All For Love, And All For One

The safety valve closed, killing off the feather of steam. Allowing Casey once more full use of the power he was generating. Which he quickly capitalized on. Tramp had spotted Scar's pit. They had to cross the very center of the encampment to get to it, but they where on a dead strait course. With a determined blast of his whistle, Casey poured it on. Leaving the the ape and the therapod in his smoke plume. He gave a cheery clap of his whistle as he passed the elephants, likewise giving them a view of his receding tender.

Still, several Outlanders where keeping up with him, and he knew sooner or later he would have to slow down and stop in order to kick the flatcar into the pit. Casey was by now approaching the big termite mound, about to catch up and over take Haki.

“Lads and lass, We don't hav much more ter go. Oi'm gonna 'av ta kick dis car soon if oi'm ter avoid pilin' into dat pit wi'th it. Git ready for an emergency stop. ”

**********

In the cab, Lady peered out from the coal bunker, realizing they had regained their speed. The spaniel moved to the gangway between the cab and the tender, and peered out. She was behind and underneath the Tramp in the engineer's seat, and had a view not only of the ground as it whipped by, but those giving pursuit. Her heart stopped when she head the locomotive give him command, knowing full well what would happen if they dropped their only shield.

“Tramp, we're going to have to let the car go soon! Casey is going to have the disengage his front coupling, and stop. The car will keep moving but we will not. They may try and board the train when we stop.”

She locked her brown eyes on Griffen and Shenzi, and pulled the corners of her lips into a growl, bearing her teeth. She was a bit further back to snap at them, but she hoped her show of intimidation would hold them back. She snapped her jaws in the air, barking and yapping. Bouncing slightly to the motion of the locomotive. Stubby tail held high, defiant.

For a moment, Tramp just stared at the odd sight of a gorilla riding a dinosaur. Aside from everything Merlin had done since they'd met, it had to be one of the strangest sights he'd ever seen. But, strange as it was, he knew he didn't want the big ape getting into the cab.

"Is this an army or a circus?" he muttered, glancing out the window as he heard Casey cursing up a storm. Whatever had happened, it couldn't be good. He glanced out the other window, relieved to see that the bear had withdrawn a small ways. But it looked to be only a small reprieve. Sooner or later, some pf the Outlanders were going to try to board the locomotive. Then things would really get interesting.

His ears twitched as he heard a full grown elephant trumpeting nearby, and he risked a quick glance out the window at the bugling beast. Wonderful. As if a bear and a gorilla weren't bad enough, now there was a full-grown bull elephant nearby. But at least it couldn't fit inside the cab. Its trunk, yes, but that was it.

"Announce ourselves? Ha, that's a good one," he said, smirking a bit. But before he could think of anything to say, Casey's voice interrupted his thoughts. Well, this was going to be rough. With Casey stopped, they'd be in some serious danger. The dog and the hyenas they'd seen were all bound to try to board the train. They'd need to do everything they could to keep them off.

"Well, we'll have to make certain they don't succeed," he stated, teeth baring as he gazed about in the cab. A number of scattered tools caught his eye, and he hoped there were some extras back in the camp. He moved closer to the gangway, still eying the windows warily, to stand near Lady. "Keep your eyes peeled, Pidge. A few of them have some long limbs," he cautioned her, teeth bared as he caught sight of that bear again.

"Tell me. Exactly. What is going on."

Zira's voice was low, dark, acid dripping from her tongue. She heard the elephant's cries mixed with the train engine. She did not like what she was seeing from her soldiers. Not one little bit. Her haphazard stupid army was flailing about like a bunch of damn morons, rolling around and bumping a train. A train. A TRAIN.

She was just about to slaughter them all.

Instead, her tan limbs took her past Haki (with a thank you nod, mind you, she wasn't a complete bitch) and towards the rocks next to the hole which was still there. Her ear folded back, eyes narrowing to the stupid hyena matriarch. She was going to rip her apart later. Right now she had a train to deal with.

