Benny froze when he heard two sharp cracks echo off the buildings, swiveling his head in the direction he thought they'd come from. Unikitty stirred in their sling.
"Was that gunfire?" Wyldstyle called up at him.
"Sounded like," he replied, narrowing his eyes. There didn't seem to be anything apparent, but… He floated higher, trying to get a better view, and pulled out his binoculars. Then movement caught his eye, and he looked through the binoculars. One Hound, two, three… He scanned the area. There were Hounds just popping out of the woodwork, all headed in the same direction. He followed their path, and…
"Oh, that idiot," Benny groaned, and he dropped down to land next to Wyldstyle. "I found Good Cop," he said, putting away the binoculars.
"That was him?" Wyldstyle asked. "He escaped?"
"Seems so," Benny replied grimly. "But he's attracted the attention of every Hound in the Projects."
Wyldstyle frowned. "How far is he?"
"Ten minute walk, at least," Benny said, checking over his shoulder. Had he heard something? "I could get there in five on my own, but I wouldn't be able to get him out. I'm not sure if both of us would be able to get him out. Not on our own."
"So we need a plan," Wyldstyle concluded.
Benny nodded, and then he heard it again. A kind of scratching, fluttering noise. He looked up. There was a huge, horribly mauve bird perched on the streetlamp above him, its scythe-like claws scoring into the metal. As soon as he looked at it, it stretched its hooked beak wide and screamed, pushing off the streetlamp, which bent slightly under the force of its takeoff.
Benny drew his gun as it spiraled upwards, and Wyldstyle held her weapon at the ready. She had time to mutter, "These things are awful," before it dove straight for them.
Benny fired once and hit it in the wing, and it squawked and tumbled off course, crashing into the middle of the street. Wyldstyle was on it in seconds, bringing her weapon around as it struggled to right itself. The saw sliced into its neck, and she yanked it free, the jagged edges tearing the wound wider. It flailed, breath gurgling in its throat and blood leaking from its jaw. Wyldstyle swung again, and it flopped limply to the ground.
Benny walked up to her, keeping his gun out. They looked at each other, and he pointed to his face and said, "You've got a little something right there."
She put a hand to her cheek, and it came away smeared with the Hound's deep red, almost black blood. "Ew," she said, wiping it off on her hoodie. "I am going to need to take a long shower when we get home."
Benny hummed in agreement, still staring at the dead bird, and an idea occurred to him. "Let's fly," he said.
Good Cop heard a distant shriek, and had a split second to hope that Bad Cop and Benny were doing okay before another Hound lunged at him. He shot it between the eyes and rolled out of the way, coming up almost nose-to-nose with another Hound. In a swift motion, he brought the knife up into the soft underside of its jaw, forcing its head back and shooting it through the throat in an upward angle. There was scrabbling behind him, and he whipped around to see another Hound pulling itself onto the roof. He kicked it down as hard as he could, and it lost its hold and went plummeting to the ground.
They were coming at him from every direction, and it was only because they had to take the time to climb the building that he hadn't been completely swarmed yet. He could feel himself tiring, and his head was beginning to spin. It was a good thing he was made of tough stuff, or he'd probably be in pieces by now. There was a brief lull, and he took the opportunity to check his clip. Six rounds left. He gritted his teeth.
The next Hound came from the stairs, a lizard-thing slinking close to the ground. He met it head-on, jabbing it through the eye with the knife, then flipped it with a kick as it writhed and slashed its exposed throat. A second Hound leapt from the stairwell as he was occupied, slamming him to the ground on his back. The knife skittered away out of his hand, and he shoved the gun into its mouth and fired. It collapsed on top of him, driving the air out of his lungs.
There was another Hound pulling itself up onto the roof, and Good Cop struggled to free himself, pushing the dead monster off of him just in time to roll out of the way of the next Hound's attack. But he lost his balance coming up from the roll, and he tripped and fell. The Hound was coming around again, and he knew he wasn't going to have the time to dodge this time.
Then there was a shout of "Hey!" and both Good Cop and the Hound stopped to look.
"Holy hell," Good Cop said.
There was what appeared to be some kind of makeshift hang glider swooping towards him, cobbled together out of tarp and rebar. Benny was crouched on top, gripping the handles on either side of him, and Wyldstyle was below, hanging onto a bar, secured by a strip of canvas tied around her waist. As they drew closer, Wyldstyle heaved herself up on the bar and tipped forward, hooking her knees over the bar so she was dangling upside down with her arms outstretched. "Grab on!" she called.
For a moment, Good Cop was convinced there was no way this was going to work, but then he remembered that these people were Master Builders and pretty much anything was possible. So as the glider passed over, he dropped the gun, grabbed her hands, and held on for dear life as he was yanked off the roof. The Hound howled after them as they sailed upwards and away.
The glider was fast, and air rushed past his ears, drowning out all other sounds. Finally, it slowed as it reached the edge of the Projects, stopped to hover, and lowered down onto the roof of a building. Good Cop had never felt so relieved to have solid ground under his feet. Wyldstyle dropped off of it, and Benny landed it.
Benny scrambled off the glider and looked Good Cop over. He was a mess, smeared in a mixture of Hound blood and his own, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants. He didn't even have shoes on – when Benny had 'arrested' him, the spaceman had dragged Good Cop right from the apartment down to the station.
"I see you managed to get your shirt off," Wyldstyle said.
Good Cop lifted his hands, showing the bloody bandages wrapped around them. "It was sacrificed for a good cause." He looked at the glider, then at Benny. "How did you get that thing to work?"
"It can be hard for me to get my anti-grav to work on other people," Benny replied. "But since the glider was already predisposed to fly, I could use my ability to keep it in the air and control its speed. Pretty simple in the end."
"Yeah," Good Cop said vacantly. "Simple." He put a hand to his head. "I'm not feeling so great. Do we know how I can get Bad Cop back yet?"
Benny looked down. "Not without Unikitty."
Finally, Good Cop noticed the sling across Benny's chest with Unikitty carefully tucked into it. "Are they okay?" he asked.
"They will be," Benny said. "But they need rest."
"I hear that," Good Cop sighed.
"We'll get the both of you to the hospital," Wyldstyle said. "We got you early, so we're going to have extra time to find Emmet."
"Um," Benny said suddenly. "I'm actually not so sure about that."
"What?" Good Cop and Wyldstyle asked simultaneously.
Benny pointed towards Bricksburg.
There were several columns of black smoke rising in the distance, and even as they watched, a huge explosion went off a few miles away. They could see buildings crumble away in the blast.
Benny reached for the radio at his belt and tried it. "This is Deputy Chu," he said. "What's happening out there?"
And, at last, he received a reply. "We're under attack!" an officer on the other end shouted. "There's Duplo soldiers and Hounds everywhere!"
The three of them looked at each other.
"I get the feeling that there were a couple of rules to this game that Kinzel didn't tell us about," Wyldstyle said.