Gabe heard Alyssa's voice coming from the radio almost as soon as he gave Judy and the other law enforcers the slip, lying on a support beam near the roof of the cavern.
Alyssa sounded cold and distant. "Where're the Rock, the Boulder, and Stone Cold going?"
"Hold on…" Gabe looked over the edge of the support beam and saw that Judy had gone. Good. With them and Nick out the way, there was less chance of Starlight getting hurt. "On their way to the medical room to take care of…. wait, which one's the rhino?
"Doesn't matter. Stone Cold. How's he doing? The camera doesn't paint a totally clear picture."
"Nick said none of the wounds appear to have penetrated the chest cavity, but they might have poked an organ or two. He'll do what he can to stabilize the big guy until backup gets here."
"I've called Llater about this. He'll pass it on to ZBI HQ." Alyssa said over the radio.
"Good. Meet me in the hallway once everyone's in the med-room."
Gabe dropped down from the beam, thinking of how he'd almost blown up on Nick. Jesus Christ on a Stick, that fox was annoying. He knew he shouldn't lose his temper with these mammals, but it was getting harder to keep his emotions in check. Starlight was on the other side of that partition. She was close now, so, so, close. Gabe just had to keep it together a little while longer.
The radio crackled. "Alyssa, I'll be there in a minute."
"Actually, it's Savage."
"Fine. Savage, are you almost done with Lady Catherine De Stabborough?"
"I heard that!" Yelled a voice that tugged at Gabe's memory. "But I rather like it. If I ever go on the run, remind me to put that name on my luggage!"
There were other sounds in the background. "Savage, are you fighting Manchas at this very moment?"
"Fighting a full-grown jaguar high on toxic flowers isn't as hard as I thought it was."
"I'll show you high, bunny-bumpkin!"
"Gotta go, Mossberg! It may not be as hard, it's still not easy! Oh, and make sure Alyssa doesn't get near Slothfeld, got that?"
"What? Why-"
"Come here, you stripey shitho-"
The radio fell silent, and so did Gabe. Did Jack suddenly have a delusion of grandeur and decide to keep the glory of capturing Slothfeld to himself? No, that didn't sound like him. But then what was going on here?
"Alyssa." Gabe muttered, and contacted her straight away.
"Skyefall, do you hear me?"
"Almost there, Gabe." Alyssa's tone was still the same as before, and that bother him.
"What's going on? You've been doom and gloom for a while now."
"Roarson's dead."
Gabe blinked. "Roarson?"
"He attacked me in the control room a little while ago. I didn't have a choice."
"Ah. Well, Jack should be finished dealing with the other one soon. You still keeping an eye on-"
Alyssa cut him off. "Didn't you hear me? Roarson is dead. I had to kill him."
Gabe heard her voice waver, and sighed. "It was either you or him, you can't blame yourself."
"It never should have been me or him! It should have been me or Slothfeld!"
"… Slothfeld?"
Alyssa took so long to respond that Gabe thought the radio had gone dead. "What're we gonna do about the kid?"
She's changing the subject, Gabe thought. Something is definitely wrong. "We'll worry about that once we get the keycard. Hurry up and get down here."
Once he was back in the main hallway, waiting outside the entrance to XIBALBA, his mind filled with thoughts of Starlight. She was wearing one of Slothfeld's new collars, the thing which everything, the savage attacks and Project Twilight, revolved around. He hadn't seen it, but it was there, under the turtleneck of her sweater. He knew it in his gut. Gabe didn't know how long she had that collar around her neck, but he hoped to God she was still fighting it. Sloth heads would roll if Lance had to grow up without a mother.
His anxiety spiked when Alyssa arrived, pistol in paw. Her eyes were moist, but there was a cold fury behind the tears. "So, what the hell is Nick up to?"
Gabe felt his chest heaving silently under his hoodie. He was so close to his wife and he felt like the air was thinning. "Starlight would have needed a keycard to leave XIBALBA and come back with Morris. She'll need it again to retrieve her master's disk."