Her eyes squinted as she spotted the driver...or drivers. Dogs. Fuck. What were they thinking? She paced back and forth. She didn't want to get her neck broken by jumping at them but she COULDN'T let them just blaze through her lands. And Scar was still asleep.

She hissed, padding down the rock, claws curling over the stones. She yelled out, barking orders. "SHENZI. GET YOUR GODDAMNED HYENAS AND GET PREPARED. That train has to stop eventually. Now, do it, you mother fucking smelly mongrel! Desoto! Gather the dogs! NOW. We need to be prepared for whatever those canines are plan-" Her eyes widened in realization.

That puppy she left in the hole.
That might have been her mother.

DeSoto's grin fell into a sneer at the hyena's jeers, eyes boring into her own sharp yellow ones. Pointed ears folded back against his skull and the creases in his snout only grew more prominent as the doberman's lips peeled back to offer her a better view of his fangs. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the bunch, but even he knew that, despite being slower compared to the speed at its original departure, a bulky dog such as himself could not match the momentum of the steam-powered locomotive. Even when the spaniel tumbled and hung precariously from the open window of the cab, his size alone slowed him considerably to leave the female just out of his reach.

"Desoto! Gather the dogs! NOW."

The familiar and spiteful voice of their queen resonated from their encampment in the Outlands and rang in his ears. H couldn't help but snarl in irritation; he would much rather keep up the chase. On the other hand, he didn't want to get a faceful of the lioness' claws, either.

With one last, disgruntled snort from his large nose, the doberman veered off the intended path and made a beeline towards the towering mounds. He let loose a string of powerful barks, made all the more ferocious by the raw ire he felt burning throughout his throat and chest.

"There's a bunch of goody two-shoes heading towards the prisoners' pit," he growled to anybody who cared to listen, "Zira's gonna be pissed if we let 'em get outta here in one piece."

He wasn't used to giving orders himself, but he figured that he had announced the gist of what needed to be known and that no further information was required. His short attention span was so focused on his own mindless brutality and it took the dog a minute to decide what should be done next. He would return to Zira, he decided, and backtracked towards the lioness.

Short black fur bristling, he sauntered to her side, yet made sure to stay out of reach of her deadly claws. "Can we kill 'em when they stop?" he asked, shifting from paw to paw in unrelenting impatience. Inwardly, he felt like a puppy awaiting a reward for fulfilling a demand. If anything, he knew that, as long as Zira was in command, anything could end in bloodshed.

Haki turned her head as she went along, watching Zira go past. The queen was here, but Haki knew better than to think her job was over. She would never think of shirking her duties, not when she was filled with so much hate thanks to the intrusion. King Scar had yet to appear. The clan hyena took it upon herself to track him down. Obviously he would want more than a word with these foolhardy trespassers. Suddenly, her eyes flashed to one side. They glared at the engine as it began to gain on her. Haki increased her speed. She might not have been a machine, but she was not about to let her high hyena endurance be glossed over like that. A cheetah might have been able to match the train's speed, but not for long. A marathon runner like herself would fall behind, but one can expect to see her right behind for a long time. But, as she did not intended to follow the train for long, Haki was more simply making a display of herself. Falling behind, she spotted the growling spaniel from inside. Was that the best the Heroes had to offer? Had she known Lady from any other situation, Haki would not have wasted her rage on her - but the direct attack on her home was unforgivable. Just as Haki found herself in plain view, her ears folded back and her jowls pulled away as she displayed her own set of blunt, powerful teeth.

"Hope I never catch you - because I'll kill you," Haki promised.

The big hyena made a sharp turn, leaving her new-found vendetta behind. The royal lair was closer than ever. As she made a bee-line for the earthen caverns, she could see her matriarch and a large hound she did not know rallying the troops. Excellent. When that machine stopped, and Haki was counting on such, the ramifications of charging into the heart of an army's camp would be all too clear. Oh, how Haki hoped she would be there when it happened. As for now, her task was to locate Scar.

