The Downunda Zero Teamby =DangerousRadical

Anthro / Traditional Media / Drawings

The Downunda Zero Team (DZT)

Magellan Zalinski (Harebit - "ZORRAN")
Magellan is the eldest son of “Captain” Anandeus Zalinski, manager and owner of the DZT Rock/Country Music Band.

Like the Z-Stacks Leader he represents, Magellan is cold, calculating and tough, but he has a gentler side that is rarely shown in the critical public eye. He’s loyal to his crewmates and doesn’t suffer fools gladly, though sometimes he just can’t help himself.

He’s grown up quite self-critical and dispassionate about where it is he stands in the world, and tends to be quite vocal about his likes and dislikes. He never fails to be called the ‘domineering bastard’ of the DZT, but this is only an observation from those outside of the team colours. Magellan’s relationship with his father is virtually non-existant, having died with his beloved mother, Kara-Ma fifteen years back. His father, after learning of his mother’s sufference from cancer, promptly sought out another woman, his mistress – the shrewy Kalin-Da – who eventually married Anandeus and bore him a son, Mathew, Magellan’s younger stepbrother. Neither brother likes the other, and to that end, Anandeus treats Mathew more as his son than he does Magellan – a sore point between the Zalinski Family to be sure.

Magellan has kept his physical abuse at the hands of his father quiet, telling not even his own crewmates of how it is he’s managed to ‘injure himself this time around’, but his teammates have been getting suspicious over time, especially his best pal and ‘brother’, Morton Duvall; and his rival, Vee-Jay Hedgehog too has her suspicions that Anandeus Zalinski is doing more than just verbally harrassing his eldest son.

Magellan takes his role as “Zorran” pretty seriously – if there’s one thing he shares the tug’s dislike of, it’s the Star Fleet!

Morton Duvall (Grey Fox - "ZEBEDEE")
Morton is Magellan’s best friend, and is very much the guy’s brother after all they’ve been through.

Morton takes the role of Zebedee, Zorran’s righthand tug, and in doing so has made the complicated role his own; taking care of Magellan’s fleet-based concerns, worries and ungrounded fears like any 2IC would to a leader. He bears Magellan’s personal criticisms well and solidly. Someone’s got to put up with the ‘domineering bastard’, don’t they?

Morton’s been around since the very early days, even before the band started. And in having known Magellan for this long, he’s become wise to all his little quirks and flaws – and knows that something else is going on. Every week or two, Magellan comes home sore as hell and won’t explain where he got his aches and pains from. Morton is growing suspicious, and often alleviates his private fears with Magellan’s rival, the Star Fleet leader Vee-Jay Hedgehog. They are both dear friends to the older harebit, and seeing him like this often makes things that much harder to deal with.

Morton comes from a farming background and still sends his paycheck home to his folks every month end or so. He cares very deeply for his teammates, but his opinion on Mathew, Magellan’s stepbrother, is one of intense hatred. Morton hates very few people in his life and to have gotten on the bad side of someone so trusting and loyal is very serious indeed…

Marcus Langley (Malamute / Timber Wolf - "ZAK")
Marcus Langley is very much the opposite side of the scale to the Z Stack he represents, Zak. Whereas Zak is ruthless and calculating, Marcus tends to be more shy and less willing to take part in a humiliating prank. That’s not to say he doesn’t like playing the occasional prank however!

Like Morton, Marcus has been with the band since the very early days – his role as the crew’s electric guitarist stemming from having been ‘discovered’ by Magellan and his mother at age ten. He’s not as close to Magellan as Morton is, but they’re best buds nonetheless. Marcus is often the other half to the songwriting duo and his ability to weave a story out of simple rhyming words has always been one of the many hearts of the DZT over time.

Marcus is watchful and protective – being part wolf and part dog, his loyalty is unquestionable. He’s got a very laid-back personality and tends to be quite the slacker, which is probably why Magellan often has to kick his rear into gear! Marcus avidly enjoys X-Treme sports when he is up and moving, and airboarding is one of his favourites.

He’s been noticing an odd change in Magellan’s behaviour of late – his friend is becoming withdrawn, less interested in running the battle of the bands than he was before. He misses the harebit he used to know – the one who always used to have to twist his arm in order to do something crazy, like surprise paintballing the DSF or something. It worries him that Magellan is hiding something of important magnitude away from the rest of them, as if he doesn’t trust them. For Marcus, his friends come first rather than the ideals of money and position that Captain Zalinski states are the founding elements of the DZT.

