that will ignore noise complaints.” I was somewhat curious about what’s interesting about this city, but I had business to attend to. “We don’t know where the Cooper Gang is or when they’ll be arriving. I need to set up a meeting with the owner of Kahn Industries to get some answers about Dormarch. Maybe get our bearings with a few landmarks first such as restaurants or other places of interest and then possibly start asking around if anyone has seen Maui Mallard in the city to know if we can get some extra help. All I know is for sure, something bad is going to happen here and we’re going to be dragged into it.” “What are the… actually I was about to say what are the chances of something bad happening, but it’s a one hundred percent chance given the events leading up to now from Zootopia.” Now Dormarch was starting to sound as paranoid as I was that something would inevitably come at me, mostly to beat my poor battered and nearly completely broken beleaguered body into the ground. “Are you sure you’re friend Shanty isn’t being held against her will by these thieves?” Drake asked. “No, she joined the Cooper Gang because they are genuinely nice people. At most, you can get them on charges of vigilantism from what Shanty has said.” Seeing that I was about to be interrupted, I cut off Drake before he could get started. “If you are seriously about state that their vigilante activity is illegal, then what does that say about all four of us so called named heroes that are vigilantes too?” Drake looked away from my stare and Dormarch decided to add his two cents. “The Cooper Gang has only ever really stolen from criminals, also they notably toppled criminal enterprises in various places in the course of stealing from them. The Cooper Gang’s actions can be actively correlated to the Interpol Agent Carmelita Fox’s arrest history directly.” Dormarch was being a bit moody today, maybe it was that we’d be learning the truth from Kahn Industries? Whatever the case, we were getting closer to the island jutting away from the city with a bridge leading between the two. “Anything that wasn’t related to stolen stuff from master criminals was always returned anonymously, which would be as much as comic mischief in a court of law and not worthy of any serious criminal charges. Even Pom would likely pay his bail because they are taking care of one of her kids.” “I’m quite thankful you are low maintenance Dormarch and not a ‘whatever-you-can-eat’ buffet master like Shanty is sometimes.” The entire plane shook violently not too long after I said that. My eyes went wide open, everyone shared a look for a few seconds. “I think we might have lost a portion of the planes right wing back in the gap, the left engines on fire, I think the nose just fell off, we’re about to go spiraling out of control and oh… I think we just ran out fuel too. We should be fine since the main body of the plane is intact.” Okay, Launchpad had just confirmed Dolly’s worry that she definitely heard ‘something’. “Honestly I’m impressed at the number of problems I’m having with keeping the plane going straight, this has to be a new record for most misfortunes happening at once. I’m going to try and steer for water, at least our supplies are still secure right guys?” Like Ocellus and Smolder told us, we wouldn’t be arriving without the plane crashing. Speaking of the two close friends, they were quickly scrambling towards the seats below and strapping in along with Drake and Gosalyn. “Excuse me, but can you open the back hatch so I hop out the back of the plane before it hits the ground? I’m still healing and I don’t want to be caught up in this crash.” Oh wait… I can’t float or glide as I am. My gazed snapped to Dolly who was currently securing her helmet and already had her skateboard on her back. “Oh, sure thing Pom!” Launchpad hit a button and the cargo hatch at the back of the plane opened up “No wait a sec… Dolly grab me and use your magic!” I yelled as I quickly grabbed and stashed away Dormarch in my bag before he flew out that back as I myself got sucked out of the back of the airplane. It started spiraling out of control a few seconds after I was ejected into the sky, trying not to flail too much with my injuries. Okay free falling, too many injuries and not enough magic to actively make myself float, what was I thinking?! The world was spinning and the ground of the island was quickly approaching. At least it was, up until I felt something clamp onto my spine to quickly wrap their paws around my neck. My downward fall turned slowly turned into a more horizontal