Author Note: Hey everyone! Time for yet another chapter update bringing us one step closer to the finish line! Don't really have much else to say at the moment, so hope you guys enjoy it.
"Anything yet?"
"Nope."
"...How about now?"
"Still nothing…"
"...Anything no-"
"Okay, you know what, Nick? How about I just tell you if I hear anything?" Judy groaned in annoyance. "Will that get you to stop constantly badgering me?"
"Fine," Nick sighed. He was still feeling pretty on edge about possibly running into either Coastline or something worse, but he also knew he really should trust the reporter. She understood the stakes and if she heard something coming, she'd let him know. Plus, if he didn't stop she'd probably go back on her earlier promise and give his tail a proper whooping.
The two of them had followed the stairway down into the temple depths. Despite being underground, the area was still surprisingly well lit thanks to narrow openings in the ceiling that allowed light to shine through. Judy still kept her flashlight on paw just in case, but Nick had no trouble seeing where he was going.
Unfortunately, the underground pathways were just as complex and labyrinthine as the previous ones up above. With time already being against them, they had split up to check the different paths, seeing if any of them looked promising. Of course, they made sure to remain in earshot just in case anything went wrong, something the reporter had been starting to regret.
"So...do you see anything now?" the fox called out. Still not feeling quite confident enough to completely lay off.
"No," the rabbit shouted in annoyance. "Wait…I mean yes, over here!" Judy's tone became alarmed. "You'll definitely want to see this."
"Coming," Nick called out, following the rabbit's voice...in theory. "Uhh...which way did you go again?"
"Over here," Judy called out from the opposite direction Nick was heading, much to his confusion.
"Crap," he muttered, turning around and heading the other way. "Sorry, where was that again?"
"Over here," Judy repeated.
Nick followed what he thought was the right path, only to again find an empty hall. "Where?" he called out.
"I said over here!" Judy called out again, her voice even further away somehow.
"Godsdammit!"
"Seriously, Nick, what the heck are you doing? We don't have time for your games."
"I'm not playing any damn games, Fluff, this place is a freaking pain in the ass to figure out," the treasure hunter growled. "I'm starting to think they designed the acoustics down here to screw with any mammals who don't know where they're going."
"Then use your nose, genius!"
"Nose?" Nick sniffed at the air, picking up traces of the rabbit. "Oh, right. Why didn't I think of that?" He closed his eyes and focused on the scent, following it through the winding passages.
"I got it," Nick said. "Just a bit fur-ack!" Nick felt a burst of pain as his muzzle collided with the wall and he bounced backwards. "Ow…" he muttered, shaking his head as the pain gradually subsided.
"Were you following the scent with your eyes closed?" Judy asked, her voice at least sounding closer than before.
"No…" the fox denied, obviously not fooling anyone. "...Yes."
"Crazy idea, but maybe watch where you're going and hurry it up," the rabbit deadpanned. "I seriously don't understand why you canid's all do that with your eyes closed."
"It helps us visualize where to go, okay?" Nick said as he turned one last corner and finally met back up with the reporter. "Now what was it that's got you so worked up -oh…," the fox was shocked into silence upon seeing what had grabbed Judy's attention. "Wow…"
The hallway was scattered with the bones of what was easily a dozen mammals. Tattered armour and clothing were draped over their remains with weapons still gripped in their skeletal paws and hooves. The scene wasn't too dissimilar from the massacre they had stumbled upon in the very first temple at the start of this crazy journey.
"That's...a lot of skeletons," Nick said.
"No kidding...must've been a brutal fight," Judy bent down and pawed over the skeleton of a mustelid, pulling a piece of the dead mammal's armour free. "Check it out." Judy held up the piece for Nick to see, a familiar looking symbol emblazoned on the piece. A set of horns jutting out of a crown with a sword behind it. "These were Blackhorn soldiers."
"Blackhorn, huh? So they did make it into the city," Nick looked down at the piles of bones. "Although given all the bodies here and their trashed fleet out in the bay, I'd say something must've gone very wrong."
"Yeah…but what?" Judy muttered as she pawed through the remains. "Seeing numerous claw and bite marks." The rabbit wasn't kidding, even from a brief glance, it was apparent the Blackhorn armour the soldiers had been wearing had taken some serious beatings, covered in all sorts of scratch and puncture marks. "They're obviously a lot older, but the damage looks similar to what we found on that lion."
"Wait, you mean the one that looked like some savage had been using him as a chew toy?" Nick asked, bending down to paw through the bones in search of clues. "Not to mention several other mercs if what those guards on the balcony said was true..."
"Exactly," Judy nodded. "You think maybe whatever got them was the same thing that killed these soldiers?"
"Well, seeing as how these soldiers are over 400 years old, I'm going to guess...no." Nick stopped as he noticed one skeleton that stood out from the rest. Unlike the others, it wasn't wearing any armour. "Although…"
"Although what?" the rabbit asked.
"Look at this." Nick waved the rabbit over. "One of these mammals is not like the others, care to take a guess which one?"
