Work Text:
Elevator Meditator (Mighty Ducks – The Animated Series)
By Haruka ([email protected])
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"Man, oh man, that was some awesome pizza, wasn't it Grinster?" Nosedive rubbed his stomach in appreciation as he and his teammate entered the elevator to the Pond's lower level.
"The spiritual ratio of pepperoni to cheese was pleasing to the aura," Grin said. Nosedive wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but it sounded as if he'd agreed with him.
"Guess it's gonna be you and me for the night, what with everyone else out of town on Phil's dumb assignment." Nosedive shook his head. "Not sure how we managed to dodge that bullet."
"You faked a stomach ache. I could not hear him through my meditative trance."
Nosedive gave him a sly look. "For real couldn’t hear him, or as fake as my stomach ache?"
Grin smiled serenely. "A mystery for the ages."
The elevator door opened and Nosedive suddenly got a mischievous look on his face. He jumped out the door ahead of Grin and quickly leaned around the edge to push all the buttons on the panel, ending with the one that closed the doors. "Gotcha!" he declared as the doors slid closed behind him, trapping Grin inside.
The larger duck sighed, waiting for the elevator to go to the next floor and open for him, but instead, it stayed motionless. He frowned, looking at the panel with all of Tanya's custom-made buttons lit up. He noticed that even the 'emergency open' button was already turned on.
"This is not good," he said.
--
Nosedive knew something was wrong when Grin didn't come to find him after a few minutes. He left his room and went back to the elevator, noticing that the door was still closed and the lights above it were still all lit up.
"I think I made a boo boo." He winced, then called out near the doors. "Grin? Grinster? Can you hear me?"
"I hear you," came Grin's reply. "I am debating whether or not to ignore you."
"I'm sorry, man! I thought you'd go to the last floor and the doors would open! I had no idea it would all just go STOP on you!"
"Could you please call Tanya? I tried and got voice mail."
"Tanya!" Nosedive said brightly. "Good idea! She'll come fix everything!" He speed-dialed their resident genius, and after a couple of rings, he heard the line answered. "Hey, Tanya!" he began quickly. "We need your help here! Grin –"
"I needed your help HERE, but you two left me high and dry!"
Nosedive stared at the phone. "Phil? What are you doing answering Tanya's phone?"
"I confiscated all your teammates' phones until after the shoot is done," Phil answered smugly. "They need to focus twice as hard to make up for you and Grin not being here. They'll see you tomorrow." He hung up.
"Oh no, you didn't!" Nosedive declared and hit the redial button. It went to voicemail. "Auugh, Phil, you idiot!"
"What's going on?" queried Grin.
"Uhhh …." What the heck do I tell him? Nosedive wondered. He tried to laugh, but it came out sounding weak. "Funny thing, Grin! Phil has Tanya's phone and isn't listening to me. We're on our own until they get back."
Grin was quiet for so long, Nosedive wondered if he'd fainted from shock.
--
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm:
Stay calm, Grin told himself firmly. He had done the math, and it was likely going to be eighteen hours minimum before he was freed from his small, square prison. He could do this. He would employ every trick he knew to control rising emotions and would emerge at peace, as he always was.
However, first he would search the entire elevator top to bottom and see if there were any escape routes.
He began on the floor, pressing, thumping, stomping. No luck there. Nothing on the walls, either, and he was afraid to touch the lit buttons any more than they'd already been touched. The ceiling had a panel that could come off, but his shoulders were far too wide for it. He would have to speak to Tanya about modifying that, and a lot of other things.
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm:
"Hey, Grin, did you know that Wing likes to knit? He's really good at it, too!"
"No, I did not know that." Nosedive had been talking almost non-stop for the past hour in what Grin assumed was an attempt to keep him distracted. He appreciated the effort, and was learning a lot about Nosedive and his brother from before he'd met them.
"Yeah, he can make gloves, hats, mitts – he even made a bag for carrying pucks around in …."
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm:
"And in the next panel, Superbabe is holding up her Mallet of Justice and shouting, 'In the name of Grendal!'"
Grin tried to remain grateful for what Nosedive was doing by reading out loud from his comic books. Unfortunately, it was getting to the point where he'd prefer putting out his eardrums with a screwdriver. Even more unfortunately, he didn't have a screwdriver in the elevator with him.
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm:
Finally, it was quiet. Nosedive was probably getting himself some dinner, which Grin tried not to either envy or resent him for. He sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed, concentrating on achieving inner peace.
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm:
"THEY SCORE!"
