A TANGLED WEB Part 8: Endgame
Chapter 36
by Charlie Nelson a.k.a. Ordinaryguy2
Updated: 3-11-20222
The main crossovers in this chapter includes: The Addams Family (1964-1966); The Colour of Magic (1983); DC Comics; Doctor Who; Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985); Earth 2 (1994-1995); Escape to Witch Mountain (1975); The Herculoids (1967-1969); The Incredibles (2004); Land of the Lost (1974-1976); The Munsters (1964-1966); Sky High (2005); Star Trek (1967); Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999); Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001); Static Shock (2000-2004); ThunderCats (1985-1989); Transformers (1984-1987); Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006)
¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`
The shapeshifting Founder snaked her way across the floor, keeping to the edges of the wall to avoid any detection. It had taken a while, but she had managed to find a passageway that even the massive Alpha Hirogen could fit through. She had stretched out her body almost a hundred feet so that while she explored ahead, the others could follow the last part of her tail so they wouldn't get separated. It also allowed her to keep tabs on her three remaining teammates. The Captain Kirk from the Mirror Universe and the Cardassian Gul Dukat were wearing on each other's nerves while the Alpha Hirogen was being quietly stoic as he took up the rear to make sure they weren't being followed and/or attacked from the rear.
Peeking around a corner, she saw their objective. She took a few moments to make some more observances before forming a second head on the far side of her elongated body.
"It's just ahead," said the newly formed head in a tone that suggested that they keep their voices low.
"What do you see?" Dukat asked.
"A variety of solid life forms being converted into cybernetic drones for the Borg." She converted her back head into a flat screen and then converted images she was seeing on the Borg side to the screen. It was a difficult process and took intense concentration.
"I didn't know you could do something like that," Dukat stated with admiration, his mind buzzing the potential for spying and assassination with such abilities.
A much smaller head appeared above the screen. "You'd be surprised at the things I can do that you don't know about."
Dukat frowned. Remembering that at best they were temporary allies, and that he could count on such things being used against him in the future.
The Alpha Hirogen pointed to a spot on the screen. "There. Can you enlarge that?"
The alien shapeshifter adjusted a few minute details before bringing up a closer, crisper image.
"That is the Borg queen," identified the Hirogen.
"We can see that," muttered Kirk. "But how do we kill her? Just charge in and shoot her?" He pointed to the numerous worker drones building parts and converting people into drones. "Those things aren't going to let us get in close and easy. They won't let us just leave quietly when she is dead either."
"How can you destroy a specific drop of water in an ocean?" The changeling looked at each of her remaining compatriots. "We must find a way to separate her from her hive; only then can she truly be destroyed."
"What do you mean?" Kirk clutched the phaser in his hand. "If we kill her, then she is dead. End of story."
She made sure to keep the contempt out of her tone. "If her body dies, she will still live on, and make another body later. It is not the shell she walks around in right now that is her liability, for she is spread out through what I believe they call the Borg Collective, an amalgamation of all the minds that she collected and reigns over. No, we need to shut this collective consciousness down to isolate her to one body. Then we can eliminate her."
"Do you have a plan?" asked Dukat.
She smiled. "I think I know something that might work."
OoOoOoO
"Everyone understand the plan? Any questions?"
A number of the youths grumbled, but no one spoke up.
"All right then. Let's do this." Rick Marshall rubbed his hands together, anxious for this to be over. He had rained holy hell over his brother Jack, Enik and the others for keeping children on the battlefield, even if most of them were not on the fighting lines. In the end he insisted on leading his own two children, Will and Holly, as well as the other minors, to safety. And while a number of the children wanted to stay and fight, many of the other adults agreed with Rick.
Will Stronghold, the son of The Commander and Jetstream, began to ferry people up the side of the steep hill that those facing the Borg had their back to. His first flight up was with the young girl named Sheila who was still unconscious after being stunned by the Borg. Will's girlfriend, Layla, could create and control massive vines to grow and was using them to lift the elder ThunderCat Lynx-O while he cradled the injured forms of the two youngest ThunderCats, WilyKit and WilyKat. Dash from the Incredibles raced up the side of the hill to be the first up as well as to check that there weren't any drones coming in that direction. Uly Adair took the hand of his friend True Danziger and walked into the hill using the ability to travel through earth given to him by the alien Terrans. Pushing through the ground they came up right behind Dash.
"Yipe! Hey! You startled me!" complained Dash. "For a second there I thought you might be the Underminer."
True brushed dirt out of her hair, raising up a cloud of dust. "I hate traveling that way."