The dust burst into the tunnels as Haki threw herself inside the termite mound entrance. She only hesitated for a moment before briskly moving deeper into the lair.

"Scar!" she called out, trying to keep some dignity in her voice.

~*~

Meanwhile, a certain reddish male poked his head out from behind a boulder. One of Waffle's ears went slack as he craned his neck.

"Holy guacamole!" Waffle commented, seeing the chaos in front of him.

The male hyena looked extremely dumbfounded for several seconds. Waffle turned his head, seeing DeSoto somewhere in the distance, but still being able to hear him. Of course, Waffle didn't really listen to him, instead, his matriarch took his full attention. Slowly, his bright crimson eyes turned toward the train just a-truckin along. As Waffle seemed to piecing together a story - a story that made sense by his logic - he began to smirk. He hopped up, his tail bristling with excitement.

"Ooh goodie! Something exciting's gonna happen!" he squealed.

And Waffle joined the parade. He had been resting earlier, so Waffle was charging into battle fresh - and I'm not just referring to his mouth. As he gained, he invited any and all to join him in his escapade with a call of:

"Aaoooowhooooooooop-whooop-whoop. Aaooowhoop!" Waffle whooped, "It's time for a healthy game of tag. The Heroes are it!"

Oh goody, a challenge. Scourge hadn't done much today but sit around and scratch himself and pick at his ears. The war had grown stale to the violent experiment. He wanted a battle. Bloodshed, and the chance to destroy. Both opportunities came at the very same moment. The train's whistle came to his ears first, and he snapped his head around from his seated position behind a small termite mound. He watched studiously as the strange machine ripped across the Outlands. Well that was certainly some sort of interesting Earth vehicle.

Just interesting enough to try to demolish. With a demented laugh, Scourge scuttled across the dirt towards the train like an oversized hairy red bug, determined to catch it. Unfortunately, while being super strong and super intelligent, Jumba had not equipped the little hairball with speed boosters or rocket feet, so at first he made no real progress. But he kept doggedly at it, determined that he was going to do SOME amount of damage to this train. And.. ripped ears twitched as he thought he heard voices from the cab. Excellent. There were passengers. Some blood to shed.

He bided his time as the other Outlanders tried to chase and attack the train. When it nearly overturned and then suddenly slowed, the little red mutant sped up, almost catching up to the tail of the train now. Any moment now. Any moment. He was literally drooling at the desire to violate it, to destroy some part of it in a vital and very horrible way. Sweat was dampening his fur, both in anticipation and because he was burning up. Running through a practical desert after a train was no easy feat. But finally, the experiment managed to get close enough to the rear end of the train that he thought he might be able to touch it. He raised his extra arm, still using the other three to help maintain his speed, and made a swipe at the caboose, intending to either latch onto something and climb aboard, or rake his claws across something and cause some damage.

Shenzi kept signalling the other hyenas Griffin and Waffle came out which should have been good if Waffle, thought the chase was a game of tag. Damn it, why does Waffle think life is a game, especially tag. He should get his thick head into the game and start to friggin' wake up, life is not a game of TAG. IT IS A FRIGGIN' WAR. AND WE ARE IN A WAR WITH THOSE GOODY TWO SHOES HEROES AND THOSE SLIMY HUMAN VILLIANS. THIS FRIGGIN' STEAM ENGINE NEEDS TO FRIGGIN' STOP..

"GET YOUR DAMN ASSES DOWN HERE AND HELP STOP THE TRAIN AND THOSE GOODY-GOODY HEROES AND THEIR GIANT STEAM ENGINE, WE HAVE A CHANCE TO DO SOME SLAUGHTER SOME HEROES AND DO SOME FRIGGIN' DAMAGE! GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR AND BLOODY HELP. OTHERWISE RISK LOSING A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOME DAMN FRIGGIN' BLOODSHED". She hoped they could hear it. Shenzi let go of another signal, to let more hyenas know of the train, their orders and the chance to do some slaughter and bloodshed.

