All For Love, And All For One

"Thanks Nelleke," Vakasa grunted, leaping off her neck and quickly moving toward the door, letting out a series of grunts to Magnus. "Can I give it a shot?" he asked, knuckle walking forward, and was just about to take a swing when he saw Zira leap up to the window, and Griffin now on the ground. He gulped. No doubt she would be pissed at him. He glanced up at Magnus, weighing his options, if he should go in now or let Zira handle this whole thing.

Tramp grimaced as he glanced down at his injured leg, then slowly rolled over onto his belly. It had taken it long enough to stop bleeding last time, and at this rate, it's be well into the new year before it was healed. But at least he'd left th bandage on it. He'd considered taking it off, but he'd taken the possibility of reopening the wound into account. He was about to speak when a leering hyena stuck its head into the window.

As Lady shielded him, he levered himself to his feet in time to see the hyena suddenly disappear, only to be replaced by a lioness. A very unfriendly lioness. He could see her attempts to keep her rage from erupting, and his eyes narrowed when he heard her taunting words, and the implication behind them. But, ultimately, he judged them empty. If Dani were dead as the lioness, whom he guessed must be Zira, claimed, there wouldn't be a corpse left at all. Not with the state the Outlanders were in.

"Queen Zira, I presume," he said, a cold, hard glint in his eyes as he stared back at her, returning her grin. "Your reputation precedes you. I'd recognize that charming demeanor anywhere," he said, a cocky tone to his voice, hoping to keep Zira distracted for a bit. He knew her type. A burning bundle of anger, barely contained. Baiting her was dangerous, but at the moment, necessary.

"But I suppose I should thank you for taking such good care of our daughter," he said, lowering his head as if to bow. Then he gripped the handle of a coal shovel between his teeth before swinging the heavy, iron head straight at Zira's face with as much speed and force as his lithe body could muster. He had aimed right at the window, and he didn't care if he caught face, paw, or whatever, but he was certain to hit something. Normally, he wouldn't have struck first against someone who was talking, but as far as he was concerned, Zira was little better than that rat he'd killed, so long ago.

After swinging the shovel, he pressed against Lady, moving her, and himself, back out of Zira's range, just in case she was still able to strike back. He was also ready to swing the shovel again, or toss it and grab another tool. He lowered his head, and spoke softly, right into Lady's ear. "As soon as you get the chance, slip out and make for the pit. I'll try to keep them distracted," he whispered, quickly and softly. He glanced over at Magnus, only to dismiss the bear as a concern since all the beast's efforts hadn't moved Merlin one inch.

And Zira was right. The spotted hyena flew backwards, dropping to the ground with a thud, coughing and sputtering for air as he struggled to get back to his feet. "ACK! The hell?" he croaked, deep blue colored eyes glaring up at the window and the queen. A moment later, Griffin had regained his breath and once again leaped up towards the window, only to be greeted with the sight of the mutt swinging a god damn shovel at Zira. "Eh?" The hyena's face screws up in confusion. Dogs using weapons now? That was a first for him.

Lady stood next to the Tramp as he spoke, giving Zira a cold stare. From where she was standing, the Outlander Queen seemed to appear out of thin air behind Lady's turned back. Whipping around to face her, the little cocker found herself holding down a real bad case of the shakes. The stories and tales did the lioness little justice to reality. In person, with blood gathering around the corners of her mouth, she looked absolutely terrifying. However, she put on a brave mask, and let out a low growl as the lioness implied the death of her daughter. The street dog's cocky words installed bravado in the house pet, and she stood, legs braced and tail held high, defiant, next to the mongrel as he spoke. Only gently stepping back when he reached for the scoop. Herself lowering her head, eyes glued on the lioness, but her maw heading for an adjustable wrench laying on the footplate.

Lady realized instantly what he was about to do, and she was ready when the Tramp tossed the scoop. She snapped up the spanner in her muzzle, and fallowed him as he pressed her out of range of the lioness's inevitable rage.

She nodded her head agreeing with his plan, spanner clicking as she did, and looked over at where the bear was attempting to enter the cab, his attempts impeded by the solid form of Merlin. The graceful spaniel took this moment, with Zira hopefully distracted by the coal scoop, and Magnus unable to enter the cab, and practicably leaped to the still open door leading to the running board. She looked back at the Tramp, and gave a firm nod. Her heart was in her throat, her mind refusing to allow the thought of her former mate standing alone against Zira and her army to impeded her.

“Pwease, be car-full.” Her voice was just above a whisper, distorted around the spanner held in her jaws. But her words where clear as the look on her soft brown eyes. She turned to the door and before he could respond, the cocker scurried out onto the running boards.

