Hello there my readers, so here we are with the next chapter. Sorry about the delay, our computer wasn't working very well so my dad had to get a new backup server so that we can get our stuff back. I was working on the next chapter, but when it was lost, it couldn't save so I have to start all over again. Don't worry, it does give me time to work on my mistakes a bit, and I hope you like it anyway. Enjoy.

Chapter 24

It was a dark night out in the small valley, where the only thing that could be used as light, was the moon that shined bright in the sky. Out of the canyon, Basil, Jake, Olivia, Lily, and Armando led the rest of the bandits to the large tree and stopped right next to it so they could use it as an outpost. Jake and the two girls had told Basil and Armando about what they had discovered, and had already planned an attack that would allow them to raid the area and free all the captured creatures. Armando had a small army of bandits with him, which wouldn't be much of a problem since Basil's three young companions informed them that there were only a small but fair amount of guards that were stationed in the mine. The group stationed their prairie dogs behind the tree for when they come back, and crouched down as they looked at the gates that were within the small valley. They were large, and boarded up with wood just like it was when they first observed the place, and Olivia looked with a smile, and so did Jake and Lily.

"So what is the plan again" one of the bandits asked who was closer to the group.

"Well my good fellow" Basil replied "After we take care of whoever is guarding the gate, Olivia and Jake will take out the necessary artillery and supplies inside while we take care of the gates, which will be after the sabotage inside happens" he turned to Olivia, who was right next to him "Did you all bring what we need?"

"Yep" Olivia replied "Their all right here in these bags, and we told the rest of the mice to grab some more bags for their part" she pointed back to the rest of the bandits, who had some carry certain equipment that would be part of the plan. Jake took out a pair of binoculars while Basil took out a spyglass, and both looked at the front gate. There they spotted the two guards standing at their posts outside the gate, both with rifles in hand.

"It looks like only two guards over there" Jake said "It doesn't seem so bad"

"Indeed" Basil replied "But we cannot make a full assault on them because too much noise would alert the others. We need somebody to go in there and take out both guards silently" the five looked at each other before a familiar voice spoke up

"I'll go" Lily said to her friends.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Olivia asked her.

"Of course I will" Lily replied to her friend "I'll take care of them, and when I'm done, I'll give you the signal when I've taken care of them"

"Alright" Jake said "Good luck" Lily nodded before she silently began to move away from the rest of the group and headed her way up the sandy hill and towards a small area of bushes and plants behind the larger bushes next to the dirt road that led towards the gates. She knew that the only way to draw the two guards out, was to put on her best innocent impression she could come up with, and she also knew that if the rest of the group heard it, they knew it was part of the plan.

"Help me" Lily called out in the best impression she can think of "Please help me I'm lost, I'm scarred, I'm all alone" meanwhile, both guards of the gate heard the 'cries for help' and looked at each other.

"Did you hear that?" One of the guards asked the other.

"Yeah I did" the other guard said smirking "It looks like we've got ourselves a new recruit. Go get her" the first guard nodded as he cocked his gun and ran out through the bushes so that he could see who this girl was. However, he arrived to find nobody there, and looked around until two paws suddenly came up from behind and suffocated him until he fell to the ground unconscious. The other guard stood at the gate, waiting for the other to come back with the prisoner, but so far, nobody came out.

"Hey, are you done over there?" the guard called out "We're supposed to bring prisoners in, not play around with them" he took his gun and went over to the same area that the other guard walked over to. He looked around to find him, until he saw an unconscious body lying down on the ground. Before he could react, he felt a finger poke his back and turned around to see a fist make contact with his face, knocking him out instantly. Lily, satisfied with her work, hid the now unconscious guards underneath a large bush and then turned to the open areas towards the rest of the group. She let out a faint bird sound with her mouth, and the rest of the group perked up to this.

"That's the signal" Jake said "Let's go" the four mice and the small army of bandits made their way to the area as quietly as they could, to the area that started at the entrance of the small valley, where Lily stopped in front of the group.

