The Great Train Robbery

(February 5th. Open to all animal villains, Lady & Casey. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU'RE GOING TO POST IN HERE LISTEN TO ZIRA AND DON'T GO ROGUE. THIS THREAD HAS A POINT.)

It was all set. She'd waited a few days. She had to. Word had to go to the heroes from her vulture. She would have to get herself and Scar a majordomo at some point in the future. Her ear flicked to the side, paws carrying her above the land. It was POURING. The rainy season was being quite cruel to her vision. Her only consolation was that Lady was tied to the train tracks, wet as hell. She smirked to herself. Oh the thought was just lovely.

It had taken a bit to organize her ragtag group of soldiers. It had taken her even longer to explain to the idiots what was going on. The moment she mentioned lights they got very excited. That was all she could ask for.

"Keep your HEADS low," she hissed, "When the train stops, keep it in place until we can rip that...whatever generator off of the train's top." She grinned. This WOULD work.

If she could not be confident then what could she be?

Soaked, absolutely soaked. That was the best way to describe the cocker spaniel. Lady's muzzle twitched as she tried to blow a bit of her own ear fur out of her face. The saturated fur of her ears had turned into splashes of mahogany that, thanks to her position, seemed to want to flow every which way but up.

Of course, that was the least of her worries.

The graceful cocker lay on her back in a growing puddle which made her shiver in her bondage. Her forelegs had been bound tightly to her sides with thick cord that was wrapped around her midriff from her shoulders on down. An unkempt tuft of chest fur rolling up and over the top most rope. Her hind legs where likewise bound together at the ankles. The cord roughly digging into her fur. She lay with her head and neck propped up over the rail. So that there was no way the iron horse could avoid treading over her. Her own iron collar making a dull “clunk” whenever it tapped against the steel ribbon. The fact that this was as cliche as it gets was overpowered by the very reality of the situation.

She was cold, uncomfortable, and frightened. At this point, she wasn't sure if she was shivering from the dampness, or the gnawing fear of what was to come. The whole of the AV army was watching her, and she knew no matter what, the outcome of this event was not to be pleasant. The spaniel took a deep breath, settling her nerves. Leaning her head back, she narrowed her eyes and peered into the darkness.

“What if he doesn’t come?” She barked out into the darkness. “You're not just going to leave me out here, are you?”

Her own question was punctuated by the barley audible, far off wail of a steam whistle. Somewhere, out there, her impending fate approached.

“Oh...dear...” Lady whispered to herself, her blood running ice cold.

Of course. It would start raining when they were all set to pull off Zira's plan to get ahold of a dynamo so the Outlands could have power, and by extension electric lighting. Just earlier that same day it'd been dry as a bone, when absolutely nothing of interest was going on. But, lo and behold, they get set to do something productive, and the bottom falls out of the clouds hidden above. It wasn't that the rain bothered Granny Rose all that much, but she wasn't all that thrilled with wandering around soaked to the bone. Especially since it took a long time to get her garments dry.

The plan itself wasn't much better. Tie the prisoner to the railroad tracks. It was like something out of a dime store novel, or some wild flicker show like the kind she'd occasionally seen demonstrated in some fair or another. She glanced at Zira, half-expecting to see her sporting a top hat and a handlebar mustache, and twirling it between her claws as she chuckled to herself. Of course, Granny Rose would be the first to admit stealing something from the Heroes to serve their own ends was good thinking, but surely a better plan could've been thought up. I swear if I hear any music and some gung-ho Hero comes charging in alone, I'm leaving.

As Zira hissed at the gathered soldiers, warning them to remain unseen and outlining what they needed to do, the elderly dog rolled her eyes, wondering why she'd even bothered to come along. It was obvious the queen held dogs in scant regard, and she doubted she'd be any use trying to tear something off any part of the train, let alone on top of the darn thing. As the train's whistle sounded form a good ways away, still out of sight, the elderly dog slid forward, the dark and the pouring rain combining to reduce her to a wraith in the gloom. She briefly came to a halt beside the young Spaniel.

"I hope for your sake the train sees ya and stops in time. If it doesn't, I reckon ya can take comfort in knowin' it'll be over quick," she stated softly, so low that only Lady would be able to hear her. While she had her own reasons to be a bit sore towards the Spaniel (namely for shacking up with Cash, and making things all the more difficult for her little group of friends by doing so) she wasn't ready to go so far as to wish death or injury upon her. Not to mention she felt obliged to offer at least some word of encouragement to the young dog, scared as she was.

With that said, she slid backwards over the sopping ground, going to ground aside a bit of low scrub not far from Zira and melding into the landscape, almost fading from casual view. She squinted her eyes, lowering her thick eyebrows so the train's light wouldn't shine in her eyes and give away her position. If Zira didn't want any of her soldiers to be seen until the train had stopped, then she wouldn't be seen.

