Morris cried in fright when Judy covered his eyes before he could get a good look at the helicopter's interior. "Don't look, sweetie." She urged as she pulled the cub toward the exit. She had already seen what was left of the ZBI officers who had been inside the ill-fated vehicle when the missile hit, and it gave her chills in spite of the heat.

"Savage, what the hell are you doing?" Nick hollered; Jack had hopped up to grab one of the upper window frames. The agent didn't answer in favor of repeating the action, ascending the wall floor by floor he was higher than the contorted rotors of the helicopter. Then he leapt over the flames and made a flawless landing on the concrete on the other side of the inferno. Judy had to look under the raised tail to see him. Jack ran to the emergency metal trapdoor, but was unable to open it; either it was too heavy for a rabbit or-

"Slothfeld's locked it from the other side!" Jack raged from Judy's radio.

Judy heard mammals running up from behind and spun round, weapon raised.

"Skyefall!" She gasped and quickly lowered her weapon as Starlight and Benjamin also came running, stopping to stare in horror when they saw the chopper.

"What the hell happened here?!" Alyssa demanded. "Where the fuck is Slothfeld?!"

"He got away!" Nick said. "As for the chopper, blame Swinton's little helper!"

"Son of a bitch." Alyssa spotted Jack beside the trapdoor, then whirled on Starlight. "Where does that trapdoor go?"

"No idea." Starlight said. Before Alyssa could flip out completely she added, "But I know there's another hatch that I think leads to the same place that one does."

Alyssa grabbed the front of Starlight's sweater. "Where?"

"Not sure, my memory's a bit spotty since I came out of Twilight." Starlight paused. "I remember white walls. I think it's in XIBALBA somewhere. And take your paws off me."

Alyssa let go, muttering a brief apology and took off, gun in paw.

Judy felt another cold stab of dread and went to pursue. Gabe grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Let me go, she's gonna kill him!"
"Forget him!" Gabe snapped. "The mood Cheryl's in right now, she probably doesn't care about the disk anymore!"

Judy stopped struggling. "What do you mean?"

"You know that sick experiment Alyssa nearly killed Slothfeld over? That stupid bitch Swinton thought it'd be a good idea to mock Cheryl about it. Now she's gone and taken City Hall hostage."

"Oh shit." Nick moaned and started pacing. "Shit, shit, shit."

"Nick?" Benjamin asked.

"I know people. I know how they act, how they'll react." Nick breathed. "I've seen what rape does to people. Cheryl's been acting all normal despite being in Twilight because it typically takes a lot to get under her skin. But Swinton just hit her in a real sore spot… this is bad. Really bad."

"Just like Sedor. When he found out Slothfeld had his godson, he completely lost control." Starlight put her paws on her hips and exhaled heavily. "Yep, this is bad."

That settled it. Judy wrenched her arm free of Gabe's paw and, barely noticing Nick yelling at her to wait up, tried again to go after Alyssa.

Jack dropped down right in their path, bringing them to a dead halt. "There's no getting that hatch open."

"Jack, Alyssa's…"

"I heard. I'm going after her."

"Let me come with you!"

Jack grabbed her shoulder. "No! There are mammals here you need to protect!"

Judy wanted to protest, but then she remembered the bullet that had pierced Honey's spine much like that missile had pierced helicopter's belly. If that awful ram set his sights on Nick or anyone else…

"Ok. I'll find Bogo and then we'll find a car or something."

Jack released her. "Good, you do that. Don't wait for the ZBI to get here, Ramses may find you before they do."

Judy nodded grimly. "I won't wait. I've seen what he's capable of."

She looked at Gabe, and like her she could see he was thinking hard about what to do next. There was still an enormous electrified blockade on the bridge, which would provide a minor obstacle for evacuating a three-thousand-pound wounded rhino. They didn't have the ammo to take on Ramses and any other threats that may show up, or the supplies to travel the long way around through the forest. They also had no way of knowing when, or even if, backup was coming.

And considering that the Swinton family had managed to get their hooves in a lot of fat pies over the generations, who's to say that the ZBI were really here to save the day?

The thought made her feel very uneasy as they strode through the hallway toward the room where McHorn was being kept, and the alternative was not much better. If the ZBI was really coming here to help, it meant that Swinton was no longer able to keep a lid on what really happened to those savage predators, and her downfall was only a matter of time. She couldn't imagine the pressure the mayor was under, or what would happen once she ran out of things to lose.

