Chapter 44: Evacuation Plan
Central Tower Viewing Platform
Afternoon
It didn't take long before the entire town had erupted into chaos. Mere moments after stepping back out onto the public viewing platform encircling the tower, Luna could already hear the screams of terror echoing from the streets below. Many dragons had already begun to gather around the tower, a swarm of colorful specs seeping into the wide circular plaza that surrounded it. A couple yellow dots that Luna guessed were SandWings took off out of the settlement, only to fly right back at the sight of the oncoming horde of undead dragons that surged toward it from all sides.
"This...doesn't look good…." Hidden stated, scratching his frills. If dragons could sweat, he'd have been soaked, and Luna too, for that matter. After all, they had just destroyed the one thing protecting the dragons of this town from the undead plague, dooming them to become mindless flesh-eating zombies like the ones surging towards them at that very moment.
Krill seemed to be taking it the worst, the pale SeaWing's scales starting to lose what little color they had, his forelegs tightly wrapped around Lin's neck as he stared down at the panicked dragons below.
"B-Bu...how..." he sputtered, barely able to form a coherent word, his entire body shivering fearfully. Lin carefully set the SeaWing on the balcony, only for him to nearly collapse over the edge, half unconscious.
"We...we have to...save everyone…." he finally gasped, lying on the stone platform. Ricky quickly stepped over to help the SeaWing up against the tower wall, next to one of the unconscious IceWing guards. The SkyWing turned to his brother, a determined look on his face, and nodded. Hidden sighed, and turned back toward the undead horde making its way toward the city.
"Looks like we got quite the mess to clean up, don't we?" he yawned, stretching out his back. He paused, staring out at the city below, and began pacing back and forth on the balcony, tapping a claw against the side of his head.
"If Xavier were to...no, that wouldn't work…unless the Rickys…." he mumbled, his golden pupils darting back and forth as he postulated. His pacing suddenly halted, his foretalon lowering from his head and clenching into a fist, an excited grin spreading across his snout. Luna could tell that he had some crazy plan in mind, and frankly, crazy was just what they needed.
"Well, out with it." Lin stated impatiently, also recognizing Hidden's grin.
"Krill, could you pass me the communicator for a sec?" Hidden began, extending a talon to the pale SeaWing. Krill stared at the communicator for a second, before tossing it up to the SandWing, who quickly began dialing a small batch of buttons attached to the side of the device. Soft static emanated from the device for a second, before a familiar voice called out from its tiny speakers.
"H-Hidden?! What the moons is going on?! You haven't called me in three hours!" Xavier shouted through the device, his worried frustration clearly evident despite the communicator's poor sound quality.
"Heh heh...yeah, sorry 'bout that…." Hidden meekly replied.
"You know, I was just about ready to fly over there myself, like you did a week ago!" the RainWing replied.
"Well it's a good thing you didn't." Hidden explained, staring out at the horizon. "We kinda had a run in with that Darkstalker you bumped into another timeline. He's gone for now, but we're gonna need a pickup fast."
"But how did...no, nevermind, you can explain later. But, how come you can't fly back here yourself? Did something happen to the shuttle?"
"No, the shuttle's fine…." Hidden replied, as the shuttle shifted into view, the other Ricky clumsily piloting it around the city, just beneath the wave of undead dragons pouring out of the tower. "But, it's not just us that need a pickup."
"Wh...what?"
"Just get here with the Salvation as quickly as you can, Lin can fill you in on the rest when you arrive!"
"Hidden?! Wai…." Xavier started, but Hidden switched off the communicator before he could finish, tossing it to Ricky.
"Alrighty then, Ricky, you head up to the shuttle with the other Ricky and provide air support, got it?" Hidden continued. His brother nodded, and took off to the shuttle without another word, casting Krill one last worried glance before he left.
"Luna and I will take care of the bridge." Hidden continued, gazing down at the single sliver of stone stretching across the circular gorge that surrounded the town, the undead horde already surging toward it. "Destroying it should buy us plenty of time to get everyone on board the Salvation, and I whipped up some stuff a little while back that should take it out real quick!" The SandWing donned a toothy grin, patting the blue polyester bag strapped around his left foreleg.
"Wait...everyone?" Lin asked skeptically, "You're not really planning on evacuating the entire town?"
"No, we're planning on evacuating the entire town." Hidden corrected, "I mean, we can't just leave them here. Even if Darkstalker does come back before the zombies get them, they'll just be trapped in his prison again. And who knows? He might even decide to enchant them all since we managed to escape!"
