//------------------------------// // 177. Mettle vs Metal. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Earth, Russia, half sunk Krakarov, Carmelita- The explosion from my jetpack could be seen at this distance, as could the two remaining active members of Team Leap Lamb and the Shush agent currently under assault by the daunting Clockwerk. We were a fair distance away and I could see Cooper’s getaway vehicle below trying to help from a distance. “There’s goes my jetpack and the tower is still operational even if it can’t fly anymore.” As I said this the giant mechanical owl propped itself up on its left wing until it was upright, it sunk into the ground slightly as magma began to pool around the bottom of its legless torso and was staying up right now because it sunk into the side of the volcano. “Hey ostrich, pull up beside the Cooper Van!” The ostrich looked back at me and nodded. I was choosing to believe that Leap Lamb’s protégé wouldn’t try to fight Clockwerk alone and that the SHUSH agent had a few more tricks under his sleeve. “So we’re down two fighters, two weapons and we barely have anything that can really permanently damage Clockwerk.” Officer Wilde huffed and leaned back. “What are we still doing here again? I think we’re all going to die a fiery death at this rate.” “Well this is one of the worst situations we’ve faced.” Even then, Hopps still seemed raring to go despite the heat getting to her a bit. Heat exhaustion was going to set in eventually and we’d be down another person. “Cooper!” I screamed up at the raccoon gunning down a number of those mechanical falcons. “Nice to see you made it out of the volcano alive Carmelita, I was quite worried! Glad our stolen falcon helped you out.” Of course he seemed happy to see me and was responsible for the unusual robot falcon taking out the magma monster. “If you haven’t noticed we got big problems.” Yes and all the shots you were firing into Clockwork didn’t seem to be having much of an impact on him, also the bigger mechanical owl was firing missiles at Cut-Lass. Said goat was hopping from point to point as magma rose up from the ground beneath her melting the sturdy ground away. The Shush Agent and the dragon were distracting clockwork so far on the eastern side of the volcano, but really we needed more firepower or to concentrate all we had. We also had the tower to worry about as it was still sending out robot falcons, even if there were smaller numbers of them now. “The tower is nothing to worry about, it’ll destroy itself when it sinks into the volcano, we just have to avoid the death ray and take Clockwerk down. He’s the one behind all of this.” Thankfully for you Cooper, we still had a truce and… I wasn’t going to be arresting you today if the SHUSH agent survived and I’m betting he would as he seems to have quite a few tricks involving his gun that looked oddly similar to our shock pistols. “Want to get off the ostrich’s back and onto the van with me?” Both the van and the ostrich slowed down the Ostrich looked at me and warbled questioningly while tilting his head. “Hopps, Wilde, stay with the ostrich. Ostrich stay nearby, but if things start getting worse, then you better get everyone on you out of here!” I kicked off the back end and landed on top of the van. I glared Cooper down. “Don’t think we’re going to be friendly Cooper and stop smiling like an idiot.” “Just happy to have you onboard.” Cooper, I swear I will slap that smile off your face eventually, followed by some cuffs when I find you stealing stuff again. Speaking of cuffs Leap Lamb still had mine… darn it! “How much time do you need until you have a solution as for why Clockwerk seems indestructible Bentley?” “Give me ten more minutes to set up the scan, then we’ll know what makes him tick!” Bentley the brains was trying to figure out a way to destroy Clockwerk. “Oh and glad you’re okay Ms. Carmelita!” “Hey Ms. Fox, nice to see you again!” Grunting at Murray the muscles jovial greeting, I brought my shock pistol up. “Just keep your eyes on the ground hippo, it’s unstable and I don’t want to be burned alive if you crash the van!” Soon we all turned our attentions to the incoming missiles. -Shanty- Okay, I am being quite tired now. At least Darkwing is managing to stay on more solid ground, now if only lava would stop eating into the surroundings making it hard for me to go anywhere. “Look out!” Smolder be heaving me from my perch onto an angle pillar of rock and was immediately clasped in Clockwerk’s right talon. “Agh… not… good.” “An understatement.” Clockwerk stated as he went into a hover and started trying to crush Smolder in his grip. “Let’s see how long will you survive under the constant crushing force of my claws shall we.” “Shanty, run… I’ll be fine… for a bit.” Smolder still be managing to talking despite the crushing force on her, dragons certainly be something else even as young as her. Even so, Smolder’s claws not be doing more than scratching the metal and seconds afterwards that metal is not being scratched anymore. I turned ran to the underside of the angled pillar and launched myself to a portion of the nearby slope and rolled up it a bit to bleed momentum before I was running on my hooves. Thankfully this be a small portion of the volcano that wasn’t covered in a mass of flaming hot mess going