Then there was, of course, Doug Ramses to worry about. They were incredibly lucky that he hadn't turned that anti-tank weapon on them back at the helipad, but on the other hand that meant he was after the same thing they were. They could only hope that the head start Alyssa had would be enough.

Judy's ear swiveled toward the window they were passing at that moment. "Uh, how many helicopters were the ZBI bringing here?"
Gabe and the others looked at her quizzically. "Just the one. It was all they could spare, according to Llater."

"Then who's flying that other one?"

"What other one?"

Starlight's ear twitched. "Wait a second, I hear it too."

She, Judy and Gabe strode to the window and looked through the glass; they couldn't see the helicopter, but he could hear it. "Hopps, pass the radio."

On the radio, Jack confirmed that he had seen the helicopter, which was unmarked and currently circling the asylum, and most unnerving of all was a model built for combat. He'd already asked Llater about it, but he didn't know who was flying the darn thing either.

"There is some good news, though. I found Ramses's mode of transportation, in the front courtyard right outside this window. Execram 163Z, max speed one-hundred and fifteen mph, cruise speed ninety-five. No wonder he beat the ZBI here."

"That model's a two-seater, right?" Gabe said. "If you're too busy, Starlight could fly one or two of us back. That is, assuming we can't get our paws on that one flying around out there."

Judy cocked her head. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but how does she know how to fly an attack helicopter when she's never joined the military?"

Gabe smirked with pride. "That's for us to know and you to find out."

Starlight smacked his arm. "Don't tempt her, she's a cop!"

Judy frowned, but not for the reason they expected.

"It's landed." Everyone looked at her. "The helicopter's landed. I heard it."

"She's right." Jack said through the radio. "Mammals are disembarking. Mercenaries by the look of them… oh drat."

"What now?"

"I recognize them. It's those thugs from the casino. They're the ones who collared all those mammals!"

Starlight held up the pistol Gabe had lent her. "Well, this is a madhouse. We'll make it live up to its name."


XIBALBA, the Place of Fear, a place where cruel lords humiliated visitors before sending them to die in insidious trap rooms. An apropos name for Dr. Daniel Slothfeld's glorified playground.

Pistol in paw, Starlight followed the squad of four mercs at a distance, sticking to the shadows and behind the corners, as they descended into the underground area. They split into pairs midway through the white hallway to search the cable car platform and the laboratories. Starlight supposed she should be relieved that they'd moved Maria Manchas from the cage to one of the cells, even if the melanistic jaguar was said to be holding quite the grudge.

Starlight hid inside the elevator and tapped her headset. "Gabe, what's your situation?"

"Three mercs, sweeping the ground floor. I think they're going bottom to top."

"They're not chasing the civvies, are they?"

"No, but they're heading for the control room. I might have to take the fuckers out before they see our friends on the cameras."

"Don't curse needlessly, Gabe. It's unknightly."

Gabe chuckled. "We've been apart so long I forgot how much Elba rubbed off on you."

Elba. Starlight swallowed, thinking with a pang of the mammal who saved her and protected her, betraying his own kind in the process. She had left to protect him, and even now she could still convince herself that it had been the right thing to do.

But she never should have stayed away.

Starlight listened for footsteps, but they were faint. She couldn't remember how big the labs were, if she had ever set foot in them at all. Coming out of Twilight had fogged up those memories along with those of her time in XIBALBA. She didn't want to return to that place, not if it meant bringing those memories back. She wanted to go back to Elba. She wanted to listen to his Arthurian blather again, she wanted to watch him tell those stories to little Lance, and more than anything she wanted to say she was sorry.

She heard the squad reunite back in the hallway, pulled out a small mirror and poked it around the corner; she saw all four of them, big mammals wearing balaclavas. She counted two big cats, a wolf and a black bear.

Starlight scowled at the reflection as she watched the mercs approach the entrance to XIBALBA. She tried her headset again.

"Alyssa? Can you read me?" There was no answer. Either Alyssa was too far underground, or she was still looking for the hatch. She tried Agent Savage, but all she got was a, "Not now." Never mind, that rabbit could handle himself.

Starlight adjusted her mirror, and to her dismay saw that the emotionally unbalanced vixen had left the partition open.

