Chapter 6: A Grin situation
The dark corners of the warehouse grew darker with the coming of night and the situation's eventual path. Duke looked around him, unable to move his body. The sticky 'web' that he was caught in was something he had never had the pleasure of encountering. He could still see the red light that first drew him to the building, and his captor was dancing around it, changing from a cheerleader, to a comedian, to a politician. The wooden boxes around him created the perfect cover, hiding his shameful dancing from the world. Duke wished that the light wasn't shining, so he couldn't even see the shadow.
"Being a politician suits the lying scum," Duke sneered quietly, finding even the smallest bit of humour in a situation. "Are you alright Nosedive?"
The young duck lay to Duke's right, barely moving. He called out to Nosedive again, but again he only twitched.
Great, Duke thought to himself. It's just me and him. Me, him and probably thousands of little droids.
Reaching to his arm, Duke grabbed at his saber, only to find that it wasn't there. Remembering he had it drawn when the net fell, he looked around to spot his favourite weapon.
It's not over by those crates, or those oil barrels over there. Duke mentally checked off everyplace that the saber could be. Without his saber, he was naked. Powerless. He didn't like that feeling at all. The lizard over there doesn't have it, so where the heck cou...
Duke's thought was cut off as he saw the handle of his saber sticking out from underneath Nosedive's limp body. Duke's face lit up with alarm as he searched for the thick red liquid that his friend needed to keep within himself. Content with seeing nothing on the ground, Duke let out a small sigh.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nosedive's hand move just slightly. It was edging towards the saber. Once Nosedive had the saber in his hand, he used it to slice himself free.
"You
weren't worried about me, were you Duke?" Nosedive calmly asked with a
smile on his face, hoping to catch Duke off guard.
"Not at all," Duke commented.
"I'm just disappointed that I won't get all the credit now. Are you ready to get rid of this pickled
lizard?"
"Oh yeah!" Nosedive elated in excitement. "Let's go get shorty!"
Taking the saber from Nosedive's outstretched hand, Duke cut the net away from him, leaving only a few strands of webbing left on him. The afternoon sky had been replaced with night, and the mice were coming out to play. The darkness was a familiar friend to Duke, and his best ally. Slipping behind a box just in front of his enemy, he called Nosedive over to stand next to him.
"Lord
Dragaunus is going to be so proud of me!" Chameleon cheered as he paced
around the glowing object. "I'll
be his favourite. I'll be his right
hand man! I'll be..."
"Returned to Dragaunus in pieces!" Duke exclaimed, cutting the
saurian off mid-speech.
"That's right!" Nosedive added, turning the corner of the box and pointing a pucklauncher at Chameleon's head. "I say it's time we kick some serious boo-tay!"
"Sorry, but this booty is being preserved!" Chameleon stated as he lept backwards over the machine.
Duke reacted quickly to Chameleon's unexpected reflexes by leaping towards him, saber drawn. Forgetting about the monster's teleportation, he sliced down through the air and hit the ground with the saber. Sparks fly off the blade of the weapon, landing on many different obstacles, one of which being a pile of old rags. He spun around to face Chameleon once he re-appeared.
"You've gotten a bit better lizard," Duke complemented. "But that isn't enough to defeat us!"
"Oh really?" Chameleon chuckled as he morphed into a army soldier. Speaking into his communicator, he said "Send in the troops!", causing a dozen drone warriors to teleport into the building.
Duke turned his head to look at the robots that surrounded them. No matter how familiar he was with them, they still meant bad news, especially when the full team wasn't around. He took a short glance over at Nosedive, then nodded towards the pile of rags that was now burning bright due to saber sparks. Nosedive gave a quick nod of acknowledgement, then fired at the rags. The once small fire became a large blaze which blew everyone off their feet. The little green man gasped in alarm and smashed into the wall.
"You
idiot!" a deep voice rang throughout the building. It was one which they all recognized. "Stop playing around with ducks and get
back to the Raptor! The draining
process has been finished for ten minutes!"
"Yes Lord Dragaunus" Chameleon replied in obedience. "I'll leave you guys to play
around! Ta ta!"
Chameleon ran off towards the machine that was no longer emanating and grabbed it. He continued to run, muttering something about no instructions in a deep, warped, voice. He then disappeared from view with a bright flash of light.
Duke looked
around at the scrap metal that now lay burning on the ground. He withdrew his blade from his saber, and
reattached it to his arm. Stepping over
destroyed bots, he headed towards the large garage type door.
"Cmon!" He yelled down to Nosedive.
"We've got a long walk home...."
Duke kicked through the door, showing his disappointment in not stopping the small villain. After waiting for Nosedive to catch up, he turned the corner, and started his long walk to the Pond.
