Chapter 13:
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The three mammals looked on as the officers pulled off the heavy tarpaulins one by one, the plastic slipping off to reveal the bulky figures of the diggers held below. Oates, looking across the impound lot, turned to the workers present. "How long did it take for these to get here?"
"About a few days after…" The deer left the rest unsaid as he checked over it.
"-Taken on the back of a truck, crane?" the horse carried on.
"Back of a truck, though moved on and off under their own power."
"-Right then," the horse said, looking on. "These look like museum pieces or something."
"Certainly so…" Basil mused, resting on his shoulder. Indeed, all three of them stood out amongst the other vehicles present. The yellow paint on their sides and top was a degree or so paler and more sickly than any other paint, flecks of rust across them not helping. The back of each stuck out, a flat mini-trailer like structure above the engine, a single browned exhaust stack rising out.
Oates walked forward to the first one, pushing down on the door handle and then pulling open the thin sheet metal door with a loud squeak. The mice looked into the interior. -Unaltered in this case, apart from some standard foot pedals for small mammal controls.
"-We did find out what type the one over there was," one of the impound lot workers said. "Tanukeuchi compact, seventies built we think…"
"And by the looks of it these are all the same age," Dave said, looking on as Oates pulled down the small mammal flip-down seat, glancing from it to the web of hydraulic controls and joystick within arms reach.
"Any idea what type these are?" Basil asked.
"Couldn't say."
"How did you know what type that one was," he questioned.
"There was a bit they missed spray painting over."
"Right, right," Basil said, glancing up. He walked over to the lip of the doorway, scratching at some of the yellow paint, an eyebrow rising. "Can we check the engine?"
"Sure," the deer said, walking over. Oates leant out, carrying the mice with them as he walked over.
"And once you've done that, can you go to our car and pick out the blacklight?"
The stag turned, glancing to him. "Blacklight?"
"Yes, yes, it looks like a torch with an ultraviolet…"
"I know what one is, we have one of our own in storage," he said, heaving the hatch open and locking it in place with the support stick. As he walked off, the three detectives peered into the engine.
"Restoration job?" the horse asked.
"No, no," Basil waved off, peering in. The engine looked far cleaner than the rest of the vehicle, though still flaked with rust here and there. "See there, there, there…" He pointed down to a set of supports down below. A grid of metal was welded and bolted onto the frame. "Complete engine replacement."
He glanced over at the small mini-excavator that the deer had ID'd, Oates taking the cue and walking over. Once again, it was a faded yellow, rust flecks on the arms and subframe while the plasticky cabin was relatively unscathed. Looking inside, Basil peered in at the digger controls, the joystick and the pedals. In each case a fit-on kit had been supplied, bolted over them and leading up via wires to a small control panel on the dash. The detective mouse jumped off and scurried up to it, examining it closely before taking a knife to one of the boxes on top. He began working it in, Dave coming over to give him a paw as the deer returned back.
"Want me to shine in or…"
"No," Basil said, pushing in harder and beginning to use his weight to slide it around. "Shine it on the outside of all three if it'll make you happy, they'll all glow up."
There was a brief flash from the light, the deer turning back.
"I… -Do I want to know what happened to these things!?"
"You said it yourself," Basil shrugged. "This paint was all sprayed on. Hence why you couldn't locate the branding names and likely any ID or anything that hasn't been grinded off."
"I… Yeah… Makes sense that rat would do it. Hide who he got them from or something."
"In which case," Oates said, "He's been playing the long, long game."
"I…" the deer began as the mouse shook his head.
"Dear dear…"
"-Excuse me!?"
"Oh do think it through," Basil carried on.
There was a brief silence before Dave filled in. "These things were sprayed up with paint, right?"
"Yes…"
"Paint that's now falling off with the rust."
"Yes, I… -Well it's old paint then."
"Which leads to two possibilities," Basil explained, smiling as he heard a click, the mouse and his partner moving the knife along. "-One, which wasn't too unreasonable, he got this digger and everything long ago. Back in his heyday. Kept in storage somewhere for whenever he might need them. Makes sense, but there's another answer that makes a lot more sense."
"Which is?" the deer asked, Oates turning to him.
"-You only deal with stuff from Sahara Square, don't you?"