Judy bent down and looked at the skeleton, staring at it closely and nose twitching as she studied its decayed features. "There's something off about this one."
"Well duh, Fluff, it's the only one not wearing a Blackhorn uniform. My guess is he's part of whatever group wiped these soldiers out."
"No kidding, that detail was pretty obvious," the reporter deadpanned, turning to glance up at the fox. "But that's not what I meant."
"Hmm?"
"Take a look," Judy gestured at the mystery mammal. "The bones...there's something strange about them."
Nick looked at the body, but he couldn't for the life of him see what Judy meant. It had been mangled somewhat with a sword jammed through its ribcage, but the actual bones themselves didn't really stand out. "Just looks like your run-of-the-mill dead mammal to me. Seeing as his ribcage is being used as an improvised sheath I'm guessing our Blackhorn pals managed to take him out before this guy's 'friends' finished them off."
"You're not focusing on the right details, Nick." Judy shook her head. "What does this look like to you, prey or predator?"
"Obviously a predator," Nick answered pointing at the head. "I mean look at those teeth." The skull was a bit oddly shaped, but the fangs protruding from them had managed to catch the fox's attention quickly enough.
"Then why does it look like it has hooves?" Judy pointed to where the skeletal paws should've been. But to Nick's immense confusion, they were far too thick to be paws, indeed looking more reminiscent of hooves.
"I...uh…" Nick struggled, just as mystified as the rabbit. "Wait, what? Sharp teeth and claws along with hooves? That's just like when we found that lion scout."
"Right? And take a look at these." She pointed to another body lacking a Blackhorn uniform. This one also had sharp teeth, but Nick was quick to check out the skeletal mammal's extremities. Unlike the other one though, this one just had regular paws instead of hooves.
"Well, that one's obviously a predator. I don't see wha-" The fox stopped as he looked again. "Wait a minute…" The teeth and claws...they certainly belonged to a predator, but now he noticed just how long they looked. Very long. Too long, as a matter of fact. No predator he had ever heard of had claws or teeth like these.
"You notice?" the rabbit asked.
"I definitely notice," Nick nodded. "Sure as hell never seen any predators with claws and teeth like this outside of cheap Horror and Sci-Fi flicks." Even the structure of these skeletons was off, they looked like mammals, but something about the proportions just seemed...out of whack in a way that just wasn't natural for mammals. "What the hell is with this place?"
"I don't know," Judy stood up as she pulled something from one of the dead soldiers. "But I'm guessing these soldiers were looking for the vault when they were ambushed."
"What makes you think that?"
"Mostly this." Judy held out an old piece of parchment. Nick plucked it from the rabbit and took a look. There was a crude drawing of what he guessed were the white night howlers.
What is with this place and these flowers? I haven't seen a single one since we got here, but these drawings and carvings of them are everywhere.
Below the drawing, a note had been written:
Sigue las flores.
"Follow the flowers?" Nick's tail twitched as he tried to make sense of it. "What flowers? There's nothing but bones and stone down here. Where the hell are flowers supposed to grow?"
"Maybe it's a marker or something?" Judy suggested. She leaned over and started tossing bones aside, trying to clear up the floor. Realizing what the bunny had in mind, the fox got down and helped her, moving old armour and weapons out of the way.
"Even if Sir Francis had 'em beat in terms of research, I'm guessing the Blackhorns managed to gather up at least some clues on their own," Nick theorized. "Which means they were probably using something to navigate these tunnels, right?"
"That'd be my guess," Judy agreed. "They'd be spread out in smaller groups to check out the different passages if they didn't know which way to go."
As the two of them cleared the floor and started brushing away the dust, they noticed a line of stone tiles running down the center of the passage. While the walls were adorned with all manner of symbols and depictions, these tiles each only displayed a single flower.
"And…" Nick withdrew the flower artifact from his satchel, holding it against the carved tile on the ground for comparison. "Viola, a perfect match."
"Follow the flowers," Judy observed. "This must be how they navigated the passages."
"And that'll probably lead us straight to the vault," Nick said.
"Wait, vault?" Judy tilted her head in confusion. "We're here for Finn, why would we waste time looking for the vault?"
"Because that's what Cackler and Dante are looking for so that's where they and Finn will be heading," Nick explained. "Or would you rather wander blindly through these tunnels and hope we manage to just stumble into Finn through pure luck?"
"Can't argue with that logic," Judy responded. "But how are we going to get Finn back? Because unless your plan is to somehow buy all the Coastline mercs off with the treasure in that vault, I don't see how a sealed room with no exit will give us any sort of tactical edge."
"Still trying to figure that part out…" Nick admitted, his tail and ears sagging slightly at the less than optimal prospects. "Either way, we need to find that vault if we're going to have any chance of getting to Finn. Beyond that, guess we'll just have to figure it out as we go."
"We seem to do that a lot…" the bunny sighed.
"Yeah...more common occurrence in this job than I'd like," Nick said. "But too late to go back now, reconsidering our life choices will have to wait until after we're off this island."