"You could have waited to take a turn coming up with that flying boy," Uly teased, letting the dirt fall off with practiced ease. He had seen her admiring the boy. Neither Ulysses nor True had been able to spend any other children since they had left Earth. Interacting had been a little awkward at first, but now they were just enjoying the experience.
"And take a chance getting shot out of the air. No thanks." She blew her nose to clear it of any dirt. "As much as I hate to say it, your way up is safer."
"True, Uly." Dash spoke up. "I'm going to check on the perimeter on this side of the hill." He took off in a blur before they could say anything.
"Hey guys." Will flew down next to them with Sheila in his arms. He gently set her down a safe way from the edge. "Watch her. She seemed like she was starting to stir while we flew up. The breeze probably helped."
"You should probably bring her brother Bobby up next," suggested True. "A familiar face would probably be a good thing. He's the blond kid swinging the big wooden club and wearing a horned barbarian helmet."
"Hey, I want to bring Bobby up!" Uly raced over to side of the hill where Presto had earlier made a slide going down to the bottom. "Be right back!"
"Uly!" But Ulysses Adair was already sliding down to the bottom of the hill. "I don't know how he's lived this long. That was so stupid."
"Yet brave," added Will. "But don't worry. I'm going back down, and I'll make sure he heads right back up here."
True blushed a little. "Thank you," she said, suddenly feeling very awkward.
"Gangway!" Layla's large vines gently brought its leafy platform down near the edge. "Okay, we've landed, sir. If you would just step forward, but be careful of the ground. It is rather uneven." Layla was battered and bruised from her battle with Thorn. But she had been trained by her teachers to be an overcomer and to keep trying. Plus, her efforts could help others so how could she say no.
The elder ThunderCat, Lynx-O, stood up with an injured ThunderCat cub in each arm. Stepping carefully, he moved onto the hilltop, making sure of his footing. Layla grew a thick vine railing on either side of the ThunderCat to ensure no difficulties.
Will stepped over to Lynx-O. "Sir, would you like me to help you with one of them?"
Lynx-O shook his head. "I may be blind, boy, but my arms and legs are still strong."
"Yes, sir. I see that, sir." He grimaced for not having realized right away that he was blind. "I'll head down and bring up someone else in a moment. True is here if you think you need anything."
Lynx-O nodded, moved forward a little ways before sitting down, holding the two injured unconscious cubs close.
Layla looked to Will with pity wrapped in helplessness. Unable to do anything else for the ThunderCat, Will picked up Layla and flew back down the hill in order to ferry more people.
True turned to Sheila but the girl was still unconscious and didn't show any signs of waking soon. Biting her lip she walked closer to the sullen Lynx-O wanting to help somehow but knowing there was nothing she could do. "Um, what happened to them, sir?"
Lynx-O raised his head, and his ears turned slightly toward her, though his eyes were clearly unseeing. "I'm told that they were climbing on the radio tower when it came crashing down."
She cringed at the thought of such an event. Those two small bodies would have been bounced around horribly, luckily to not have been crushed or torn apart. "Why were they-" She paused, not certain if she should ask.
"Why were they there? I wonder that myself," he said. "The children were all supposed to stay in the TARDIS. But these two snuck out in the rush to take to the field. I'm told that they climbed the remains of the radio tower in order to watch, and then later began using it as a place to sling rocks at our opponents."
Guilt pulled at her heart. How many times had she and Uly run off to do something extremely dangerous without really thinking about what their parents would go through if something happened to them? "Will they be okay?"
"I have hopes that they will be."
She bit her lip, unsure of what to say or do. It was a relief when she saw Uly climbing out of the dirt with Bobby in hand.
Bobby let go of Uly's hand to brush the gritty sand off his face, then reaching down to the young unicorn that he held in his other arm. Uni shook his head in agitation to all the dirt in his eyes, ears and nose, while Bobby tried to calm her down while he brushed it off. "How's Sheila?" he asked, worried about his sister.
"Ah, well, Will said she seemed to stir a little from the breeze of coming up here." She looked over as someone else flew up, but it wasn't Will Stronghold.
"Gangway, people. Coming in for a landing." Static Shock, the electrically powered teen hero, flew in for a landing on his hover board, holding his chest with one arm to try keep his broken ribs from moving as much as possible. Riding with him, having wrapped herself around one of his legs, was Cindy Collins, a super strong seven-year-old girl from the team Zoom. "Ok, we're down now, Cindy. Please let go of my leg before you break it."
"I told you my codename is Princess." The little blond girl pouted for all of two seconds before jumping up all smiles. "That was fun. We should do that again sometime. Maybe on a date?"
