Chapter Six Cave Catacombs

With a loud electrical noise that echoed though the cavern, Kim Possible appeared. The sudden change of location was disorienting, and she put a hand on the rock wall behind her to steady herself. Finally getting the dizziness under control, she looked around. She knew she had never been here before.

The cavern was some hundred feet across, and the ceiling lost in the gloom. Pale green light gave some illumination, but try as she might, the normie heroine could not find the source.

The statue was still in her hand, and she looked at it. This must be what brought her here, she realized. After her experiences with amulets and statues and other strange objects, that was pretty obvious. She had a sudden brief vision of a headless clay monkey that felt familiar, but she had no real memory of it.

She put the statue down and moved a bit away from it. No sense in taking a chance activating it again.

She keyed the Kimmunicator. "Wade?" No answer, just static.

"Wade, can you hear me?" she called, but no reply. She switched to the GPS mode, but got no signal.

"Okay, on my own," she muttered. She slipped off her backpack and a few minutes later had changed into her mission clothes. She put the statue in the backpack, wrapped in her blouse. She was now wearing a purple short-sleeved shirt, black pants and boots, and her dark gray gloves. Her utility belt was slung around her waist.

Flipping on a small but powerful flashlight, she looked around and found a trail. Using her lipstick laser she carved an X in the floor where she had appeared, and headed down the trail. She carved a mark in the wall at regular intervals as she went.

"No idea where I am, but hopefully someone saw me disappear and will tell Ms. Bloodgood," she thought, "I wonder who put that statue in my locker. It looks Egyptian, so the obvious suspect is Cleo. But I don't think it's something she would do. So the question remains; who here would have a grudge against me?"

A moment's thought and she realized the answer was, 'A lot of the student body'. She WAS a normie, after all. Nobody had been overtly hostile except Manny, and they got that straightened out. It wasn't his style, anyway. He obviously preferred a head-on confrontation. So who else?

The tunnel ahead split in two, taking her thoughts away from that problem. Both were equally dark, both had the same slightly gorchy smell, and there was a rumbling in the background.

She took the left-hand opening, marking it with the laser. As she did, her mouth quirked in a near-smile. She had decided on the sinister (that is, left) tunnel. 'That's appropriate,' she thought.

Something white on the floor ahead caught her attention, and she approached cautiously. It was a skeleton of a near-but-not-quite human. The remains of rusted metal objects lay scattered by it, as well as scraps of cloth. 'Not much I can do for him...'

She moved past, and about a yard farther on heard a PHTT! and felt something pass through her hair near the back of her neck. Instinctively she ducked and rolled as dozens of needles flew above her. Then she was past the trap, as the noise quit.

Standing up cautiously she shone the light ahead. A couple of yards farther on was a pit. Looking down she saw sharpened stakes fixed to the floor. With the aid of her grappling gun she got over the pit. 'What's next, a rolling boulder?' she thought.

Another dozen yards and something grabbed her ankle and tripped her. A dark green vine had snaked out to wrap around her. Not giving it a chance to get a better hold, she severed it with the laser, and quickly ran on.

Her cheer skills served her well as she ducked, dodged, jumped, rolled, flipped, and ran to get away from more traps. Taking a breather, she thought 'Well, now I'm warmed up for tonight's practice.'

A sudden, very strange noise behind her caught her attention. turning the flashlight in that direction, she saw several flying creatures, sort of like birds, coming in her direction. When the light caught them, they got louder.

"Uh oh, looks like they want to invite me to lunch..." the redhead thought. She took off down the path, the creatures following. The path suddenly forked and she hesitated for a moment. One of them caught up and dived at her. She ducked and went into the closest tunnel. It ran out into a crudely widened area and branched into three paths.

"Oh, great!" she thought. Before she could decide, several of her antagonists made the decision for her. She headed down the right-hand opening and jogged down the path. It was rough, with loose stones underfoot, so she had to slow down to avoid a sprained ankle.

She suddenly realized they weren't trying to catch her, but herd her. The realization came too late as she passed through an opening and into a larger cave. A solid stone door crashed down almost on her heels, trapping her.

There was more light here, so she switched off the flashlight and looked around. All was quiet- for the moment. There were a number of large... nests... she guessed, all around her, with dark lumps inside.