Lady poked her head out the gangway once more. Looking aft, she saw that the number of creatures pursuing them was growing. The cocker rolled her lips and gave a brief snarl, before turning forward and looking ahead. They where rapidly closing the gap between them and the pit.

The cocker dove back into the cab and scurried past Tramp in the engineer’s seat to knock the door onto the running boards that ran along each side of Casey's boiler open. The wind suddenly entered the cab, blowing the Spaniel’s ears about her head. Through the now open door, she and her mate would have a front row view to the grand climax of this show. Lady looked back to her mate, and gave him a sharp nod.

“Whenever you are ready Casey...We're set!”

Casey gave one single blast of his steam whistle. Eyes narrowed, focusing on the pit ahead of him. Growing in size as he approached. This was the moment of concentration. Too much speed, and he could kick the car clean across the pit. Too little speed and it could bottom out on one end. He eased up slightly, feeling the couplings between him and the circus flat go slack. Then, with a sharp pull, and a clatter of iron, he disengaged the couplings.

“Hang on back dare!” The Baldwin bellowed. Then, with a sudden crack of air, and the high pitched screech of iron on iron his brake-shoes jammed on tight. Sparks flew from the brake-shoes and from where the wheels met the conjured rails. The screech was much like nails being dragged across a chalkboard, and the sudden deceleration caused the tools already laying about the footplate to sudden fly forward. Coal in the tender to shift, and Lady, who was standing in front of the open door, tumbled outside.

The graceful spaniel not so gracefully landed with her forelegs splayed, her muzzle flat against the running board just outside the cab. Her back legs bracing against the door frame, as the locomotive decelerated. Just narrowly avoiding a repeat of her last tumble.

Casey yipped in joy as he saw the flatcar sudden shoot forward, free of his own control. The circus car dropped off the magical rails with an incredible thud, it's flanged wheels digging into the earth and created a set of troughs in it's wake. It was on an almost strait line right for Scar's prison, screaming thought the distance like a bolt of lightning shot from an avenging god, a cloud of dust in it's trail.

It took less then five seconds for it to reach it's mark. The front of the circus flat shooting over the edge of the pit. Anyone below would be treated to a surreal view of the underside of the front of the rail car, it's wheels spinning uselessly in mid air. The car bottomed out of the edge before the front began to teeter-toter down. With a pained groan of iron it's speed was almost instantly arrested as the bottom of the deck smashed along the edge, kicking rocks and dirt down into the pit, alongside bits of the car itself.

Then, like a giant see-saw, the end of the car rose high into the air, and with a death rattle of smashing steel, compressing iron, and crunching wood, the circus flatcar dove into the pit. It's front slaming into the earth and plowing a small furrow at the bottom. The rear of the car almost perfectly came to rest at the very top. The car now supported at it's front end at the bottom of the pit, and the rear caught at the top, formed a steep, but usable ramp. The furrow at the bottom created the perfect lead up onto the deck.

For a brief second there was silence in the pit, until bits of rock and dust that the flatcar had picked up fallowed it down.

Lady and the Tramp had formed their bridge.

Meanwhile, Casey was still decelerating. The locomotive dug his drive wheels and even tried to pop himself into reverse to back-peddle away. A horrified look smeared across his smoke-box as he realized just how close he was coming to the pit. Anyone fallowing behind the locomotive would have been suddenly surprised as the locomotive's speed cut off so sharply, he would have seemed to have shot into reverse. There was suddenly a very real possibly that he would collide with the rear of the now beached flatcar, and tumble into the pit himself. Bringing Tramp, Merlin, and Lady with him.

As a last ditch attempt to slow himself down, he jumped Merlin's rails, and slid sideways. The rails however seemed to fallow him (As Merlin had said they would) and the locomotive found himself kicking out, and drifting sideways like a baseball player sliding into home plate, his drive wheels screaming in protest. He was skewing to one side, Just narrowly avoiding a tumble into the pit.

“Oh shat, shat, shat!” His eyes widened as he saw where his course was taking him.