"Uh, um, well, I kinda already have someone—someone I date, I mean. So, uh…sorry." He tried not to freak out that a seven-year-old had just asked him out on a date. This was all kinds of awkward and weird. He'd much rather fight the Borg or even the supervillains. Or fight both at the same time.
The little girl nodded. "It's probably just as well. Zoom would probably say you were too old for me."
"Yeah, there is that, too," Static admitted. He had seen Princess have a tantrum earlier, and seeing the evidence of the smashed boulder, he had no desire to be near her when she blew up again.
Princess gave True a short wave before wandering over to get a clear view of the battle below. It was a tall, steep hill which made the people fighting below look about a half of an inch tall, but she could still see too much of all the violence causing her to shudder. "I'm going to be having nightmares of this for a while."
"You're lucky."
Princess turned in surprise to notice a pale, dark-haired girl wearing all black standing next to her. "Where did you come from?"
"From the other side of the hill."
"Is there fighting going on over there?"
"No. All the interesting stuff seems to be happening on this side. We tried looking on the one of the other hills, but the view is much better here."
"We?" asked Princess.
"Yeah, I like the giant creature that is part plant, part mineral and part animal," said a boy on the other side of Princess. This boy was somewhat chubby, wearing shorts and a striped T-shirt.
"My favorite was the giant ape. I wonder where he went?" said another boy who was dressed in some kind of old-style school uniform all in black. And even though he was dressed very neatly, he still had some kind of wild look to him.
Princess did a quite look around to see if there were any other silently moving children coming to stand next to here.
"I want the giant man with all the grayish veins all over his skin to be the victor," stated the dark-haired girl.
"The guy with the gray veins?" Princess said. "He's called Giant-Man; he used to be one of the good guys until the Borg infected him."
"How tragic," answered the girl. "I hope he wins."
"What's the guy who looks like he's made from three different kinds of things called?" asked the pudgy boy in the striped shirt.
"Uh, the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man," she answered after checking the mental database that Professor X had put in her head so she would know who not to hit. "He's one of the super-villains."
"Cool!" he responded with a boyish smile.
"What about the big ape?" asked the boy in the school uniform. "Where'd he go?"
"Um, I know that he's called Kong, I think, but I don't know where he is. He did receive a lot of nasty burns though." At this news the boy seemed saddened, making Princess feel relieved for a somewhat normal response.
"What about the other giant man?" asked the pudgy boy.
Princess nodded. "The guy with the white helmet? Well, believe it or not his name is Ant-Man. He's one of the super-heroes. I think he tried something radical and tried his shrinking thing in reverse in order to lend a hand with the out-of-control Giant-Man."
"Obviously," retorted the dark-haired girl.
"Hey! Look down there!" shouted the pudgy boy. "The robots connected back together again into one giant robot!"
"It's fighting that purple monster with the lightning coming out of its brain!" said the school uniformed boy as he jumped in glee. "He's my new favorite!"
"The purple monster is Validus but the robots are all Deceta-Decepo-Desipto- darn it!." Princess shook her head in frustration at not being able to say the word properly, even though she could see it clearly in her head. "The robots joined together to make a large robot they call Devastator. I don't know why they are fighting each other. They are supposed to be on the same side. At least that's what it says on the chart in my brain."
"Devastator is a cool name," responded the boy in the striped shirt.
"I'm Princess," Cindy said offering her hand to the dark-haired girl.
"Are you really a princess?" asked the girl.
"Princess is my superhero codename."
The girl looked at Cindy's hand for a moment as if she were trying to determine if it was some kind of trick. Finally, she reached out to shake her hand. "Wednesday Addams. My brother Pugsley. And this is our friend, Eddie Munster."
Pugsley's attention was to riveted on the battlefield, but Eddie managed a quick "Hi!" before turning back to the battle.
They watched the battle for a little bit, and then Will and Layla as they brought up Holly Marshall and Diana who was sometimes called Acrobat. Princess looked at her three new companions and knew there was something different about them that she hadn't quite figured out yet. "So how did you guys come here?"
"My mother and father brought us here for a vacation. My parents own some land in Eerie, Indiana that has a pylon on it. The pylon turned out to be some sort of dimensional doorways to other places," answered Wednesday.
"There's father!" Pugsley exclaimed, pointing down to the struggling figures down below. Mr. Addams was still trying to line up a golf shot down below but the struggling towering frames of the metallic and purple bodies kept moving in the way. Even the smaller Decepticons were busy trying to corner a man and getting away of Gomez Addams' golf game. "They keep getting in the way. He'll never get a shot with them there."