"-Not always."
"No," Basil said, "but certainly not heavy equipment from other districts, especially the nocturnal district. -There are, in case you didn't know, major regulations around the light emissions in that area. Now, in most cases, that's fine. -Unless you're a builder doing stuff with a lot of heavy machines moving about, and a lot of contractors from the surface with poor night vision, and you'd usually light up what you're doing with very bright floodlights at night, except there you can't."
It took a second or two for the deer to clock it. "So the nocturnal district paints stuff like this in fluorescent paint, you floodlight things with a blacklight, that way you keep everyone safe."
"Well," Basil said, forcing the knife in again with a grunt before turning to Oates, waving him in. "You used to, until safety goggles became standard and night vision cheap and easy enough to be rolled into them. Combine that with safety LED's, a few pigs and an idiotic melanoma scare there… -It's a solution quite redundant now."
The horse pushed down on the knife, the plastic casing coming up to reveal a bright, clean circuit board, Basil looking down and examining the various chips. "-As I suspected, this was a new addition." He looked up at the deer. "Now there were things like this available back then, and were Rattigan using this for his own works he could have easily installed one then. Instead, he installed this in the time of his return, likely doing some work of his own or so forth, before leading the charge against the Fox Family."
Oates nodding, turning to him. "Get the lab boys to see if they can ID that, narrow down any suppliers or such."
"And for that matter," Basil continued, scurrying out. "Takes soil and dirt samples across the diggers. Inside the treads, under the bucket teeth, inside the joints. Cross reference them against other samples we have. He'll have been using this for works around his own base, we cross ID the rock types, we might be able to find where exactly he is."
They jumped out, the deer carrying along before pausing. "-Wait, one more thing?"
"Yes?" Basil asked.
"You wanted the blacklight before you saw that thing, right?"
"Yes," Basil said, a slight smile appearing on his face.
"So how did it being a nocturnal district piece make more sense than him buying it and modifying it later…"
"Go over to our first one, shall we?" That they did, Basil jumping down onto the steel engine-top, picking at a fleck of paint, a brown-red streak underneath.
"Rust."
"I… It's old," the deer began.
"Yes, yes, but the oxidisation of steel requires water in some form to catalyse it…"
"So it was left out in the rain, or…"
"In which case," Basil said, smiling. "Why isn't this handy little basin here an absolute ruin?" He jumped up and down, smiling as he walked over to the exposed and rust streaked exhaust pipe. "Rain and drizzle would run off that thing in seconds, dry off in an hour or so, while where I'm standing you might have pooling water for days. Instead, this has no more rust than the jib, or sheltered areas. -Ergo the moisture did not come from the rain."
"So it was under cover or…"
"-Which would usually prevent anywhere like this amount of rusting, unless you were in a relatively high moisture environment," Basil said.
"-Such as the nocturnal district," the deer followed on.
"Exactly!"
"Or what about the docks? Or the rainforest?"
The mouse rolled his eyes. "Then why repaint it with fluorescent paint…"
"-You didn't know it was fluorescent paint back then."
"I suspected as much."
"-How, some lucky guess, some knowledge about the types of paints used or how rust streaked or something."
"No, something quite simpler," he waved off. "Muridae conic pigments tuned to three-hundred and fifty to three-hundred and sixty nanometre wavelengths."
"I… -You could see it?"
"-I could see somewhat of a bluish glowing tint," Basil waved off, "Especially when restricting the light somewhat in a shadow, though the UV light doesn't reflect nearly as much so it is a tricky thing. Very faint but it raised my suspicions."
"Then why the light?"
"Well, box ticking is box ticking, is it not?" the detective shrugged.
The deer just sighed, walking over to cover the equipment up again, all as the others walked off.
"And here I was thinking we'd ruled out a nocturnal district base," Oates said, chuckling.
"Just put it down as highly unlikely due to logistical reasons," Dave said. "Reasons that might be somewhat null and void if he was using such things to create new escape tunnels."
"Or," Basil said, "simply purchased or found them there and moved them to wherever he needed to go next. -At the least, our soil analysis should show where he was doing his works."
"Well, whatever they are, he's likely done with them at this point," Oates said, gesturing back at the machines.