Whatever they were, they were sleeping, and disturbing them would probably not be a good idea. The closed passage behind was not an option, but there had to be air coming in from somewhere...

Up there, in the middle of the room and some thirty feet up, was a jagged opening, and a little light was coming from it. As quietly as she could, she snuck out so she was directly below it. Pulling her grappling gun, she hesitated. Firing it would probably wake the nesting creatures, and there was no telling what was waiting above. But she had no choice. Being lunch was very low on her list of things to do while at Monster High.

The response to her firing the grappler was a series of startled squeaks and chirps, and a rustling in the nests. Bright, beady eyes were looking at her, and a different sort of chirp started. The giant birds were still nestlings, but they were nearly as tall as she. Their feathers were shades of brown and white.

A loud, steady chirp started from one nest, and was picked up by the others.

"That must be the call for dinner," she said, "But I'm afraid raw Kim is no longer on the menu." She hit the retract button, and the mechanism pulled her up just as the birds got to her position.

They squawked both plaintively and indignantly as their meal got away. None of them could fly yet, so all they could do was watch.

Getting her feet under her on the new level as her erstwhile dinner mates protested below, Kim looked around. There was light here, and she could see she was in a larger cave. A pond or lake filled half of it, and she could hear a waterfall on the far side. A natural stone bridge spanned the lake, leading to a tunnel. There was also a tunnel on this end.

She went to the bridge and examined it. There was a low curb on either side that had obviously been added. A sign of civilization that gave her hope. She went to the tunnel opening behind her, and discovered there was brickwork here too. Even better. On either side of the opening were sconces holding unlit torches, and Kim smiled. 'Looks like I'm on the right track now,' she thought.

Crossing the bridge she found the stonework was even better, and the torches showed signs of recent use. She hurried into the tunnel, hoping the ordeal would soon be over.

She passed through several small openings, each one reinforced with brickwork. She looked for anything that would indicate where she was, and finally found several signs made of ceramic molded into the wall. Each one had an arrow pointing in some direction, but the alphabet was totally unfamiliar. Just for later study she took a picture of it with the Kimmunciator and moved on.

About five minutes later she stopped walking. There were footsteps coming in her direction from ahead. She waited with the flashlight ready, and in a position to run if necessary.

A glow that grew brighter accompanied the footsteps, and finally a slim figure stepped into the tunnel, holding a torch aloft. She aimed the light right at whoever it was.

"Hey!" said a female voice, and a hand covered her face and eyes, "That's bright! Would y'all mind puttin' it down? Ah cain't see nuthin'."

Kim took a quick look at the woman, and lowered the light. The other approached. "Hey thar, would y'all happen t' be thet Kim Possible girl that disappeared?"

"That's me!" Kim replied, holding out her hand.

"Waall, ah'm Operetta, nice ta meetcha!" was the reply, the other girl taking it briefly. She had red hair and a half-mask over the left side of her face. Her skin was gray, and she had some music-themed tattoos. She was wearing jeans and a white blouse. "Come on, we need to go. It's gettin' late in the day, and we have a ways to walk."

Kim fell in beside the girl, who headed back the way she came, torch held high.

"How did you find me?" asked Kim.

"Honey, ain't nobody knows thar way around the catacombs laik ah do," said Operetta. "Frankie, Cleo, and her friends came ta see me and asked me ta help look fer ya."

"Catacombs? Where am I, anyway? I couldn't contact Wade, and the GPS system couldn't get through," said Kim.

"These here are th' catacombs under Monster High," said the other, "They figgered y'all was about two hundred feet down. How'd y'all get down here, anyway?"

Kim told Operetta of the statue and her adventures in the catacombs, and she was duly impressed. "Ah'm surprised a normie could last as long as y'all did down here. It's tough even fer monsters."

Before Kim could reply, they came to a stone stair going up, the far end lost in the gloom.

"Here we are," said the other redhead, "Git ourselves up yonder, and we'll be back on the first level."

"Great!" said Kim, "Let's go!"

"Y'all be careful, now, hear? These steps can be kinda ornery if'n ya don't watch out," warned Operetta.

They were about halfway up when an eerie sound started behind and in front of them. Operetta stopped. "Waal, it was nice meetin' ya, anyway."

"What do you mean?" asked Kim, "What's that noise?"

"Them's scargoyles a-comin', and we ain't got nowhere ta run."