"Here," said his sister, passing him a lit stick of dynamite right in front of Princess.
"What are you going to do with that?" asked Princess, eyes wide in alarm.
"Leveling the playing field," responded Pugsley. "Eddie, can I borrow your slingshot? Mine got busted."
"Sure, but watch out for crosswinds. With all the explosions and fire down there, it'll be hard to gauge."
"That's ok. I've had practice."
"You've had practice handling dynamite?" Princess couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But you're kids! Aren't your parents worried you might blow yourselves up?" She felt stupid right after saying that. She was part of a super-team that practiced all sorts of dangerous exercises so they can handle the even more dangerous occurrences without as much risk. Her own parents had handed her over to the military. It wasn't so much that they scared of her, but rather that they were scared for themselves.
"We became better acquainted with how to handle it after the first couple of incidents," answered Wednesday.
"The ice cream truck event was the best teacher," Pugsley grinned. "We learned a lot from the blast radius of the ice cream." Taking aim with the slingshot, he held the dynamite stick length ways, and used his peripheral vision to gauge how much time was left on the wick. He took the shot. "Fire in the hole!"
The explosion was close enough to Validus and Devastator that they both stumbled to the side falling against the hill. The Decepticons encircling the Master soon discovered that the Master had used the diversion to run out onto the field where the Borg were coming. Megatron shouted orders, sending his Decepticons after the Master to block his escape. With that section of the battlefield mostly cleared, Gomez Addams took his shot sending the golf ball flying, then turned to where his kids were and gave them an enthusiastic okay hand sign. On the ground next to him, Thing did likewise.
"What are you kids doing playing with explosives?" Diana, the Acrobat from the Dungeons & Dragon team hurried over. "You could have-"
In the struggle between Validus and Devastator, they crashed into the side of the hill again, while a stray burst of mental lightning from Validus brushed across the hillside they were on.
"Whoa!" A top section of the hillside started to collapse causing the four children to stumble and pinwheel their arms as the ground beneath them started to shift.
"Grab on," shouted Diana. Using her magic fighting staff, she made it elongate to where the kids were and braced herself. Holly hurried over to help.
Three of the children grabbed on, but Pugsley reached and missed. Princess managed to grab a hold of the pudgy boy's hand while holding onto the staff with her other hand.
"Can you hold on to him?" asked Eddie.
Princess grinned. "That's easy for me. My superpower is super-strength." With ease she pulled Pugsley up so that he could grab onto the staff himself.
"Wow, you are strong!" Pugsley said, clearly impressed.
Diana was trying to keep her staff steady, worried that if she jostled it, one of the four kids would slip and fall. But the weight of the four was beginning to be too much for her to keep in place much longer. "I could use a little help here!" she called out.
Devastator slammed Validus against the hill, knocking Diana to her knees. Wednesday slipped free of the staff just as the patch of ground beneath her started to slide down the hill. Another form flew through the air grabbing Wednesday before she landed among the battling monoliths below.
"There now. Don't be afraid," said the teenage girl who was levitating them up to the top of the hill.
"I'm not afraid," Wednesday said, calmly looking around as they went up in the air. "Is this magic?"
"Some would call it that. It is a power I have that allows me to move things with my mind."
"Telekinesis?"
The teenager nodded, in amusement that the girl would know what telekinesis meant.
"You're not from Earth, are you?" asked Wednesday.
The teenage girl blinked in surprise. "How could you know that?"
"I can tell things about people," she said. "I'm Wednesday Addams."
They touched down on top of the hill. "My name is Tia Malone."
"Ok, everyone," Static said, getting everyone's attention. "Let's move away from the edge. With those two monsters battling it out down there, it isn't safe."
A roar in the distance was heard over the melee at the bottom of the hill. All eyes turned to a dragon being beset with Borg drones on smaller and less steep hill in the distance.
"That poor, beautiful dragon," Wednesday murmured, close to tears.
"That's Zok," Princess informed her, somewhat taking a back at her sudden display of emotions. "He's one of a group of creatures called the Herc-Herc-, Ooooh! I hate tough words!"
"Called the Herculoids," Tia said, with her eyes closed as her mind reached out across the distance between her and the space dragon. "The Borg damaged one of his wings. There is a tear through the membrane. He had to land. If he tried to fly with a tear like that, it would rip all the way across the wing, and he'd crash. He can attack with laser beams aimed through his eyes and tail – that's how he's been able to keep the Borg at bay that way – but now he's running low on energy." Her eyes snapped open. "We have to help him."
"Yes," insisted Wednesday, to the surprise of her brother.