The Running boards ran along each side of Casey's boiler, and where high, out of reach of most of the Outlander animals. Lady's nails clicked as she carefully crept across walkway, before making a graceful arch off the pilot of the steam locomotive. Her paws touching Outlander soil for the first time. Lady had left via the front of the locomotive, using Casey's iron bulk to block the view from Zira. Once off the locomotive she started running for the edge of the pit, where the rear of the Flatcar stood clawing into the air.

While Zira was certainly busy another lioness was not. That of course was Digger her red orbs locked on Lady as soon as the cocker made a bee-line for the pit. With a roar Digger threw herself towards the little spaniel claws ripping up dry earth as she chased after her. "You thought this would be easy, didn't you?" She sneers her body twisting as she attempts to move in front of Lady to block the pit.

"Huh?" Alerted by Digger's roar, Vakasa's attempts to figure a way into the train ceased, and he turned, racing along the side of the train. "Try the window Magnus, I'll help Digger" he grunted over his shoulder to the bear. He continued towards the pit, letting out a sharp roar, fangs glinting in the light. A pound to his chest did not hurt either. After all, that was his way to scare off predators, of which Lady could have been. "Keep it up Digger!" he called.

"Dani, get down!"

She was in no state to hear, much less obey; even in his own dehydrated and semi-delusional state Berlioz realised that. The little canine had been fading fast in the days - or weeks, or months; he'd entirely lost track - since Zira had pulled the rest of the prisoners out of the pit and left them alone, and though Berlioz had done absolutely everything he could for her, that ammounted to very little. Cody seemed to have vanished, too; whether he didn't realise they were still down there, or whether his mercy mission had been ended in a much more violent fashion, the little feline couldn't begin to guess. He refused to give up on Danielle, refused to give up trying to get them out until he literally dropped dead from starvation, but nothing he did seemed to ammount to anything. She had barely even stirred for a few days, and only her weak breathing told Berlioz that the canine he cared so deeply for was alive at all.

Still, in the moment a railway car had come hurtling into the pit at a million miles per hour - or so it seemed to him - instinct had overtaken reality. The adolescent tom had followed his own advice, throwing himself to the ground atop Danielle as though that would somehow save her from being imminently crushed, and clenched his eyes shut as chunks of hard-packed earth, stone, and metal pieces rained down upon them as the car seemed to be battering itself to pieces on its way down. Something sharp cut his brow; Berlioz felt warm crimson running down into his eyes as the awful grinding and shattering of their approaching doom drew nearer and nearer and...

Stopped.

Either they were dead, or the car had stopped millimetres from crushing them; Berlioz cracked open his right eye - the one whose lid didn't feel quite so warm and sticky - to see that the rail car had, indeed, stopped; it had come to rest at an angle, almost as though forming a bridge for them to get out. Clenching his eye tightly shut again against the wave of dust that followed it down - not quite fast enough; the feline's eye watered as tiny pinpricks of grit scratched at it - Berlioz waited until the debris felt as though it had settled before letting his eye slide open again. Blinking it a few times to clear the tears, the charcoal animal stared up at the car in confusion.

He had heard the sounds from topside, of course; the piercing train whistle, the trumpeting and roaring and yelling and horrible metalic screeching that had seemed to want to burst his eardrums. But he'd never have expected anyone in the world to be hurling part of a train down the pit. Given how close they'd come to being flattened, it was a piss-poor rescue attempt if that had indeed been the case; though that, in and of itself, seemed unlikely to the feline.

Rather than try and puzzle it out, however, Berlioz hastily turned his attention back to Dani. The rain of debris didn't seem to have harmed her, although her fur was just as thickly coated with dust as his own; though he couldn't tell if she'd even stirred at their all-too-close brush with death. A moment passed, in which he tried in vain to wipe some of the blood away from his left eye with a paw - his forehead seemed to have been gashed by a flying piece of metal just over the orb, and the wound was still leaking crimson down his face - and then he bent to check on Dani again. Her breathing was still normal - a distinct contrast to Berlioz own, which came in ragged huffs in time to the blood pounding in his ears - and in fact, she didn't seem to even be aware of anything that had happened. She was so far out of it that Berlioz feared she couldn't have much life left at all. Ignoring the scream and cry of battle still raging far overhead, the little feline crouched at her side and desperately tried to nudge Danielle back to consciousness.

Don't die; Dani, please, please don't die. The words, voiced only in his head, repeated over and over like a mantra, or a desperate prayer. Whatever was going on up there, he didn't have a clue; if Dani had been conscious, they might have been able to sneak up the impromptu bridge and away from the outlands while the carnage had everyone's attention. But he didn't have the strength to carry her himself; as it was, all he could do was wait. Wait, for whatever was going to come next.


