Flight Of Icarus: Showdown

Poppler sped to the top of the cliff in his tank and slammed on the brakes, hopping out before the vehicle even stopped. A dozen charr soldiers were gathered around two others dragging a blackened mess from the water. ‘GET AWAY FROM HIM!!’ the asura shouted at the two, leaping at one feet first and kicking him in the head, knocking him down and away, then pulling dual pistols and pointing them at the other charr, who dropped Grimpaw’s unmoving body and backed away.

‘Hey, you little rat, get away from that charr!’ a warrior yelled at him, drawing his greatsword and moving toward Poppler. The little engineer turned one pistol at the charr he kicked who stood, and the other pistol aimed at the warrior’s face. ‘Back off or you’re both dead!’ he barked, then dropped his rifle, flame, and net turrets. ‘Another step and I activate them!’ He quickly put his pistols away and felt for a pulse, then pulled out his medical bag and began applying medicines to the unmoving, but fortunately still breathing, body of Grimpaw.

Next he felt around on the charr engineer’s body for broken bones, and found two ribs and his left forearm out of place, then ordered a soldier to grab several sticks from the nearby wood while he searched his bag for bandages. ‘Hurry! We have to get him out of here and looked at by a proper doctor!’ The soldier came running back with them, then Poppler quickly snapped the bones back in place, hearing a slight moan from his friend indicating he was at least alive, then braced the arm and wrapped Grimpaw’s chest to tighten it up for the trip.

The centurion’s and other vehicles began to arrive at the scene, then they jumped out and ran toward the group of soldiers gathered around the burned charr and little asura. ‘GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU LITTLE RAT!!’ Grimcrotch bellowed, arm reaching back to grab his longbow.

Cliff top in Fireheart Rise, where Grimpaw landed after the rocket explosion

Poppler whipped out his pistols again and aimed them straight at the centurion’s head, replying ‘I’m not one of your meathead beasts here, centurion, I take orders from no one. You have two choices; you can either back off and let me help my friend here by getting him to a medic while he’s still alive, or I can shoot you in the face and activate these turrets, where none of you will live, including Grimpaw. It’s up to you.’ Grimcrotch stopped; he had never raged within himself this intensely before….

Staring daggers at the little engineer with his paw holding the longbow on his back, he said ‘Alright, everyone back off. Dinky and Shredskin, get over here with that stretcher and get Grimpaw on it, then take him to the Canton now. MOVE!’ The two ran over to Grimpaw and began placing him on the stretcher, all the while staring angrily at the asura, then rushed Grim to a tank and secured him, Dinky hopping inside and driving off with Elexus riding on top, holding the badly burned charr.

When the tank with his friend on the back took off toward the Citadel, Poppler dropped his pistols from aiming at the centurion and fell to his knees, head bowed, exhausted. Legionnaire Fyon the Wraith stepped toward the little engineer, kicked the turrets away and picked him up by his collar, holding him off the ground. ‘What do you wanna do with him, sir?’ The centurion replied while walking back to his tank, ‘Get him to the Citadel and lock him up.’

Fyon and Wrathclaw tied up the asura’s wrists and ankles, then the centurion’s friend tossed him over his shoulder and carried him away to another tank, where he was strapped down on top and rode for the entire trip back, bouncing and banging around on the hard iron body. Wrathclaw deliberately jumped the tank several times; when they arrived, they saw the asura had a large swollen spot and was bleeding from the back of his head.

——

Three weeks later a still injured & bandaged, and mostly hairless, Grimpaw, limped from Hero’s Canton to the Black Citadel prison with a little help from his legionnaire. They arrived to find a beaten, bruised and bloody, nearly naked asura sitting up in the far corner, nervously watching for the next round of beatings. ‘Poppler, what happened!?’ Grimpaw asked.

The asura focused on Grimpaw, a few seconds later recognizing him and trying to smile, ‘Hello, my friend. I’m glad to see you are ok.’

Grimpaw jerked his arm from Dinky’s grasp and went to the bars, ‘Who did this to you?’ Poppler looked around nervously, ‘I…I don’t know if I should say, it might happen again.’ Grimpaw turned around in a rage and grabbed his legionnaire by his collar with his one good arm, ‘WHO DID THIS TO HIM!?’ Dinky reached up and took Grim’s paw down, ‘Relax, engineer…’ Grimpaw turned slightly, then hurled his arm around with a balled up fist, hammering Dinky in the side of his head, knocking him out.

‘AAAGH!! By Light that hurt!’ Grimpaw yelled, shaking his paw. He went to the guard desk, removed the cell keys and went to his friend’s cage door then opened it. ‘Come on, Poppler, let’s go. No one is going to touch you any more I promise you that, my friend.’ Poppler stood as best he could and limped out, went to the desk and found his armor then put it on, and the two tried to help each other limp out of the cell area.

Poppler Swizzlestix, the only asura to stand alone against nineteen charr soldiers, and live

They went to Grimpaw’s shack on the war wagon prep deck and the charr opened a crate inside the door, took out his Slingshot and handed Poppler a pistol, then they slowly walked toward the city exit past the Canton just as centurion Grimcrotch came out and Dinky came running down from the Citadel behind them, rubbing the side of his head. ‘Grimpaw, where do you think you’re taking him?’ the centurion demanded.