everywhere. With a pivoting swoop Clockwerk hovered above me. “Going somewhere?” He spread his wings out wide and bursts of energy started raining down on me. Hopping backwards and out of the path of several lethal blasts of energy landing in front of me on the slope, I felt an immense heat at my back and whatever sweat I had left in my body started coming out as I looked over my shoulder at the lake of magma behind me. Yeah, I need to be taking the fight to Clockwerk now, any pain he could be doing to me is less than my body melting alive. Also he was still slowly crushing the life out of Smolder in his right talons. Narrowing my eyes, I be charging forward and stopped immediately when a blast of energy ruptured the ground and lava started slowly pouring out. I hopped to the side several times to avoid several other shots and be noting that the slope I was on was starting break apart. How would I even be able to get up to Clockwerk? I can’t be jumping very high like Pom and I couldn’t be getting close without possibly being hit or grabbed by the other talons. Really missing that jetpack right now. “Hey, don’t forget that I’m around!” Darkwing said from further up the slope as several blasts of energy rocked Clockwerk’s back, he be getting the drop on Clockwerk easily. “Also let go of that girl!” “I think I’ll just keep crushing her.” Clockwerk had turned away from me and to Darkwing. I be taking this distracting opportunity to climb up the slope to the left where I saw the Heavy Hooter sitting up with its lower torso sticking out of the ground. I not be wanting to be caught in its eyesight. Looking back, Darkwing narrowly avoided being hit by a barrage of energy and was firing back at Clockwerk. We be needing something big to do some damage… I continued to climb upwards and thought about how we can deal with the metal owl. In the distance I could feel Dodo and he be sending me the idea of Cooper, Carmelita and the others all gathered and fighting off robot falcons. They were all currently safely out of sight of Heavy Hooter which kept raining missiles down on them and was slowly wearing away at their cover behind some cliffs they were below, if they didn’t deal with the projectiles then they’d be getting hit with avalanches of stone or the area beneath would collapse and become another sunken part of the volcano. “What to do, what to do, what do I be doing here?!” I looked at the tower as I climbed up over a cliff and looked at the field of lava below, I not wanting to be getting any closer to either. I be more about action and I was tired and fighting physically wasn’t getting anyone anywhere with Clockwerk… so I be thinking of how to deal with this smarter. “… I think I be having an idea! Will it work though?” I be moving along the raised piece of land and looking between me and the tower, then to Clockwerk on my right as he be injuring Darkwing who be taking a nasty slash across the chest. The land was sinking further where he was and he would have problems getting out of there. “Hey you yellow bellied mass of scrap metal, right here, hey!” I be jumping, hooting and hollering to draw the Heavy Hooter’s attention waving my hooves high in the air in an attempt to attract its attention towards me. This is being a big gamble. “Oh look at me, I have big glowy eyes yet I couldn’t shoot the broad side of a barn from half an inch away!” I gave Dodo an abridge idea of what I was about to do, timing was everything though and I needed Darkwing and Clockwerk to be in the right positions. I’m sure Smolder would be being fine as long as she isn’t directly hit, she is not looking too good in Clockwerk’s claws and was starting to look like she was lacking oxygen. I hope be getting here soon, I be needing him. The Heavy Hooter was still focused on Cooper and Dodo. So I tried to figure something else out as it couldn’t hear me from this far away, my Riptide attacks turn into steam as soon as I tried to use them from the heat so… I slashed my right hoof towards my left and my left caught some of the liquid that was going to turn into the steam, I slashed my left towards my right and caught the added bit and started to swing my hooves towards each other and slowly formed a ball of steam and compacted it down. I began swirling that ball and pressuring it down. You didn’t become a great pirate by being an idiot, unless you had tons of charisma and luck. I wanted to be remembered for doing big things and this… this was me focusing the blasts of steam and whatever sweat I had into a tiny compact ball. The intent I was forcing through my magic shaping it and eventually I was holding a tiny swirling white sphere that violently shook and almost jumped from my right hoof before I pressed down on it with my left. Clenching the swirling orb tightly, I spun around and raised my right hoof. “White Squall!” I threw it towards the Heavy Hooter, the orb thankfully not be effected by gravity thanks to magic. I don’t think I would be throwing it nearly as far it was currently going otherwise. I was aiming for the head, but the small orb exploded on the tower around below the left side of its chest and caused… no damage. Maybe a dent, but it wouldn’t be being very visible from here. It did be making a lot of steam though and the impact had to be noticeable, since the large glowing eyes were now