(ooc: I don't think I'm godmodding here; Lady told me that Stitch had told him that this would more or less be Dani's state at present.
Also, I'm not officially back from hiatus yet, and nor is Ray; I'm just dropping back in as Berlioz for this one thread because I was told it was pretty urgent and Lady kind of twisted my arm about it )

Lady's paws kicked up small cloud of dirt and dust as she covered the distance between Casey's final resting spot, and the pit. She could feel a heavy throbbing in her head from where she struck it in the collision, and quickly gathered that she would have a knot there for some time.

This was going wrong, fast. They had not anticipated Casey's crash into the termite mound, and to be on the wrong side of the pit. She was also starting to realize that she had underestimated the Outlanders, badly.

She was nearing the upended bulk of the flatcar, when a lioness suddenly veered ahead of her blocking her path. The spaniel’s paws flayed as she slid to a stop, her feet cycling for a second to gain grip as she slid before darting off in another direction. Not giving the lioness a chance to attack her. The feisty little canine took off like a bolt, only to do the same avoidance maneuver as the gorilla started for her. Lady bounded through the air, and dove between the ape's legs, changing course again and darting once more for the flatcar.

She reached the edge, and without a hesitation, bounded up onto it's upraised end.

The wooden deck of the car had splintered on it's way down, the boards askew and a few knocked completely free. But the iron tire track where the circus wagon's would have rested their wheels once tied down formed a steel slide. Lady yelped as she suddenly found herself cascading down the flatcar's bed. Her paws useless to arrest her fall.

She landed on her rump, her back against the deck of the car. The spanner falling from her maw and landing with a clatter next to her. In a small cloud of dust. Looking up the length of the railcar from down here at the bottom of the hole, she was suddenly reminded of puppy-hood, looking up the staircase in the middle of the Dear home.

Looking into the pit, her chocolaty eyes fell upon two forlorn figures. One being a black furred feline. The poor thing looked like absolute hell, she could even count the ribs showing on his stomach. The other, a dust covered cocker spaniel whose coat matched her own. Lady's eyes teared...she had not seen her youngest daughter in well over a year. The long distance, fear, the fight with amnesia, it all brought her to the last moment she saw the doofy pup.

“Dan...Dani.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, before barking; “Danielle!”

(TWWWIIIISSSSTTTTTTT...good to see you again, albeit temporary. :-))

Vakasa said:"Woah, what?" Vakasa made a grab but missed as the cocker zipped through his legs, darting about this way and that, easily avoiding Digger and himself. The ape glared and turned to grunt at Digger, signaling for her to get in the pit. "You're gonna be stuck down there, you know," he said as he hovered at the top of the car, blocking their escape. With Digger going into the pit herself, this would be easy.

"But I suppose I should thank you for taking such good care of our daughter."

The female's teeth bared. But a second later she would regret that decision to show her distaste for Tramp's statement. Her mind went for a split second to congratulate herself. She had guessed properly. These were the mutt's parents. She was about to-honestly she had no idea. For every thought she had, every move she'd planned, was destroyed by the singe of the shovel on her muzzle. The coal shovel dug into her skin. Into her face.

"RRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRRR!"

The pain flashed through her body as she rolled back into the air. Her claws were extended, mouth open as she roared loud and clear.
Scar should have heard that at least.

Backing out of the window, she missed it when Lady rolled to the hole. Who cared. She was after that gray furred mutt. She tasted the blood on her tongue as it ran down her face, singing the fur with heat. "THAT MOVE WILL BE YOUR LAST, MONGREL!" Wit that, the only sounds Zira made were snarls and snaps. Her eyes blazed. Anger fueled her body. That was it. The mutt was on her hit list. Not only had he disrespected her king's land but he'd disrespected her as well.

She reached her claw towards Tramp's muzzle, stuffing what she could through the hole. "You are MINE."

Lips peeled back to show off her sharp daggers as she leaped down the car, her claws scraping against the metal. She made a lunge for Lady, claws out, attempting to slap her against the side of the pit before rounding on her again for another blow. "You dare come into our lands?" the lioness hissed out.

The doberman was little more than a blur of movement as his bulky form pushed past the gorilla. He braced his paws against the metal of the flatcar as he let himself slide down into the pit, the points of his black claws scraping the smooth surface and producing an ugly metallic screech. Near the end of his descent, he leapt with all the strength he could gather in the bunched muscles of his legs, and landed with almost precise accuracy at the lioness' side. He flanked her, the short black fur along his neck and large shoulders bristling.

