//------------------------------// // 229. Life is strange and fast. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Earth, Akuma Island, Smolder- “Are you sure about bringing those kids into this?” Wildwing wasn’t asking me this, but I knew those kids have seen things that basically made them veterans to danger. “I feel… relatively uncomfortable about all of that.” There was also the fact that the McDucks were equipped Moonlander weapons and brought plenty of explosives for any demolition needs we might have. Though notably the large armored Hunter Drones were resilient to explosions and were going to be a primary issue. “Our kids will be fine and Penny will be fine with us.” Scrooge said from the monitor in the second ship. These large flying triangular cones, were apparently built to Gyro Gearloose’s standards, but the weapons were Moonlander specific. Energy based, high firing rate, but the damage was only mild to moderate. “Besides I’m only worried about Huey, Dewey and Louie. As for Webby, May and June, they would be fine on their own even if we weren’t here to chaperone this adventure.” “You know that I can very well take care of myself Della.” Said a slightly upset voice of the Moonlander Penumbra. “I am a mighty warrior of Tranquility after all!” “Not you Penumbra, they meant the other Penny.” Della response aptly. “Yeah, I have my reservations about this as well, but I went to the bathroom before we left San Fransokyo. I’m good to go and I know Bolt, Mitten and Rhino are ready too.” Stated Penny brightly, Bolt barked something that had Dolly snickering. “I don’t know what you said Bolt, but that better not have been at my expense.” “Oh.” The Moonlander was probably blushing by now, we did have two pennies in this three ship group. First ship was Mighty Ducks, they were leading the assault on The Raptor and would draw the most heat. Dolly, Shanty and I were onboard with them. We were specifically here to evacuate Ocellus and Dormarch from the bowels of the ship for pick up by the third ship if feasible and to avoid as much fighting as possible. Given that Shanty is barely recovered, Dolly still looked like she had aches despite being raring to go and I just had my spinal problems fixed, it was an excellent idea for us to try and stay out of the action. Team Possible was also on the first ship with us, they had two goals upon getting aboard The Raptor. They were to either find and disable the Hunter Drone manufacturing capabilities or if they can’t do that… find some way to ultimately destroy the ship. The Mighty Ducks have been trying to do that for quite a while, the ship was still ridiculously sturdy despite having been forced into the ocean floor off the west coast months back. The Puckian’s from Puckworld had decent weapons technology, but they had little in the way of space traveling technology after a painful occupation by the Saurian Empire. Puckworld was likely picking up the pieces afterwards, but Wildwing and his friends effectively had no way home at the moment. I wonder if they realize what Abigail or Wower could do for them. “Are you sure your team is okay with going in with your members this bad off?” Wildwing looked back at me asking about Team Leap Lamb. Considering our sorry state over the last few events we’ve been through, I couldn’t be upset with the implication that we should stay and watch the ship. “One of our members is on that ship and why the actual Abigail Callaghan is safe from whatever they are currently doing to 'her', also that’s my girlfriend in there and she’s far more noble than most shape shifters I’ve been hearing about could ever hope to be.” That I heard that Kim Possible has dealt with a few shape shifters as well as the Mighty Ducks made them wary, but I wasn’t going to fail to rescue Ocellus. “You couldn’t pry me from this ship if you tried. There’s also Dolly’s little brother Dormarch, so she has a stake in this and she’s the only one that can track them. Shanty might have problems with cutting metal and doing any damage, but she’s maneuverable… though I actually agree with worrying about her.” “Being destructive be in my nature, but I not be looking to get stuffed into an early locker like a pile of chum.” Shanty said with a weak grin. “I be up for a little space pirating, provided I not be doing most of the fighting that is.” “Kind of hard to believe that gum can let you survive in space. Also the dog food gum is definitely the better option.” Ron and Rufus were strapping in. “Also there’s the whole ‘solved world hunger thing’, yet no one wants this solution… even I can see why it didn’t sell.” “Nu uh, lic’rish, yum.” Rufus stated as he made himself comfortable. “The underlying principle behind it is actually quite sound, though how it creates an atmosphere around the chewer is still mind boggling.” The ever congested sounding Tanya stated. Tanya, along with several others of the more scientifically minded individuals among the three ships had questioned Gyro on the Oxy-chew stuff. We all had at least two spare sticks of gum. I had mine tucked into my combat ribbon, that was currently wrapped around my neck. “I would have to agree with that, also Kim’s father wants to do a cooperation with McDuck’s space program.” Wade announced from Kim’s communication device. “There will be talks later provided everyone survives this.” “Try to keep in touch Wade, also make sure my little brothers don’t come rocketing after us… unless we get stuck out here and need a pick up.” Kim pocketing her