Disclaimer: I don't own Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, or ANY of the League; I just own the plot and the bad guy.
Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.
The One Where They Help Save the World
"You're kidding, right?" Phoebe asked, looking at Hartdegen in shock. "There's no way that's ever going to work!"
"If you can come up with something more effective, be my guest," Hartdegen replied, looking scathingly over at the blonde woman. "But right now, our friends are in trouble, and if this idea doesn't work, we won't be any worse off than we were before."
"Except that I'll be bloody dead if you've miscalculated, you bastard!" Hyde yelled over at Hartdegen. "Did you take that into account?"
Hartdegen looked casually up at Hyde, apparently unintimidated by the man/creature's massive bulk.
"Yes, I did, Edward," the former teacher said, looking up at his friend with an expression that could have been on a statue's face. "But, quite frankly, when faced with a choice of certain death and a chance at life, wouldn't you rather take the chance?"
Hyde seemed about to retaliate, raising one fist as he faced Hartdegen, but, in the end, he lowered it and just glared at Hartdegen.
"If this fails, I'll come back and haunt you, you bastard," he said simply. Then he turned around and headed for the shattered cages, taking hold of the bars, and pulling with all his strength. The cage roof tore away from the main ground support, the metallic bars slowly cracking as Hyde lifted it, before the final 'link' vanished and the cage was two separate objects.
Laying the top part down on the ground, Hyde, aided by Terry, pulled off a few of the larger bars, the two of them then tossing the bars over to the others (Baring Skinner, who just tossed his one over to Monica). The rest of their group armed, Hyde then reached over, picked the cage's roof, and held it out in front of him critically. He shrugged and glanced over at Hartdegen.
"Looks like the idea'll work, Alex," he said, shrugging.
Then his eyes narrowed. "But if it doesn't, I'll throw you in front of me; remember that."
Hartdegen sighed as he raised his makeshift staff. "Let's just get this done, Hyde," he said, taking a couple of practice swings with his 'weapon' as he spoke. He looked over at Ross, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe and Joey. "Do any of you know anything about unarmed combat?"
Ross raised a hand slightly. "Well, um, Rachel and Phoebe took a self-defence class a few years ago, I did some kara-tay a few years before that, but, well, we're all a bit out of practice," he said sheepishly.
"I'm sorry; you did what?" Skinner asked inquiringly.
"He means karate," Rachel sighed, looking like she might want to use her staff to hit Ross for being such an idiot. "Don't ask me why he pronounces it that way; he always has."
"Right…" Hartdegen said, before shrugging and looking over at Ross, Rachel and Phoebe. "The important thing is, you three at least have some basic knowledge of combat situations." He looked over at Monica and Joey. "How about you two?"
"Well, I've done a bit of stage-fighting in acting classes," Joey said, his tone suggesting he doubted that it would be much help.
Hartdegen smiled at his new friend; somehow, there was something about Joey's obvious immaturity that you couldn't help but find likable.
"Well, that's better than nothing," he said, patting Joey reassuringly on the shoulder. "At least you know approximately where to hit, right? You just need to remember not to stop at the last second; got that?"
Joey nodded, and Hartdegen looked over at Monica, raising an inquiring eyebrow.
Monica shrugged. "Well, I do my bit, but I'm pretty much an amateur at this; I'd only really punch and kick a lot," she said, trying to sound casual.
"That's better than nothing," Hartdegen said. He looked around at the others. "OK everyone; listen up. Hyde, Nemo; you two are our first line of defence when we go through that door. Ross, Phoebe, Rachel; you're with me just behind them. Monica, you and Joey stay behind us. Skinner, you take position at the back, and get ready for action; if the worst comes to the worst, you might give us the element of surprise in a combat situation."
He looked around at them all, and then jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go; those things are waiting for us."
"DUCK!" Chandler yelled over at Mina, noticing the two men advancing on her with stakes in their hands. Mina ducked down instantly, and Chandler, after confirming Emma was safe, fired his gun rapidly at the men, striking them in the chest with bullets.
He still couldn't believe he was doing this; one minute he was just drinking coffee with his friends, and the next he was fighting a bunch armed madmen with a vampire and a spy while trying to protect his baby niece? He was freaking KILLING these guys…
But, right now, he didn't have a choice. It was kill or be killed; kill or lose his friends, his wife, his brother-in-law, his niece…
He just hoped that, if there was a God, He'd excuse Chandler's actions at the moment…
Then something grabbed the gun barrel, and Chandler realised he'd had his eyes shut for the last few seconds.
"It's over, Chandler; they're all down," Tom's voice said to him. "You hear me? You can stop firing now. They're all dead."
Chandler's finger slid off the trigger of the gun, and he only vaguely registered that Emma was crying; he probably hadn't heard her earlier over the gunfire. Sticking the gun in his coat, he turned to Emma and tried bouncing the 'cradle' (He'd never been clear on what these things were called) up and down on his arm, trying to make her calm down. After a few seconds, she was at least prepared to be quiet, and Chandler looked back up at Tom and Mina.