"Well, maybe not done with 'them', but certainly 'those'," the mouse corrected, frowning. He shook his head. "Hmmmmm, we'll need to check through the records of abandoned sites in the nocturnal district, though for all I know Rattigan was not the first to 'acquire' these things. They might have been used, or were being used, for something quite illegal even before he acquired them."
"Or were just stuck up on Preyedlist," Oates said.
"One supposes… But, whatever their origin, we know what they're ultimate use likely was," the mouse continued. "Carmelita's supplied information shows that Rattigan's ultimate goal so to speak is quite large. And he needs the space to do what he wants to do to to get it."
"And both secure enough to keep it in, and large enough for him to get out in the end," Dave added.
"Yes, yes… -Could you ask for a double check for how large the various exits and entrances to the nocturnal district are? Major vent shafts, road tunnels, the big incline lifts. -Because I might find my previous assumptions on that side are quite, quite moot."
"Can do," Oates said, "Though don't they still have operating blast doors and such? Those things were designed to shrug off a nuke or two."
"Yes, and the caverns are far too large to keep a rampaging Clockwerk restrained for any sort of delicate work," Basil said, nodding along. "But that doesn't mean he couldn't have a chamber of sorts inside there, or that clawing and ripping your way out is anywhere near as hard as blasting your way in."
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"JACK! JACK!?"
His name echoed down the tunnel, rebounding back in ever quieter waves until the whole thing was swallowed into nothing.
Judy trembled, paws going down to her hip, reaching down a few times before rising back up, a climbing hook in paw, raised up.
Carmelita, seeing her, joined the bunny, shock pistol raised. All as Lt Vixen quietly pulled up to the interpol cop, whispering very quietly into her. "Tell me, in your adventures past, when you saw ghosts, did you recognise anyone?"
The vixen looked back, shaking her head.
"Did you recognise what species they were…"
Another shake.
"Any familiar scents?"
Carmelita shook her head before speaking. "So, you don't smell a ghost."
"I fear I do," she said, letting her voice rise a little. "Just not your kind." She took a breath in, paws trembling. "All of you, keep close. Backs to each other. Don't let what happened to Jack happen to you."
They slowly walked next to each other and began making their way down, slow paw step after slow pawstep, Carmelita moving the two melee wielding partners in front of her as she held her shock pistol up and tight.
Their lights glanced down in front of them, fingering out the tunnel, looking for any nooks, crannies, ways that the enemy could have snuck in and taken one of them out.
"When did they… -How did they," Judy hissed, stumbling a little, a small fall of pebbles rattling out below her. She raised up a paw, the mammals freezing as she raised up her eyes, scanning about.
A second later they pivoted to the side, her light flashing into a set of alcoves they hadn't spotted before. Empty.
She let it scan the other way, trying to hold her breath in and focus.
"Dim down the light," Carmelita whispered, narrowing her beam as she slung her torch under her pistol. Judy glanced up, disbelief etched on her face before she shook it off, doing the same. The glow of light around them, reflecting back at them, died down, instead only fingers of light remaining. Reaching out, flicking back and forth, the curves and blades of the cavern ever so faintly glowing to the bunny. The foxes kept a look-out as they carried on down, Carmelita sniffing on.
"Do you smell him?" Judy asked.
"Who exactly," Carmelita whispered back.
"...What do you smell?"
"Very, very faintly… I smell Jack. -And something not Jack. But close."
They pushed on down, slowly but surely, until freezing just as the ground fell away below them. Their torches, rising up, emptied into the vast blackness beyond, filled with the deep rumbling and constant dripping. Lt Vixen shifted to face behind them, scanning around before looking down, leaning onto the soil and giving it a small sniff.
"They dragged him out this way," she said quietly. "Best guess, they snuck up, pricked Jack's ankle with a needle or something as he passed a rock… -Thought he'd nipped himself and, a second or two later as he began to drift he was caught, gagged, slipped away, I…"
She froze as she saw the others, torches angled down. She raced over to the edge only to sigh with relief as she saw him not there, only to see their lines cut.
"Get a spare down," the army fox said as she began to dig into her bag, bringing out another of the large illuminating spotlights. Carmelita began to tie her line off as Judy looked around, ears scanning one after the other.