He is the least likely to give a turkey if something happens to him – but if something happens to one of his mates and you’re responsible, good freakin’ luck getting Marcus off your arse!

Mikael Zacharov (Hedgehog - "ZUG")
Mikael is an exchange student from Soviet Russia, a family by-product, as he calls it, of rampant decadent communism. He may not look much like a Russian boy but his thick accent speaks volumes. Ten years with the DZT and he still hasn’t managed to lose it.

Mikael is one of the younger teammates in the crew, besides Melanii and Maximillian-Michael, and as such, he usually handles acoustic guitars and keyboards. He is a talented classical instrument player on top of that, oboe and clarinet being amongst his favourites. Like the others, he’s greatly suspicious of Mathew’s intentions for the DZT and is one of the few who voices his distaste for Mathew’s presence. Being Russian and of a rather volatile temperament, Mikael tends to be more physical than verbal – something he’s had to learn to control under Magellan’s careful watch.

He’s been quite a ladies man since he’s been part of the DZT, and it’s kinda weird seeing Mikael with a trio of beautiful ladies on his arm rather than it being Magellan as the one with the femme escort! Despite this, he gets along well with his CO, and has learned, through trial and error, to control his somewhat verbal backlash tactics a lot more than he did in Mother Russia.

The one thing Mikael isn’t is Jewish – he’s a lavish spender, and sometimes having his paycheck docked is the only way to get the hell through to him! And like the others, he’s a fiercely protective friend and companion of Magellan. You don’t want this hedgehog going homicidal on you, that’s for sure…!

Maximillian-Michael Crush (Striped Squirrel / Skunk - "ZIP")
Maxmillian-Michael, or “Zip” as his crewmates call him, is a happy-go-lucky, fiesty and adventurous young man. He’s been a part of the DZT for twelve years, and as such, knows his way around the place pretty much like he owns a section of it.

Like his namesake, Maximillian does suffer from the occasional bout of shyness and nervous disposition, but mostly, he’s a very open, loyal and trusting friend. Like Marcus, he does share a love of X-Treme sports, and apart from airboarding, skyboarding tends to give this young man a thrill like no other. He’s a fantastic engineer too, being responsible for maintaining the DZT’s private jet on more than one occasion and is studying to take over from their current pilot.

Maxie, as Magellan affectionately calls him, is a pretty darn good cook too, responsible for keeping the guys well-fed on-tour when going out to a nearby restaurant involves getting mobbed by fans. He has his own share of attraction with the ladies, but keeps his personal life out of the media. He hails from a broken home – Mother a drug addict and Father an abusive drunk – and looking at him now, it’s amazing he remained the same even throughout that hell that was his family life.

He’s very chirpy of a morning and never fails to brightens the others’ spirits. He’s not so clueless as to not notice the seething hatred between his Captain and his Leader, and is often around right when Magellan needs him. He’s not blind to seeing a family deteriorate under duress, his own having done it at a crucial time for him, and so can only hope he’s around when Magellan finally decides to talk to the others in the crew.

Maximillian-Michael doesn’t have a mean streak or bone in his body. He’s a lovely, generous and thankful youngster that holds the record for the most smiles in one day.

Mickey Darnell-Smith (Echidna - "ZERON")
Mickey is one of the newer members of the DZT, and as such hasn’t been around that long to know Magellan inside out like the others do. However, he’s not blind to the niggling things, like the harebit’s consistent injuries, and is smart enough to know that the Captain is responsible for them.

He’s the representative of one of the newest Z Stacks, Zeron, Captain’s Zero’s first Ocean Tug. Like Zeron, Mickey is quiet, determined and can be misconstrued as cold and ruthless, but really, he’s a gentle giant of an echidna with a good, strong heart. He’s the crew’s drummer, and enjoys his job very much. He holds great rhythm and timing and does like the occasional cutting loose on stage – when he can get away with it, that is!

He’s the eldest and the tallest member of the DZT, standing 7”1, even higher than Magellan’s ears at their very tips (6”8), and does tend to ‘look down’ and ‘stoop’ sometimes, but hey, it’s better than walking into the door frame, isn’t it! Unlike other echidnas, he has smallish fangs which seem to add to his ‘nastiness’ at representing Zeron sometimes. Really though, he’s veritable eye candy for the various female fans that attend their concerts and partially, he secretly enjoys all the attention he gets. In reality, Mickey is very down-to-earth and tends to stay grounded amidst all the glitz and glamour.