Meanwhile, several miles down the track, the Baldwin built steam locomotive was busying himself with yet another load of equipment for the encampment. Most of it was meant to deal with the darkness. A set of tank cars full of lamp oil, and several cases of new oil burning lamps and lighting jars. The jars where meant for the sudden rash of fireflies that where moving in to light the compound at pride rock.

On a flatcar lashed down tight with rope stood a crate full of high powered electrical search lights. Seemed the prevailing idea was to attach the search lights to the ramparts of their wall and use Ray's cousins and oil lamps to light the camp itself. Help preserve their ability to light. Several boxcars full of food where also present, and a low sided hopper full of coal rounded out this excursion.

Oh and one passenger. A lazy oaf who had set himself to strumming a mandolin atop the coal hopper. Casey rolled his eyes at his passenger, instead focusing on the rails ahead and leaving the man to his own devices. It had been a long trip, and since he slid under the dark overhanging cloud, his vision had been more the halved. The air above his stack was full of sparks and embers, creating as firework display that lit up the darkness. Not even his powerful headlamp could pierce the inky blackness beyond the rails. To make matters worse, it had started to rain. Casey could feel it rolling down his boiler and sloshing along his running boards and tender deck.

The rain made the rails very slippery, but it ironically helped him see just a bit further. Casey's eyes where glued to the shiny glint of the rail-heads. Light reflected back from his headlamp far ahead of him. As long as he saw the two long reflections ahead of him, he knew his rails where there.

A smug smile crossed his smoke-box as he let loose with another blast of steam from the whistle. Their destination was only an hour or so ahead. The iron horse looking forward to a nice long rest and a heavy drink from the water tower.

Gorillas hated rain. Vakasa was no exception. The silverback let out a snort as he shook his head, freeing his fur of water for a brief moment. "You ready for this, Granny?" he asked, smiling at the elderly dog as he paused to crouch alongside her behind the bush. Orange colored eyes peered ahead before turning to glance at Zira.

Towering above Zira was the large dinosaur. Rain streamed down her thick leathery hide as she semi-crouched down as to appear to be in the shape of a large, jagged rock out in the barren landscape. With the rain of course came memories. The cave, Aladar, Bruton, and of course her beloved, her mate. Yellow eyes flashed in the faint light as she let out a low rumble of pain, pushing the memory away as she tried to focus on the task at hand.
--------
Claudius crouched down beside Zira, his jaws parting as he let out a soft breath, red colored orbs watching for the train intently. "Our paws aren't meant to disable a train you know," he said softly, looking at Vakasa for a moment. He would be of great use to them in the coming moments. "Not that I'm doubting you my queen," he stated swiftly, turning back to the lioness.

Dixie had been silent for too long.

Since finding out that Enzo was being used as a bargaining chip for Lady, her stomach had seemed to leave her body. She didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't breath funny until she got her child back safely in her arms. And when she had she never thought she'd let him go again. Now she was repaying Zira by supporting her raid. But she wasn't without her thanks to the female who was lying on the tracks life some kind of dimestore damsel in distress. Lady was none of the above. She was stronger than Dixie herself would ever be and she was perfectly fine saying so.

"I hope for your sake the train sees ya and stops in time. If it doesn't, I reckon ya can take comfort in knowin' it'll be over quick."

"Granny, jesus tapdancin' christ," Dixie groaned, pawing towards the elder female. She stepped over her gingerly and made her way towards Lady. She sighed. She looked over her shoulder towards Zira who was turning to chew out her troops before she started to speak to Lady.

"If ah could have had this any other way fer the dog that saved mah pup I would have," she offered, "But ah reckon' I can't do anything 'bout that and ah'm sorry." She lowered her head and pressed her muzzle against Lady's.

"Ah'm so sorry girl," she said, "Granny ain't right tho..." Her eyes narrowed as the lights appeared on the horizon. "Least ah c'n do fer ya is get that blang train ta stop."

"I hope for your sake the train sees ya and stops in time. If it doesn't, I reckon ya can take comfort in knowin' it'll be over quick."

What? Lady leaned her head back and looked at the elderly dog who so bluntly described her fate.Her maw was open, and a look of apprehension was smeared across her maw. Brown eyes darting back and forth between the gathered crowd and the tracks themselves. She honistly, truley, did not want to die. Not again, not when she had come so close to building a foundation for her family. She could feel the rail her head was leaning against hum, as far down the line the train approached. In the rain and the darkness, it's headlamp was obveuise as it went from a small pinprick to a noticeable dot.

But it was Dixie that shocked the spaniel even more. Lady held her mouth shut, looking up from her vulnerable position, bound like a Christmas gift set under a tree. She closed her eyes and whimpered as the diva dog pressed her muzzle aganst her own. Once she would have called Dixie a rival at best, and a threat to her and Cash's litter at worse. But here, now, in this rain and the circumstances, she was the closest thing to an ally she would have.