Despite his best efforts, he did not miss the termite mound. Casey slammed into the mound hard, breaking dirt, rocks, and other debris across himself. Because he hit it side on, he was thrown onto one set of wheels, the mound, while thankfully slowing him down, did little to hurt him. Vanishing in a shower of dirt and pebbles. Casey grunted as he struck it, clamping his eyes shut. Inside his cab, Lady screamed as a shower of debris came in through the windows and the locomotive lurched violently, tossing her back inside the cab and across the engineer's seat, at the Tramp.

Casey spun completely 360 degrees around, so he was now facing the direction he had arrived in, before landing with a “thunk”, facing the pit and the demolished termite mound. Before drawing to a complete stop...a wake of destruction in his trail.

The whole affair, from disengaging the coupling, to Casey's stop, lasted maybe a minute.

Ah, son of a bitch, Vakasa thought as the large elephant blocked Nelleke's path and he lost his chance to jump onto the train as it barreled past them and towards the pit. Up on the dinosaur's thick neck he heard Hathi speak.


"You want to take yourself out, woman?! Stop what you're doing instantly! That is an order! You stand and guard our outlands, do you hear what I'm saying? On the double! Hop to it!"

A crunching sound made the ape look ahead as the train car fell into the pit with a horrid crunch and creak of metal meeting solid dirt. "So, what's the plan now?" he hissed, finally making himself known to Hathi. "You just gonna let us miss our chance to crush them? They are sitting ducks now," he said.

When Casey came to a shrieking halt, Tramp winced at the horrid noise, and was forced to sink his teeth into the seat to keep from joining the tools in a sudden flight across the cab. He had no desire to get any closer to the locomotive's backhead than he had to. One experience with nearly scalding himself was more than enough. Victim of inertia that he was, he could only watch out of the corner of his eye as Lady nearly got pitched out of the cab.

He breathed a sigh of relief as she caught herself, and he loosened his grip just in time to stagger when Casey's momentum carried him forward. He stared in mute horror as he saw the yawning edge of the pit go by, uncomfortable close, before the impact with the termite mound nearly tossed him from his perch. He barely had any time to react when he heard Lady scream, and her suddenly airborne body flew towards him.

All thoughts of keeping his balance vanished as she impacted against his chest, and he instinctively curled around her as he toppled backwards, grunting as, once again, he hit the footplate on his back, and rolled, head over heels, into the cab's wall, still shielding Lady as best he could. The sudden feel of something warm flowing over his injured leg indicated his bullet wound had reopened. His head rested against the side of the cab as he lay on his back, limbs cradling the smaller dog.

"Are you alright?" he asked, as soon as they had settled, and he was certain he hadn't broken anything. He had always been tougher than his size might suggest, but he knew he'd been fortunate he hadn't been seriously injured. He'd be sore for a while once this was all over, but it could have been far worse. "Anything broken? Or bleeding?"

During the whole trip through the Outlands, Merlin had remained silent, and largely closed off to his surroundings. Since he'd not needed to see anything, he'd simply not seen. But he had kept his ears opened, just in case anyone should need to speak to him, so he had been keeping track of everything that had happened so far, at least by sound.

Once the journey began to get rougher, he recognized a small flaw in his metallic form. If he'd been knocked over, or actually jostled about inside the cab like many of the tools had been, he stood a very good chance of pulping the two dogs inside with him. So, drawing even more deeply on his reserves, he's sealed himself to the footplate with a powerful magnetic bond. Strong enough to keep him rooted where he was.

And just in time, too. He heard the Cocker's call for help, and the sound of a tool of some kind bounce off of his leg as the locomotive swerved abruptly, but he'd kept himself from adding to the problem since, if he'd fallen, momentum would have sent his solid metal body straight at the engineer's seat. Then, only moments later, another sudden lurch sent tools and dogs flying.