Like Maximillian-Michael, he keeps his personal life out of the hawk-eyed media by choice. There’s no point in being part of a band without keeping some secrets away from the spotlights, isn’t there? He and Magellan are on good terms, but Mickey would like to be closer to him than just “his drummer” or just “one of the guys”. He likes Magellan and is protective of him like all the others, but is worried that the harebit isn’t letting anyone in due to the abuse he’s suffering.

Magellan truly does worry him to the point of brotherhood, and Mickey is doing whatever he can to alleviate those worries. But he is angry – not at Magellan, as the Harebit has misconstrued, but at the Captain he’s supposed to trust as the Fleet’s Manager…

Melanii Lu Ming (Giant Panda / Red Panda - "ZARIK")
Melanii hails from a very strict family whose social and familial traditions involve jobs like being a doctor, a lawyer or a therapist. Music is treated as a pasttime, a hobby rather than a full-time career, so when she announced that she intended to pursue her dreams to be a singer, there was a political uprising amongst her traditionalist family surroundings.

Melanii is the newest member of the DZT, replacing Mathew Zalinski as Captain Zero’s seventh tugboat, the switcher named Zarik and has fallen in as Magellan’s ‘little sister’ more than anything. She, in all manner of the word, has broken through the older harebit’s protective shell, drawing out the person the older DZT’ers remember from the very beginning of the band. Magellan invited her to come along for the ride after hearing her perform at an audition held to find new DZT members (which failed dismally with Mathew leading as Zorran). Melanii has been grateful to rub something in her stern parents’ faces – like a first paycheck thrice as much as her older siblings’ paychecks as doctors, lawyers and herbal therapists!

She’s been linked to rival Vee-Jay Hedgehog’s representation of the Star Tug, Ten Cents, the loyal little switcher that leads Captain Star’s fleet – she too is a girl representing a boy tug – and in some ways, Magellan has seen his rival shining there in her eyes. Melanii’s personality is caught somewhere between shy and gentle and loud and proud – she opens up a whole different ballgame out on the stage and her voice is strong and clear, yet doesn’t outshine Magellan’s. She adores her new ‘big brother’ in a similar way to how Thomas Colloute loves his big sister Vee-Jay Hedgehog – they’ve become extremely close in a very short amount of time.

Melanii’s family is huge and extends out across four continents. When Captain Zalinski was ousted as their Manager, Melanii took the boys to the Lu Ming Summer Home, Lu-Maharajah, located in Beijing, where her extended family welcomed the DZT with open arms. Melanii prides herself on being a family girl, and like Maximillian-Michael, tries to keep the fleet going even in the bad times. She’s been called a very warm, adoring and loveable girl, and it shows in many ways.

~**~

The other side to the Downunda Star Fleet are their rivals, the Downunda Zero Team. Every good underdog's got to have a villain though, right?

Magellan's life was not explained when I started the DSF/DZT relationship - he was a willing foil to Vee-Jay's arrogance and oftenmost the more "I could hit you so hard!" side of her cocky demeanour. I've since then tried to humanise these guys to a point where they're more believable - both to myself as the artist and writer and also to you, the viewer.

Magellan's unaware that the rest of the crew have become suspicious of him coming home "from a run" and limping so badly he needs to to be helped up the stairs.

Here, it looks like everything is normal, but Magellan's usually devilish grin is forced - he's not at ease with this picture being taken - his disposition has gone through the wringer. His father, Anandeus, was always a bastard and now, with the band failing repeatedly to make the impact it used to, he's taking more drastic measures against his eldest son (it's gone from mental abuse to physical abuse in a very short amount of time).

His stepbrother, Mathew, has escaped the abuse simply because he is his stepfather's "favourite son" and has been chosen to replace Magellan before long. A cause of unimaginable friction to a young man who has lost the passion for his trade.

Unfortunately, Anandeus doesn't realise the rest of the crew haven't been blinded by fame enough to not notice the change in their lead singer's behaviour. The friend they know and love as a brother is missing, and they're NOT pleased about it. But what can a crew of misfits do to get the person they know is hidden under all that abusive treatment to resurface?

Anything and everything wherever possible...

Besides my beloved DSF, the DZT, like them, have come from humble beginnings and long journeys. To me, they are a more physical representation of the fandom I'm so proud to still be a part of.

That and I'm still fleshing them out. I love fleshing and humanising my characters. It's just so much bloody fun!

The Downunda Zero Team / The Downunda Star Fleet belong to , 1991 - 2009