"End of the line," he growled at the little spaniel, mouth drawn back in a snarl. He snapped his teeth at her, purposely avoiding making any contact with fur or flesh. He withdrew, circled, and repeated the action. It was not as much of a threat as it was simply toying with the small dog, a little game he liked to play with his targets before the real fun began.

Waffle's eyes became disks of red as his blunt claws dug into the dirt. As Waffle skidded, he watched the engine scream to a stop, busting down one of the earth towers in its wake. Some bits of dirt bounced off his face as he took on a genuinely shocked expression. It didn't last though, before a big white smile appeared on the hyena's face. He leaned up and clapped his front paws, jumping up into the air.

"Woo-hoo! Do it again! Do it again!" Waffle chanted in elation.

The male hyena definitely wasn't the type to take the destruction of his home seriously - personally, Waffle thought the Outlands sucked anyway - and he was quite thrilled to see what was in his eyes a demolition derby. A bad solider was Waffle. He approached the now-halted engine at a slower, but still brisk, trot. He was just in time to see fellow-hyena Griffin receive a throat-punch by the queen bee herself. What an honor! Of course Waffle had a good brief laugh at this. Figuring he was welcome to just stand around and watch for a moment, Waffle adjusted himself several times in an attempt to see past Zira and watch exactly she was after in there; was it rabbits? Waffle hoped it was rabbits. When a loud clang rang out, his tail shot up. After realizing what he heard was the noise of metal hitting the soft head-flesh of a lioness, Waffle proceeded to back up very quickly. He wasn't sticking around for the aftermath.

"Oh, she's mad. Soooo... nope," Waffle commented before running behind the train to hide.

And what should the hyena find when he got there? Well, it looked a bit like football, he thought. The little doggy-dog dodged the Outlanders like a pro and went down the big hollow square thing. Waffle observed for a little bit as two others went down after her. He chuckled as he ran over and jumped up into the high end of the car. Claws grappled the floor as he narrowed stopped himself from falling in. Tilting his head, it appeared as if Waffle was weighing his options. Now if he went down there, he'd have a hard time getting out and the other pit-dwellers would not be very happy to have him there, and - Ooo! It's a slide!

"Look out belooooooow!" shouted Waffle before jumping in.

He was not able to keep to his paws for very long - not that he was particularly trying - and went down the incline on his butt. Due to his neglect to keep himself stabilized, Waffle turned around halfway down, now going back-first toward the ground.

"Doh!" he grunted as landed ungracefully upside-down.

"I do say, you did put up a good show," Claudius purred from above as he stood besides Vakasa. Sharp claws dug at the edge of the pit as he put one paw on the cold metal as if testing it. "Do you need any help down there?" he called, eyes flicking towards Lady and the captives. For a brief moment, the male wondered where Chippy was. Surely she heard the train and the elephant.

The steam locomotive had been standing silently, watching as the Outlander's closed around him. He moved not one inch, even as a lizard stupidly chewed on one of his main-rods. He almost rolled his eyes, hoping he wouldn't laugh if the creature broke a tooth on the hardened alloys.

Instead, he just silently bated his time. The only sound coming from him being the repeated “thu-thnk” of his air compressor building up air pressure from the emergency stop, and gentile hiss of his boiler. However, inside his boiler, heat pulled from his fire was passing though the steel flues...the water bubbling away merrily. Flashing into steam.

As Lady dashed out the cab, and Tramp dispensed his form of shovel jockeying, the needle on the pressure gauge rose, and rose, and rose. It was almost dead center, at the very peak of the gauge. A few more notches over, and it would start to eek into the red zone. Just a little bit more. It was a strategy game, too much and the safety valves would go off, releasing all the steam (as well as Casey's plan) into the air. Too little and the effect would die off instantly.

It was when he heard the shovel meet Zira's maw, the roar of the lioness, and Lady dashing into the pit. The time was now!

“You are MINE!”

“Suck on des! You bleedin bastatd!”

The blow down valve shot open with a whoosh of steam. The valve was situated right under the cab, at the firebox. Right at head level for the Outlanders. High pressure steam blasted out as if from a firehose. Forming a massive cloud that quickly enveloped the locomotive and all around it. Bits of burning coal and cinders from the firebox where also ejected from the valve.

The steam was unfathomably hot. Right at the valve it was hot enough to melt skin from bone...further back where Zira and her army was, it would be scathingly hot. Enough to scald and give 1st and 2nd degree burns. The only safe place was inside the cab. The further away from the valve, the cooler the steam would get. Until it evaporated entirely into water.