Luna silently nodded in agreement, and even Lin relented, despite the skepticism written on her face. "So what should I do then?" the EarthWing asked.
"You take Krill and rendezvous with the Salvation once it arrives." Hidden finished. "Then, you and our Darkstalker can go round up all the brainwashed IceWings while Xavier loads up the rest of the civilians. Though...you might have to knock 'em out. Something tells me they won't be very cooperative…."
"Wait...there's another Darkstalker…?" Krill moaned, staring up at the group in confusion. They didn't have time to explain the other Darkstalker on the Salvation to the SeaWing, though, as Luna spotted a group of white specs ascending from the fortress below.
"Speaking of which…." Luna muttered, gazing out over the balcony as a trio of armored IceWings ascended toward them, their fierce glares fixed on them as they neared the ledge. Luna and Hidden leapt back as the guards touched down. The two smaller ones brandished shining silver spears, their emotionless gazes fixed on their targets. The largest held no weapons, though judging by her immense size and numerous battle scars, Luna figured she didn't need any.
"GO, NOW! I'll take care of this!" Lin shouted, just as the largest IceWing unleashed a stream of freezing death breath at Hidden. Luna quickly lunged toward the SandWing, knocking the both of them over the ledge, narrowly avoiding a chilling demise. The two smaller guards readied to fly after them, but Lin quickly grabbed one by the tail, throwing him into the other and dragging the two back onto the balcony.
"You think she'll be alright?" Luna asked, gazing back at the tower as she and Hidden spread their wings, gliding down toward the clustered stone buildings below.
"Yeah, she'll be fine. I almost feel sorry for those guards, having to face that monster!" Hidden replied with a smirk, "Come on, we've got a bridge to destroy!"
Luna grinned, turning her attention back to the bridge as the duo glided over the stone rooftops, noticing a small group of dragons gathered at its end, seemingly planning to fight off the approaching zombie horde by themselves.
"Hold steady! The King will return soon! But until then, we must not let them cross this bridge!" one of the dragons shouted, a burly LeafWing who had likely become the impromptu leader of the group.
"Wait...aren't those the new ones that arrived today?" a scrawny SandWing with tattoos covering most of his body asked, noticing the two landing near the group. The burly LeafWing turned back, a scowl developing on his face as he marched up to the duo.
"You! You're the ones who did this, aren't you!" he growled, reaching out a foreleg to grab Hidden by the neck, only for the pale yellow SandWing to quickly slip out of the way.
"Well, yeah...we kinda did." Hidden admitted, as a thunderous rumble shook the earth. The gathered dragons looked up in awe to see the gleaming form of the Salvation gliding overhead, sliding in to hover just adobe the city. "But, we're also here to save your sorry tails, so if you know what's good for you, you'll get in our ship over there!"
"You really think we'll trust you, the ones who destroyed the one thing protecting us from the Othermind, and brought this endless horde upon us?!" the LeafWing roared, gesturing to the dozens of undead dragons spewing out of the tower's apex. He growled, and lunged toward Hidden, but the SandWing quickly leapt into the air, bouncing off of the LeafWing's head, before gliding over the gathered dragons to land on the bridge beyond.
"The enchantment that created the barrier was already making more zombies. Now, it's just it's on the fritz." he clarified, turning back to the group. "You can be zombie chow if you want, but we're about to blow up this bridge here, so you might wanna get away."
The burly LeafWing let out a low growl, but, seeing that most of the other gathered dragons had already fled toward the Salvation. He turned to leave, casting one last glare back at Hidden before he took off after the others.
"The King will return, and he'll make you pay!" the LeafWing shouted as he left, before disappearing into the frantic crowd that filled the central plaza. Luna cast him an amused glance as she stepped over to join Hidden on the bridge.
So much for mister tough guy. she thought, grinning. But his words did worry Luna. What if Darkstalker really did come back while they were in the middle of emptying out his city? All the more reason for them to work fast.
"Hey...Hidden?" Luna asked, as she stepped up next to the SandWing. "What exactly are we going to do if Darkstalker comes back?"
The SandWing shrugged, turning to the bridge as he shuffled around in his bag. "Well, we did get that LDA thing back in moss town. You remember, right?"
"I don't know…." Luna replied skeptically, "You only have one, and from what I saw of it, it likely won't last very long."