"But how?" asked Eddie. He had a pet dragon of his own. Zok was clearly a different breed, but if Spot were ever cornered like this, he'd want someone to come to his aid.
"Yeah," Bobby said, having joined the group. "It's too far away for us to do anything."
"Hey, you guys all right up here?" asked the rising form of Will Stronghold as he flew up carrying Bobby's friend Hank. "You should probably stay away from the edge in case there are any more landslides. Layla is weaving some vegetation up the hill side to hold it together, but she said it would take a few minutes."
"Hey!" shouted Bobby. "They can do it!"
"Do what?" asked Hank, his eye automatically going over to where Sheila's unconscious form lay next to True.
"That dragon over there needs saving," Wednesday said, pointing across the way at Zok. "Please? Princess says it's one of your allies."
Pugsley stared in shock at his sister. Wednesday never says 'please'.
Hank watched the sleek dragon lash out with its tail to bat a closing drone down the hill as the last of its energy reserves ran out. He frowned, counting the number of drones, testing the wind, and determining the amount of energy it would take for one of his mystic arrows to cover that distance. "I could hit some of them, but I don't think I can get them all. And even if I do, it still leaves the dragon stuck up there, and it marks our location as another threat to the Borg. We'd have to leave here very quickly once we do anything."
Will nervously clenched his fist. He didn't like getting close to the Borg if he didn't have to. "I don't know if I could fly while holding him. Truth is I don't even know if I can lift him. But I'm game if you are," he said, nodding to Hank.
"I can help you lift Zok," Tia volunteered. "I have telekinetic abilities. But I'd have to be close."
"Now hold on everyone," Holly Marshall shouted out. "I've lived here for four years, and I have a good idea of what's dangerous. And this screams 'way too dangerous'. Besides, I know that my dad won't let you do it."
Will Stronghold broke out into a grin. "Then I guess it's a good thing that he's still down at the bottom of the hill with the others."
"Sweet!" Static Shock hopped on his static board, his broken ribs reminding him to not move too much. "I can provide some cover fire."
A fast-moving red figure rushed around them before coming to a sudden stop. "Everything's clear down there. Though there are some vines that seem kind of grabby." Dash looked from one face to another. "What's going on up here?"
"A rescue mission!" exclaimed Princess.
"A what?" asked Uly as he climbed out of the dirt with another disheveled passenger from the bottom of the hill.
The teenage girl with Uly shook her hair trying to get rid of the dirt that was embedded in her scalp. "That was a hell of a ride," she said, spitting some of the accumulated dirt from her mouth. "Hey, everyone, I'm Ace. Now who's been playing with explosives up here? And why wasn't I invited?"
Two minutes later Static Shock flew off on his static-board with Tia Malone holding tight to him and Will Stronghold flying at his side. As they neared the hill that Zok was struggling on, Will picked up speed and slammed into a number of drones, letting them crash down in the valley below. At that same time, back on the hill they had just left, Hank began to fire a series of mystic energy arrows to hit those drones closest to Zok.
Static Shock swooped in and let Tia Malone drop onto Zok's back, and then proceeded to zap away any and all drones that showed an interest in them.
Sitting on the space dragon's back near his neck, Tia closed her eyes and communed with the great beast. "All right now, Zok, my friend Will is going to come back in a second and fly us out of her. I'll be helping to lift you so don't fight us, ok?" The dragon was angry, wounded and tired, but he really wanted an opportunity to escape from here. Tia sensing the dragon's approval, patted his neck. "Good boy."
Will looped around the hill knocking more drones off a ledge that they had built for a better foot path that would get them within range for a clear shot of Zok. He then had to duck and dodge a first-stage drone of the DNAgent known as Amber, but Pugsley managed to hit her with his slingshot, causing her to spiral until she crashed into Ant-Man's back. With the air clear for the moment, Will flew in close to the dragon, but froze when Zok reared up.
"Zok," Tia said, with a bit of a scolding in her tone. "We talked about this. If you want to get out of here, you are going to have to let Will pick you up. And don't worry, he's stronger than he looks."
Zok settled down, and Tia gave Will the 'go-ahead' signal.
It was awkward, but Will finally managed to get a position where he could lift Zok up. Basically, Zok was stepping on his back, and Will was going to be a moving perch, much like some would carry a canary on their finger. Only difference was that will was the finger, and Zok was so much bigger than a canary. Still, he could tell that Tia was using her telekinetically powers to steady the dragon, and he was grateful. "Here we go!"