on me and charging up to fire. “Dodo… please tell me you’re almost here, I don’t know how well I can be dodging this on my own.” He be fast and he coming for me again, my most trusted friend. Familiars were awesome and mine is being the best to me! Remembering what I hear Pom be doing with Dolly and how familiars work, I sent some of my strength Dodo’s way. -Nick- Something was happening and Dodo was suddenly moving, not caring about the gaze of the Big Hoot’s death ray eyes. It seemed to be focused on something else and I saw Shanty standing proudly with her hooves on her hip and glaring at the tower, while taking a few glances behind her and moving left or right slightly. What was she doing and… did Dodo just pick up an immense amount of speed? Thankfully his beak was cutting through the air and protecting me from the force of his own movements, but I was still being buffeted by a lot of air. “Doing okay Carrots?!” I called back. “Making sure these two don’t fall out!” Judy shouted back. “How fast is he going what’s the rush?!” I’d think we’d look like an indistinct blur crossing uneven terrain with magma vents, streams of lava and a volcano that has collapsed halfway inwards thus far with patches of its side collapsing near us. -Sly- “Murray, step on it!” The van peeled out, if things were going the way I thought they were, this would be an opportunity to take back what’s mine. “Bentley have you made the scanner yet.” “Give me a few more minutes Sly!” Bentley responded. “Is she… no… she can’t be doing what I think she is, not after I went to the trouble of saving her from that swamp!” Carmelita was angry with Shanty, I was too for that matter given what she was about to do, I think Dodo would make it in time. He was speeding up abnormally fast, most likely because Shanty was in peril. “She’s going to be a real hero if it works, we currently have other things to worry about.” Like the robot falcons diving on us, Dodo was moving far too fast for any of them to keep up with him. -Darkwing- I glance to the cliff and saw Shanty standing with her hooves on her hips as she glared down the death ray eyes of Heavy Hooter. Jay Gander Hooter was going to get a laugh out of this one somehow, provided nobody dies and Shanty was about to. What was she think… oh…? I see it now. Well she better have a method for outrunning the beam or at least avoiding it. “I’m Saint Canard’s premier crime fighter, one of the world’s best martial artist and I’ve stepped on several claymore mines without permanent injury, heck I even walked those off! If you can’t kill me, then how do you ever expect to take down someone as notorious as Sly Cooper down?!” Time to press buttons and do what I’m best at, confusing my enemies by acting like I have no clue what’s going on sometimes. I meant to do that is one of my favorite phrases. “Heck, I haven’t even heard of you until I came here, you must be one of the world’s worst criminals if you lost your body to a toaster!” “You will perish for that remark!” Clockwerk screeched as he lashed out at me and I started shooting at him, my shots doing very little to damage him, but they were adding up and electrifying his body like he was a living Jacob’s ladder. I had a grin on my beak. “I am the world’s greatest criminal mastermind!” “Wow self-proclaimed mastermind, haven’t heard that more than once, are you part of the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny by any chance? What did you do buy a T-shirt? If not then hardly anyone knows that you exist aside from burning down a mansion and killing two people, like that’s so hard to do and it took you and four other people to manage even that much! It’s no wonder the Cooper Family are more memorable than you!” He was actually buying it and I had his full attention on me. I rolled under his left claw as he tried to claw and gave Smolder a worried look as she was turning blue and her scales were cracking. I back down the hill firing up at him while a grin crossed my beak and my eyes glimmered behind my mask. I lived to annoy my enemies with the fact that I will not stop until they do, I never blink in the face of death! “The Coopers are notorious and well known the world over, you… you don’t even warrant a footprint in history you overblown chicken so full of hot air that you’d have to marry a dirigible at this point to have any chance of being noticeable!” “The world will notice me when I kill all its heroes, starting with you!” He fired a bursts of energy from his wings at me and I started firing energy gas from my gun to blow them out of the air. “You are nothing more than a person pretending to be a hero from a show that nobody ever cared much for to begin with!” “So you know about the Darkwing Duck show then?” I said with a smarmy grin, time to use the old fake overblown pride to goad him into attacking me. “That means more people know about it than they would ever know about you, which is saying something considering I am living up to actually being Darkwing Duck and will be a living breathing legend unto myself!” We moved towards one another, him an indestructible demon of a mechanical owl and me a tall, quite handsome, biped duck with a purple mask, cape, a snazzy hat and suit that hunts criminals with a working gas gun weapon I made from blueprints that my relative Maui Mallard lent