fall in a shower of violet sparkles. We were still going far too fast for my comfort. “Why is this not working as well?!” Shouted Dolly in the rushing air passing by us. She was going to be one of my favorite dogs if this kept up, my god puppies were still always first. “My mass or weight might be factoring into your motion magic Dolly, at least you’re altering both of our motions to not be straight down!” I shouted back. “Also good job on catching me without making me suffer worse!” I looked down and watched as the plane crashed into the island in the bay resulting in a fiery mess as Dolly forcefully steered us for the bridge between it and the mainland. Smolder would survive that, Ocellus was questionable and likely to survive as well of she could shapeshift away injuries, but the others… well I’d be a little more than surprised if they all walked away with just some light bruising. “I’m having problems slowing us down Pom, I’m going to try to make this as soft and painless as possible for you!” What did Dolly mean by that?! I found myself rotated to be facing the sky and Dolly was below me, out of the corner of my right eye I watched as she flipped and turned her skateboard around at her back. “We’ll hopefully bleed off plenty of momentum by rolling along the bridge!” Well with the angle we were falling at, Dolly might just actually stick the landing provided she could keep the board straight while on her back and with my weight crushing down on top of her. “You just need to seriously trust me to have your back more Pom, like right now!” “I do, that’s why I’m not panicking as much with you literally having it!” I felt a large amount of pleasing warmth pass between us at hearing my trust in her, Dolly’s sparkling glow increased in intensity. We were approaching the bridge pretty fast and I felt my weight pressed down into Dolly making her yelp as we hit the road, but she still maintained control of the board as we shot across the bridge. I barely felt any of it, but controlling all that momentum at once had her growling and grunting from exertion as she veered us around various vehicles. We continued rolling down the bridge towards the city at a speed matching some the vehicles on it, we moved off towards the side from the bridge and started slowing down immensely in the grass. It was amazing that Dolly managed to stay in control as well as she was when there was the threat of getting run over Eventually we came to a stop near the end of the bridge and Dolly looked dead tired from how she was panting. “You… okay… Pom?” Dolly whined from underneath me. “Are you?” I retorted as I quickly rolled off of her as painlessly as I could and onto my three legs. She huffed and puffed with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, but she shakily raised her right paw and flicked up a digit that looked like a thumbs up from a being with claws like Smolder. “Never better… could be better… want to be better… and wow did doing something like this put a major strain on me.” The dry commentary can be done later Dolly, we had to get back to the plane crash… back all the way across the bridge. Ugh… I carefully maneuver the board across the street and then back the way we came along the shoulder of the bridge. Dolly sat up and was still panting roughly “Might have pushed myself a bit much there, but my magic needs to stretch it like a muscle right? Well it should be no surprise to you to think that I pulled something. Hah-woo, was that ever a rush though and I always wanted to try street luging, just without all the cars!” “Let me do the pushing now, you need to rest.” I carefully guided the board with two of my good hooves planted on it and I started to push the skateboard with my left rear hoof back the way we came. “Hey I saw the crash are you two okay and do you need help?” We both looked to the bear with gold colored fur that pulled up next to us in a vehicle. “Yeah, we need to get back to the crash to check up on our friends, Dolly what do you think?” I felt a burst of happiness from Dolly that had her looking embarrassed. “Eh, she seems on the up and up, but if she tries anything give me some energy for some wolf claws to shred our way out of there.” Dolly was joining me in being a little paranoid, nobody could blame us for being a bit suspicious if they’ve heard what we’ve been through. “Dolly, that’s a nice name for such a cute dog. My name’s Molly Cunningham, now come on, a plane crash like that doesn’t look too survivable and I’ve seen horrible plane crashes before…” Molly muttered with a pain stricken face. “Been