"You really think he'll send her out for this thing?" Alyssa pulled out the disk. Gabe glanced at the camera looking down at them. No doubt Slothfeld was watching them right now, watching in egotistical outrage as they held his life's work in their paws.
"Nick thinks he will. And he knows everybody."
"So he says."
"Look, let's just trust him on this one, alright?"
Starlight didn't respond, and instead turned to glare at the door. Gabe grimaced, but whatever was going on with Alyssa would have to wait.
He looked at the pistol the vixen was holding. "You hurt her, I hurt you more." Alyssa nodded, unperturbed. "She's wearing a collar, I know she is. We get it off her, and we're done."
A mechanical feminine voice sounded over their heads.
"XIBALBA Partition Opening. Please stand back for your own safety."
Alyssa pocketed the disk and aimed her pistol as the partition began to rise. Gabe saw her switch her safety on.
"Here we go." She said.
The partition was halfway open when a grenade rolled out from underneath it.
Gabe and Alyssa both leapt for cover, barely getting their paws over their ears before the world turned bright white and the blast of noise struck them.
"That escalated quickly." He heard Alyssa say, before she rolled to avoid the flurry of bullets that sent sparks flying off the floor. Gabe scrambled to his feet and searched for his wife.
There!
She was kneeling behind the rising partition, that plain purple mask hiding her face, but Gabe knew that thick white tail erect with aggression, and those wild blue eyes that suddenly fixed on him as she switched her aim.
"Star, no!" Gabe ducked through the doorway to the labs, the only cover to be had. The bullets were flying everywhere, the Twilight-infused vixen firing them not stopping until she'd emptied the entire clip. When the gunfire stopped, it occurred to him that the lab close by, where Jack was still dealing with Maria Manchas, was far too quiet.
"Savage?" He asked, his back against the wall and his eyes on the hallway outside. He couldn't see Starlight or Alyssa.
"I'm okay." Jack said, and he sounded like it. "I've got her pinned down, and she's out of knives. How's it going on your end?"
"Well… I finally found my wife?"
"Good for you." Gabe could tell Jack meant it.
"Gabriel Mossberg, get your arse back in here!" Alyssa shouted from back in the hallway. Gabe could hear her trading blows with Starlight.
"I'll make sure Lady Catherine De Stabborough doesn't interfere." Jack said. "And remember what I told you about Slothfeld, alright?"
"Doveryai no proveryai." Gabe said with a sigh. "And that goes to both of you."
With that he raced back into the hallway to find Alyssa scrambling to her feet. A sub-machine gun lay nearby.
"She got the bloody disk!" She snarled, wiping blood from her mouth. "I got the gun away from her, though!"
"Where is she?!"
There was a mechanical grinding sound as the partition began to descend. They both ran for it, the gap narrowing to a foot high before they slid across the floor and cleared the partition just in time.
"Well, that's one problem solved." Alyssa muttered.
"Come on, she can't be far!" Gabe hoisted her up with him and they ran for the single door at the end of the hallway. It slid open as they approached, letting them into another hallway with square ceiling lights colored blue.
"Bit on the nose, don't you think?" Alyssa asked. Gabe ignored her, eyes sweeping the hallway for signs of Starlight. Before them was a wide glass window looking out over a maze of metal walls. Gabe clenched his fists as the memories came back to him. All those tests, forcing him to do all kinds of weird shit before he regained his senses enough to fake a brain-destroying seizure, escaping the facility and leaving behind his wife and son…
"Over there!" Alyssa grabbed his shoulder and pointed across XIBALBA's testing area to another window to the left of the big room, where they could see Starlight sprinting across another hallway. They took off in pursuit.
The radio crackled as they ran. "Listen, if she is wearing a collar, you have to tell her it's making her do this."
"What was that, Savage?"
"It's how you and the other subjects broke out. If you know the collar is controlling you, that makes it easier to resist. Tell her, Mossberg!"
"Got it, got it!"
They ran across the hallway where they'd seen the vixen and burst through a door onto the top floor of a green-colored cube-shaped room with walkways and a stairwell leading down three floors.
"Looks like we found the central hub." Alyssa said, just as they saw Starlight running across the next floor down toward another door.