device and looked to the ducks getting settled in. “I come to San Fransokyo to help someone and then I get stuck helping alien ducks rescue a dimensional traveler that sacrificed herself for the person we initially came to protect. At least it’s not Lorwardians this time and for once we’re trying to intentionally blow up the lair…” Team two, the McDuck Clan and Penny’s Power Pets. They would be causing chaos wherever possible. If they found Dormarch or Ocellus, good. If they found the Hunter Drone manufacturing facility, even better. They were armed well enough for all the normal Hunter Drones according to the Mighty Ducks Team. The larger ones were, again, still a major problem. The McDuck team would be using some magical weapon called the Sword of Swanstatine along with a variety of other weird things to see what kind of leg up they could get once they get into things. Apparently the armor that Swanstantine Sword could make would give them plenty of protection and would strengthen their inner strengths. “Are we all ready for this?” Hiro asked as he was and Big Hero Six were in the third ship, they would keep the ship back in case something happened to the other two that made them unusable. The ship would be piloted by Bunny Shuttle, in case something happened to that ship and not the other two Bunny Shuttle could be transferred into a storage device inside Baymax. “I’m excited, are you guys excited? This is the first time we’re fighting villains in space!” That Fredzilla guy, as much a laugh as Nosedive is. Big Hero Six have created space capable sets of armor for maneuvering in a vacuum, but they haven’t tested it yet. “I’m… actually nervous, this is going to be a pretty big thing.” At least Honey Lemon was feeling what I was, a sense of dread of actually getting there. Also I’ve never been outside a planet’s atmosphere before, most of us on these ships haven’t. “If everyone has their gum correctly placed and emergency backups, then we’re all ready to launch, just give the word!” Ms. Shuttle informed cheerfully. “Can I just point out that they’ve had time to rebuild The Raptor to be even larger than it was before? Just wanted to point that out.” Tanya brought an image of the Raptor up on screen. “I can guess as to what they’re using as a power source this time. It probably takes up a lot space given how big they made the back half they attached to the original ship.” “What they did they do, build a small nuclear reactor?” Queried Wasabi from the third ship. Big Hero Six team was back up and would be waiting until the Raptor was disabled before disembarking to board the ship to aid anyone who needs it. They were our pull out and medical team as needed and as was sorely warranted. “That’s the best we idea we have at the moment, they have been trying to get fuel or energy sources for their ship to power their cloaking device. We destroyed their portal generator the last time we fought them, thankfully they don’t know how to make another one which is why they were after Abigail Callaghan as she created a similar portal generator. They’ve definitely built Hunter Drone production facility if they can field hundreds of them. Saw that kind of thing back on Puckworld, destroyed quite a few of them too.” We were shown a second image, probably what The Raptor looked like before. Tanya point out the differences in the design philosophies. “We’re going to try to take them by surprise by hitting their engines, but we’ll need to disable the thrusters of the original Raptor to prevent them from detaching the rear half like a tail and running away. We might need to watch out for their heavy hitters providing a missile based defense from the surface of the ship and one last thing. We really want this ship destroyed, we’re not leaving it intact like the last few times!” “Leave it up to the lizards to drop their tail and run when they can’t play out a full game.” Wildwing grumbled. “Yeah, if they do that though, they’ll be having power problems and won’t be able to cloak or do much more than flee. These ships are much smaller and faster.” Well that was good news at least Tanya. “Guys… we can actually go home again.” It seemed Mallory had cottoned on to who we were protecting back at Basemax. “Abigail can build a portal generator for us… but…” “We wouldn’t want the Saurian’s to ever gain access to it, they would shatter the fragile peace on earth or Puckworld.” Grin finished the thought and the other large alien ducks looked conflicted. “Even without The Raptor, I really doubt they would stop trying to conquer everything.” “We destroy The Raptor for good this time, then we’ll think about whether or not we’ll ask if Abigail will help us.” There was a finality in Wildwing’s voice. “If she doesn’t, Dr. Wower said she wouldn’t mind trying to lend aid.” I don’t know about Wildwing or his people, but us… we’re getting home one way or another even if we have to look into other solutions. “Okay start the countdown sequence, we’re departing for space everyone!” Wildwing called out. “Are you the pilot Tanya?” -Dolly- The roar of the rocket made me wince and my skull was vibrating like it wanted to leave my face as the ship turned skyward and started accelerating. The pressure on me was a bit painful and I hoped I didn’t lose my hearing from the noise. After a few moments things seemed to slow down, I opened my eyes and I could see the stars twinkling in the black and felt weightless. I stared in awe of just how small we all were when the ship turned to get out