The two of them followed the path of tiles through the twists and turns of the underground hallways. As they pressed on, they found themselves passing the occasional body. Some of them were dressed like Blackhorn soldiers, other more ancient ones were likely denizens of the city, and others bore a resemblance to the twisted remains of those mysterious mammals that had ambushed the Blackhorns. There were even a few bodies that looked like they had been part of Wilde's crew. Nick wasn't exactly surprised to find them, the explorer had always been a sly one, of course he and his crew would be able to find a way into the city.
But what became of you, Wilde? Did you get ever make it off the island? Or are you down here somewhere among the bodies?
They pressed forward in mostly silence, both alert for signs of Coastline or any other surprise guests. For a while, the padding of their feet against the stone was all they head until a muffled blast rang out through the hallways, causing their ears to twitch and fur to stand on end.
"What was that?" Judy asked
"An explosion maybe?" the fox answered, ears swivelling as he tried to figure out the source. "Can't tell which way it came from…"
Despite the initial shock, they quickly shrugged it off and kept following the tile path. The rhythmic pattern of their footpads against the dead silence returned, but it wasn't long before there another blast echoed through the halls, and then another…and another.
"Okay, I see what's going on. Dante and Cackler have gotten sick of trying to figure this place out and are just having their goons blast their way through," Nick said.
"Which means they'll find their way to that vault eventually," Judy added. "Assuming they don't end up causing the entire network to come crashing down on us."
"Let's just focus on beating them to the vault for now. Hopefully, those idiots have enough of an idea what they're doing that they won't bury us all alive before then."
"Do you really believe that?" the rabbit asked, most likely rhetorically.
"No." The fox shook his head. "But the lie is easier to sell to myself if I don't think about it too much, so let's just find the vault and hope luck will carry us the rest of the way."
"Definitely playing the luck card way too much…" Judy grumbled.
They continued following the path, the muffled sounds of blasts and collapsing stone echoing through the hallways with a steadily increasing frequency to the point where it could almost be considered background noise. That psychotic zebra and his partner were really starting to run out of patience.
As the tile path came to end, the hallway finally opened up to a massive underground chamber. Slits in the ceiling allowed rays of light through, helping to illuminate the area. The path they walked led to a large platform and catwalk raised above a lower level that contained a massive reflecting pool covering half the floor. Surrounding the room were six statues of a mountain goat, a gazelle, an otter, a jackal, a capybara, and a bat of some kind.
"Okay then, this certainly looks promising," Nick said, looking around as he took in the details of the room with subdued awe. "How much you willing to bet our vault entrance is in here somewhere?"
"Little to nothing," Judy answered. "I'm not in the habit of betting against a sure thing. How much are you willing to bet we'll need to figure out some ancient puzzle mechanism first?"
"Always nice to see how quickly you catch on, Carrots." Nick's attention was drawn to a massive carving of a flower on the opposite end of the room from where they entered. "Whatever it is, it'll probably involve that flower in the back."
"You think so?"
"Come on, if there's one thing that's been made abundantly clear during our time here, it's that the locals were freaking obsessed with these flowers...whatever they are. It's practically a given that whatever mechanisms this room has will involve it somehow."
"That does make sense." Judy started looking around the room with just a hint of anxiousness. "Let's just figure this out quickly. Can't imagine we'll have much time before Dante and Cackler show up."
"What gives you the impression they'll find it so- ahh crap…" As Nick looked at the statues, he noticed multiple pathways between them as well as more on the lower floor. "That's a lot of entrance points for Coastline to barge through." Another blast echoed out from the hallways as if to emphasize the point.
"Then we'd better get to work," Judy started walking around the room, getting a closer look at the statues. "Huh, that's interesting. These aren't like any of the other statues we've seen."
"Something special about them?"
"Yeah, I mean look at them," Judy pointed up at the jackal statue closest to them.
The statues were all roughly the same size with each holding a staff. As Nick began to look at them, he realized what the reporter meant. "Hey, you're right, these look like they're made from some sort of metal instead of stone." There was something strange about the limbs as well, they had bolts and plate sheets in place as if to facilitate the shifting of different parts. "It looks like these statues can be moved somehow…"
"You mean like with some sort of switch or lever?" the reporter asked.
"Maybe? I'm not sure." Nick tapped his foot as he pondered the statues and whatever purpose they served. He seriously doubted they were just for show. "That jackal statue looks pretty similar to the one we blew up in the desert district."
"So...these statues depict the god of each city district?" Judy speculated, humming in thought as she tried to piece things together. "Maybe Sir Francis wrote something down in his journal that can help."
"Now that you mention it…" Nick started, the rabbit's suggestion jogging his memory. "There was something similar in his notes, let me see if I can find it." The fox pulled his ancestor's trusty journal out from his pack and started flipping through the pages.
"Let...me...see…, yes, here we go," Nick said, tapping the desired page with a clawed digit. "This looks like our room." The page had drawings of six different landscapes in a circular pattern: a snow-covered mountain range, a rolling savanna, a coastal shoreline, a barren desert, a lush jungle, and a subterranean cavern, each positioned the same way as the statues in the room. Above the circle of statues was a drawing of the white night howler, its position and pattern matched that of the giant carving at the back of the room.