"How much further till we reach the big cheese?" he asked, trying not to show how shaken he was by all this.
"The what?" Mina asked inquiringly.
"The boss," Chandler sighed, mentally reminding himself that, for all their powers, these guys were over a century out of date. "Think we're getting close to wherever it is he's hiding out in this place?"
Tom opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly the quiet hallway was filled by what sounded like a loud roar and what sounded like several bullets ricocheting off of something metallic.
Tom and Mina looked over at each other and sighed.
"Hyde," they both said.
"What?" Chandler said, looking at them in surprise. "You mean… as in Edward Hyde? The personification of Henry Jekyll's evil side? He's out!"
"Apparently," Tom said, as he quickly checked his gun's ammunition before sliding the cartridge back and looking at the others. "We'd better get moving; Hyde's good in a combat situation back home, but he might need backup dealing with something from this time."
"Come on, you bastards!" Hyde roared at the suits in front of him, the cage roof held out in front of him as a makeshift shield. He silently reminded Jekyll to compliment Hartdegen on the idea when they got out of this; he'd enjoyed this strategy when he'd used it against the Fantom's forces on their first mission, but he'd almost overlooked the possibilities for trying it again before Hartdegen pointed the cages out.
And, of course, you weren't sure the metal would hold up to the punishment… Jekyll critically commented in the back of Hyde's head.
Shut up, Henry! Hyde yelled at his 'better half' (He wished he had something better; it sounded like they were bloody married when he put it like that!). I'm trying to bloody focus here, you worm!
Then he heard something explode, and grinned.
"Nemo!" he yelled over the gunfire, glancing down beside him at the slightly smaller form of the Indian inventor. "Check what that was!"
"Very well," Nemo said, ducking down briefly to look underneath Hyde's 'shield' before looking back up at his friend. "One suit has lost one of its weapons, and another has been hit in the side by a piece of shrapnel from the exploding weapon and currently appears to be immobilized on the right side."
The right corner of Terry's mouth turned up in what was becoming the closest thing to a smile he'd ever given the League. "And, of course, I saw the other four coming up from behind them."
Rachel sounded like she would have choked if she'd had anything in her mouth at the time. "Waitaminute; four!" she whispered/yelled at Nemo. "You mean they brought Emma down here!"
"Well, where else could they leave her?" a voice called over to her from the back of the group. "In case you hadn't noticed, Miss Green, we're in a bit of a tricky position at the moment; it's not like we could just call someone to take care of the kid while we take out a bunch of time-travelling madmen!"
"Don't tell me what we could or couldn't do to make sure my baby's safe!" Rachel hissed, turning around to look at Skinner as she spoke; at least, she thought she was looking at Skinner.
He didn't really have the heart to tell her he was a foot to the left…
Then there was a massive explosion, and the entire group swiftly had to jump back or get crushed by the large form of Hyde as he hit the ground, briefly dazed by the sheer scale of the shockwave, even with the cage roof blocking the worst of the explosion.
Instantly, Hartdegen and Nemo leapt forward, drawing their makeshift weapons (In Hartdegen's case; Nemo was using his sword), as the rest of their group shifted into a combat stance, ready to go down fighting if necessary…
And stared in surprise at the sight in front of them.
The explosions had been the three suits that had been firing at them, all three of which were now lying on the ground in varying degrees of wreckage; the one with the least damage was now suffering from a distinct lack of both weapons and at least one of its mechanical arms.
And, standing behind them, two of them holding large weapons while the third held Emma, were Tom, Chandler and Mina.
"Uh…" Hyde groaned, as he staggered to his feet. His eyes fell on the three (Or maybe four, depending on it you counted Emma) people standing behind the suits, and he sighed. "You know, we did have everything under control."
"Really?" Chandler asked, indicating the spent bullet shells lying around them. "This is evidently some kind of definition of 'control' that's fallen out of fashion in the last few decades?" He shrugged. "I see why it didn't catch on."
"Look, can we just focus here, please?" Joey asked, looking around at everyone. "We're still in the middle of a place filled with people who'll be perfectly happy to shoot us if we so much as blink the wrong way at them, with only a bunch of rods to fight off attacking madmen armed with guns! We have to get out of here!"
"Can we all just calm down?" Mina sighed, as she walked towards the others and handed Emma back to Rachel. "We have to find out who's behind all this, or-"
"I'll give you a hint," a voice suddenly said from out of nowhere. "It's me."
Suddenly, before anyone could even react, Hartdegen and Phoebe suddenly found themselves yanked to the back of the group (A loud grunt from nothing seemed to have come from Skinner), stopping with two guns pointing at their backs, while the rest of the League could only stare in shock…
At the sight of two such large weapons suddenly appearing out of, and being held up by, nothing more than thin air.