"YAY!" Nosedive cheered, and Grin smiled. The younger Duck had brought the portable television as close to the elevator doors as he could so that Grin could hear the hockey game that was on. It was a good idea, as the game would last for three hours, and was much more likely to hold Grin's attention than the adventures of Superbabe.
9:00 pm – 12:00 am:
Grin slept on the elevator floor. It had taken a while for sleep to arrive, given how hungry, thirsty, and uncomfortable he was, but his mind was well-enough trained that he was able to overcome it and achieve a couple of hours rest.
12:00 am – 1:00 am:
The sound of a whale dying somewhere nearby jolted Nosedive into falling out of bed. It was soulful, wailing, and mostly loud. He followed the agonizing howl to the elevator doors. "Grin?! Grin, buddy, are you okay?! You sound like you're dying!"
The noise ended. "I was singing."
Nosedive blinked. "Really?" he asked dubiously.
"It is called Enka. I learned it from Tai Quack Do."
"Oh …."
1:00 am – 3:00 am:
Over the sound of his growling stomach, Grin tried to concentrate on the previous days newspaper that Nosedive was reading out loud in between yawning.
"Here's an article about another person getting hit by a car in a crosswalk. Why do humans even bother making crosswalks if no one stops at 'em? Anyhoo, here's the story …."
3:00 am:
"Hey, Grin, I've got a Puck Blaster here. How's about I blow the door off so we can both go to bed?"
"That would not be advisable. Or sane."
3:01 am – 4:00 am:
"I spy with my little eye, something that is … blue!"
"There is nothing blue in this elevator and I cannot see what is outside of it."
"Oh, yeah. We could play charades! Oh, wait …."
4:00 am – 5:00 am:
Nosedive was quiet on the other side of the elevator doors, so Grin assumed he'd fallen asleep. He managed to meditate for almost half an hour, but exhaustion and hunger were disturbing his concentration. He decided to go through his pockets to distract himself and found a crumpled receipt, some coins, a hockey puck, and some lint. He pushed the puck around with his foot half-heartedly.
5:00 am – 6:00 am:
There were 1,245 small squares in the design on the elevator floor. Exactly.
6:00 am – 7:00 am:
Grin could no longer do anything more than lay on the floor and stare at the open panel of the ceiling and curse it for being too small. He wondered if Nosedive could have shimmied down the cables and brought him some food and water. Maybe Nosedive wasn't there anymore; he'd been quiet for so long. Would his teammates come home to find he'd departed from this Earth while laying on the floor of an elevator? It seemed more than likely at this point. He hadn't even left a decent Will behind, not that he had much to leave. Would they be able to carry his body out of the elevator?
Snap out of it! he thought he heard Tai Quack Do scolding. Sheesh, did I teach you to be such a weakling? Oiy vey!
Through sheer willpower, Grin pushed himself back up to a lotus position. He would lose himself in tranquil meditation until the end, whatever and whenever it would be.
"I tell you, he's stuck in there! Hey, Tanya, what are you doing?"
The elevator doors slid open and Grin saw the other Ducks looking at him with concern.
"Hey, Grin, you okay?" Wildwing asked as he and Duke went over to help him to his feet.
"That was a long time to be stuck in here!" Mallory exclaimed. "Stupid Phil – we rushed back as soon as he gave us our phones and we got Nosedive's messages."
"I just, ah, can't believe you guys didn't, uh, use the emergency release!" Tanya pointed to a simple flip-switch on the side of the control panel inside the elevator. "There's one like it out here, too. I, ah, showed it to all of you when I remodelled it."
Nosedive slapped himself in the forehead. "I forgot completely. I'm sorry, Grinster!"
"As did I," Grin said. "It is not your fault, little friend."
"Man, am I hungry!" Nosedive declared suddenly. "I haven't eaten since that pizza yesterday!"
"You didn't?" Grin said in surprise. The younger duck shrugged.
"You couldn't eat, and it was my fault, so I didn't eat, either. I tried to stay awake, too, but I nodded off a couple of times."
"That was nice of you, Dive." Wildwing patted his brother's shoulder.
"So Grin, whaddya wanna do first?" Duke asked him. "Eat or sleep?"
A strange, urgent expression crossed Grin's face. "I will contemplate both while in the bathroom." He tried not to appear in a hurry, but still managed to knock Nosedive over as he rushed off.
--
(2014)
Theme: The 1990s
Prompt: The Mighty Ducks animated, Grin, stuck in an elevator for 18 hours
The Mighty Ducks belong to Disney.
This fic is not to be re-posted.