-Earth, Krakarov Top, Carmelita-
After being a given a quick run down I looked to the flying tower, but my jetpack was no longer on it. It was being flown by a costumed duck and riding on top of it was… yep it was that strange goat again.
“Who are the goat and duck?” I asked as it seemed they were largely keeping Clockwerk distracted, thanks to Inspector Tezuka’s gift.
Frankly the weapons and jetpack combo were powerful, but wasn't doing nearly as much damage to Clockwerk as I thought it would. That was despite it tearing through the smaller robotic birds like tissue paper.
“Apparently the goat goes by Cut-Lass, special abilities include climbing on any surface, creating a cutting edge when she swings her hooves and is fairly acrobatic. She’s also apparently a limited hydrokinetic, the water has to come from somewhere and Nick here says she can use her own sweat.” Judy seemed to know a fair amount. “She’s considered one of Leap Lamb’s protégés.”
“And the duck?” The one flying my on loan jetpack.
“SHUSH agent, likely a freelance one owed quite a few favors.” As did Nick, who had me blankly staring at him for just the first two words.
“Merde!” It seems I wouldn’t be able to arrest Cooper today if things were going to go the way I thought they were.
Also the goat was a teenage super hero, explains why she was in a swamp fighting monsters. At least she was doing okay so far, but she was in a lot of danger right now.
“Yeah, thought that would upset you.” Nick said with slight grin, he frowned afterwards and pointed out the tower firing a death ray that the small jetpack avoided nimbly while trying to keep Clockwerk back with multiple rockets plowing into his near pristine form. “You have to admit that Clockwerk has become something of a world threat, especially with what we’re seeing here.”
Hearing a noise I pulled my pistol and aimed it at the two legged ostrich that walked up to us, it didn’t seem to be attacking and was a little wary of me aiming at it.
“Don’t shoot, he’s with Team Leap Lamb. Show her your side!” At Judy’s words the machine tilted its head curiously and turned to the side to reveal ‘Team Leap Lamb’ proudly written on its body in a childish scribble. “Nick told me he’s a living being. Don’t know how, but he can eat, breathe and feel pain, despite being metal.”
It approached me and I clenched my hand over my pistol, it gently lowered its head and made a warbling whining noise. It then nudged Leap Lamb with a worried expression, it took a chunk of wool at the back of her neck into its beak and then carefully lifted her off of my shoulders and planted her into the hollow in its back.
Looking into the hollow I saw that Leap Lamb’s erstwhile sidekick, Caper Canine, was also unconscious and less injured than she was.
“Well that’s two members of Leap Lamb’s team that are…” Something plowed into a bit of weak rock and a plume of magma and lava shot into the air. Nick looked a little worried “Make that…”
“I’m… I’m okay… just a bit of a headache!” Flopping out of the crack in the ground covered in what should be a lethal amount of hot lava was an orange lizard with horns, wings and purple frills. “Agh… why is it always blows to my head?! Oh hey D-”
Said lizard was about to say something when she noticed us and clammed up, despite that the mechanical ostrich happily walked over to her and warbled worriedly while pointing it’s… his? His beak into his own back.
“Hey there, funny seeing you guys up here… things aren’t going too well are they?” She grinned weakly at us, while scooping up a bit of lava and slurping it down much to my concern, apparently molten rock had no effect on her despite how lethal it was to most living things if she was drinking it. She flapped her wings and flew slightly above the ostrich to look into his back. “That Clockwerk guy seems to just shrug off any damage done to him. Also, okay… that is a big yikes… our basket case is down. I’m sure they’ll be fine, keep them safe, now if you’ll excuse me… back into the fight!”
With that the… dragon I want to say… She flew off and blasted a fireball into an approaching robotic falcon as she went back up to continue the moderately hectic fight going on in the air.
“Was that a dragon?” I said still in clear disbelief.
“Yeah, a lot of things are going on around here Carmelita, we’ll sort this all out after we’re done with Clockwerk.” Judy held up her shock pistol while gesturing to it. “Also can I get a retroactive permission to set this for lethal?”
“Granted and I better get an explanation for all of this later, I feel I’m going to have headaches about all of this for a long time to come if we survive.” I stated as I held up my pistol and noted the metal ostrich firing a… doughnut?
Said doughnut splattered across a robot falcon’s face and it crashed into the side of the volcano and was summarily melted by a fountain of lava.
The ostrich machine stepped in place a few times and looked to us, then warbled and crouched down while tilting its head at itself.
“I take it he wants us to grab on to him?” I asked lazily.
“Yep.” Judy.