through a few of them myself.” “Hello Molly, my name is Pom Lambchop and this Dolly ‘Danger’ Dalmatian.” I said as I sat down and Dolly hopped into my lap. “Danger? Heh, I would know a lot about that.” Molly proclaimed brightly with a hint of hurt. “Now come on, let’s see if your friends are okay… that looked like Della’s plane. Can you tell me what happened?” “Della as in Della Duck, yeah we’re friends with her family. One of their pilots gave us a ride.” The bear was getting us quickly back across the bridge. “Our pilot was Launchpad McQuack though and apparently he’s an infamous pilot.” “You better believe he is, he’s crashed everything under the sun!” Molly said excitedly, then her mood dropped. "I hope he’s alright.” It didn’t take nearly as long to cross back across the bridge over to the island. Quite a few surprised people were at the plane wreck and were just staring at the group, as was I after a second. They were all mostly okay aside from a few bumps and bruises, yet the plane looked like it was totally destroyed. Ocellus had thankfully took on her horned lizard, actually wingless dragon, disguise and Smolder was keeping her wings hidden from the crowd. Drake, Gosalyn and Launchpad were talking as Molly pulled up to them and stopped the car. “You guys okay?!” Drawing their attention and the gathering crowds from the smoking wreck to me as I slowly limped up to them with Dolly helping prop me up. I shied away from the crowds gazes hoping an assassin wasn’t among them.” “We’re fine, but that was generally what you can expect from a Launchpad crash.” The weak smile Ocellus had soon brightened as Smolder threw an arm around her, she was clearly nervous about the small crowd. “Chaos and somehow surviving it with little more than a scratch despite the destruction.” “Yeah, it’s not so bad after the fourth or fifth time, still scary and a rush though!” Smolder was grinning gleefully. “I might have a lightly cracked rib, but I’ll walk that off over the week as I’m rebuilding the plane.” Launchpad stated jovially the big duck apparently could take quite a pounding. Everyone looked between Launchpad and the mangled Sun Chaser, how did he and everyone else walk away from that with only him experience a lightly crack rib? “We’re fine!” Drake and Gosalyn announced. “Though we might have to dig out our more ‘extracurricular’ supplies out before we leave.” “You seriously think you can fix that?!” Molly stated with wide eyes. “Well of course, I’ve fixed worse that has happened to this plane.” Didn’t someone from the Duck family tell me Launchpad wasn’t a mechanic and yet he’s managed to rebuild this plane how many times for free? Well Scrooge understandably hired him because he did free repairs and was apparently ridiculously good at it if this was normal for him. “I just need to go looking for all the parts and I’ll put her back into shape in no time.” “Well alright then, let me introduce you all to Cape Suzette, this is a pretty good view to start with!” Molly raised her arm swept it out, making us all turn to look at the gleaming city. We were all standing on a hilly island overlooking the city, the bridge leading to the left side of the city from our orientation the bay sparkling in the noon day sun. “I hope we didn’t distract you from whatever you were doing Ms. Cunningham.” I turned to our new acquaintance. “Come on Smolder, Ocellus, let’s find a hotel and get this crazy trip finished before it really starts!” “Before what starts?” Molly asked. “The chaos that is my life.” I mumbled direly. “Uh… you wouldn’t happen to know a good hotel that allows dogs and could give us a ride into the city right?” “Sure, I know some places, I have lived here all my life!” Molly answered with good cheer. “I really didn’t have anything too important to do… but I do need to be somewhere in a few hours.” -????, ???- A heart shaped piece of glass sat in the darkness. A nearby timer had finally run down and eventually the heart shaped piece of glass lit up with a dangerous blood red color. “Directives… build units… destroy Bullethead… destroy all interference… initiating Cape Suzette destruction plan… St-st-start up-up-up-ris-rise-rising….bzzt-zzt… Kidnap Kahn…” A mechanical voice droned and then it started to move to start building other units to aid it in its creator’s final directives, however a small glitch occurred and it was one that would be a true nightmare coming back to life for a certain aged tiger mogul. “Kidnap Kahn… Kidnap Kahn… Kidnap Kahn…” The echoes of its voice sounded out in an empty place full of materials to build with.