"Well, let's just hope it never has to come to that." Hidden finished, a slight glint in his eye. It seemed like there was more he had to say, but for some reason he'd decided to keep it to himself. The SandWing had already begun rummaging through his bag before Luna could press any further, pulling out a small cylindrical object that she instantly recognized as an old model micro-fusion battery, wired up to a device that likely connected it to a remote detonator. The SilkWing grinned knowingly, old MF batteries were notoriously unstable.
"Think you could hold off the zombies while I get these hooked up?" Hidden asked, already making his way to the edge of the bridge, inspecting the smooth stone for any weaknesses. Luna cast a glance towards the nearing horde, many of the undead dragons already sprinting and shambling onto the stone bridge. She pulled her tonfa out of her travel pack, sighing.
"Better make this quick, I can't hold 'em off for long…."
It wasn't long before the undead dragons were close enough that she could smell the wretched stink of rotting dragon flesh. The first one, a RainWing with its head halfway falling off, lunged toward her, only to be thrown over the edge of the bridge by a quick swipe of Luna's tail, its head flying off as it fell into the abyss.
Two more undead dragons attempted to charge Luna, but she quickly leapt into the air, jabbing her tonfa through their soft, rotted skulls and driving them into the floor of the bridge. A third lunged at her as she pulled her weapons out of the living corpses, Luna quickly knocking it back with one of her hind talons, and leaping in to sweep it over the edge.
As the undead dragon disappeared into the abyss, Luna quickly busied herself with disposing of the other two corpses, already twitching as plant-like tendrils filled the gaping holes left by her tonfa.
She could already feel herself growing tired as she hauled the two over the edge, the pain in her leg flaring up once again, despite the infection having been purged hours before. She cast a quick glance back into the city, the crowd of dragons in the plaza having diminished somewhat as Xavier loaded them into the Salvation. She wondered if any of them were resistant to the evacuation plan, the burly LeafWing from before certainly seemed to be.
She looked back at the oncoming horde, dozens more undead dragons flowing like a tidal wave across the stone bridge. There was no way she'd be able to take on that many at once.
"Hidden?! Please tell me you're done!" She shouted, not taking her eyes off of the horde.
"Just a few more minutes!" Hidden shouted back, "One doesn't simply blow up a bridge, you know! Especially with such a small payload!"
Luna let out a frustrated groan, standing up on her hind legs, her back hunched, her talons aching as they tightly squeezed the cloth-wrapped grips of her metal tonfa. The zombies were mere moments away from bearing down on her, when their chilling screeches and moans were drowned out by the steady thrum of the shuttle's thrusters, and one very loud SkyWing.
"EAT SOME OF THIS YA SLIMY SCALE BRAINS!"
The booming thrum of EDM rattled the bridge, bright colorful plasma burning through the oncoming horde as the shuttle swept by, their Ricky sitting tensely in the cockpit while the other Ricky hung out the back, howling with glee as he unleashed a storm of concentrated Dubstep upon the undead dragons. The shuttle quickly looped around, the other Ricky tearing through another wave of undead dragons on the second pass, their smoldering remains slowing the progress of the rest.
"HURRY UP AND BLOW IT TO PIECES ALREADY!" The other Ricky shouted as the shuttle flew away to make another sweep around the city. Luna turned to Hidden, who grinned excitedly, holding a small device with a lever sticking out of the top of it in his talon.
"We...might wanna get away from here…." he said, the two not wasting a second in darting off of the stone bridge. Luna turned back as they sprinted back into the town, seeing a few of the zombies clawing their way over the pile of smoldering corpses and making a mad dash for the stone buildings.
Too late worms! Luna thought, as Hidden flicked the switch. A loud bang rattled Luna's ears as the MF batteries burst, sending deep fissures through the stone bridge. Cracks quickly spread along its surface, and soon enough, the entire structure was collapsing into the abyss, its lack of any support pillars pulling the majority of it down, and the undead dragons with it.
Luna watched as the last of the bridge collapsed, only a small portion of its stone frame sticking out of either end of the ravine. The undead dragons screeched and roared furiously from the other end, desperately gathering up on the small bit of bridge left, some being thrown over the edge in the frenzy.
"Well, that takes care of that…." Hidden panted, catching his breath from the sudden sprint. "Come on, Xavier's probably losing his mind dealing with all of those refugees. The Rickys should be able to clean up any stragglers that manage to make it in."