"I only did what you would have done." The trussed up spaniel countered. "had you been in my place. You where there for Dani in some of the worst moments."

She squirmed in her bindings. Her shoulder shifting as she tried to move her forepaws in front of her chest as opposed to at each side of her body.

"But there is nothing you can do to stop him. Oh please, if it looks like he won't stop in time, jump free. You have a litter, and it would do no one any good for you to be lost."

(Stitch said I could be here, so why not. )

The side of the boxcar provided a fine backrest as the train made it's way towards the encampment. However, it did not prove to be trully dry. The walls of the car leaked, and there seemed to be a fine mist of water coming up from the cracks in the floorboards, no doubt propelled by the train's wheels as they galloped across the ever storming landscape. The young prince sighed, not exactly the most dignified of entrances. But after a time away from the encampment, and Tia's cooking, he would have ridden the back of a camel if it proved reliable a way of travel.

Shrugging off the unfortunate weather, and the darkness that seemed the permeate the world outside of the glow from the oil lantern, Naveen brought his mandolin to his hands, and began to pluck the strings. One leg flat aganst the floor boards and one raised, his prok-pie hat drwan low and a brod smile across his face a jaunty tune was soon echoing around the wooden walls. No one would ever say he couldn't make good of a bad situation.

Or at least, untull two of the strings snapped.

"Oh, what is this?" He held the instrument out, his mouth twisted into a pout of dismay. "Ah well, easy come...easy go."

Standing to his feet, he brushed himself off. Not that it would do much good given the dampness of his clothing. Walking to the boxcar door, he grabed hold and slid it open slightly. Only to be greeted with a splash of water that soaked his pants legs. Stumbling back, he held his arms out, and huffed. Just not his day.

"Say...train, how much longer?" Naveen bellowed through the open door. "I'm not sure my skin will take much more of this, I'll be a prune before long!"

"Hold onto yah britiches, bleedin' christ."

The rouge tongued locomotive bounded over the rails. He was just as eager to get to Priderock himself. The light from his lamp stabbing into the rain ahead. He truthfully should have been running a bit slower given the conditions. But with no signals to fallow, and no other trains to mind, Casey kept his own throttle wide open and kept his cylinders in a constant charge. It was nights like this that was making him miss his dynamo. The electrical device having unspoiled at Priderock upon the eve of the Darkness. The flicker of his oil lamp was powerful enough to cast it's light far ahead of him, but it wasn't as good as the one he wore previously. Its beam more orange then white, and it had a tendency to flicker when he hit the curves just right.

Still, it was better then nothing, and with the rain pouring down around him, anything was better then nothing. Up ahead was a nice long strait away, and he could crack 'er open and build some momentum.

"Jist one more hour lad!" He called out. "Then I be rid of thee..."

The last bit he grumbled to himself.

He pointed his pilot into the strait-away, and cast the light from his lamp down the line. But instead of two nice shiny reflections, he instead saw two shadows, one draped across a rail, the other standing upright. As the lamp focused on them, they where clearly outlined as two dogs, flashes of gold fur, mahogany, and honey tan.

"Bleedin' shit!" The locomotive shouted. Opening the whistle valve wide. The brake shoes clamped on hard, and with a roar of iron crashing forward, her set his brakes into emergency. Attempting to hold back the tonnage that now bunched up against his tender, shoving him forward.

****

Inside the boxcar, Naveen was tossed forward. landing on his side with an unholy "crunch", boxes and creates clattering around beside him. His stringed instrument slid all the way forward and hit the front wall with an eerie "Flang" of cords. 

****
The sharp screech of iron on iron echoed out around the landscape, and the ground next to the tracks was illuminated with a fireworks display of sparks as the cast iron brake-shoes bite into the wheels. But with the rails as wet as they where, he just wasn't getting any kind of grip. Instead sliding forward like a toboggan in an icy hill.

Whistle wailing mercilessly, Casey opened his sanding valves and clouds of white filled the air between his drive wheels as the substance was poured onto the wet railheads. He even jammed his valve gear into reverse, and spun his wheels in one final attempt to arrest the train's movement. But it was of no use. On word he slid.


****

"Jump Dixie!" Lady yipped, seeing the iron monster plunge towards them. he was slowing, but it didn't look like there would be enough track to come to a stop.

"Oh please, jump!"

Granny Rose rolled her eyes in irritation as Dixie sidled up to talk to Lady, ignoring the big gorilla, and dog padded forward again, ignoring Zira as she approached the two younger dogs. Her words might have been cold comfort at best, but she saw no reason to risk Zira's wrath over the dog who had come sauntering into Cash's life at the wrong moment. She wouldn't have wished Lady dead, not by a long shot, but she had no personal reason to risk her life for the hussy.