Gabe went for the stairs, but Alyssa, it seemed, had other ideas.
He was halfway down when he heard the vixen shout, "C'MERE, YOU!" and saw her descend on Starlight with the force of a meteor hammer. She struck Starlight fist-first, sending the mask flying and the pair of them sprawling along the floor. Gabe pounced, pinning Starlight; he pulled down the turtleneck of her sweater and there it was, the collar forcing her to attack her own husband. It was black and deceptively plain, like a metal the metal collar of a slave.
His relief at the verification was brief, but powerful.
She grabbed his paw when he reached for the collar, and her foot kicked him back by a few feet.
"Stuh- Starlight!" He gasped, winded, as Alyssa got up and went into a combat stance. "Stop! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Give it up, Foxtrot! Without a gun there's no way you can take us both!" Alyssa barked.
Back on her feet, Starlight stared at them hatefully as she held up Gabe's shotgun.
Gabe felt behind his back, cursed and ducked as she pulled the trigger.
The blast was almost deafening, and he felt at least one pellet strike his arm. Automatically grabbed the wounded area, he stared at Starlight.
She stared back, eyes going blank with shock, as the horror of what she'd done briefly broke through the haze of blind obedience. Then they hardened and her expression completely changed, turning fierce with loathing once more.
Adrenaline smothered the worst of the pain as Gabe and Alyssa simultaneously charged at Starlight. Alyssa hit first, throwing away the shotgun and spinning herself around the other vixen so she could execute a headlock. Gabe tried to grab Starlight's shoulder to hold her still, only to feel her leg sweep his own legs out from under him. As he spun he put his paws out, putting them between the floor and his skull, and pushed himself back onto his feet. On any other day he could have gone solo and fought Starlight to a standstill. Today he was tired and bleeding, and so was Alyssa. He should have known this wouldn't be easy.
"Starlight, the collar is making you do this!" He yelled at her as she fought against Alyssa's headlock. Starlight didn't show any sign of hearing him as she kicked Alyssa between the legs and threw her over her shoulder with a wild scream. Alyssa rolled under the rail and disappeared over the edge.
Gabe crossed his arms in front of his face, letting them take the worst of the blow that shoved him against the rail. Starlight pressed harder against the thin metal bar and punched him over and over until he caught her fist and shoved her back.
"Enough of this shit!" He pressed the advantage, kicking her against the wall. If he had to pummel her into submission, so be it. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the wall before kicking her again in the stomach just hard enough to stun her. Even though his jaw felt like it was going to fall off he yelled, "Starlight, fight it! Fight the fucking collar!"
Starlight blinked, and then she thrust her noggin into his. Gabe fell back, and Starlight ran at him again. Battle was joined.
It's just like sparring on the rooftop, it's just like sparring on the rooftop… He told himself before letting instinct take over. Like her husband Starlight had trained extensively, never telegraphing her moves, and it showed even after months of captivity. Every blow was giving him a millisecond to counter, and vice versa; he socked her in the jaw and dodged her knee, then she elbowed his side and swatted his face with her tail. They were evenly matched, always had been. As a male half-cheetah he was stronger and slightly faster, but she knew his combat style like the back of her paw and her stamina was better than his. It also didn't help that she was currently trying to kill him, fighting with the terrible strength of a madmammal. Get your butt back up here, Alyssa!
In between the sounds of their blows he heard the clink of the mag-rider the walkway above them. The instant she was back on their level she pulled herself higher up the cable and wrapped her legs around Starlight. "Gabe! Get the collar!"
Gabe pulled out his small knife and advanced, but Starlight growled and kicked his paw away. Gabe managed to keep his grip on the knife. Starlight slipped free of Alyssa's legs and dived for the shotgun. Gabe grabbed her legs and pulled her back- too late to stop her from grabbing the weapon, rolling over and aiming it straight at his face.
Gabe didn't give her the chance to hit him this time. He grabbed the barrel and diverted it away from him, barely wincing as it went off, the pellets flying harmlessly past his head and denting the walkway and wall above them. "That was the last round, honey." Starlight rolled away from him, aimed and pulled the trigger. The dry click of the empty chamber echoed in the central hub. "Told you."