"One statue for each of the city's districts," Judy observed as she brushed up to Nick to get a look at the page. "The mammals and districts seem to match up with what's in the notes. Yup, looks like our room. Mam, it's almost scary how detailed your ancestor's notes are."
"Yeah, well, what can I say, Carrots? We Wildes have always been very thorough in our research if nothing else," Nick said with a cocky grin.
"Don't sell yourself short, you're also reckless…and shifty."
"...You finished?"
"And accident prone...and stubborn."
"Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot, we're moving on now," Nick groaned, rolling his eyes as he started reading a note at the bottom of the page.
"From the greatest heights to deepest depths, the light shall always shine through."
"Hmm, I see your dear old ancestor is as vague as ever," Judy said as she stared at the page. "'Greatest heights to deepest depths' sounds like it hints at an order based on...elevation, maybe? But what does the light mean?"
"I'm not quite sure," Nick tilted his head as he struggled to make sense of the riddle. "We might be missing something, let's take a look around and see what else we can find."
"Right." The two of them split up and started searching the platform, checking the statues and chamber for any indication of what they needed to do, all to the occasional rumbling of stone as another blast would go off somewhere in the distance, making for a tense reminder that they'd best figure this out sooner rather than later. "That's ancient civilizations for ya, always gotta make things complicated." As Nick started pawing at the ground in the center of the platform, he noticed a strange outline in the stone. Brushing at it, he realized something was set into the ground with a metal plate and an indentation at the very center. "Carrots, over here."
"What is it?"
"There's something built into the platform here," Nick answered, feeling the indentation with his paw. "Looks like we need to do something with this."
As the rabbit approached, she kneeled down next to the treasure hunter and looked at the indentation, her ears straightening in excitement. "That shape looks like it matches with the artifact."
"Kinda does…" Nick pulled out the flower artifact and looked at it, comparing its shape to the indentation. "Worth a shot." He set the artifact into the indentation and found that it clicked into place perfectly. "Okay, getting somewhere." He twisted the artifact and the attached metal plate. An audible click rang out along with the sound of gears turning as a stone and metal tablet began to rise out of the ground. Up above, the ceiling split open over the mountain goat statue with a bright shaft of light shining through and illuminating the metal mammal.
"I'm going to go ahead and assume that was supposed to happen," Judy shouted over the sound of the gears as she looked around the room.
"Good call," Nick craned his neck up and looked up at the shaft above the mountain goat statue. "So I'm guessing that's the 'light', now what do we do with it?"
"Could have something to do with this." Judy pointed at the tablet that had risen out of the ground. On it lay a metal console with two levers along with a series of five blank crests and one with a mountain goat imprinted on it. "Looks like...some sort of control console. Would a civilization like this even have the ability to make that sort of thing?"
"Normally, I'd say that was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard," Nick said, poking at the levers. "But there hasn't been a single thing normal about this expedition since the start."
Curious about what would happen, the fox pulled on the right lever. His ears perked up as he heard the sound of more gears turning and the groaning of metal.
"Nick, the statue!" Judy pointed up to the mountain goat as its arms started to move.
Nick reflexively released the lever and the statue stopped moving. "Well…that's interesting." He tested the lever, pushing it in different directions and watching as the statue's arms moved to match the actions of the lever. "Okay, now that's pretty sweet!"
"Absolutely incredible," Judy beamed in amazement. "Think of the technical expertise needed for such a feat. I really wish I still had my camera."
"Alright, now I'm really curious," Nick said as he eyed the other lever. "Just what do you do?" Pulling it, the crest of the mountain goat flipped around to the other side, revealing an empty crest while the one next to it flipped around to reveal a different mammal. "Looks like an...otter?" Nick looked over at the correlating statue. "Then that means…" He pushed the right lever again and as expected, the arms of the otter statue began to move. "Okay, pretty sure I got this console...thing...figured out, now what does that have to do with the light?"
"I think those statues are meant to channel the light," Judy said. "Look at the staff." She pointed to the one being gripped by the mountain goat statue. A beam of light was emitting from the very tip of it.
"Another piece of the puzzle?" Nick started flipping the left lever until he was controlling the mountain goat again. As he moved the statue's arms, the light shifted as well, always being directed wherever the staff was pointed. "So does that mean we need to bounce that light around the room?" Examining the statues, he noticed that each one had a light prism in the center that was probably meant to channel the beam, looking over at the flower carving, he noticed it had a similar one.
"Given this civilization's reverence of that flower, I wouldn't be surprised if we have to get the light into that flower carving," Judy theorized.
"Alright, then let's get that light in there," Nick started shifting the lever around, trying to direct the light beam towards the flower.
"Uhh...I don't think that's going to work, Nick," Judy cautioned. "That riddle seemed to suggest we gotta do it in a certain order."