But she slowed, still some ways from the side of the tracks, as she heard Dixie speak. Saved her pup? What was she on about? She had no idea what Dixie meant, but she was sincerely willing to risk her life for the Spaniel. "I swear, all this is enough to make a reverend cuss," she groused as she moved closer, but before she could say anything more, the trains' light filled the gloom as its whistle shattered the silence.

"HELL'S BELLS!" she squawked, eyes bugging out as the engine bore down on them. All thoughts of Zira, and what she might do if she was paying attention to what she was doing left the elderly dog's thoughts as she lunged forward, tugging in futility at the cords binding Lady to the tracks for a brief, precious moment. When they failed to budge, she gathered her legs beneath her and hurled herself at Dixie, intending to knock the younger Stray out of the path of the oncoming juggernaut.

"Move it! You're no use to her dead," she grunted, painfully aware that they might all be dashed to smithereens if they didn't get free of the tracks. As for Lady, well, best she and Dixie could hope to do if the worst happened would be to give her family closure, and ensure the Spaniel's body was given a decent burial. Granny Rose would be hanged before she'd see Lady's body wind up as hyena food.

The sound of iron and the flash of sparks made Marek flinch slightly where he lay, crouched on the other side of the great scaled thing that towered above the motley group of animals. He had been watching the scene unfold through eyes half-lidded and partly blinded by the harsh downpour. Rain, he wanted to laugh, it was always rain. It soaked through his fur and chilled him to the bone.

Being in a group, waiting for their quarry to show itself reminded him of the years he'd spent hunting with his family. But unlike the familial indifference he'd felt towards them, he felt something towards his Queen, an instinct that had been unknown to him until he'd first found himself fighting for her cause. Respect? Worship? Maybe it was, and dare he think it...

… Loyalty? No, that was stupid. His lips pulled back in a sneer at the despicable thought. Honesty nor devotion were traits insignificant to his kind. Wolves were wild animals through and through, as savage and unforgiving as the world itself. Unlike the common dog, they killed for the thrill of it, to taste the blood of their victims on their lips and revel in it.

Maybe, but maybe, like the domestics, he felt a pull deep within himself that beckoned him to serve and please as they did with their human masters and kin. Maybe he wasn't so different from them after all.

And the thought alone made him want to retch.

Still, his strange blue gaze shifted from the busy trio of domestics, to the oncoming train, to Zira, waiting for her orders. Lean muscles trembled in anticipation. He may have not been the most physically adept soldier, nor the most trustworthy, but something Marek excelled in was obeying the commands of his higher-ups and executing them without fail. He would be sure not to disappoint-- not this time.

---

{OOC; Late post is late. Wanted to play as this stupid wolf again, sorry if I'm butting in.}

The large furry mass that was Beast crouched beside the wolf the unicorn some feet away the horned creature scuffs the ground with a hoof as he watches the train desperately try to stop to avoid hitting cocker spaniel. "Now, Zira?" Beast hisses out, glaring at the scene in front of him with sky blue eyes. "Hush friend" nickers Valishu from his left as he watches, frowning at the group of dogs and what they were up to.

(I swear to christ, Beast post in PAST TENSE.)

Dixie's eyes widened. It all seemed to happen so quickly. The train coming over the track, the screeching of the wheels, the screaming. She shot a quick loook to Zira who was crouched low in the dark waiting for the train to halt. Dixie's eyes narrowed as she sped on her golden paws. It was going to take a couple of quick seconds for her to do this AND she was probably going to stumble but her heart was telling her to do the right thing. She was a bad girl but she wasn't a bad dog.

"I only did what you would have done. Had you been in my place. You where there for Dani in some of the worst moments." She heard those words as she jumped onto the tracks, grabbing dog by the ear. Yes it would hurt Lady something fierce with those sensitive lovely ears but getting run over by a train would have been 100 times worse. She shoved her teeth into the soft flesh of her ear and jumped, hoping to pull Lady off the track with her. Zira just wanted the train. Lady didn't need to get hurt.

"Ah jumped alright," she hissed through a mouthful of teeth, "Ah ain't lettin' ya be the martyr fer yer cause."

"You weak bitch."

Zira rolled her eyes casually as Dixie tried to move Lady from the place where she'd been placed. Her eyes narrowed darkly, claws digging into the softening dirt. She sniffed the air. Then peered towards the darkened train compartment. There was a human in there. Delicious. How wonderful. She cackled, chest rising and falling. She looked up at the Beast as he spoke and a row of teeth showed themselves.

"SILENCE," she hissed. She let the crashing rain flow over the silence on the air before yelling out. "ATTACK the human in the car! You, WOLF, lead the animals to ravage the train. Get anything you can that will HELP us." She shot a look at Beast and Vakasa. "You MORONS come with me. We have something I need your hands for."