"You certain Jack was dragged back this way?" she asked quietly.
"Certain. What else could have happened?"
"Bottomless pit?"
"I don't remember one, I…"
"-Why take him," she hissed, lighting her torch out further and fruitlessly probing the void beyond. "Why not just gun us down, why…"
"I'd assume to mess with us," the vixen grunted, bringing out one of the larger flood lights and moving it towards the edge.
"I… -Why not shoot us all down," Judy hissed, "They'd have gunned into the top, killing…" Her voice hitched as Carmelita walked over, paw out just a little. She and Lt Vixen's eyes met, the Interpol fox giving a quick wink.
"I can't say for certain, all I know is he's out there…" She gestured into the void, winking again, before she grabbed the heavy beam and quietly twisted it around to behind them. "And we're going to get him."
She turned it on, the beam blasting behind them as they all turned, eyes wincing at the screaming white light reflecting back and vanishing around the corner, glistening, a small twitch…
-Carmelita fired, a blast of electricity then another racing out, one side each of a glistening white pillar off to the side… The first curving behind just as a figure darted out, fleet footed and silent as it escaped before the second hit.
"Halt!" the cop yelled, gesturing down to Judy to pick it up and race forward, focussing the beam into a narrow line, the other two racing on behind her. Carmelita turned to Lt Vixen, gesturing her to keep covered by the walls but the army fox was already there, shimmied up behind a ridge of rock and holding a rock-pick and hammer tight in each paw.
"There's no way out!" Judy screamed, pushing herself down onto the cold wet slick rocks, pushing down into the gravel and behind some stones, light still raised above her. "That was clever, but you can't escape us."
And then a voice laughed. "I've escaped worse! Far worse…"
"Indeed you have," Lt Vixen said, as she followed on. "So tell me, partner, what happened to you?" The other two froze, looking up at her in disbelief. "I can't remember if you know the story," she grunted at Carmelita, before looking at Judy. "But from what I gather you may have learnt enough about my time in the rangers to know who that mammal is. Isn't that right, Brighteyes?"
She pushed forward to the next bit of shelter, next to a narrowing of the tunnel before a bend. The others darted towards it too before a sharp blast echoed out, Lt Vixen's eyes wide as she leapt over to shove Carmelita against the far wall, a falling stalactite crashing down between them a moment later. The interpol vixen fired off another shock pistol shot in the vague direction as shadows danced.
"Oh that is an old name. Very inaccurate now!"
"I should have figured that," the army vixen spoke, the group advancing on, taking the narrow pass and slipping forward into the tunnel as it widened once more. "Taken off by an eagle, the only trace left of you an eye? I suppose you'd look quite dashing with an eyepatch. A few scars."
"Oh plenty there," he spoke. "Any new ones your end?"
"Surely you know better. Given how long you've been tailing us, tracking us?"
She just got a chuckle back.
"Let me guess," she said. "You crawled in the front. Hugging the walls, past our allies, sneaking down behind us. Following us along… -Sabotaging our relays?"
She got silence back.
"Except… Except that wouldn't explain why you'd out yourself by knocking out Jack. You could have snuck in here, hid yourself away, searched around for it as we were gone and wait for us to move in for the second search, racing up after us and sneaking out." She paused, smiling. "I wouldn't even care to turn on my detector, I'd just know it was here and we'd dig and dig until we confused ourselves while you'd get off scot free. -You want this, don't you? You want to toy with us, with me, for replacing you, right?"
She got no more than a hearty chuckle back, followed by another shot over their heads. Judy winced further into the sandy ground as Carmelita fired another pair of shots, the interpol fox speaking out.
"I'll take that a yes," she hissed.
"You can't really blame me," Lt Vixen hissed. "Thinking you were dead. Grieving with your training partner. She has a family, you know. A family that Rattigan has forced into hiding. Hmmmm, why do you fight for him."
"Why do you fight," he spoke back. "This, the rangers, be honest."
"So I'm right," she smirked, slipping on. A quick look to Judy, the bunny crawling up through the muddy sand, the stream flowing down around her mouth and under her soaked and stained arms. The bunny's ears twitched back and forth, her light moving ever so slightly to follow it. A single glint moved off in the far distance, just beyond the edge of the beam. "You are enjoying this." Another chuckle rang out.