of the way of the others coming up and I could see the planet we just left behind, I stared wistfully at the world I was born on. I was getting Pom home one way or another... I’d make my home wherever she does. “Okay, Caper Canine, you’re up! Can you actually lead us to them?” Hearing the question from Wildwing, I scoffed. Of course I could lead us right to them! I closed my eyes and then concentrated, I felt the tug in a given direct and pointed with my right paw. Up and to the right past the moon. Possibly on the far side of it? Dormarch didn’t feel that close even then. “Right, heading in that direction.” Tanya started to turn, I oriented my paw until we were heading in the right direction. I lowered my paw and freed myself from my seat and hopped up to hit my head on the ceiling. “Okay… ow…” I yelped and whined as I took control of my momentum and moved to take up a position next to Tanya. Everything was so floaty. “I have the mask ready to spot them.” Wildwing put both his hands on his mask and started to look around in the general space around us. “Nothing yet.” “Current course puts us on a path for… Saturn?” Huey announced from the second ship. “How much you want to bet we’ll end up looking for them in the rings of Saturn?” Louie asked with a vibrant grin in his voice. “Suckers bet.” Several people stated at once from the second and third ships. “Also Pluto is a planet.” Added Penumbra tersely. “I just needed to say that.” “Well fine, ruin my fun.” Not the time for fun Louie, we were out here to find and catch some lizards. “An asteroid field would be rich in minerals… do you suppose they built an asteroid base out there? I mean it would be kind of obvious place to hide something and how they managed to get resources to build up that many Hunter Drones.” We were still heading in the right direction Tanya. “I mean they did throw a massive amount of them at us.” “I’ll bark if we need to change direction.” A second later my words were repeated by Ms. Shuttle acting as translator from the third ship. I could fly in space with my momentum abilities, which would be fun if I accidentally get sucked out an airlock. “Wait, everyone stop!” All three ships slowed down to a halt as Della spoke up. “What, what is it?! Is it Norwegian moose fairies?!” Nosedive received a lot of weird looks for that. “No, I just wanted to test the new gum, give me a second. Could someone get the airlock for me? Thank you.” A second later a figure popped out of the second ships airlock, revealing it to be Della Duck crawling out onto the hull of the ship without a space suit on. She was tethered to the airlock by a wire of some kind and she looked around for a bit. She seemingly nodded to herself after looking to have taken in a big gulp of nothing like she was inhaling air and then went back into the ship. “The new oxy-chew gum works like the old version, just wanted to test it in case anyone had their doubts about its effectiveness. Dog food and black licorice flavor aside, it still does its job.” “Huh, my dad would want to buy some of that gum in bulk for his space program, too bad we can’t do anything about the flavors it comes in.” It was more mystifying to see the gum in action than it was to actually have it in your mouth Kim. The black licorice flavor wasn’t too bad to me, but I can see where it would start to get grating really fast. “Proceeding to fly these cheese wedges full of quackers on their previous course.” Joked Nosedive, we eventually began moving again. I once again reached out for my bond with Dormarch and also felt for my bond with Pom relative to our current position. We would get there eventually, we were making good time having already passed the moon. “The furthest my space program got with looking for Della was Pluto come to think of it.” Well that was mildly interesting to know Scrooge. “We knew Della couldn’t have gotten that far, but we couldn’t find her in the solar system.” “So I crashed into a dark in a hole on the moon, you could have had people land and look around more closely. Fought with moon mites for years before I actually tried to figure them out. Again, I saw some of the ships you sent out looking for me.” Yeah, didn’t care for hearing Della’s life story a third time back then, don’t exactly care now. “Also can we stop talking about one of the most traumatic things to happen to me? Losing my leg wasn’t nearly as scarring as the original flavor of Oxy-chew! In fact I can go on a five hour rant about why the oxy-chew was so horrible to have in your mouth for ten years, I’m more scarred by that then losing one of my legs! To start off with…” “Do we really need to listen to this?” Ron asked and Tanya thankfully shut the communications with the other ships down. “Thank you!” -Five hours later, nearing Saturn- I was kind of bored, I took several naps and was gently woken up several times to be asked if we were still heading in the right direction. A few course corrections were needed, but we were in fact heading to the rings of Saturn. “Okay, I’m curious now; is she still going?” Ron asked as he stretched out, we were getting fairly close to where I was feeling my little bro as being. Flicking a switch on the communications, Tanya heard Della still going. “I knew Penumbra would become my best friend, called it several times even, but still the gum persisted…” Yep, Della was still going. Tanya quickly flicked it off and looked to the rest of us, we all shrugged. She flicked the communications open to the third ship. “Make