“Definitely, the only way we’re going to get to a safer place than here in a timely manner.” Nick stated as he walked over to the ostrich and then leapt up to mount its neck. I turned and saw a portion of the cone of the volcano collapsing inwards nearby. “Besides I don’t have a weapon and I’d rather be on stable ground than up here where that Big Hoot could fire its death ray eyes at us or fall into the volcano. Come on!”
Judy hopped into the back with Leap Lamb and Caper Canine, I jumped to cling onto the machine’s backside.
Shakily standing up the mechanical ostrich started running down the side of the volcano, once he was used to our weight he started moving much more smoothly despite the rough uneven terrain and the random bits of volcano shifting about wildly in places.
-Cooper Van, lower on the side of the volcano, Dormarch-
“The Trojan Falcon is down, but I took out the magma monster bioweapon with its self-destruct. Last visuals confirm that Carmelita and Pom made it out of the volcano. Dodo was on route to meeting up with them, Caper Canine is out of the action and is being carried by Dodo. ” I rolled my eyes at what I was about to say next. Having just used our remote control stolen friend to assist the Interpol Officers in dealing with one major issue among at least four remaining. We still had to deal with everything else, but losing our robotic infiltrator wasn’t a big issue at this point in time as we no longer had need of it and it was for a good cause. “Pom’s health is, of course, questionable until I can get a scan of her personally. All biological signs of magma slugs are ceasing activity in the nearby area of the van, the volcano is sinking and we’re down at least two fighters. Three if you count the fact that Officer Wilde can’t do anything to help without a shock pistol. We still have two large flying mechanical hoots and one can slowly produce swarms of robotic falcons and even carry hundreds in reserve.”
“We should consider ourselves lucky that we even still have methods of fighting back, I’m taking the turret Bentley. Also I’m glad to hear our fair and ever lovely inspector is okay.” Sly stated from nearby with a happy sigh, before he got into the seat and the gun rose up out of the back of the van. “If we can shoot down Clockwerk, I can go retrieve the last bit of the Thievius Racoonis from his body. I wouldn’t put it past the guy to have it stowed away in his chest or something.”
“The bigger problem here Sly is that flying abomination of a tower, we don’t have the munitions to do much more than damage its wings. Its death ray will definitively annihilate us if it spots us and we can’t draw that kind of attention! Even if we were to make it crash, it’d still have enough power to wipe us off the face of this volcano before it even hits the ground.” That was actually quite a cause for concern Bentley, I was trying to calculate a way we can deal with that. “It’s even more of a problem what with Clockwerk remotely controlling it and while utilizing his own body at the same time. That kind of multitasking would be quite impressive, if it wasn’t endangering our friends on the jetpack.”
“Well The Murray thinks we should show that vile fiend Clockwerk exactly what we can do!” Murray was still brave in the face of what was a very difficult situation. “So how are we going to do it without being death rayed or falling into the molten muck around here Bentley?”
“Give me a minute to think of route to safe ground, oh that isn’t good… Murray make turn right and step on it!” Bentley stated hastily as the portion of the volcano we were on rumbled. The back of the van sunk a bit, but we apparently made it away from a sinking portion of the volcano. “You know what Sly, just start shooting. We’ll deal with the consequences of having the death rays focus when it actually starts aiming our way.”
“I’m sorry that this has all been such a mess guys.” Sly stated with a grave tone as he armed the van’s turret and turned to start firing.
“Don’t worry about it Sly!” Both Bentley and Murray responded with good cheer, they were the best of friends and I could almost feel the emotional connections between them.
“As long as all our friends can come away from this functionally alive, especially Pom, then we’ll have no regrets!” I responded as well, because I didn’t want to be forgotten. “I’m not exactly useful anymore in this fight, but I’m here for emotional support. Also if you can start hitting the bigger owls wing joints after its finished firing the death ray we might be able to bring it down, it won’t be able to get into the air again and it won’t have time to fire on as before it hits the ground. Though it will still be very viable threat while on the ground from what I can see visually.”
“That’s a fairly viable solution, but we need to stay out of visual range once it’s down. Also maybe you do still have a use in this Dormarch. We still need to know how Clockwerk is recovering from all the damage being dealt to him, if I can boost your scanners to find the problem that’s keeping Clockwerk in perfect condition then we’ll know how to take him down permanently.” Bentley started to tinker with several things before grumbling. “It’ll give me something to work on as I don’t have many ideas at the moment for what else I can do and we can help figure out how to bring down Clockwerk together.”
-In the air around Krakarov, Shanty-
“Young lady, I’ll have you know that what you’re doing is dangerous!” Is Darkwing being serious right now? He’s the one flying a device that could be exploding at any second.