"Do you know what he's trying to do?" Carmelita asked. "With this, here?"
"Do you know what it's like to meet death itself? To dance with him, on the edge, to parlay with the black rabbit and come back. I lost my fear of him there."
"You lost your mind," Carmelita said.
"Maybe, maybe. I died that day, but was reborn. A child of war, of fire, dancing with death, against him, and when Rattigan comes along, wishing to raise Kehaar himself? To give me a chance at taking the bastard one on one?" He gave a laugh, revealing himself from behind a pillar.
A hare. Brown, tall, thickly built, a scarred and ruined eye on one side and torn, scarred fur across him. He smiled, paws open and out. Carmelita fired a shot and with a laugh he raced off as she turned to Lt Vixen. "That a good enough explanation?"
"Oh not quite," Lt Vixen said. "Chaos for chaos sakes? I'm sorry for you, how far you've fallen." She grit her teeth. "What happened to the little mammal who stood up for bullied kits? How would he look at you as you burn and rampage across the land you once defended."
"He'd shiver in disgust and fear," he said. "At the might of The General I've become."
"Cut this crap…" Judy growled, emerging from the muck and marching forward. "Where's Jack!?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," he smirked, darting from one pillar to another so fast Carmelita didn't even bother firing a shot.
"And there's the rub," Lt Vixen smirked. "The great General… Woundwort I assume? I can't think of a more fitting name for you to take on than that, that mammal of your people in times past. Your great strategy. You want us to trade our equipment for information on where he is."
"Oh that would be agreeable."
"Not quite. I'm pretty certain you originally wanted us searching pointlessly out in the void while you dug and dug. You wanted us racing up to the top, thinking something had happened to our allies there. You were hoping we might drop and stash our equipment to give us a time advantage. Quite the miscalculation, wasn't it?"
"Unless," he pondered from the black. "I wanted to see how you'd react?"
The trio moved on, eyes glancing around.
"There's one little thing you don't seem to have realised," he spoke. "I have a gun."
"So do I," Carmelita said, shock pistol out.
"You'll run out of charge."
"You'll run out of bullets."
"I only need three," he said, a shot ringing out. The mammals flinched as a spark flashed off the top pebble on a stack next to them, the rock tipping and tumbling down. They pulled in closer to their meagre cover, chests rising and falling as they tucked themselves in like wolves trying to fit in fox sized beds. "How many do you need?"
"And would you really shoot your dear sister in arms," Lt Vixen spoke. "My little partner or this brave General, is that really befitting you?"
"Do you really want to question what the great Woundwort would do?"
"-You know," Judy spoke, hissing as she edged to the side, cutting off an area where the tunnel widened. "I don't know what's worse, calling yourself 'Great' or 'The'."
She earned a laugh back. "I can shoot you all in the knee, leave you crawling, your friends not even knowing what went on."
"They'll figure it out," Carmelita growled. "Besides, you still need us, and knowing what you're trying to do we're not going to talk, we're not going to give in. Do you really think you can work on the equipment yourself?"
Carmelita fired a shot, the trio racing on under its cover, slinking into their next positions as rattling came up from above, the odd stone bouncing its way down.
"All this bluff," Carmelita smiled. "You knew we were onto you when going up. You knew that coming down we'd see an inevitable pawprint, sniff an unavoidable sniff, see a mark or divot or something."
"See water where we knew it didn't belong," Lt Vixen said. "-That's how you got in, isn't it. The caves are connected. You crawled in alongside the river, arriving here as we crossed it, dripping wet and holding yourself to the shadows. Far more wet than the drier areas down below. You could move silently, but you couldn't avoid making a mark, a mark we'd see and immediately work out. So, play into it. Have us barking up the wrong tree, looking in the wrong place, panicking while you played us like a fiddle. Hmmmm…"
"You really should have stayed quiet," he spoke, smiling. "I could hear it. The tip of your tongue…" -He darted out of position, racing up to the next hideaway, Carmelita holding her shock pistol out and ready but avoiding a shot. The tunnel was narrower, steeper, curvier, Carmelita's weapon all the more dangerous for him as they approached the top. Less of a need for cover hopping, they just kept marching on, Judy taking the outside flank with Carmelita and focussing their light on where he always just was.
