Phoenix in the Night Chapter 8

Chapter 8

When Gosalyn woke up the first thing she noticed was the sun had set and  Agent Harris was gone. She sat up and looked over at the factory. Some lights were on an the sounds of machinery at work echoed through the neighborhood. "That jerk! He left me behind to check out the action! I'll show him!" Gosalyn got out and headed for the factory. She climbed the fire escape and peered through a window. There didn't seem to be anyone else around. Something was going on around the corner just out of her line of sight. Being very careful she snuck in through a broken window.

Meanwhile Agent Harris had returned from the nearby courner store with two steaming cups of coffee that he bought for himself and Agent Mallard when he noticed the car was empty. At first he checked to see if there had been a struggle, when nothing seemed out of place he dashed for the factory. "When will she learn to stay put!" He shouted as he hurried in case she had gotten herself into trouble.

Gosalyn had peeked around the courner and saw the machines working on something but, she couldn't get a good look. She was about to get closer when she saw a light from the upstairs office was on. The light seemed to be coming from a computer or TV screen. Being careful not to get spotted she crept around to get a clear shot of what the machanical arms were working on. Her beak nearly hit the floor. The device looked nearly identical to the Demenatron.

She fumbled a bit as she tried to get out her camera. As she snapped a photo she forgot to turn off the flash. Two of the machanical arms reached out and went to grab her. She was able to fend off one but, the other one grabbed her arm. The other arm went to wrap around her torso when a gun shot echoed and the bullet struck the machanial arm releasing Gosalyn. She took her chance to get to a spot out of reach of the vice-like arms only to be grabbed by Agent Harris. "I told you to wait! Now the mission is blown!" Gosalyn shoved his hands away. "Lay off! You're the one who snuck in first. I wasn't just going to sit and miss the action."

Agent Harris pulled Gosalyn to the side as a light shown in the area searching for the intruders. "I went to get us some coffee. When I came back you were gone." The falcon replied through gritted teeth. "Oh,...sorry." Gosalyn replied sheepishly. Harris sighed, trying to relieve his anger. "It doesn't matter. We've got to get out of here and report this." Gosalyn nodded. Just as the two were about to make for the window Gosalyn had used to get in they were snatched by snake-like cables.

Gosalyn and Agent Harris both struggled but, couldn't get free. Harris had managed to get a hold of his comunicator. "This is Agent Harris to SHUSH! We have a red flag code seven! Repeat, red flag code seven! Two agents in need of asistance!" As the cables brought them closer to the device Gosalyn tried to struggle free. "We gotta get out of this before that thing is turned on! That's the same device that made Darkwing disappear!" Agent Harris looked over at Gosalyn in shock. "Are you serious?!" The tomboy looked over at him and the look of fear she gave him was enough to convince him.
As they tried struggling to get free Gosalyn's cell phone fell out of her pocket and flipped open. Seeing that it was open she called out for the voice command feature. "Phone! Call Honker!" "Calling Honker." It replied and the phone dialed his cell phone. Honker had just gotten into the files that listed the villains that had access to the factories when his phone rang. "Hello?" Gosalyn tried to struggle some more. "Honker! I'm trapped in the factory. Whoever's behind this is building a dementatron!"

The factory's security cameras zoomed into the phone and got the information off the screen. The computer then looked up the information. It used a GPS tracking system to locate the person in the Adobon Bay Bridge towers. The computer screen exited out of that and brought up another window that contained a hacked door into another computer system.

Honker tried offering the best help he could. "Negaduck's used it a few times as well as The Liquidator, Amonia Pine and- Hey!" "Hey what?" Gosalyn asked still trying to wriggle free. Agent Harris wasn't lucky enough to free his arms like Gosalyn had and was being crushed. "Now I know what a snake's prey feels like!" He hoarsly called out. Honker was trying to figure out what was gonig on with the computer. "Gosalyn! It's your dad's computer! It's going haywire!"

"It's what?!" Gosalyn shouted now starting to struggle for breath as the cables started tighting it's grip around her. "It's running a massive search! I don't know what it's looking for!" Honker was trying frantically to regain control but was no match for what had hacked into the system. Finally it found what it was looking for and began downloading it. Honker was shocked to find out what it wanted. Once it was downloaded Honker tried hacking back into the system but, the hacker caused the computer to crash and shut down.

"I'm sorry Gosalyn. The hacker took the information and crashed your dad's computer! I can't get in to help you! Gosalyn? Gosalyn!" The coils had wrapped around her beak preventing her from giving out anymore information. The machanical arms Moved over to the device they had originally been working on and started installing the new features that had been downloaded into the blue prints taken from Darkwing Tower's super computer.

Gosalyn tried everything she could to get free but, it was useless. The best she could do was swing from side to side. Agent Harris was trying not to black out but, it was getting harder to breathe by the minute. "Save your strength! Back up should be here soon." Gosalyn wasn't going to just hang tight and wait because knowing SHUSH they always arrived too late to do anything.

Finally the device was finished. Without hesitating it was activated. It lit up with a strange red light. Electric sparks shot out from the device as the small engine powered up. Gosalyn knew she had to act fast. She tried swinging back and forth gathering as much strength as she could. She bumped into Agent Harris and caused them both to start swinging. As the device reached critical mass a strong pulse of bright red light disburst from the device and spread outward causing the glass in the factory to shatter and nearby car alarms to go off. It acted like an EM pulse and knocked out power to several city blocks as it spread out over the entire city before it disappated.
The shockwave of the pulse caused the coils to weaken and break sending Gosalyn and Agent Harris flying into the wall and falling to the floor. The device was sparking erattically and finally shorted out and exploded. Agent Harris was first to recover and woke up to smoke and flames. He grabbed Gosalyn and carried her out of the building before it became completely engulfed in flames as more small explosions were set off from the flamable equipment that was overcome by the heat.

Gosalyn opened her eyes for a moment and could only see Agent Harris. His face was illuminated by the flames. "The device?" She asked in a rasped whisper. The falcon shook his head. "It's gone." Tears flooded Gosalyn's eyes but, she passed out before any could be shed. The lights in Canard tower tried to come back on after the blackout but, started to flicker out again as another large pulse of red energy exploded from the rooftop.