"Well done Lily" Basil said with a smile "Now, Olivia, Jake, you two know the plan"

"Yep" Olivia said "Give us some of that dynamite" two bandits came up and gave them both bags that were filled with what they needed.

"Good luck" Lily says to them. The two nodded before they ran off, up the boarded up areas and scurried their way up to the small opening. After that, Basil turned to Armando and the others.

"So what do we do?" Armando asked him.

"Excellent question" Basil said "While they are taking care of the inside, we need to place this dynamite on the front of the gates, when the explosions inside go off, we will trigger the explosives out here, allowing us to attack them when they are weakened, but we'll have to work quickly" Armando nodded before he turned to the rest of the mice bandits.

"You heard him" Armando called out to his mice "Let's get to work" the rest of the mice nodded before they started to rush over to the gate and started placing the explosives in front of the gate.

Meanwhile, Olivia and Jake had made their way through the opening, and found themselves on the platform that they had been on earlier that overlooked the whole defense area, that was stocked with guns, artillery, and several guards were stationed in certain areas. The two young mice saw their targets, and both looked at each other.

"Looks like we have our targets" Jake said to her.

"So which ones should I take out?" Olivia asked him. She had memorized the targets that they had selected, but she didn't have any specific directions as to which target she should take out.

"You take out the machine gun detachments and the heavy artillery over there" Jake said pointing to an area near the gate "And I'll take out some of their ammo boxes, cargo, and some of the areas that have large groups of guards" Olivia nodded before they turned their attention back to the bags. They both took them, and quietly opened them to find sticks of dynamite that were rolled together and attached with wires that some of the mice worked on earlier. The two mice got their amount of dynamite that they needed, and they knew that they needed one more thing to complete this. Jake reached into his coat pocket, and took out a small box that contained a set of matches that they would use to light the fuse on each of the explosives. Olivia took a few matches, as did Jake, and once they had enough, they both ran off to different directions to take care of the targets. When they were where they needed to be, they lit the explosives and threw them at the targets while trying their best not to be seen. Fortunately, the guards were not paying attention to them, and the area they were in was not lit, which gave the two an advantage in the task. When they were done, the two mice rushed quickly and quietly back to the opening so they could meet up with the group outside. Basil, Armando, and Lily were crouched down at the entrance of the valley's entrance, with one of the bandits keeping an eye on the detonator, ready to set the explosives off when the time is right. Basil saw Olivia and Jake come towards them and smiled.

"Did you get the explosives in there?" Basil asked.

"Yep, every last one of them" Olivia replied.

"Excellent" Basil said "Now all we have to do is wait for them to go off. Then, our mouse over there will activate the detonator to the explosives out here, and we'll charge in with easy access" After a few minutes of waiting, a series of explosions were heard inside the area from outside.

"That's it" Jake called out to the others, knowing that they now have their time to strike. The mouse with the detonator pulled up the plunge and the plunged it back down, causing the explosives attached to the gate to go off and explode, leaving a large crater in the center and giving them easy access. Basil, Jake, Olivia, and Armando got their weapons out while the others followed.

"Charge!" Armando yelled out, as the small armies followed their leader straight into battle. They ran straight through the smoke and into the large opening, where the soldiers that were recovering had little time to react before they were attacked. Several of them were shot down on the spot, while the rest got back up, affected by the explosion or not and started shooting. Several fell down while the rest scattered to any area to find cover. Basil and Armando picked up a few rifles while Jake fired his Winchester, Olivia had two pistols, and Lily had a shotgun. The three young mice found cover behind a barrel and took down enemies with ease, Basil took down some enemies inside a watch tower at close range with both his pistol and martial skills, while Armando led his many mice straight into battle, taking down the troops in the defense area with ease. As they hid behind the barrel, Olivia's ears perked up as she heard that some of the mice from deep within the mine were coming straight for them. With instinct, she raised both of her pistols and fired, sending them down to the ground, dead. Jake looked at her, feeling impressed by her quick work.

"Nice shots" Jake commented.