Will gritted his teeth and flew for all he was worth. In comparison to before he had powers, it felt as if he were trying to run a relay race with a 300-pound sack on his back. He couldn't imagine how he'd have been able to pull this off if Tia wasn't helping to bear some of the burden.
"We are almost clear!" shouted Static.
An explosion rang out in back of them, and Will almost lost his hold on the dragon.
"Looks like Dash was able to get Ace's Nitro-9 explosives in place!" Static shouted.
"Egh! Ya-yeah," Will managed to say as he forced himself to continue. Sweat was starting to build up on his brow and he was having trouble staying in the air. Principal Powers had speculated that his super-strength was built on a reservoir system, and that once he ran out, he'd only have his regular Human strength until his body had a chance to recharge. If he had a gauge to measure how much super-strength he had left, he was sure that it would show that he was running on fumes.
"Will Stronghold! What do you think you are doing?" spoke a voice to his left.
Will managed to turn his head. "Saving… the dragon, …mom."
Will's mother, Josie Stronghold, otherwise known as Jetstream, flew at his side. Will had inherited his abilities of flight from her, even as he had gained his powers of super-strength from his father, whose alter ego was The Commander.
"You were supposed to be getting the children to safety," she said in her best stern motherly tone.
"Couldn't… just leave him."
Noting his pained expression, Jetstream suddenly realized how much carrying this dragon to safety was costing him. She tried contacting Professor X to request some aid, but the rampaging battle between Validus and Devastator had caused many of the villains to leave their station fighting at the wall leaving a large part of it unguarded and allowing the Borg to gain ground.
"Damn it!" She ducked under the dragon and pushed up as much as she could. She could not be any means lift as much as Will, but she could help by carrying at least a minor portion of it. "Alright, let's do this."
Will was about to tell his mother that he could do this on his own, but realized that might not be true.
After a few more minutes of agonizing flight, they touched down on the hill where many of the children and teens gathered around the dragon. Zok sat down, curling his tail underneath him while bringing his injured wing up to inspect. After a few sniffs, he began to lick the wound clean. Tia climbed down from the dragon's back, and then came over to examine the dragon's wounded wing. Zok sported a few other scorch marks on his scaly hide, but the wing was his main concern.
"You really gave those drones a run for their money," Tia said as she touched the wing gingerly. Closing her eyes, Tia began to concentrate as she brought her hands over the wound. The torn membrane slowly began to knit itself closed even as those that watched gasped in wonder.
Having finished what she could do, Tia patted Zok's neck gently. "You need to stay out of the air for a few weeks," she informed her patient. "I closed the tear, but your body still needs to heal it naturally to strengthen it so that it won't rip open again the next time you take to the air." She looked down and saw Wednesday at her side. "This is Wednesday. She, more or less, started your rescue mission."
Zok lowered his head, and then nuzzled it against Wednesday, much to her delight.
After watching the touching scene, Jetstream patted her son's shoulder and brought him into a shoulder hug while leading him over to where Sheila, True and Lynx-O were. "I want you to take a rest. A superhero has to know their limitations, and I think I can safely say that you have reached yours." Letting him sit down next to a tree. "Now stay here and conserve your strength. I have a feeling you may need it later."
"What have you kid been doing up here?" came a new voice. Rick Marshall, followed by his son, Will Marshall, walked up to the group. "I sent you kids up here to keep you safe. Not so you could risk your lives."
Jetstream flew over to head off anything ugly. "Mr. Marshall, isn't it?"
Rick Marshall wasn't used to seeing flying people; it wasn't a novelty he had come used to. "It is, and you are?"
"Jetstream. I'm surprised you didn't know that. I thought I spotted you down by Professor X. He's been giving everyone a who's who memory database."
Rick frown. "I may have been yelling too much at Enik and my brother Jack for your Professor X to be able to do that. The fact that my kids, as well as all the other children down there, were in a virtual battle zone..."
"It hadn't been planned that way, Mr. Marshall," she responded. "The kids were supposed to stay away from the fighting. But circumstances and-"
"They should not have been there," Rick said, more sternly. "And once they were there, regardless of how it had happened, someone should have gotten them out of there long before I got here."
Her chin tightened. "We have been rather busy trying to stay alive. You may have noticed."
"What I-"
His argument was interrupted as the ground began to shift under him. A hand came up from the ground and clutched his foot. Rick pulled away in surprise. Uly, making another trip up the hill underground, popped up with a smile. "Sorry," he said. "After that landslide, I wanted to come up further from the hill side."
Tucker Williams, otherwise known as Mega Boy, climbed up out of the ground after him, dirt falling off from all over his body. "That was awesome. I can't believe I just traveled through a whole hill of dirt." He gave his head a hearty shake sending dirt everywhere.