"Nonsense, Fluff, just needs a little love is all," Nick grunted as he struggled to get the beam to line up. "Come...on...you...stupid." The statue groaned and screeched in protest with each of Nick's attempts to force the beam into place. Despite his best efforts though, the statue refused to cooperate, the beam of light continuously falling short. Nick finally let out an irritated sigh as he released the lever and the statue ground to a halt.
"Got any more 'love' to give it?" Judy asked. "Or do you want to maybe do this the right way now before you end up breaking the thing and sealing us out of the vault for good."
"You know…think I'll just admit defeat on this one and do things your way," the fox conceded, his ears sagging slightly in embarrassment. "So...mountains are obviously first, what's next?"
"Could be...jungle, desert, or savanna, really," Judy answered, her brow scrunched in thought. "Shore and cavern are probably the last ones, just need to figure out the other three."
"Hmm, not very clear cut as to which of those is highest," the fox observed, looking at the statues of the capybara, jackal, and gazelle respectively. "There's gotta be another hint, something we're not seeing."
"Is there anything else in the notes?" the doe suggested. "Something that might show which area is the highest?"
"Not sure…" Nick focused on the three drawings in question, looking for anything that stood out in them. The landscapes themselves didn't seem to hint at anything, but…"Wait a minute," Nick started as one particular detail stood out to him. "There's a mountain range in the background of all three of those landscapes."
"Really? Let me see!" Judy urged, grabbing the journal out of Nick's paws.
"Why yes, Judy, of course you can have a look. Thank you for asking so nicely, so considerate of you to wait until I was done with it," Nick said sarcastically, not that the rabbit seemed to notice.
"The peaks are closest in the jungle and furthest in the desert," Judy explained. "If they're closer, that'd mean the area's at a higher elevation, right?"
"Maybe, not exactly what I'd call a solid lead though…" Nick responded. "But...can't really afford to waste too much time making sure we're right either, not with Coastline blasting their way ever closer." As if on cue, another blast went off in the distance, causing the chamber to rumble slightly. "Gotta say, those guys have really been on point with their dramatic timing."
"Unless you'd rather wait around for the chance to tell them that yourself, we don't really have any other choice," Judy said. "Frankly, I'd rather take my chances with triggering an ancient trap over getting boxed in here by Coastline."
"Alright then, guess we're doing this. Here goes nothing." Taking a deep breath, Nick started manipulating the lever, guiding the goat statue's staff so that the beam of light was directed into the prism at the center of the gazelle statue. "Please don't be a trap, please don't be a trap, please don't be a trap…"
As the beam connected with the prism, it lit up like a glowing beacon, making a noise that almost sounded whimsical. Releasing the controls, Nick waited to see if anything would happen.
"Well, no spikes or darts flying at us, so at the very least, we didn't trigger a trap. Or if we did, then it's broken. Guess that's a plus either way."
"Look, the gazelle's staff." Judy pointed at the statue of the antelope. Just like with the mountain goat statue, the staff was now emitting a beam of light from the tip. "That prism must redirect the light. They probably use prisms like these to help light up the underground sections of the city and make it easier for the non-nocturnal mammals to navigate."
"Pretty fancy stuff for such an ancient city." Nick nodded as he pulled on the left lever and took control of the gazelle statue. "Alright, what do you say we keep this ball rolling?"
"Don't stop on my account, Slick."
Nick made his way from statue to statue, lining them up so that each staff would light up the next statue. From the gazelle statue, he then lit up the capybara, then the jackal, then the otter, and finally the bat.
"Alright, that's all the statues done." Nick clapped his paws together in satisfaction. "Time to light up that flower."
Nick switched control over to the bat statue and grabbed the other lever. "Alright 'bats', come on and bring us home." He started manipulating the bat statue's wings only to be brought to a premature halt by the horrendous screeching of metal as the wings struggled to move. Caught off guard, the fox froze, blinking in confusion. "Okay...that's new."
"That...doesn't sound like a statue that's in good order..."
"Figures at least one of them would be busted," Nick said with a shrug. "Not that we need it intact for much longer." He started pushing on the lever again, the statue continuing to shriek and groan in protest as the wings sluggishly struggled to move. "Easy there, big guy. Just gotta point ya at that flower, piece of cake, right?"
The statue apparently decided otherwise when one of the wings began shuddering violently under the strain and broke off, colliding with the staff and snapping it in half with a screeching clash of metal.
"No! No! No!" Nick screamed in frustration as the wing and torn staff piece crashed right through part of the stone platform and into the reflecting pool below with a large splash. "...Crap."
"You broke it!" Judy exclaimed.
"I didn't break shit!" Nick shot back. "That piece of crap broke down on its own." Nick slammed the ancient console in frustration just a bit too hard, his paw flaring up in pain. "Great, and now my paw's killing me," he groaned, eyes squeezed shut and gripping the sore paw as he fought through the pain. "Dear gods, that hurts!" Once the pain had died down enough and he opened his eyes again, he saw that the bat statue now only a had single wing and half a staff. "Now how the hell do we get that vault open?"