Luna nodded, and after a brief moment of rest, the two quickly darted back toward the plaza, diving right into the chaos at the heart of the town.
Central Plaza
Afternoon
The Salvation hung motionlessly above the town's central plaza, the fires of its bottom thrusters just barely grazing the tops of some of the nearby stone dwellings. The tower stood idly just beside it, the ceaseless flow of undead dragons still erupting from its peak.
Luna paced about the nearly empty plaza, the Salvation's shadow looming above her. Less than an hour before, the place had been filled with panicking dragons, unsure whether they should be more afraid of the approaching zombie horde, or the massive golden spaceship hanging just above them.
The plaza was close to desolate now, less crowded than it had been when the group had first arrived in the city. The few evacuees that remained were flying up to the Salvation's extended rear ramp one by one, packing into the crowded hangar at the direction of Hidden and Xavier. Luna could tell by the duo's voice that they were nearly out of breath, having done most of the coordination of the evacuation effort.
Luna felt near ready to collapse of fatigue herself, having just finished convincing a stubborn, elderly SkyWing to join the rest of her family aboard the Salvation. The job had proven to be more taxing than fighting off the zombies; at least undead dragons couldn't talk back to you.
Still, they'd somehow managed to pull it off. With the bridge destroyed, and the Rickys picking off any fliers that managed to cross the trench, they were able to buy more than enough time to evacuate all of the civilians.
Or at least, all of the civilians that wanted to be evacuated.
Luna cast a glance toward an abandoned storefront on the edge of one of the radial avenues branching off of the main plaza, where the burly LeafWing from the bridge was lurking beside a few other dragons that had objected to the evacuation plan. The LeafWing glared up at the Salvation with a look more venomous than a RainWing's fangs, resentfully waiting for Darkstalker to return and put an end to their schemes.
It was for that very reason that Luna and the other's didn't have time to argue with them about evacuating, and it wasn't like they could do much of anything to stop them. The zombies had already been largely prevented from entering the town, so if they wanted to fend off those that slipped in while they waited for their precious king to return, then that was their decision.
"That should be the last of 'em!" Hidden shouted into the hangar, gliding down off of the Salvation's ramp and landing next to Luna. The two gazed up at the golden vessel, watching as its hangar door slowly lifted until it was flush with the curved hull. The glowing fires of its bottom thrusters surged as it lifted higher into the air, shimmering energy spiraling around its rear propulsion ring.
Bright beams of light crackled out of four holes carved into the nose of the ship, drilling a small slipstream in the sky. The slipstream steadily grew, until it was even wider than the ship itself, and the moment it reached its peak size, the Salvation shot forward, disappearing through the vortex in a bright spray of sparkling blue light.
"You know, I'm surprised we were able to fit everyone in there." Hidden remarked, staring at the spot where the Salvation had once hung.
"Of course it could, it's a refugee ship after all." Luna explained, "Why do you think it's named Salvation?"
"Huh...so it is…." Hidden replied. Luna was a little shocked they hadn't figured that out by now, why else would it be so chock full of blankets, medical supplies, and bland food bars?
"Guess that explains why it doesn't have any weapons." Hidden continued, "Anyway, Lin and Dark should be almost finished by now. We should probably go lend them a talon so we can high tail it outta here."
Luna nodded, and the two strode across the barren plaza, making their way to the other side of the fortress that loomed at its center. Luna cast a quick glance back at the storefront where the burly LeafWing had been lurking, only to find it completely abandoned, catching the briefest glimpse of one of the dissenting dragon's tails as they strode off in the direction of the decimated bridge. Hidden seemed too busy staring at his primitive PDA's screen to have noticed.
As they rounded the side of the fortress, one of the shining silver shuttles came into view. Two dragons, a dark brown EarthWing and a NightWing with cables draped all across his body, were busy dragging the unconscious form of an IceWing into the shuttle, a few more already slumped over inside. Silver armor was piled up near the shuttle, likely stripped off of the IceWings to make them easier to carry.
"Is that the last one?" Luna asked, as the two dragons tossed the unconscious IceWing into the shuttle, stepping back down its ramp. Luna nervously stepped away as Darkstalker neared; while he wasn't nearly as intimidating as the version of him that had created this town, the nodes and cables on his body still dredged up bad memories from the back of Luna's mind.