The bear took point, signaled for the bull to watch their backs, and into XIBALBA they went. Starlight sighed and put away the mirror.

"Gabe, I can't get in touch with Alyssa. I might have to deal with these guys before they get to her or Slothfeld."

Gabe sounded worried when he responded, which never failed to sound endearing to her. "Don't just go running in there guns-blazing. You've got a keep a cool head about this."

"Said the kukri to the karambit."

"Ha, ha, hi-larious."

"Take care, schmoopsiepoo." Starlight chuckled when he groaned at the corny nickname.

When she entered XIBALBA, the first thing she saw was the big wide window overlooking the testing area, and no sign of the mercenaries.

Where did they go?

Starlight sniffed the air, instantly catching the strong scent of the bull. They had come this way obviously, but she had to know if they'd split up again. She kept sniffing, being carefully not to sniff too loudly, but it appeared that for the time being they were sticking together. Starlight followed the scent and turned toward a door. She remembered this door, probably because she had passed through it on a regular basis while under Slothfeld's control. It led to the central hub, which was the easiest way to access the sloth's personal labs, and the main testing area.

Curious, she thought, that they'd go through that door first without splitting up to search the whole area. It was almost as if they knew the layout already.

Starlight reached the central hub, smelling rabbit, fox, and ram along the way, and crouched down and looked through the rail at the lower floor. The bear was watching the entrance as his comrades searched the lab where they had found Slothfeld.

She tried to contact Alyssa again, but didn't get an answer. Think, Foxtrot, think! Where is that hatch?

She decided to try the rabbit again. "Savage? Is now a good time?"

"I suppose." Jack replied reluctantly. "I've found Ramses."

"What? Where?"

"We're in the prison area. I think he's after Slothfeld, too. What's the news on those mercenaries?"

Starlight broke the news to him. "They're in here with us."

"Darn it." Jack muttered.

"I'll do what I can to keep them from finding you."

"You sure? These mammals aren't messing around."

Starlight scoffed. "I have done this before, you know."

Her words had a double meaning. While they had been conversing, her attention had become drawn to the other door, the big heavy one that led straight to the main testing area. There was a map on the wall beside it, a simplistic glass panel illustrating the seven different sections of the labyrinth, one central area and six 'houses'.

Starlight felt a smile coming on. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe this was exactly what she needed.

She returned to the first hallway and looked back through the big viewing window. The entire testing area had two exits and looked like a giant rat maze, but the six houses were marked by the colors of their walls, and two of the houses had ceilings.

Starlight felt another pang in her heart when she realized what this place reminded her of. Roarcaria had all sorts of colors when she had lived there with her parents, with countless little streets that were too easy to get lost in. It was a stupid thought, but the little girl in her wished that meltdown had never happened. It may have had a dark side, but so did every other city on the planet. Damn you, Koobus. You'll do anything to stick it to the mammal.

In any case, this testing area was an environment she was familiar with. Starlight holstered her gun and began stage one of her plan.

By the time the mercs had completed their search of Slothfeld's lab, the vixen was lying in wait within what she had dubbed the Dark House. The name was literal; with painted black walls, a ceiling, and lights that were currently off, the corridors in that place were so dark Starlight had nothing but her vulpine night vision to guide her. There were obstacles here, too, ranging from heavy wooden crates to spike strips to broken glass with dark stains embedded in the walls. Sick bastards, Starlight thought.

She kept an ear out for the door, expecting the empty shotgun she'd used to seal the door back to the first hallway to be enough to keep them from taking another route. She had found plenty more weaponry in the Bat and Razor Houses, two other houses which turned out to be combat areas specializing respectively in firearms and paw-to-paw combat, complete with their own armories. At least one thing to thank that piece of shit sloth for, she thought as she finally heard the exit open.

Starlight crouched behind the crate, knife in paw, even though none of the mercs were wearing night vision goggles. Four predators twice or thrice her size was too much, but in this labyrinth they'd almost certainly spread out into more manageable numbers, and then it would only be a question of time before one or two of them entered the Dark House. And then…

Starlight listened and waited, but she couldn't hear their footsteps anymore. So, the mercs had entered stealth mode, too. If they were smart enough to suspect a trap, then they were smart enough to spot her tripwires. Crap. Normally she enjoyed the extra challenge, but not when she had a baby boy to get back to-

She sensed the approaching presence of one of the mercs just in time. Focus, Foxtrot! She scolded herself as she poised to ambush him.