Starlight bared her teeth and tossed the gun over the rail.
"Starlight, snap out of it!" He yelled as she ran at him again; Alyssa intercepted her, looping the mag-rider's cable around her neck and firing the magnet at the bottom of the walkway above their heads. In a second Starlight was dangling in the air. Before Gabe could do anything other than roar, "What are you fucking doing?!" Alyssa grabbed Starlight's legs, supporting and immobilizing her at the same time.
"Save the bollocking for later, get the device!"
Gabe rushed over, more than ready to cut off that god damn collar. But of course, Starlight wasn't done yet. She simultaneously wrenched one leg free and kneed Alyssa in the chin, sending her tumbling down the stairs. Then she grabbed the cable with both paws and loosened the loop to free her head, dropping back to the floor and swinging her leg at Gabe's head. He blocked it in the nick of time with the paw holding the knife. Starlight swiftly grabbed that same paw, wrenched the knife out of it, and held his arm tight as she moved behind him. Gabe felt the cold sharp metal of the knife against his throat.
He grabbed her paw and fought to keep her from slicing the knife through his windpipe.
"Starlight, stop!" He begged. "You've gotta fight it, I know you can!"
But his words didn't seem to be reaching him. She fought harder, growling into his ear, the blade pressing deeper into his skin. Gabe couldn't let it end like this. He had to win this fight, for Starlight, for Cheryl, for Lance…
For Lance.
"Starlight, think of the baby! Your son, Lance! Don't you remember him?! If you won't fight it for me, fight it for him! Remember our son! Lance Foxtrot-Mossberg!"
"L-Lance?"
The grip holding his arm behind his back slackened. He pulled free and spun, pinning her against the rail. His heart pounded with adrenaline and joy as he saw the new look in Starlight's eyes; wild, but bright with hope and astonishment. "Yeah. Lance. That's what I called him."
Starlight didn't resist him, her feral eyes staring into his own. "You named him after the knight?"
"… Every damn time." He muttered as he slid the knife under the collar's strap.
There was a beep, and Starlight winced as the collar came away. A few seconds later the light in her eyes dulled and she collapsed in his arms.
Gabe laid Starlight down on the floor at the bottom level, waiting anxiously for the other vixen sitting on the stair to finish examining the collar. Alyssa huffed and tossed the collar aside. "Just as I thought. The collar's designed to tranquilize her if she ever takes the collar off. I guess they figured it was safer than the original explosive, and less expensive."
"Thank god." Gabe gently stroked the fur on Starlight's head. She looked disheveled, and she smelled like she hadn't washed in months, but he didn't care if she was covered head to tail in shit.
"It's probably safer this way." Alyssa said. "You saw how she acted. She's in Twilight, just like the others. On the bright side, the antidote should be somewhere in this South Animerican hellhole."
"You're in a very foul mood." Gabe noted.
"Just wishing it wasn't already too late for Roarson."
Gabe found that he felt the same. "That wasn't your fault, Alyssa."
"No, it's Slothfeld's." Alyssa walked over and rummaged through Starlight's clothing until she procured the data disk and a monochromatic keycard. "You go back up top and get Jack. I'll go on and get Slothfeld."
Gabe scowled at her. "He's holding a little boy hostage, Alyssa. Best we wait until Savage is down with us."
Alyssa's response was ominously soft. "I can handle it."
Doveryai no proveryai, Gabe thought. "No. We'll get Savage first."
"But-"
"No friggin' buts!"
For a moment he thought Alyssa might punch him. That was how angry she looked. Fortunately, she backed down. "Fine. You stay with Starlight and I'll go get him."
Gabe kept his eye on her until she left out the door at the top floor, the door they'd passed through earlier. He understood how she was feeling, though. First chance he got, he was nailing that scientific shithead to the wall, mission be damned. He had far less to lose than she did.
She returned, not long later, with Jack in tow. He had a cut leaking blood down the side of his head, and another shallow cut in his side.