"Good think we were loud then," Carmelita growled.
"Rattigan was right, you know," he mused, taking another prance up. "All his records, all the information he gathered. The upper cave was the holiest. Part of why it was attacked first. The mammals inside thought the invaders would come in, burn them out, and so they sought to hide their relic. Hid it where they truly thought the invaders would never search, would never even know was connected, flying through the tunnels and out into this place. Away from the shrines, the altars, the piles of sacrifice. They're quite magnificent. Keehar, his terrible visage, just wanting to be blasted apart!"
"Funny talk for someone who wants to bring him back," Carmelita snarked.
"Only to send him back away personally," he laughed. "To hurt him myself."
"And do you know who I am? What I did to him, at Krakarov?"
There was a pause before he smiled. "Then you'll know how brilliant it was, and that you can't just hog that glory for yourself, can you?"
"Then why not face me," Carmelita spoke. "Paw to paw! Mammal against mammal. I'm greater than Clockwerk ever was."
He laughed. "What do you think I'm doing now? -You get it now, don't you? Aside from those silly rationalizations."
""What do I think you're doing now?" Carmelita smiled. "Putting on the best poker face you can manage as you fall back, on the wrong side of everything. Hoping there's a way you can slip out up there, or you can get past us. Am I right?"
"Rattigan and his forces know your mammals are up at the top," he spoke, making another darting retreat. "I just told them, they might be planning a full on attack right now. What do you value more, your friends' lives or denying my satisfaction."
"Our mammals know he is," Lt Vixen smirked.
"And you're a fool if you think your 'satisfaction' will be anything like that," Carmelita added.
"DON'T tell me what I want," he growled, as the trio emerged up into the drained water pool at the very top. Judy adjusted the light, spreading the beam out to illuminate the basin once more.
Nothing more than a small crack or crevice here or there along the sides, maybe a cubby in the roof he could hide himself in, or behind one of the small pillars around the edge. Carmelita stared out for him, eyes glancing down on the silty surface to look for any pawprints. She saw a new pair, bounding out partway into the centre only to vanish, her eyes narrowing as she pivoted to her right and fired a set of shots along the wall next to her. The charges flew forwards, sizzling against the walls before colliding, no purchase or target found.
Either way, clear, she slipped along it, gesturing at Lt Vixen and Judy to move the other way. Both of them dual wielding melee weapons, the bunny left the light where it was as they pushed on, checking the walls, narrowing down where he could hide.
They didn't speak out any words or taunts, just like he didn't parry out or try and get a rise. Eyes darting, ears up and scanning, breath held, muscles tense, bodies against walls and behind cover…
Judy's ears pivoted as she heard a slight rattle, eyes turning along with Carmelita's and Lt Vixen's towards the centre of the chamber, just as a scream of white light erupted. They flinched back, Judy yelling as the screeching bang hit her ears, echoing around and around the chamber, never stopping. Her vision blurry, a shot rang out, Carmelita yelling as the sound of rocks falling echoed around. The bunny managed to glance over to where it was, white spots and fuzzy static the only thing she earned for herself as another gunshot pierced the air, slamming straight into the spotlight and plunging them into darkness.
And then she made out the running, soft paws against silt, the oncoming rush of something sloughing through the sand at speed and… -She swung her melee weapons wildly, hitting something a second before a paw slammed into her face, sending her down hard. Heart racing, limbs kicking and pushing faster than the ground itself could meet, she scrabbled back, ears up just as she heard something coming and made her best swing, Lt Vixen yelling out before two large legs toppled over her, sweeping up into a combat roll as Judy heard something else race up.
This time she swung true and felt herself hit something, a male growl and yelling coming out, following by a swing and a cutting slice against one of her arms. Yelling, Judy growled and brought her hammer down, hitting something…
-Just as an electric spark and fizz rang out, a shock pistol shot cutting into the middle of the room, far away from them but enough to light up the blood soaked wildly grinny face in front of her. Covered in muck, ruined eye covered by a patch and feral fur ablaze, his good eye snapped to her and he dove forward with a knife as Judy kicked off, doing her best to swing herself around and bring a rock-pick to his skull. He saw it and leapt back just as the shock pistol shot fizzled into the ceiling, before another one lit up the chamber.