“I be no young lady, I be a young pirate!” Seeing several missiles streaking in at us. “Aye!”
My shout be creating a barrier that lasted a second, which was all we needed to survive the series of explosions. I be using up quite a bit of energy and I was going to be quite hungry after this.
“Besides I be keeping the birds and missiles off of us." This was not being safe in the slightest… I feel so alive right now! "You should be being happy that Gosalyn is not in the middle of this!”
“Yeah and I hope she doesn’t show up out of the blue like she usually does…” Darkwing grumbled as he shifted the controls and I held on as the jetpack spiraled through several blasts of energy from Clockwerk. A beam of death be trailing after us and metal birds be trying to force us into the path of that beam. “I’m so glad that the controls on this thing are relatively intuitive.”
“Do you think we be running out of fuel soon?” Despite all the danger, there was one thing I be mostly wondering. How did Darkwing be keeping his hat on his head in the middle of all of this?
“If it does, then we’re not going to live long enough to hit the ground.” That be a dour attitude, but Darkwing is being right with how much was focusing on us right now.
A metal bird be coming for us and I be prepping a hoof to slash it apart, it is then being torn apart by a stream of shots from below that quickly took out several other birds. I blinked and smiled at the help from the Cooper Van moving down the volcano.
Clockwerk be looking their way and then he be receiving a blast of cupcake batter to the eyes, I be looking towards where I felt Dodo. Clockwerk be spiraling towards the ground slowly and away from us.
The entire place be falling apart, sections of it rose up, sections were collapsing, lava sprayed into the air and the volcano becoming more of a deathtrap by the second.
This would all be so cool… if I wasn’t being so sweaty, tired and in need of at least an entire bucket of water to drink. I was fine with the mortal peril, I be expecting that coming into this.
“Is there any way I can be being more helpful?” Hanging on fairly well here, I didn’t fear being this high up, I do be fearing hitting the ground though.
“Aside from what you’ve been doing, not really.” Darkwing then had to make a comment that be getting under my fur. “Unless you can get down from up here safely, you’re kind of slowing down the jetpack with your weight.”
“So I be eating a lot, I’m not nearly that heavy!” Though admittedly I do be having more compressed mass than a normal goat of my size and build, it be why I have problems jumping from the ground.
“You kind of are!” Smolder shouted as she blocked a metal bird for us with her body and she swiftly bit its head off and let the rest of it drop away from us. “I wouldn’t be able to fly with your weight!”
“Can’t you do that grow thing?” Clinging onto the back of the jetpack more tightly as Darkwing be sharply turning and firing a salvo into a series of incoming missiles and birds.
“Only for Ocellus, do I honestly have to remind you why she couldn’t be here!” So that’s a no on riding a big dragon? Well Smolder is being no fun.
“Are you okay taking hits like that?” Darkwing called out as we veered around several missiles.
“I’m fine as long as I don’t take too many sharp blows to the head all at once, I'm not brittle!” Smolder followed that statement by spitting a fireball at the Heavy Hooter. It not be doing much aside from lightly scorching the metal, the flaps of its wings be hitting us with a powerful blasts of winds. “What does it take to actually damage that thing? Also where’s that Clockwerk guy?”
“He be down there!” I pointed with my left hoof to where Clockwerk was trying to clear his eyes of the sticky cupcake batter Dodo be spitting in his eyes. “Dodo be a good shot.”
“Yeah, he is!” Smolder was struggling against the wind being generated by the giant owl flapping its wings and firing more missiles our way while its eyes glowed. “Anything you need me to tell the Cooper gang or do you need me here?!”
“No and look out, grab her Shanty!” Darkwing slammed the jetpack into Smolder, I grabbed onto her with my left hoof and we avoided the missiles and the big beam of death that trailing through the air after us. “Come on, come on, is this really all the power this thing has when it’s not firing?!”
The jetpack be using a lot of power for both flying and its weapons, it not be good that it was starting to falter. Each flap of the massive owl’s wings either buffeted us or tried to suck us toward it as we avoided the beam sweeping after us.
Darkwing be flying us back and away from it and the beam it be firing, we were being violently tossed through the air and he still be flying the thing really well. I could feel the energy of the beam as it closed in on us and was about a foot away when it petered out.
“You can let go of me now Shanty.” Blinking at Smolder, I grinned and released her so she was flying in the air.
Before we could do anything else, we saw a series of blasts hit the wing joint of the massive flying machine. It be coming from the van.