"Finally took care of Lady De Stabbarough, with her help." He gestured appreciatively at Alyssa. "She's currently hog-tied in a specimen cage in Lab 3."
"Can we skip the debriefing and find that son of a bitch?" Alyssa asked.
Jack raised an eyebrow, but seemed to shrug off any offended feelings. "I'll take point. Alyssa, I'm trusting you not to do anything rash once we find him."
"… Fine."
Now Jack was glaring at her. "Alyssa, I'm telling you not to do anything rash when we find Slothfeld. It's not worth the consequences."
Alyssa sighed. "You're right. It's not worth it. Let's go find him."
Gabe was not convinced, and apparently neither was Jack. The rabbit kept an eye on her as they searched XIBALBA one room at a time, eventually finding the laboratory where the Twilight-inducing serum had been developed, along with a dark metal storage room door that needed a passcode to open.
"Savage, I forget to ask earlier." Gabe spoke up as they continued searching the lab. "How did you know about the collar's weakness?"
Jack paused. "I found a notebook in the lab upstairs, written by one of the scientists. Apparently, he was the one who realized that Cheryl and Sedor were becoming trouble."
"And Slothfeld didn't listen to him, huh?"
"Until it was too late."
"Not as smart as he thought he was, huh?"
"But he sure as hell was sadistic." Jack suddenly stopped walking. "Is it me or does that layout look awfully familiar?"
He was pointing at a spot on the wall that was covered in posters of chemical formulas, arranged perfectly in the shape of a rectangle.
Alyssa smirked. "Blood hell, that is familiar."
Jack strode up to the posters and ran his finger over a deep groove that ran alongside the posters. "Must be some kind of panic room. Look around, see if you can find a way to open this."
It was about a minute before Alyssa came across a paw-gel dispenser that appeared to be coming away from the wall. She pulled it off to expose a keycard reader. Without a word she used the keycard she'd taken off Starlight, and the door sank slightly into the wall and slid open.
"Remember, we want Slothfeld and Morris alive." Jack said.
He entered the narrow hallway beyond the door first. Gabe went next. His trigger finger was feeling mighty itchy right now, so he kept it off the trigger.
Not yet… not yet…
Alyssa's footsteps were barely audible as she took the rear. Jack stopped before a door with an ordinary stainless-steel handle, a bit tricky for a bunny rabbit to reach. Not seeing any keycard readers or other security locks, the rabbit made a short hop to grab the door and pull. The moment they heard the clickof the latch sliding out, Jack kicked it open as he dropped down.
Gabe charged into the room, not noticing any of the details except for the sloth running across the red and blue carpet.
"Hold it!" Jack snapped.
The mammal, running at a pace abnormal for sloths but perfectly normal for any other mammal, froze less than two feet from the sniffling polar bear cub sitting cuffed to a desk. He looked at them, and Gabe knew instantly who he was.
He bared his teeth and aimed his gun straight at that loathsome monochromatic face. "It's over! Step away from the kid you evil son of a bitch!"
"Easy, Mossberg." Jack muttered. "But you heard him. Step away from the cub and put your claws on your head."
Gabe couldn't tell what Slothfeld was feeling at this moment. His expression was infuriatingly blank. There was no fear to be seen, nothing to give Gabe the satisfaction of finally expiring this fucker's Karma Rooudini Warranty.
The sloth sighed in exasperation- exasperation- and did as he was told.
"Alyssa, check on the kid." Jack said.
Alyssa only took her eyes off the sloth when she reached Morris. "Where's the key?" She asked.
Jack looked to Slothfeld. "Hand it over, doc."
"I'm afraid I don't have it." Slothfeld said with a shrug and an Boarlish accent.
Jesus, his tone pissed Gabe off even without their personal history.
"I assure you, I don't have it." Slothfeld said.
"Don't need it, anyway." Alyssa kneeled down and gave Morris gentle assurances as she started working on the cuffs with her lockpick.
"You know, you ought to be relieved." Jack said. "Unlike those predators you tortured, my government wants you alive."