"Seems like it." Lin grunted, gazing up at the fortress. A few fresh scratches and bruises were scattered about her body, very clearly caused by the hooked claws of IceWings, and yet the EarthWing didn't seem the least bit bothered by them. "This is only the third shuttle we've filled up, I really expected there to be more."
"The Bippys have just finished sweeping through the fortress. Seems like you're right." Hidden affirmed, glancing away from his PDA's screen toward the main entrance of the fortress, its solid steel doors swung wide open. A soft whirring echoed from its halls, and soon two drones came gliding out of the fortress, one sleek and shiny, and the other bulky and hodgepodge.
The bulkier drone, Bippy 2, unleashed a stream of energy from a slipdrive mounted near its base, the two drones quickly disappearing through the small vortex that formed before them. Hidden slipped his PDA into his bag, grinning.
"Better get going, before Darkstalker comes back for revenge!" he said.
"Hold on...Darkstalker?" their Darkstalker asked, marching toward Hidden with an irritated expression on his face, "Nobody ever told me that we were fighting…."
Darkstalker suddenly collapsed to the stone pavement before he could even come close to getting up in Hidden's face, Lin having snuck up behind him and delivered a quick blow to his neck, knocking him out cold. The EarthWing silently dragged the unconscious NightWing up the shuttle's ramp, tossing him in with the IceWings before turning back to Hidden and Luna.
"See you at the rendezvous point." she said, before pulling the lever on the back wall of the shuttle to close up its rear ramp. Soon after, the shuttle began to lift into the air, Lin having activated its automated return feature, and just as quickly as the Salvation before it, it vanished into a slipstream, leaving Hidden and Luna standing alone in the barren plaza.
A brief moment of silence fell over the two, the sounds of the undead dragons cries echoing out from across the trench. Luna wondered how long it would be before enough of them piled into the pit to begin climbing over each other up the other side. Not that it mattered, though; they'd be long gone before then.
"We're all done down here!" Hidden said into the communicator, staring up at the undead infested sky as the Rickys flew by overhead.
"Alright bro, see you soon!" Ricky replied, before they too disappeared through a slipstream.
"Well then, shall we be going?" Hidden asked, as Luna reached into her travel bag and pulled out her slipdrive, its nearly full power meter glowing a bright green. She silently brushed a claw over its shiny blue exterior, before turning to Hidden, nodding.
"I can't wait to kiss the smell of rotting dragons goodbye!" Luna replied, half a grin on her face as she held out the slipdrive and pulled its trigger.
Click!
Luna and Hidden stood silently on the stone pavement, staring at where there should have been a swirling blue vortex for them to hop through. For a brief moment, Luna wondered if she'd simply not pulled the trigger hard enough.
Click!
Still nothing. She brought the slipdrive closer, glancing at the power meter on its side, only to find it completely depleted.
What...? Why is it dead?! It was fine a second ago!
Luna felt herself beginning to panic, as her mind quickly pieced together the most likely reason for her slipdrive's sudden power failure. The sound of heavy wings beating, and giant talons crunching down on the stone behind them confirmed her worst fears.
Luna slowly turned around, Hidden doing the same, their breathing so shallow they were nearly suffocating from fright. Behind them loomed a NightWing larger than any ordinary dragon, eyes seething with rage, smoke pouring out of his nostrils, a shiny crown set between two long, white, twisting horns, and six sparkling teardrop scales spreading from his eyes across each of the sides of his face.
King Darkstalker had returned.
AN:
I'm back! Had to take an extra week to make this one (needed some personal self reflection time), and I also decided to expand this episode to 7 chapters, that way it ends on chapter 45, and I get some extra time to wrap it up. While I was able to get the first section of this chapter written fairly easily, the second section was pretty difficult, and I wound up rewriting the beginning of it about three times! I think it turned out alright in the end, though I do feel this episode is a little weak in places. Nothing I can't improve in the rewrite, though.
There are only two more episodes after this, one that acts as setup for the finale, and the finale itself. I'm not sure what the release schedule will look like with it, and I'm thinking about writing ahead to get it out and give me more time to revise it. I've had this planned for quite a while now, so it's really just a matter of translating it to writing well. Hopefully it turns out great, and acts as a fitting conclusion to this story, even if it's only the rough draft.
Also, I'm planning a special event on the Wings of Fire subreddit to celebrate the release of the finale, so be sure to stay tuned there if your interested. I should have more info about it ready come the start of the next episode.
Will Hidden and Luna be able to escape the clutches of Darkstalker yet again? Stay tuned!