Standing up, shaking, cold and hot liquid dripping around her, Judy glanced on, seeing a dark figure whip around, this way, that, Lt Vixen racing right by her. She had a new torch out and was trying to follow him only for him to duck, weave, turn, a swift evading a falcon.
Carmelita began firing more shots, left then right, closer to the surface, Lt Vixen narrowing in her beam as she followed the shadows in the wider light. Weapons ready, Judy began to race forward, only to pause as she saw Carmelita turn, shaking her head and making paw gestures. Hard to figure out, though…
Judy gave a point at her, her shock pistol, pointing at herself and nodding furiously. Carmelita gave a solid nod in return as Judy twirled her weapons in her paws and began racing forward. A quick glance behind, Lt Vixen had moved to cover the way out, and she and Carm pushed forward towards Woundwort's ever shrinking domain. Shock pistol firing left, right, left, right, sweeping in, gliding across and hitting the wall, two electric fences to keep the hare bound, both of them narrowing down. Judy watched and waited for a gap to push through.
Seeing Carm take a regular shot but at a wider angle she began running in front of it, angling herself to curve in around ahead and thread the needle, to face Woundwort one on one. Pulling around as her legs spun out in the soft surface, she regained her footing and pushed forward to weave between the main line and the outlier, so close to it her fur began to stick up and…
-With a bang it vanished, a white wick of lightning snapping into and out of existence in a moment as it poured itself down into the ground, the crack echoing around the chamber and ending in silence.
Judy's body froze and locked up, her limbs trembling.
Even as the other shocks sailed close behind her, nipping and fizzing.
The room was silent.
Seven eyes focussed down on the pond floor where the charge had been sucked down.
-And then Judy dived, racing down, digging with her front paws where the sand was still warm, heaving soil out of the ground only for a scream and a yell to pull her face up. She saw Woundwort racing at her, mouth open as if to tear out her jugular, screaming even before the first shock pistol shock raced over him and peppered his back. Judy brought a fist out and jumped as he slammed into her chest, sending them both flying back, screaming.
Judy felt herself twitch and yell as the shock he'd carried hit her, fighting to regain control of her arms, pushing one up into what she realised was his mouth, wincing as he bit down. Paw out she grabbed her dropped rock pick, swinging it around fast so the handle clocked against his head. Pull it down, push it back up into his gaping maw, their feet kicking and pummelling each other before he leapt off, Judy turning to race after him only to scream in pain as she felt her body get lit on fire.
Carmelita swore as she swore the convulsing bunny but didn't give up. Racing after the fleeing hare, firing this way, that way, he spun around, faster and faster, before jumping up, paws wide. Carmelita fired, only for him to duck out of the way, the shot racing straight towards Lt Vixen.
She pulled herself back down under the cut away weir, letting it sail over her, Woundwort racing overhead straight after as if he wanted to catch up with it. The army fox swung her melee weapons as best she could but it was too late, nothing was left of him but the rattle of sand and stones as he belted down the tunnel.
She just panted, breathing in and out, sinking to her knees silent for a second before letting out a growl, starting to pound the rock wall half a dozen times before finishing it with one final crescendo.
A bitter exhale and she slumped, keeping an eye on the tunnel before glancing back. "I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted," Carmelita said, as she moved Judy into the recovery position, the bunny blinking slowly. "Stay calm," she said, torch placed down next to her. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
Groaning, Judy blinked a few times before answering. "T-three…"
"And your accent seems fine."
"Huh? -I… I'm sorry," She muttered, trying to sit up only for Carmelita to hold her steady. "Should have fo… focussed on…"
"No, we all realised what it was," the interpol fox said, looking over to Lt Vixen. The army fox was up next to them, digging down at the small hole before reaching in with a clear plastic bag. Over her paw, she reached down, slowly pulling something out and bagging it up tight. Lit up in the glint of the torch, they all looked at the coppery talisman as the army fox stuck it in her inside jacket.
"We got what we came for. Now get up and run." She was already up and turning. "It's only a hope, but we might catch him before we see the real reason this General Woundwort took Jack out."