Turning to the rabbit for any ideas, he saw she had hopped over to the damaged bat statue, sifting through some pieces that had chipped off in the chaos. "What are you-" Nick started to ask when he noticed that amidst the rubble were shards of broken glass. Scratch that, not glass, they were mirror shards, and Judy was sorting through them, checking their size, shape, and overall condition. "Careful with those shards, Fluff. There's probably more reliable ways to slice your paws open, but not many."
"I know how sharp mirror shards can be, Nick. I'm just looking for the right one to- Eep! Fricking carrot sticks!" Judy hissed as she gripped her paw in pain, a stream of blood pouring down her arm."
"Told ya." Nick carefully approached the reporter, watching for shards on the floor. It was times like this he'd almost consider buying boots, as crazy as that sounded. "Need me to take a look at that?"
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch." Judy held out a paw, motioning for the fox to stay back.
"A lot of blood for just a scratch."
"It wasn't a deep cut." Judy reached into a pack at her side, pulling out some cloth and wrapping it around her injured paw before fastening it tightly. She then picked up a rounded mirror shard that was about the size of her head. "This one should do nicely."
"What are you doing with that thing anyway?"
"These mirrors were inside the statue. I'm guessing they redirect the light from the prism to the staff," Judy explained.
"Yeah, the broken staff," the fox pointed out. "Can't exactly use that to light up the flower anymore."
"No, but the light's still being redirected to the intact part of the staff, right?" Judy pointed up to the broken staff, a beam of light still shooting out from what was left of it.
"You're thinking we could use the mirror to redirect the light into the flower's prism ourselves?" Nick finished, piecing the reporter's plan together. "Will that even work?"
"If we can reach it, then hopefully some focused light will be all it takes to activate whatever mechanism is in that flower," Judy theorized. "Doubt the flashlight will be strong enough, but using a mirror shard to deflect that light beam should hopefully do the trick."
"We're going to have to climb up the statue to reach it," Nick said. "You gonna be alright with your paw like that?"
"I told you I'll be fine," Judy said, brushing off the fox's concern. "Although I'm...going to need you to come up with me," she muttered in an embarrassed tone. "I'm too short to reach the beam by myself…"
"Oh, is that right?" Nick smugly replied, giving the reporter a half lidded stare.
"Do you really want to waste time rubbing it in?" Judy snapped at the fox. "I doubt those Coastline psychos will find that nearly as hilarious as you do when they inevitably blast their way in here."
"Alright, alright," Nick relented. "I'll let it slide, let's just get up there."
The two of them started scaling up the statue and straddled themselves on top of the intact wing, the broken staff still gripped below in the bat's claw.
"Okay, the beam's just out of reach," Judy started, carefully gripping the mirror shard in her paws. "Just get me out far enough and I should be able to bounce the light beam into the flower.
"Got it." With a nod, Nick gripped one of the bunny's ears, causing her to practically jump in alarm.
"Cheesing Petes," Judy cried out. "What the heck are you doing?"
"What? You said you needed me to hold you out over the-"
"Feet, Slick! By my feet!" Judy shouted at the fox. "Why would you think I'd ever be okay with you dangling me by my ears?"
"I...uh...well."
"Forget it," Judy sighed. "There's no answer you could possibly come up with wouldn't make me want to smack you. Just help me get over there."
Not wanting to press his luck, Nick just silently nodded. As Judy reached out, he gripped her by her foot and held her dangling over the edge of the statue wing, just above the broken staff.
"Get me out a bit further," the rabbit ordered.
"Got it." Gripping the wing with one paw, he stretched out further until the reporter was right above the beam of light.
"Okay, lower me down a bit."
The fox complied and lowered her closer to the light.
"A little more…" the bunny asked, holding the mirror in both paws above, or rather, below her head as she dangled above the beam, her ears hanging limply in the air.
Nick lowered her down further.
"A little more."
"You good now?"
"Just about, go a bit lower."
Nick nearly slipped as he strained to lower her further, his muscles protesting at the awkward angle he was being forced to maintain. "Any more and we're both going over, Carrots. Please tell me that's enough."
"It's enough, it's enough," Judy answered. "Yeesh, that is an intensely bright light."
"You going to be long?" Nick asked in a strained voice. "This pose is a really awkward one to hold. Pretty sure I've pulled something already…"
"Almost," Judy responded as she fiddled with the angle of the mirror. "Getting it...just...right...ah-ha! Got it!" The rabbit proclaimed triumphantly as she finally angled the beam into the glass prism at the center of the flower carving.
"Did that do it?" Nick asked, waiting in awkward silence.
Somewhere within the walls of the temple, a cacophony of shifting stones and grinding gears resounded as the chamber came to life. All the statues began readjusting, standing at attention with their staffs held straight at their side. This also included what was left of the bat statue, nearly throwing a startled Nick and Judy right off.
"Shit!" Nick yelped as he struggled to grip the moving wing and pulled Judy back up. "Hold on!"
"Woah!" Judy cried out as the mirror slipped out of her paws and shattered against the stone platform below. "The mirror!"