me about his personal weapon the Beetle Blaster. I’m becoming a reality, a myth that will go down in history and you Clockwerk, you are becoming a cautionary tale about paying attention to your surroundings. -Shanty- Now I be knowing why Pom doesn’t do this often, it was draining to be sending strength to your partner and all I could do was stay standing proudly. My front hooves were actually propping up my body and hiding my exhaustion, my hind legs were quivering and I kept a bright grin on my as the eyes finished charging. All the climbing, goat flying, fighting robotic birds, avoiding death, all of this be taking a lot of the wind out of my sails, but I am not done yet. I had one thing to do before I be going down. “Bring it on, I’m not afraid, I live the dream of freedom and you can’t take that from me! Only the seas or skies may take me and even then they are going to have to fight hoof and tooth for it!” I narrowed my as the beams fired, the blinding force be coming for me. “For I am a mighty pirate goat!” I felt my hind legs finally give out, but my bravado be staying even if it is the last thing I do. Dodo’s beak slammed into my chest from underneath and I found myself flailing through the air and then I be slamming into something soft… several soft things actually. I saw the beam passing through the cliff where I was standing as my head flopped into something cozy and familiar. My chest be hurting a lot, but I be alive. Dodo be saving my life again, he be the best first mate ever. He warbled worriedly and I be looking up at him to send him a feeling of reassurance and to continue helping everyone else. Have food ready when I wake up Dodo. Suddenly something dropped into my opened exhausted mouth as my eyes closed, I smiled as I tasted the sweet flavor of strawberry cheesecake muffins. What a daft familiar I be having. “Why did you…” I be hearing someone ask something and then they be saying something, I can’t exactly pay attention anymore. My ears not be working at the moment, I still thankfully felt the weight of my precious treasure on my forehead. “Will choke… you idiot!” I said when I wake up, not when I be passing out from another close call Dodo! Still be swallowing it though… delicious… -Cooper- I’ll have to give Shanty credit for one of the more memorable and important moments of my entire life, because I had an almost front row seat to Clockwerk getting blindsided by his own death ray from the side as he was charging Darkwing as we drove up to a cliff overlooking the slope. The owl was blasted into the ground and hit with an erupting magma vent a second later, which had to have done some damage. “I got the look on his face on camera, it was awesome!” Of course you did Murray, not like you were currently worried about driving the van and keeping us from being dunked into a fiery death. Also what’s with the camera in the first place? Was that the thing Bentley was working on with Dormarch? “Also I hope Sh… Cut-Lass is okay.” “Didn’t she just proclaim she was a pirate… and given what Murray just said you’re on a first name basis with her outside of her codename, did you have something to do with corrupting a youth Cooper?” Carmelita glared at me as she blew a diving falcon out of the air and its mechanical parts sprayed all over the ground. “Honestly, no. She was like that long before I met up with her in the swamp.” Not technically wrong, my wording was completely truthful one hundred percent, just let assumptions take their course. She doesn’t need to know Shanty was a card carrying member of the gang. I did finally managed to slip one of my calling cards under her headband, she didn’t make it easy either as she was a bright little goat that wouldn’t let me get close enough to steal food from her. Clockwerk may be down and covered in a light amount of lava, but he wasn’t out, I could see him moving and regaining his bearings. “I got it, his weakness, it’s in his mouth or head… it’s a very small chip giving off massive amounts of energy. You know that malice that our mutual friend was feeling from miles away and couldn’t even come close to?” Bentley paused to let it sink in for me, I felt a sense of dread rise as I had a feeling where he was going with this. I saw something get tossed up from below the gunner’s seat and I grabbed it to look it over. “His body is running entirely off of his hatred for the Cooper family! We need to destroy that chip like yesterday, it’s the thing keeping his body going and mostly indestructible! He is literally repairing himself as we speak with his own hatred!” A badly damaged Clockwerk stood up dripping with lava and roared, his eyes focusing on Darkwing and his body was already fixing itself as he stepped forward. “Bentley, take the gun, stop any interference from the tower. Murray, think up a path to go to avoid the next beam when it fires. I’m going down there to get back what’s mine and save Darkwing!” I hopped out of the seat and started running along the cliff with my cane clutched tightly in my right hand. I noticed Dodo hopping down and heading towards a crawling Smolder, she was safe. “Oh and just do what you do best Inspector!” "Cooper!" Ignoring Carmelita, I jumped from the cliff and twirled to land on a spire point and my cane started glowing. I now know exactly where your weakness is Clockwerk!