"Alive? I'm touched. And what does your government want me alive fo-"
"Keep your claws on your head!" Jack snapped. "After what you've done here, taking you alive is all the mercy you deserve. I will knock you out and drag you back to the surface if I have to."
"I wouldn't mind that at all, actually." Slothfeld said dryly. "Heavens knows how long it has been since I 've seen our dear Kinich Ahau."
"What is that, Latin?"
"Mayan, actually. Zoogle it if you want, I can't be bothered with explaining such an obvious translation."
"Don't care, either way. So what's it going to be, doctor?"
"Oh, do calm yourself, Mr. Savage. I may prefer Chess to Poker, but I still know when to fold them. When is the extraction helicopter estimated to arrive?"
"Not so fast." Jack said. "First, we need you to unlock that disk of yours."
"I'm afraid that is private property, and subsequently not for mediocre eyes to see. However, I am perfectly happy to discuss any and all future projects with your superiors."
Don't count on it, you smug little shit, Gabe thought.
"I don't give spit about your privacy!" Jack said with an edge of antagonism. "You're going to unlock that disk and you're going to do it now. Alyssa, bring it over."
Slothfeld's smugness gave way. "You can't do this! That information is classified!"
"According to my superiors you're a wanted mammal, sloth. Take it up with them."
"Bzdura! I can't believe this!" Slothfeld yelled in his native language, slashing the air in front of him. "It took a pack of savages running loose to get those asinine bureaucrats to finally take an interest in my work?! Trzymaj się swojego fiuta!"
Gabe took a step. "Cut the ego, Slothfeld."
Slothfeld turned his anger on the feline, eyes flashing as he recognized him. "You think you're so smart, tricking me with that bogus seizure and letting yourself be dropped down that chute like all the other rubbish! You must have felt tremendous, getting one over me like that, but was it worth abandoning your family?"
Gabe fired a shot at the floor by the sloth's feet, making him jump back. Morris cried out in fright.
"Mossberg…" Jack growled.
Gabe didn't need the warning, already feeling sickened with himself for acting so violently in front of the cub. He muttered to himself to get a grip and holstered his gun. His bloodlust had abated, but it would return.
"Knock it off." Jack said. "Where are the antidotes for the serum variants?"
The room fell silent, except for the sniffling of the shaken cub. Alyssa's eyes glinted. She aimed her gun.
"Look for the refrigerated cabinet in the storage room in the lab outside." Slothfeld said icily.
"We need a passcode to get in there. Don't even think of pretending you don't know. Tell us what it is, doctor."
Slothfeld glared them with venom, keeping his mouth shut. Jack glared back, ears flat against his head. Gabe kept glancing at Morris in order to keep himself from doing another stupid thing.
Alyssa wordlessly aimed her gun again with an audible clink.
"Twenty-sixteen!" Slothfeld snapped.
"Now that's more like it." Jack said. He gestured with his gun toward the nearby computer. Slothfeld instead sat down on the couch behind him and crossed his arms, glaring in defiance.
"Stubborn old squint." Jack growled. "Alyssa, Mossberg, go update our friends on what's happened and get the antidote to the predators we've captured."
"What about you?" Gabe asked.
"I'm going to talk some sense into the good doctor. Now get going. We don't have as much time as we think we have."
Alyssa took Morris's paw and lifted him to his feet. "I don't feel comfortable with you giving all the orders."
"If you don't like it, do something else. Just make sure it's productive."
"Fine. Fine. In that case, I'll take the kid to the fuzz. They actually seem to give a shit about his wellbeing."
"Language." Morris said as he rubbed his reddened eyes.
Jack chuckled and pointed. "You heard him. Language."
As they bickered, Gabe was thinking of language of a different sort. The same words that had stuck with him throughout his career, a rhyming phrase that had served him far better than the typical 'trust no-one.' It had helped him see past stereotypes, tell ally from enemy, and snipped several ignorant ideals in the bud before they could take root in his young, impressionable mind. It was a proverb that could make for a better world if more people learned to live by it.
Doveryai no proveryai.
Trust but verify.
Gabe followed Alyssa out the room, leaving behind the object of his revenge, with the intent to do just that.