"Forget it, looks like whatever you did got it working," Nick assured the rabbit as he placed her down next to him once the wing stopped moving. "Now where's the vault?"
"Over there!" Judy pointed to an area on the lower level right in front of the reflecting pool where a pedestal was slowly rising out of the floor. "That's gotta be the next step."
Nick squinted his eyes as he looked down at it. It was hard to tell from this far away, but there was an indentation of some kind on the pedestal. "It looks like something's supposed to go in there." He reached into his satchel and removed the flower artifact. "Probably just perfect for this little baby, wouldn't you say?"
"Only one way to find out," Judy said, smiling up at the fox.
"That there is, Carrots." Nick shot the bunny a cocky grin as he put the artifact back in his satchel. He started sidling across the wing to the main body of the statue but was yanked to a sudden stop when a grey paw firmly grasped his arm.
"Wait a sec," Judy urged. "Something's not right."
"What do you mean?"
"Listen!"
Nick's ears flicked in various directions as he tried to listen for anything suspicious, but there was nothing to be heard, just the stifling silence that came with being underground. Even the grinding of gears and stone had stopped. "Uhhh...not hearing anything."
"Exactly. Not a single thing, no gears, no rumbling, no explosions," Judy said, emphasizing the last one. "When was the last time you heard any Coastline bombs go off down here?"
"I...Uhh…" Nick couldn't remember, he had stopped giving it any conscious thought when they were figuring out the statues. "I don't know...maybe when we were working on the jackal?"
"Think about it, they've been blasting their way through the tunnel network non-stop since we got here," the reporter pointed out. "Why would they stop unless they either figured out how to navigate the tunnels, or they've already found this chamber?"
"Come on, Carrots, this is Coastline we're talking about. Subtlety isn't really their strong suit. If they had managed to find this place, they would've run in guns blazing the second they knew we were here," Nick tried to reason, only for his ears to start sinking as a far more troubling possibility struck him. "Unless they've been waiting for us to open up the vault for them…"
Somebody must've been listening in and realized the jig was up, because the next thing they heard was the igniting of a rocket as an RPG round came barreling out the back hallway right towards them.
"RPG!" Nick shouted, grabbing Judy and throwing himself at the head of the bat statue. The flying ordinance collided against the wing and detonated in a bone rattling blast, tearing the wing loose and sending it crashing to the ground. His ears were ringing from the blast, but he did his best to ignore it, focusing on holding the reporter tightly with one arm and gripping onto the side of the bat statue's head with the other. "Okay, so I guess they were just waiting, then!"
"Nick! We've got company" Judy shouted, pointing over at a ram and two mercenary hyenas charging out the hallway with their weapons raised.
"Oh, great," Nick growled as he shoved the bunny behind the statue head and quickly joined her just before a salvo of bullets started slamming into the statue. "You assholes really picked the worst possible time for this!" Taking advantage of their recklessness, Nick drew his pistol out with his free paw and leaned out to fire at the mercenaries. Despite the circumstances, his grip was still steady enough for him to nail one hyena in the head, and the ram square in the chest, both going down before he was forced to move back behind his loose definition of cover.
"We gotta get out of here," Judy shouted. "This statue's not gonna last much longer!" The sound of groaning metal emphasized the point as the statue started to buckle. They were suddenly rocked much more violently when another explosive hit the statue, causing it to begin pitching over.
"Aw hell, this thing's toast!" Nick yelled. "Jump!" Steadying himself as much as possible the fox leaped straight towards the other hyena, paw balled into a fist as he flew through the air and slammed the larger predator square in the muzzle. He heard a loud crack as something in the hyena's face broke and the mammal went down hard.
Hearing a crashing sound right behind him, Nick rolled out of the way as a large chunk of the platform was obliterated and what was left of the statue broke apart, falling into the waters below. As the fox struggled to get up, he heard an aggressive bleat, turning to see a second ram charging straight at him with his weapon raised to fire. Nick tried to reach for his pistol only to find his holster was empty.
Shit! Must've dropped it!
As Nick moved to try and dodge out of the way, two gunshots rang out and the ram suddenly stumbled, crashing onto his side with a grunt and ceasing all movement. "What the…" the fox turned around to see Judy struggling to hold a rifle nearly twice her size, the barrel still smoking.
"Holy shit…" Nick gasped in disbelief. "Nice shot, Carrots."
There was a brief look of stunned shock on the rabbit's face before she blinked and shook her head. Gunning down a mammal like that couldn't have been easy, but at least she had enough sense to know that now wasn't the time to freak out over it. "We need to move!" she shouted as she turned around and started running for an exit.
"Right," Nick grabbed the downed ram's rifle and ran after her.
"This way," Judy shouted as they sprinted for the exit. The two of them didn't hear so much as feel that they were walking into an ambush, leaping out of the way just as a series of gunshots rang out from the exit. "Not this way! Not this way!" As they made for a different path, the exit lit up with rifle fire as concealed mercenaries began to unload on them.