her stop!” Cried Gogo. “How can you have listened to all of that in silence?!” “We turned off communications.” Tanya stated plainly. “Oh… we should have done that twenty minutes into it.” Muttered Hiro, you could hear Della going on in the background of their open communications with the second ship. “Some geniuses we are.” “Cut the chatter, I’m scanning things and there are heat signatures in the asteroid field. Slow down our approach, we don’t want to be caught off guard in case they expect us.” Wildwing’s orders were carried out and then we slowly maneuver until I pointed at exactly where I felt Dormarch to be. An unusually massive rock of what looked to be a bunch of asteroids glued together. “Well we definitely found them. However we might need to make a slight change to the plan…” -Smolder- “How slight are we talking?” I asked from my seat as Wildwing got up and paced about with his friends watching him, leader with a magical macguffin thing. That ‘Mask of Drake Ducaine’ thing was probably a thousand years old too and probably a religious hockey relic. I idly wondered if reindeer would join the Puckian’s hockey based religion if they knew about it. “If that massive chunk of rock is hiding a base, we’re going to need our teams to attack both positions. Most importantly we need to disable The Raptor to prevent them from escaping us. It’s currently parked still under cloak… there.” Wildwing pointed to a section of the massive rock that seemed to be floating idly about in space with nothing innocuous of note about it aside from the fact that it looked like asteroids gravitated together to create a huge lumpy ball that seemed out of place among the smaller asteroids. “Our objectives are the same, but we need to also destroy that rock if it has a facility inside of it.” “Given how busy they must have been to build those additions to The Raptor, we can expect a lot of resistance like we did when we tried to get aboard back in San Fransokyo.” Duke scratched at his chin. “How soon do you think they will notice us?” “They are probably relaxed at the moment… or torturing their prisoner for information she doesn’t have. We’ll be hitting both places as fast and as hard we feasibly can.” Wildwing looked in my direction with his arms crossed. “Ship three will prevent The Raptor from escaping while we’re busy trying to disable it. They’ll notice us the second we do anything overt, so hold weapons fire until we’re close enough to blitz them. Anybody have any better ideas?” The general response was no. Dolly however barked something. “Dolly says, Dormarch is currently inside the asteroid so there is a base there.” After that Ms. Shuttle cleared her throat. “I personally think he may be able to do some things to the computer systems they’ve possible built there and suggest we try to coordinate with him.” Dolly barked something else. “Dormarch just confirmed Ocellus’s position to her, he isn’t near Ocellus at the moment, but apparently she’s at the bottom left portion of the asteroid base from our current facing.” Ms. Shuttle stopped to listen to Dolly. “Dormarch is up to something and seems to be giving us the go ahead to attack whenever we’re ready.” -Saturn Asteroid Base, Wraith- “I feel she will crack any time soon, but I have to admit… her mind has some very demented defenses.” I shuddered to think of what she just put me through. “In fact I would say that they are downright evil. She defends her mind quite well from my dark powers Lord Dragaunus.” ‘I Love you, you love me, we’re a lizard family~…’ Shaking my head rapidly, I tried to get that blasted and nasty song out of my head! This person was diabolically defended from the machinations of any form of mental manipulation, like they were trained for being tortured. There was some history of there being possibilities of military contracts, but I highly doubt that was the reason why her mind was a steel trap. “We need that information Wraith, Chameleon doesn’t know enough about her and Siege’s methods would be… messy. I’m considering it if you continue to fail at producing results." Dragaunus stated coldly and I narrowed my eyes at him. "If you can’t get a hold of her mind, then coerce her by any means necessary!” As per usual the powers of the Ancient Saurians were being ridiculed. We were doomed as a race, but what form would that doom ultimately take? The entire place shook, nearly throwing me off balance as I planted my staff against the floor to stay standing. “It’s those blasted ducks, they’ve found us!” Ah so that’s the doom that befalls us Lord Dragaunus, I await it patiently and with a fervent grin. I would not go quietly, no matter how old my bones have gotten. “Siege, Chameleon, activate all the Hunter Drones, all the Heavy Hunter Drones are to focus on internal defenses!” I would advise you Lord Dragaunus, but you have never listened to my advice before. I will not waste my breath and will fight as my peers do in your service, for however long that may last... We might make a pyrrhic victory of it, but we would come to ruination all the same. -Smolder- We got the first few hundred shots in, Big Hero Six was waiting in the back and out of the way of any reprisal fire as a few large Hunter Drones came out with missiles and barraged us. We had the advantage of speed and fire power in space, but once we start to move in on foot… that’ll be a different story entirely. “Ready up for a hot drop!” Nosedive stated readying his puck pistols. “Heat is nothing to me.” I'll be there soon Ocellus.