"I like it," Uly said, enjoying showing off what he could do. "True isn't a big fan of it though."
Tucker glanced over to where True was sitting and broke into a silly grin when she looked his way.
Rick Marshall moved around the two boys to continue his discussion with the superheroine. "You should-"
"Rick Marshall!"
Rick turned to see a hand protruding over the edge of the hill, a head wearing a tall, pointed hat with the letters 'W-I-Z-Z-A-R-D' sewn onto it was struggling to show more of itself. The hand grabbed some grass and pulled more of the head into view. "Rick Marshall! You promised you'd get me safely out of here!"
Rick gave an exasperated sigh. And walked over to pull Rincewind the rest of the way over the edge. "I had to climb in a hurry. Somehow you weren't keeping up for once."
Rincewind tried to straighten up. "My robe!"
"You must have snagged it." He reached around to tug the robe free from whatever had snagged it, only to pull it back at the last second before something snapped at him. Instead, Rick grabbed Rincewind by the hand and pulled up his Luggage that had the ends of his robe in its carpeted maw.
The wizard shrugged sheepishly. "He doesn't want to get very far from me since that last time you ran off with me."
The animated baggage seemed to snarl at Rick and then shook clods of dirt that had built up on the hundreds of legs towards him. Rick wasn't sure wasn't sure what to do or say that wouldn't antagonize the thing. He was totally unprepared for two of the children to come over and ask if they could ride on its back.
Rincewind sighed. "I don't see why not. He seemed to like… playing with you before," he said. Eddie Munster and Pugsley quickly climbed on top of the Luggage, which began to happily trot around. Bobby and Uly looked on with curiosity and a bit of desire to try it themselves.
Rick Marshall was not so amused. "That Luggage of yours tore apart that underground monster that attacked us and now you just let kids play with it?"
Rincewind shrugged. "Who'd have thought it'd be so good with kids. Besides, it's not as though they are going to break it."
"Dad?"
Rick turned to see his daughter Holly at his side. "Holly, are you alright?"
"Again, dad, I'm still alright."
"Sorry. It's just so good to see you after two years. It's just that everything is so chaotic."
"Where's Will and Uncle Jack?"
"They should be up soon. Layla's bracing up the side of the hill with her plants. Hopefully that will stop any more landslides. That other Will, the flying one, should be bringing up more people soon."
Holly turned and pointed. "That other Will is over there passed out from exhaustion. And I haven't seen anything from Layla in a while. Shouldn't she be back already?"
He knew she was right. Layla should have been bringing up people again. He started to walk over to the edge. Diana extended her magic staff, nodding for him to grab a hold of it. "Just in case there is another landslide," she said.
"Thank you," he said, making sure that his eyes didn't stray down to the fur bikini outfit she wore. Who are the parents that let their kids run around dressed like that? he thought to himself.
Looking below, it seemed that chaos reigned. The battle between the giant robot and the purple giant had allowed the Borg to overrun the barricades that had been built. People were retreating to a large circle that he'd been told was some kind of magic barrier that wouldn't allow the Borg to cross. But the problem was that the circle was only so big and there were lots of people still running for cover.
"What's going on, dad?"
"It's all falling apart down there," he answered. "I can't see Will or Rick anywhere."
"Don't worry, dad. Uncle Rick's really good at looking after the two of us. I'm sure he and Will are fine."
"I'm sure they are," he said. He wished he really believed that.
To be Continued!
¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`
Updated AuThOr'S NoTeS: 3-11-2022
This was just a fun little side adventure with the kids. And kids are going to get into things so…
¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`
ChArAcTeR InDeX FoR ThE ChApTeR:
'Ace' / McShane, Dorothy Gale (Sophie Aldred) – from the TV series Doctor Who (1987-1989) Acrobat / Diana (voiced by Tonia Gayle Smith) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Adair, Ulysses 'Uly' (Joey Zimmerman) – from the TV series Earth 2 (1994-1995)
Addams, Gomez (John Astin) – from the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966)
Addams, Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) – from the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966)
Addams, Wednesday Friday (Lisa Loring) – from the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966)
Alpha Hirogen (Vaughn Armstrong) – from the TV series Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)
Amber – first appeared in the comic book DNAgents #1 (1983) by Eclipse
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man of Earth-1 / Larsen, Dr. Sven – first appeared in comic book Doom Patrol #89 (1964) by DC Comics (mentioned only)
Ant-Man / Lang, Scott (Paul Rudd) – from the movies Ant-Man (2015)
Barbarian / Bobby (voiced by Teddy Field III) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Borg – from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation
Borg Queen (Alice Krige) – from the movie Star Trek: First Contact (1996), (Susanna Thompson) – from the TV series Star Trek: Voyager (1999-2000)
The Commander / Stronghold, Steve (Kurt Russell) – from the movie Sky High (2005) (mentioned only)
Danziger, True (J. Madison Wright) – from the TV series Earth 2 (1994-1995)
Dash / Parr, Dashiell 'Dash' (voiced by Spencer Fox) – from the movie The Incredibles (2004)
Devastator (Bonecrusher, Hook, Long Haul, Mixmaster, Scavenger, Scrapper) – from the cartoon The Transformers (1985-1987), the movie The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
DNAgents (Amber, Rainbow, Sham, Surge, Tank) – first appeared in the comic book DNAgents #1 (1983) by Eclipse
Dukat, Gul (Marc Alaimo) – from the TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
Eerie, Indiana – from the TV series Eerie, Indiana (1991-1992) (mentioned only)
Enik, the Altrusian (Walker Edmiston) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976) (mentioned only)
Founder / Female Changeling (Salome Jens) – from the TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1994-1999)
Giant Man / Wilson, Ron (Kevin Heffernan) – from the movie Sky High (2005)
Herculoids (Dorno, Gleep, Gloop, Igoo, Tarra, Tundro, Zandor, Zok) – from the cartoon The Herculoids (1967-1969), Space Stars 'The Herculoids' (1981)
Jetstream / Stronghold, Josie (Kelly Preston) – from the movie Sky High (2005)
Kirk, Mirror Universe Capt. James T. (William Shatner) – from the TV series Star Trek (1967)
Kong – from the movie King Kong (1976)
The Luggage – from the book The Colour of Magic (1983) by Terry Pratchett, of the Discworld series
Lynx-O (voiced by Doug Preis) – from the cartoon ThunderCats (1985-1989)
Magician / Albert 'Presto' (voiced by Adam Rich) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985) (mentioned only)
Malone, Tia (Kim Richards) – from the movie Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Marshall, Holly (Kathy Coleman) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Marshall, Jack (Ron Harper) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1976) (mentioned only)
Marshall, Park Ranger Rick (Spencer Milligan) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1975)
Marshall, Will (Wesley Eure) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
The Master – from the TV series Doctor Who
Mega Boy / Williams, Tucker (Spencer Breslin) – from the movie Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006)
Megatron (voiced by Frank Welker) – from the cartoon The Transformers (1984-1987), the movie The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Munster, Eddie Wolfgang (Butch Patrick) – from the TV series The Munsters (1964-1966)
Powers, Principal (Lynda Carter) – from the movie Sky High (2005) (mentioned only)
Princess / Collins, Cindy (Ryan Newman) – from the movie Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006)
Professor X / Xavier, Prof. Charles (Patrick Stewart) – from the movie X-Men (2000), X-2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) (mentioned only)
Ranger / Hank (voiced by Willie Aames) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Rincewind – from the book The Colour of Magic (1983) by Terry Pratchett, of the Discworld series; (David Jason) – from the movie The Color of Magic (2008)
Spot – from the TV series The Munsters (1964-1966) (mentioned only)
Static Shock (voiced by Phil LaMarr) – from the cartoon Static Shock (2000-2004)
Stronghold, Will (Michael Angarano) – from the movie Sky High (2005)
Terrans – from the TV series Earth 2 (1994-1995) (mentioned only)
Thief / Sheila (voiced by Katie Leigh) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Thing (Ted Cassidy) – from the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966)
Thorn of Earth-2 / Canton, Rose – first appeared in the comic book Flash Comics #89 (1947) by DC Comics (mentioned only)
ThunderCats (Bengali, Cheetara, Lion-O, Lynx-O, Panthro, Pumyra, Tygra, WilyKat, WilyKit) – from the cartoon ThunderCats (1985-1989)
Underminer (voiced by John Ratzenberger) – from the movie The Incredibles (2004) (mentioned only)
Uni (voiced by Frank Welker) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Validus of Earth-1 / Ranzz, Garridan – first appeared in the comic book Adventure Comics #352 (1967) by DC Comics
Williams, Layla (Danielle Panabaker) – from the movie Sky High (2005)
WilyKat (voiced by Peter Newman) – from the cartoon ThunderCats (1985-1989)
WilyKit (voiced by Lynne Lipton) – from the cartoon ThunderCats (1985-1989
Zok (voiced by Mike Road) – from the cartoon The Herculoids (1967-1969), Space Stars 'The Herculoids' (1981)