“Finally, some help with this thing!” Darkwing took aim and started hitting the same spot the stream of shots from below were hitting. “It’s not nearly enough, Shanty, Smolder, can you grab the controls and hold this thing steady I need to get my gas gun out. Also hold the trigger down Smolder.”
Doing as he asked, Darkwing pulled his gas gun out and started to fiddle with it. I held the jetpack steady and Smolder kept the guns aimed at the flying giant owl.
“Do I have to be reminding you that we don’t know the controls?” I looked at to the distant ground below and saw Clockwerk was nearly done clearing the cupcake batter out of his eyes, he be burning it off with bursts of energy from his wings. “Also Clockwerk is about to be back in the air again!”
“I’ll get it in time, just hold on.” He be saying that while we’re still getting buffeted and can’t stay in one place for long. “Just got to… there! Suck gas you massive machine!”
Darkwing be taking aim with his gas gun and firing a full canister, a strange yellow gas explodes over a section and, combined with the constant fire, the base of the massive monster owl’s right wing started taking damage.
Then a series of shock pistol shots be flying in and the joint be covering it in energy and before anyone knew it.
A single blast of rippling energy from Dodo be aiding in the constant fire the large owl was under and it was that one shot that be changing something drastically, because something finally be giving.
The base of the right wing joint cracked throughout and then when it flapped forward it be sheering completely off and the large mechanical owl be falling from the sky. It’s massive right wing sheering into the volcano’s side and creating a massive flow of lava.
“Now if only I had another canister of that for Clockwerk himself, if it would have even worked.” Darkwing stowed his gun as the massive owl struck the ground with a thunderous world shaking impact and a huge portion of the volcano started breaking up around the area it crashed. “Okay, you can let me have control back girls, you know, before we crash into the ground.”
I silently be moving back to sitting on the back of the jetpack and Smolder flapped away. The Heavy Hooter still be active, but it being less dangerous on the ground.
Clockwerk flew up at us and we evaded his talons scything upwards through the air and nearly hit the ground. Darkwing veered away from the ground and we narrowly avoided being clawed by Clockwerk’s talons again, I be ducking away as a shower of sparks struck hit my fur as I covered my face with a hoof.
The large mechanical owl be turning around to go for me, only Smolder blinded him with a blast of fire to the face so we could get away and she herself flew off in a different direction.
“So my enemies yet survive, but you will not be able to best me!” Clockwerk proclaimed as we flew away. He is being full of himself for someone who is losing most of his stuff so far.
Suddenly I heard something, I looked at the jetpack and be noting the damage quietly.
“Darkwing… should the jetpack be making that noise?” I asked as I noticed the flames keeping us aloft started flickering and we started getting lower to the ever increasing number of magma and lava pits around the rapidly crumbling portions of the volcano.
“He must have hit something important, we’re going down!” Darkwing tried to steady the jetpack and had us in a mostly upright position. “Jump, tuck and roll!”
“Worry about yourself, that be one of the first things that Pom be teaching me thoroughly!” I looked at a nearby downward slope and kicked off while curling up tightly.
I hit the slope rolling at a high speed, until I ramped off into the air. Uncurling into a backflip, I slapped hooves first into a chunk of land the rose up out of the surrounding magma pits that were growing bigger by the second beneath me.
The stone I was standing on started sinking and looking behind me I saw Clockwerk swooping in towards me with talons wide open.
“Goat fly!” I kicked off and flew towards an uphill portion as his talons be smashing the sinking rock to bits. Slapping into a nearby upwards slope, I tumbled and started running up it as it collapsed behind me. Energy blasts be raining down on me.
“Hey, leave my friend alone!” Smolder blasted clockwork with a few fireballs, but they be doing nothing more than distracting him from me.
The remaining shots Darkwing fired from the jetpack before he be freeing himself of the straps also be doing little to slow the smaller metal owl down, but it be drawing his attention away enough for me to make another leap to more stable ground.
Darkwing fell straight down as the jetpack itself flew forward and be falling into pool of lava, he be putting one hand on his hat and his other held his weapon.
“You think your hot stuff?” Darkwing waved his fist at Clockwerk, before aiming his gun at the ground. “Well then, let’s get dangerous!”
“You’ll see before long that your bravado will get you a quick…?!” Clockwerk was confused when both his talons went to grab Darkwing, only for his talons to meet nothing but air despite there being nowhere for Darkwing to have gone without leaving the smoke cloud. “Death?”
My attention was drawn away by missiles raining down on me and breaking up the area, causing more lava flows. It was getting unbearably hot out here and my fur was singing from being this close to it all.
I started climbing away from the pooling lava and up to the top of a boulder to look around for a safer place to go.