Grimpaw reached back with his good arm grabbing his hand cannon and whipped around, aiming it straight at Grimcrotch’s face, silent. The standoff lasted several seconds, Poppler standing quietly at his friend’s side, pistol holstered and looking angrily at the centurion and legionnaire through his one unswollen open eye, then the two wounded warriors turned and limped out of the city, helping each other along….

Flight Of Icarus Pt. 5

‘No, wait Grimpaw. Let’s test this again before I let you go. I want to be positive nothing has broken during transport here.’ Grimcrotch waved his engineer down from the rocket vehicle. Grimpaw unstrapped himself with one click, and climbed down saying, ‘You got it, sir.’ Poppler turned off the radio and trotted back toward the group of charr near the centurion. ‘Alright everyone back. I’m going to fire this up,’ he said, shooing them away.

Poppler reached under the wind shield and pulled a small lever back. A quiet hum and whine started, and began to grow louder, then he pushed a button. Suddenly a loud KAPOW! when the fuel injector released, and the vehicle began blasting a long flame tail behind. The asura stepped back a few feet after checking to make sure the dials under the shield were working, crossed his arms and cocked his head, listening for any abnormalities.

He turned to Grimpaw and tapped his wrist. The charr looked at the pocketwatch in his paw again, and held up a finger….one min. The flame kept burning as strongly as it had started. Ten seconds later it petered out; ‘One minute ten, Poppler.’ The little engineer nodded. The two turned to the centurion. ‘Ok, as long as you two are good with things right now, I’ll let you take over. Good luck, Grimpaw. For Blood Legion, soldier!’ Grimcrotch saluted his engineer.

‘For Blood Legion, sir!’ Grimpaw replied, smartly returning the salute. The charr engineer went to the fuel supply and grabbed a couple containers, then returned to the vehicle, popping open the panel where it was to be poured in. After the containers were emptied he wiped down the metal body around it then returned the containers. ‘You ready, Grim?’ Poppler asked his friend. Grimpaw took a deep breath and nodded, ‘Let’s do it, Poppler.’ he said.

——

The asura trotted back out to the radio and turned it on, tested it with a few lines to his friend who returned them, then Grimpaw strapped himself into the seat again. ‘Ok, fire it up Grimpaw you’re in control, my friend. Good luck, and I’ll see you back here in a few minutes.’ Grimpaw turned and gave a quick salute to his friend, who returned it, then leaned forward and pulled the small lever. The quiet hum and whine began again.

He waved over Dinky, who brought a sledgehammer over to knock the lockdown pins out of the way, saluted quickly then trotted back from the rocket. ‘Here we go…’ he said to himself, and pressed the button. At the KAPOW! the rocket began slowly moving down the ramp, then quickly picked up speed. The charr engineer on the rocket vehicle roared down the launch ramp, dropping the wheeled cart under it off the end into Blackblade Lake.

‘….kay so far Poppler, tem….ormal.’ Poppler began to worry about the radio. The centurion ran over to Poppler, ‘It looks good, what’s he saying?’ The asura nervously replied, ‘Uh, the radio is breaking up a bit, sir, but he said things look normal so far.’ Grimcrotch nodded, then turned back toward the flaming dot slowly getting smaller over the lake.

On the rocket, Grimpaw kept a steady pressure on the ailerons and rudder, but it was becoming harder to hold them in control. It appeared to be going faster than they planned. Thirty five seconds into the flight he passed the last under water boulder near the Flame Temple Tombs. Suddenly a small flame appeared licking out from under a riveted panel in front of the wind shield. ‘Uh, Poppler we have a problem..’ he said. ‘A fire in the front.’

‘….pler we…ve a prob…’ came over the radio, then static. ‘What did he say, Poppler?’ the centurion turned and asked of the asura with a scowl. Turning back to watch, the rocket was flying over the cliffs where the radio interference cut out the signal in earlier tests. ‘He said…’

A blast jerked Poppler out of his sentence as he watched the rocket explode in the distance with parts falling away onto the cliff, and a flaming parachute popped out of the back of a burning ball that slowed its fall for a moment, then the ropes burned through and the fireball dropped onto the cliff top, disappearing from view.

Cliff between Diessa Plateau and Fireheart Rise, where Grimpaw landed

The centurion’s arm snapped out so fast the little engineer never saw it coming, and grabbed the asura by his neck half strangling him at charr eye level, while Poppler struggled to pry the paw off his throat. ‘YOU BETTER HOPE HE IS ALIVE, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!’ Fangs dripping with vengeance, Grimcrotch threw the asura back to the ground and shouted to his soldiers to get up to the cliff, sending some to the other side to Fireheart Rise. Poppler sat up trying to breath again, rubbing his throat.

The centurion ran to a tank and took off at full speed toward the end of the lake. The asura engineer ran to another tank, figured out how to use it quickly, then jerked forward several times until he got the gears shifting correctly and sped off toward Fireheart Rise, knowing the area up on the cliff where his friend came down. He had no fear any longer of what the centurion would do to him if Grimpaw was dead, but he was afraid his friend may very well be….