Once they had come to a complete stop, Merlin readjusted his rail spell, pinning those glistening steel lengths in place, and opened his eyes, figuratively speaking. Momentum and speed had been their protection, but now, they'd have to deal with the AVs themselves. And, while he still might not be able to do a whole lot, he could still do something. Metal grated on metal as he slid across the cab, positioning his heavy, metal body on one edge of gangway, physically blocking as much of that entryway as he could.

And, few though they may be, he could still toss a few spells if he absolutely had to.

"They stopped!" Magnus roared. He charged towards the now stopped train and just about threw himself against metallic form of Merlin, not even knowing that what he charged into was alive and a wizard at that. Like something out of a scary movie, the bear threw himself once more at the blocked entryway with a fierce roar.
------

Griffin circled around the train before leaping up, attempting to pull himself into the side window, his cackles echoing around the train. "Here, doggy, doggy," he snickered.

Lady felt herself fall in Tramp's , lap, his fore legs wrapping around her as they both tumbled to the foot plate. The cocker's hind legs twisted with his, and as they fell she grazed her head on the side of the seat-box, seeing stars for as she lay on her back in Tramp's grasp. Cradled in his paws. Her own forepaws held ahead of her, crossed in front of her chest.

For a few seconds, the toppled spaniel lay there, feeling the mongrel's chest rise and fall, her vision slowly clearing, the only sound other then her own breathing being the rhythmic chugging if Casey's air compressor. One of her ears was trapped between the back of her head and his neck. Her own chest heaving as she caught her breath. Barely hearing his ask if she was okay. She rolled her head slightly so as to put him in her field of vision, looking up, craning her neck. She nodded her head, before letting a bright pink tongue flick out and give a small kiss on his neck.

“Yah...I...think I'm fine.”

The cocker gave him a kind smile, ignoring the knot forming on her head. She rolled her head back, and saw his hind leg, noticing that a dark stain was appearing on his bandaged. She gave a slight gasp, sitting up, still on her back.

“Tramp...your bleeding.”

Suddenly the face of the hyena appeared in one of the windows, above where the two dogs where laying. Lady practically leaped into the air, quickly rolling to her paws, her legs braced. She stood, protectively over the male, and narrowed her eyes, rolling her lips up and giving a low growl at where the hyena's voice cackled.

Nelleke shook her great head in annoyance and frowned at the elephant as he lectured her about nearly getting killed. She was the largest thing in the Outlands, no stupid train would even scratch her or so she thought. "Yes sir, but if you'll excuse me, I have a train to maul." she brushes past Hathi and towards Casey Jr. Her yellows eyes narrowed as she came up beside the train, surveying where to take a bite out of it if she could. "Alright Vakasa, they're all yours," said as she she lowered her head to allow the gorilla to get off her neck before finally deciding to close her jaws around the coupling rods, pulling back and attempting to rip them free of the train if she could. If that didn't work, she would just headbutt the side of the train, hopefully to knock it over.

“Tramp...your bleeding.”

"Boo hoo."

It was as if she'd appeared out of thin air. The female had watched the destruction from afar, keeping herself out of harms way. Her eyes were slits. She was infuriated, claws digging into the dirt, teeth gritting towards the ruble and carnage. She was furious. Furious might have been an understated word. Her jaws dripped with little flecks of blood from her biting her tongue and cheek. Her nose scrunched, her tail whipped back and forth as she stared towards the troops and finally the fluffy little growler standing before her.

As much as she blamed the dog and her mate she blamed her troops even more. They were so unorganized. Haki and Hathi were at least trying, even that little elephant had sounded the alarm. But that large lizard creature, the gorilla...she bit down hard on her lip, keeping her rage inside.

She'd smacked aside the hyena. If her blow took effect, Griffin would end up with his throat choking from Zira slapping him aside. Her slender maw slipped towards the cocker.

"Who the bloody hell do you think you are?" She hissed. Pulling back her lips in a grin, she inhaled dramatically. "I can smell your boyfriend's blood from here. Maybe I'll add him to the pile bellow. Eh...that corpse at the bottom...does she belong to you?"