"Get to the lower level," Nick yelled. They rushed towards a downward ramp only to stop again as another salvo of weapons fire came flying up from that direction, the mercs seeming to have lost any interest in trying to take them by surprise and now just throwing everything they had at the duo. "Seriously?" the fox yelped as he jumped back, getting a brief glimpse of an entire squad firing at them from below, including one of the armoured elephants from the gate, still packing his GRLK machinegun. Nick tried to not imagine what such a massive gun could do to a simple fox like him as he turned and ran. "These assholes are everywhere!"
"Get to the console...thing!" Judy shouted. As they both ran for the statue control station, a badger leaped out at them from behind one of the statues with a pistol drawn. The mercenary fired one shot at Judy but she managed to hop out of the way and throw the rifle she was carrying at the predator in one swift motion. The badger didn't even have time to react before the weapon smashed into his muzzle with a painful sounding crack that sent him stumbling backwards and over the edge of the platform with a startled cry.
With gods knows how many mercenaries now assailing them from multiple directions and their barrages starting to become uncomfortably accurate, Nick and Judy dove behind the console and slammed their backs against it.
"That should give us a-" Nick started, only for his senses to flare up as he felt something approaching. Snapping around, the fox squeezed off several shots with his rifle, catching a hare merc that was trying to rush them. Nick briefly saw the lapine fly backwards as he was hit but quickly turned away, already focused on more pressing matters. "Godsdamn, these guys really don't like us." He poked his head out and fired several shots only to quickly be forced back down by what felt like an endless barrage of bullets riddling his cover. The rockets slamming into the platform from below weren't exactly filling him with confidence either.
"Did you get a look at how many there are?" Judy asked over the roar of gunfire and RPG rounds.
"Why the hell does that even matter?" Nick shouted back. "They've got an entire army down here, there's no way we can fight them all."
"Well, definitely not with an attitude like that!" Judy snapped back. Despite the continuing barrage, she stuck her head briefly to get a look and then immediately snapped back down.
"Are you crazy? That's a good way to get that cute bunny head of yours blown off!"
"Don't call me cu-" Judy started only to say, but then blinked and drop the line of thought. "You know what? I can chew you out over that later. Anyways, they're not moving in. They're all just sticking to their cover and suppressing us. We might be able to make a break for one of the exits if they let up."
"Run for it and hope for the best? Is it a bad sign that I can't think of anything better?" Nick pondered the idea until a bullet whizzed just over his head, convincing him to just go with it. "Alright, fine, as soon as there's a lull, we'll make a break for-" He was interrupted by the sensation of his stomach dropping when the platform shifted downward slightly, beginning to rumble and crack beneath the constant barrage of explosives and machine gunfire. "Shit...they're not going to let up…"
"What do you mean? They've gotta try and flank us right?"
"No, they don't." Nick shook his head, nearly jumping as another blast caused the platform to shift again with a loud crack, the stone and metal framework steadily crumbling beneath the assault. "They just need to keep us boxed in while they bring this whole thing down!"
"Sweet cheese and cra-" Judy was cut off as another explosion rocked the platform. It was finally too much to handle as the platform came apart. Chunks of it broke off and collapsed into the water while the rest of it began to slope at an alarmingly steep angle, causing Judy to lose her grip and slide towards the edge with a surprised cry.
"Judy!" Nick shot his paw out to grab the bunny, dropping the rifle as he forced himself to grip the console to keep them both from sliding over the edge. All around them they could hear the screeching of shattered metal and cracking stone as more and more of the platform broke away. "Just...hold...on!"
Unfortunately, holding on meant very little when the last intact pieces of the platform gave in and the very stone beneath them split apart.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shiiiiiiiiit!," Nick screamed as they both slipped off the edge of what was left of the platform and crashed into the cold pool waters below.
The icy shock of the water nearly overwhelmed Nick, forcing the air out of his lungs, but he dug deep and fought through the encroaching paralysis, holding onto Judy's paw as he furiously paddled upward until he broke the surface of the water. Not stopping to rest, he and the rabbit struggled to the edge of the pool and pulled themselves out, gagging and coughing up water as they went.
Nick tried to catch his breath but the sound of approaching footsteps reminded him why that wasn't an option. He started to pull himself up only to feel something press hard into his back and slam him back down. Before he could even react, a pair of hooves grabbed his paws and bound them tightly behind his back. "Hey! Hey! Watch it!" he protested as he struggled in vain to pull himself free. Looking over, there was a lion's foot pressing down on Judy's back as a weasel bound her paws behind her with zip ties. "Oh yeah, sure, tag team the rabbit, real classy. Some real badasses, you guys are. What, you ain't even gonna buy us dinner first?"
"Don't blame them, Nick, they're just playing it safe. You two have proven to possess a real talent for disruption, after all," a distressingly familiar voice said. "But that'll all be coming to an end soon enough."
A pair of hooves clomped down just short of Nick's muzzle. Craning his head up to see who they belonged to, he saw the striped fur pattern of a zebra. Looking even further up, he found himself staring straight into the eyes of none other than his cursed rival Dante, a malicious smile equal parts smug and cruel plastered onto his muzzle.
"Son of a bitch..."