With no light or shadow, she had only sound and timing on her side. There was only so much noise the merc could mask, and as he came closer, she could hear the rustle of his clothes. She'd have to be quick about this. They already knew she was here, and stealth kills weren't as quiet or foolproof as they were in the video games.

The merc stepped around the crate, almost immediately sensing Starlight's presence, and Starlight struck, her knife going straight for the windpipe, only to lose the tip of the blade when it hit the metal of the shotgun the wolf threw up to protect himself. Starlight ducked when he swung the shotgun and fired, shredding the wall behind her, then kicked her into that same wall. Starlight felt broken glass skewer her clothes and skin in at least two places, the pain nearly diverting her attention from the wolf as he swerved the shotgun toward her head. The vixen pulled out her pistol and before she knew it she was putting a very loud bullet through his skull.

Starlight was running before he even hit the floor, telling herself that this changed nothing. In this labyrinth it was almost impossible to tell exactly where the gunshot had come from, and the possibility of hiding herself against was almost limitless.

That was close, Starlight thought. Too close. These guys are better than I thought.

Exiting the Dark House, Starlight ripped off her sweater to assess the damage: she counted four holes and four bloodstains, two in the shoulder, one in the side of the torso and one near the armhole. She was lucky she didn't hit the glass with the center of her body, or she might not even still be breathing.

Yep, Gabe's gonna be pissed.

She stopped briefly to listen, hearing the footsteps of the other three mercs as they raced toward the source of the gunshot.

Starlight allowed herself a smile. One down, three to go, so far, so good. She had plenty of time before the epinephrine wore off.

She was two rights and a left from the Rattling House when she turned a corner and suddenly remembered that she'd left a grenade attached to a tripwire around here. She found the nigh-invisible thread, cleanly cut with a pair of cutters.

This, along with the lack of explosions she'd heard since setting the traps, confirmed something about these mercs; they'd been trained to spot traps such as these in the field. They'd been taught in paw-to-paw combat and at least one of them knew how to fly a military grade helicopter. There was nowhere in this biased society that permitted predators to receive that kind of training… not since the Roarcadia Inclusion Initiative.

Making a note to talk to Honey after this whole mess was over, Starlight continued on, quickly reaching the Rattling House. She instantly felt the chill of the section's refrigeration system; judging from the holes in the ceiling and the labyrinth's blueprint, this section was supposed to simulate all sorts of cold weather. Hail, rain, wind, you name it, the Rattling House would mimic it. The system could only be controlled from a room overlooking the area, but Starlight had other ways of creating diversions.

She passed through the Rattling House until she entered a passageway without a ceiling, at which point she picked up the pace to build momentum so she could scramble up the nine-foot walls of the labyrinth. The wall was seven inches thick, but she had learned to balance on much narrower surfaces. She spotted the shadow of a merc in a passageway close to the Bat House and regarded her knife. The tip had broken off diagonally, and the blade was still long enough to pierce a spine. With that in mind Starlight hopped along the tops of the walls and plummeted down on the bear while his back was to her, the knife plummeting into the side of his neck.

She pulled the knife out so he would die faster and wrapped her paws around his head to cover his mouth, just in case the hole in his trachea didn't quiet him enough. Hot blood soaked her lower legs as she straddled his shoulders. After the merc fell flat on his face and expired, she decided that once she officially took up the mantle of mom, she was going to refrain from undertaking missions that required a lot of killing.

Starlight was not a vixen who did things by half, so she wiped the knife clean on the merc's pants and continued on to the Hot House, the heatstroke-inducing counterpart to the Rattling House. Starlight didn't remember it also being a botanical garden full of fake greenery.

A miniature Nocturnal District, a miniature Tundratown and now a miniature Rainforest. What else was Slothfeld using this place for?

She couldn't see any sign of the remaining two mercs, making it time to create her diversion. She discarded her bloodied sweater first, leaving it on the floor of the humid Hot House before continuing on, passing several more severed tripwires on her way to the Bat House, where she cut off one of her bloody pants and hid it inside the farthest booth of the shooting range.