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The elevator dropping was a big surprise. Especially for Tanya. She grabbed onto the side railing for support, and started to fly upwards due to the amazing velocity the elevator was travelling at. She looked over and saw the Grin was having no trouble at all with the speed. "You're lucky to have all that muscle," Tanya commented. "I'm flying all over the place!"
"Do not let your feet leave the ground," Grin replied. "Or else you will fly away on yourself."
"That's great Grin," Tanya exclaimed. "But maybe it would be a good time to GET OUT OF THIS DEATH TRAP!!"
"Let us look to the pucks for the answer to this problem," Grin said as he pulled out two rope pucks. Tanya grabbed them and jumped up onto the top of the elevator to tie them onto some hooks. After setting up to pucks, she stood in the middle of the elevator and waited. "These pucks have to be tossed and stuck on the walls at the precise time," she said.
"No better time than the present."
"So true," Tanya admitted, and tossed the pucks onto the wall. The pucks dig deep into the walls and keep the elevator from falling. Tanya loses her balance when the elevator comes to a sudden stop, and falls straight through the elevator roof hatch, and into Grin's arms. "There you are, my lady," Grin said with a smile as he let Tanya down on her feet again.
"Thank you, my shining knight!" Tanya cheered happily. Watch yourself Tanya, she thought to herself. You can't afford to fall for someone. At least not right now.
After escaping the elevator, Tanya quickly took charge of the situation. She knew that they had to get to the top of the building, but she didn't know how much further up they had to go. A quick look out the hallway window told her that they were about 20 stories high. Knowing that the building was 70 stories, she figured that gave them 50 stories to climb. It hit Tanya as funny, how all those humans down below her had no idea of the immense danger they were in, and they seemed happier being arrogant of the knowledge. "We've got to get up those stairs and stop Siege!" she squaked to an empty hallway. Tanya saw the door for the stairway just close, and rushed to go and catch up.
She opened the heavy metal door and started her climb. She could see Grin running along the stairs above her. She figured he must have been 10 stories above her. "Grin!!" she yelled as she ascended. "Wait up!"
"We haven't got the time to waste," Grin replied in-between breathes.
"Yeah but still!" Tanya called out to Grin, then faded into a whisper. "Please don't leave me all alone..." With nothing else to say, she continued her climb in silence. Running up the stairs gave her a lot of time to think. This is all so crazy! Dragaunus attacks, we defend. Dragaunus attacks again, we defend again. When are we ever going to beat this guy?? What story am I on? Great! The thirtieth. That gives me 40 more stories worth of exercise! Oh well....I could gain from losing a few pounds. That way maybe he would notice a little bit more. Oh what am I thinking?!?! I haven't got time for this! Tanya continued to think to herself all the way until the top story. When Tanya arrived, she saw Grin waiting for her. He was collapsed on the ground, and breathing deep. "I've been waiting for you," he said after he finished catching his breath.
"Oh," Tanya replied. She was too tired to show any major emotion in her face. "Let's rest awhile before we go to face-off against Siege."
"I can handle him," Grin spoke with confidence. "You just back me up with your puck launcher."
"I think we can really do better if we work together."
"If we wait, he could teleport out of here."
"True, but.."
"Exactly!" Grin cut Tanya off mid-statement. "We head in now. Something in these next few rooms is shifting the ki in this place. We've got to stop it, or else the balance will be lost."
"Okay Grin," Tanya said as she supported Grin. "I'll back you up."
"Thank you Tanya," Grin said as he got up and started for the door. "I thank you for your trust."
"No problem," Tanya answered. She took out her pucklauncher and got it ready for action. Tanya wasn't used to doing things like this. Just busting into a room wasn't her style. It wasn't Grin's either. Something is terribly wrong here, she thought as she went through the door, following right behind Grin.
Suddenly, something jumped in front of the two ducks. Tanya jumped in her place, the sudden surprise catching her off guard. "What was that?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Grin told her. "But we've got to go and find out what is out there."
All Tanya could do was nod as she followed Grin down the darkened hallway. Tanya could see that this part of the building was still being built, because of all the fresh cracks that were still in the walls. Holes blanketed the concrete floors in the hallway. Small creatures ran around the floor, picking up small crumbs that were left behind, or getting stuck in puddles of oil that were in some spots of the top story. The green light that she could see from outside was now just down the corridor, shining from the left.
"There's that light we saw before!" Tanya pointed out. She let Grin walk past her and turn around the corner to take a look. Moment after Grin turned the corner, Tanya was him fly backwards screaming. A green shine was attached to him, and this shape was large and had a tail. Tanya rushed around the corner to help her comrade, but found no one there. Both Grin and his attacker were nowhere to be seen.
"Grin...?" Tanya could only barely let the word fall out of her beak as she feel to her knees in tears. The concrete was broken up where it looked like Grin had landed, and scorch marks were on the ground. Grin, it seemed, was gone.....
To be continued......
