The Kidnap of the Governor’s Daughter Part 5

The dashing rogue known as Zorro comes rushing through skies to help save the kidnapped governor’s daughter, but is there more to kidnapped than the dapper hero knows?

The ship was a hive of life with men racing around fighting off the Warring Hooligans outside. Many of their own planes have met their ends against the skilled fighters, and now the AA guns were trying their best to take out their foes, but they keep missing. The other airship was sinking into the land below bursting into a ball of fire flowering thick black smoke right into the air. A few of the men stood in horror at the sight of their sister ships, the whole crew, dead in the flaming grave, and wondered if they would meet the same fate.

                Orders roared over the speakers forcing all the men to shatter to their battle stations, and the Air Marines of the ship raced to get ready to repel boarders or to drop below onto the train.

                If Vanessa had anything to say about it, the Air Marines would never get the chance to lower the ropes onto the train. The Duke had paid her well to keep him safe and see the job through no matter what came their way. Vanessa had no problem with this part of her job, it’s why she was here.

                She moved down the halls of the ship, heading for the bridge where she could find how they found the train. She would dip into a doorway or a pool of shadows when the Marines would come thundering down the walkways. The roar of the guns trying to shoot everything out of the air hide most of her heavy boot steps running to get to the bridge quickly.

                Vanessa got close to the bridge when a hard voice boomed at her. “You, there, stop!”

                She glanced over her shoulder, finding two Marines pointing at her and running at her with their rifles starting to rise. She didn’t have time to be quiet, there was no need to be anyways. She spun around with her dual Colt 45s barking at the men. The young warriors stopped after a few steps falling to the floor with four holes in each of their chests. The blood flooded under the men and Vanessa kicking in the door to the bridge. She stepped into the business room with the glass semicircle showing the thunder clouded of smoke blowing west with the wind and the train still racing toward the battle.

                A few Marines notice the newcomer in the room, sure they heard the gunshots before, but with the AA guns still roaring throughout the ship they weren’t too sure. Until Vanessa saw them as well pulling her guns at them.

                One of the men, seeing the guns in her hands before starting to up open, dashed behind a counter, while the younger man standing beside was only hammer against the wall. Vanessa glanced around the room seeing several Marines starting to raise their guns at her. She rolled from her spot over to a few of the bridge crew who were staring at her utter shock. She grabs one of the men using his body as a shield quickly being filled with lead. The man’s body started to break down as a needed shield. She let him drop to the floor with her returning fire against the Marines. Only a few of her bullets hit their targets, killing a couple of the men, and wounded another.

                She ducked under the counter waiting for more bullets to start raining down on her, but they never came. “Did Adolf send his assassin to kill me?” A voice asked from somewhere in the room with several of the crew fleeing the bridge.

                “I’m not an assassin,” Vanessa shouted back.

                “Oh, then why did he send you?”

                “To ask you how you found us,” Vanessa said, reloading her guns. “Want to tell me so I can be on my way?”

                “The Duke has many enemies,” the voice yelled back, “and many spies among his people.”

                “Good to know, I guess,” Vanessa said, waiting for some of the Marines to flank her, but none of them were coming. Steams started to hiss in the room followed by the heavy ringing of boots coming for her. She dropped her head not knowing the sound had to be a War Doll. She jumped up to the see the seven feet tall metal man moving toward her. The Doll had steam pouring from between its armor plates and its face cover in its six eyes staring right at her.

                Vanessa started to shoot the armor with no result. The Doll lifted its M1919 Browning machine gun making her eyes go wide, and she rushed for the doorway she kicked in before the guns started to yell at her. She rolled from the porthole with several rounds following her but missing her. She hit the floor, spinning out of the way, knowing the Doll was coming for her, and she had no idea how she was going to defeated it.

                Maybe, now wasn’t the time to fight but to run. Vanessa didn’t truly find out how they found the Duke, his list of enemies was long, and spies were a problem for all the Guilds, but she couldn’t die for him. She glanced back at the porthole for the Doll to fill the blanket space.

                “Funny meeting you here,” a smooth, charming voice said from in front of her. She groaned knowing the voice already as she glanced up to see the masked face of Zorro smiling down at her. “This time, it looks you do need to be saved.” He held out a hand to her, and she took it. Zorro pulled her to her feet, and then without saying a word spun her around out of his way. He tossed a magnet bomb right on to the chest of the massive metal man peering from the hole. The magnets throw the Doll off its footing for a moment giving Zorro and Vanessa the time dart down the hall. The battle still raged to their port side, with the planes locked into a deadly dog fight.

Author's Note

I found out, not too long ago, that Zorro was public domain and was like well, why not use him? Thus, this short story was born. I wanted to put him in my steampunk world, which meant I had to change a few things here and there, but I think it holds true to the heart of the character. Another thing I did in this story which you will soon see, is you never know who the masked hero is, in fact, most of the story is from other people’s point of view facing Zorro.

Artwork: Cover to Dynamite Entertainment's Zorro #2 (March 2008) by Mike Mayhew