A shooting range. Another sign that Project Twilight was more than just a violation of mammal rights. Forget Project Twilight, you're not here to steal intel!

Starlight hid behind another booth, and it wasn't long before merc number 3 took the bait. Starlight glimpsed his muzzle peeking around the corner of the entrance, nose twitching slightly as it sniffed the blood and other scents that had drawn the big cat. The muzzle retreated suddenly, and Starlight frowned. Of course, he would suspect a trap.

She gave a slight sigh of exasperation, when a flash grenade flew into the room, and turned away and covered her ears. The grenade was loud even through her paws, but she managed not to get disorientated. She lowered her ears and peeked out of the booth. Not just one, but both remaining mercs entered the room, the slightly shorter one taking point with an AK-47. The walls of the booth were plain plastic, useless as cover, but Starlight didn't need cover, not when she had a Plan B up her sleeve.

First, she repeated the mirror trick with her knife, checking where the mercs were going; one of them was checking out the far booth, where she'd planted the reeking piece of pants, and the other was heading in her direction, seeking out the source of the other smell.

Starlight smiled, muttered, "Two can play at that game, boys." and pulled the pin from the grenade she'd retrieved from one of her failed traps.

"Take cover!" One of the mercs roared when he saw the little bomb rolling across the floor, and both felines dived for cover just as it went bang. Starlight was out of cover, gun out, before the smoke had even begun to clear, spotting the body of one merc who had broken his neck when the gun sent him flying, and the shadow of a mercenary hiding behind another booth. Three bullets punched through the plastic but not the bullet resistant vest he was wearing, as Starlight discovered when he returned fire. Starlight dodged the line of bullets and returned fire herself, hitting his unprotected arm just as the gun clicked empty.

"You bitch!" He hollered and kept firing with his remaining arm.

Starlight ran, pursued by a line of bullet holes rending the wall beside her, her eyes focused on her opponent, seeing him suddenly switch her aim to the floor in front of her, intending to riddle her legs with bullets. Starlight leapt, one foot hitting the wall, then the other, just as she'd been self-taught on the streets of Zootopia after leaving Elba's care. She ran four feet across the wall, high above the crippling horde of bullets, and twisted her body to throw her broken knife through the merc's eyeball. She hit the floor at the exact time he did.

"All for you, Lancie." She whispered, rolled her injured shoulder and crossed the floor to retrieve her knife.

Jack Savage spoke through her headset, his usually hardened voice softened with mirth. "I saw that. Now you're just showing off."

Alyssa looked up to see the striped rabbit watching her through one of the overlooking windows. "Agent Savage, I never show off."

"I found the hatch before Ramses did, but Alyssa sealed it on the other side. Now it's a matter of finding a way to force the lock before he does."

Starlight gestured to the armory of firearms and explosives lining the wall. "Why don't you come down here? I'm sure the Bat House will meet your needs."

"I'll make sure to have a browse…" Jack diverted his eyes to the side. "Is that a torture chamber?"

"That's Jaguar House. I'm glad I don't remember being in that place. It's even got its own mini-Tundratown and Rainforest Districts."

Jack put both paws on the glass as his gaze panned the entirety of XIBALBA. "Wait a minute… this whole place. These sections… Districts… It's like a twisted upgrade of the Police Academy training grounds."

Starlight nodded, glad to have her feelings validated. "The cheetah kid was right. This is Project Twilight round two. The genetic freakshow was a city-destroying bust, so now the Swintons are trying again with mind control and good old-fashioned combat training."

"If they're trying to create their own army, it would explain where Sedor's body armor came from."

"And the serum was created to give a mental kick to keep the predators from acting too much like mindless automatons." Starlight felt anger smolder inside her, making her paws shake. "And he was going to use my baby in his experiments… He forced me to kidnap that little boy… His mother probably has a skull fracture because of me… I should have dragged him into the Jaguar House when I had the chance."

Jack sighed. "Can we focus on saving the world, please?"

Somehow Jack's sarcarm cheered her up. "Let me regroup with my husband first. Then we can focus."

"Fine. Leave Ramses to me. Mossberg will still be upstairs making sure the other terrorists don't track down our civilian friends."

Now starting to seriously feel the sting of the wounds inflicted by the broken glass, Starlight returned to the merc she'd just killed and started to remove his field med kit. "Tell him mommy's on her way."