"Thank you" Olivia replied with a smirk. As they looked around the area, one of the bandits called out to Basil and Armando.

"The whole area is clear" the bandit called out to Basil.

"Good, no doubt the other guards in the mine know that we're here" Basil said "Let us move on then shall we?" Armando nodded as he called out orders for the rest of his mice to follow them as Olivia, Jake and Lily got out from their hiding place and began to follow the others down the tunnel.

When they reached the entrance to the mine area, two mice guards looked up and opened fire, killing a few of the bandits, who began to fire back in retaliation. Jake saw a few riflemen up in the hill, and knew that they would fire on them eventually. He raised his rifle high, aimed, and fired at the two mice, causing them to fall to the ground dead. He cocked the rifle, and soon, the group took care of two more guards as they finally entered the mining area. They saw that most of the slaves had stopped working and had looked to them, feeling they are here to rescue them. The group began to spread out to free the slaves at a faster rate, while also finding that a few guards, who Basil was certain had the keys to the chains on the salves, charged straight at them. The bandits, knowing they couldn't harm the salves, simply tackled the guards down, and grabbed their keys. Olivia and Jake grabbed them as well, and soon, all of the slaves were lining up and crowding around them, desperate for them to unlock them from their chains and set them free, which they did. The prisoners were cheering as Jake, Olivia, Basil and the others, were unlocking them from their chains, and setting them free, and sending them off. The remaining guards tried to stop them but they were easily overpowered by the swarm of the slaves, as well as protection from the bandits.

"Alright, we've got everybody" Jake said "Let's get out of here"

"Wait" Basil said "There is an observation tower over there" he pointed to the one that was on the far side of the mine "I want to explore it and see if we can find out a little more about Cain's plan. Armando, tell some of your mice to take the prisoners back to your camp and spread out to see if there are any slaves we have missed or any more guards that are on watch" Armando nodded and gave the orders to his mice, while Olivia, Jake, and Lily followed Basil to the bottom of the tower, where they began to climb up the latter, with Basil ahead of them, as he opened the hatch that led into the room. While the other three got the chance to go in, Basil was examining the area around him. There was a map of the U.S. pinned up on the wall, and several pinpoints on it, which Basil studied with curiosity in his eyes. The other mice were curious as well, and looked at the map; all was silent until Basil spoke up.

"It seems to me that Cain has found an abandoned railroad track that was once used by the humans, but for what purpose I'm not sure of" Olivia thought about it for a moment and spoke up.

"Well, the designs that I noticed for the weapon seemed pretty big" Olivia said "It would be obviously to big for a mouse to carry"

"So he's probably using it to transport the weapon to where it needs to be used" Basil commented "Where it needs to be taken I'm not sure, if I brought this map back with me I can deduce the destinations and pinpoints on the map so we can figure out exactly where and when he plans to put his weapon into effect" With a pair of tweezers, he started to unscrew the nails that were holding the map on the wall, and did his best not to rip it, so he can keep every part of the map intact to be examined carefully. A faint noise was heard from behind them, and Basil turned to see a soldier who was hiding, was starting to quickly come out and attempt to shoot them. Before he could even pull the trigger however, the mouse was hit in the back of the head with the butt of a rifle, which came from Jakes rifle. Basil, paying no mind to the brief situation, continued to take the map down carefully and rolled it up when he was done.

"We can take this guy as a prisoner" Jake said to Basil "See if there's anything he can say"

"Very well then" Basil said "Come along then, we must be off" Basil rolled up the map while Olivia helped Jake carry the prisoner that they had with him as they all exited the tower. Armando and some of his mice were waiting for them as they began to exit the mine. Although as they were moving along, Basil felt that there must have been another reason to dig out some of the gold, but kept that thought in mind as he and the others exited the mine.

Alright, so that's it for now, I hope you guys liked the action I put in this, but this is just one fight scene, a much bigger scene will be coming your way pretty soon. Again I am sorry for not updating, but now that the computer is back, things will start to run more smoothly. So please review, and I will update soon. Until next time, see you later fellow readers.