-Earth, Haiti, swamp temple, Shanty-
Lifting herself up on her tail, Ruby stomped her feet down and a large purple bubble encased me in the area with the one large lily pad and four smaller lily pads.
Several muck monsters rose up outside the large lily pad and grabbed onto it to start crawling up onto it to make it start sinking, that not be good.
“Who are you for coming here, into ‘MY’ lovely swamp, oh arrogant daughter~?!” As Ruby be singing already be moving to stop the muck monsters slowly dragging the lily pad down into muck.
I slashed my right hoof and it went straight through the muck monster doing little damage. I swung my hoof backwards and the muck monster was blasted away by a mass of water.
I bucked out behind me and sent a swamp monster flailing into the surrounding marsh with a wide splash of water, I quickly cartwheel into a left shoulder ram to knock another off and ducked as a muck monsters claw swiped over my head.
“Who—do—, pirate daughter, voo— doo— arrogant daughter, you— fool—~!” Ruby sang as I spun around and thrust my right hoof upwards to knock the head off the muck monster behind me.
I had to leap back onto one of the smaller lily pads as the body brought both its claws down in an overhead swing and flipped the giant lily pad upside down dunking itself into the dangerous muck.
“Do you really think you’ll survive in there~? I’ve got more than enough ghosts to spare~!” Ruby raised her claws and started drumming on her belly as numerous ghost rats started rising from the swamp around me as the zombie chickens with her on the platform danced a macabre tune that I be beginning to pick up on. “Who do you think you are, coming into my swamp, oh— pirate daughter!”
I be quickly pulling a torch from my back and frantically started sparking it while trying to balance on the small lily pad, this is not being easy by any stretch of the imagination. This is while a mass of ghost rats started building up around me.
“Oh—, arrogant daughter, now die—~!” As she started her downward note all the ghosts rats swarmed at me in a lunge. They were about to reach me when I finally lit the torch and spun a quick circle to knock as many away as I could.
I kept swinging the torch until they were all splattered and winced in pain. They be clawing through my fur like sharp knives for things that aren’t alive, the swamp water be splashing into my cuts from my thrashing also wasn’t being very healthy and I be getting slightly burnt by the torch a few times when I hit one.
She was already summoning up more ghost rats and I be a shivering mess, I glared up at her.
“Why did you even come in here~? This is ‘MY’ lovely swamp~! Oh— pirate daughter~!” She sent a wave of ghost rats at me and they started to swarm me and it was hard to keep the torch lit as they kept splashing the swamp and were trying to sink the lily pad I was on.
I quickly leapt to another small lily pad and smacked two rat ghosts away as I did.
“You’ll— be— part of my armada~! Into— the— muck you’ll sink much farther~! Voo—doo—~!” The ghost rats be trying to knock me into the swamp and I am being quite glad that all my hooves can clamp to any surface, but this is tilting the small lily pad a lot. “With a little dead goat swamped in there~. I’ll have a new minion to make fighting Cooper more than fair~. You’ll become a part of my swamp, oh arrogant daughter~!”
Several muck monsters and ghost rats started rising up around me and they all dove forward I be leaping back towards the larger lily pad, now there were only three smaller lily pads I could be using.
“Oh—, arrogant pirate, now comply—~!” As Ruby be starting the downward note the light of my torch started dying out as the area around me grew colder. I inhaled and then exhaled and slapped away a ghost rat and leapt up to smash a muck monster back into the swamp, as three other muck monsters and a load of ghosts started to swarm around me and the large lily pad.
“Are— you ready—~? Give in— to me—~!” the muck monster be grappling onto me and this be tipping the lily pad and making it unbalanced and threatening to dunk me, all this while under attack by the ghosts rats and I clamped my rear hooves down. I almost be losing my grip on the lily pad, these things be too strong. “Are— you ready—~? Give in— to me—~!”
Just when they were about to be dragging me and the lily pad I stuck my hooves fully into the glowing swamp, the platform Ruby was standing on suddenly erupted in flames and a violent explosion.
Ruby disappeared to reappear at another platform looking a bit scorched. The lily pad flopped down as the muck monsters fell apart and the ghost rats vanished. I be catching my breath and smacking my face against the lily pad, my torch be falling into the muck.
I got up and started lighting another one, using a flashbang would be the last thing I want to do right now as I did not want to be stunned out here.
I saw the burning wreckage of a familiar looking flamethrower armed skiff that went out to burn down the zombitorium. Ruby stomped and several ghost rats appeared around my savior on the hillside.
I saw my new favorite large pink hippo Murray lighting a torch with a match and he started bashing at away the newly summoned ghost rats.
“Hey, no more big zombies for you! The Murray doesn’t appreciate you hurting his little goat buddy and…!” with a gesture more summoned rats were sent flying in Murray’s direction by Ruby. “Wha… uh oh!”
They be forcing Murray out of sight.
A second later several large snakes started to raise up from the swamp following Ruby’s movements of shifting her hips left and right, this while also summoning more dancing zombie chickens. They be moving with her and she chuckled dryly at me.
“Isn’t this sordid affair really nice~?” Mz. Ruby grinned and sent blasts of magical energy from her mouth while gesturing at the snakes, I dodge the shots in time with her beat and avoided the snakes trying to constrict me.
They still took out two of the lily pads and when one of them went for me I not be holding back and swing both my hooves for the base of its head to chop of the snakes head.
It had looked normal, but once the head was removed it revealed it was rotting corpse disgustingly loaded with maggots and chunks of flesh missing. I quickly lashed out my rear legs and a blade of water ripped up the other one along its body vertically and it splashed into the water where a number of those gross grubs sunk into the muck writhing in pain.
“If they don’t come for you, then you’ll be paying the price~. —Oh how gracious of me, to begin this little goat’s story~.” She grinned and she started to take in air as she sang. “So please be a good dear and follow the rhythm right in~.”
She started singing something I couldn’t quite follow, but I saw the burst of magic coming at me, I tried to follow the rhythm of the attack and… I actually be understanding it.
Left, right, left, right, right, left, I be standing up on my hind legs and deftly dodging her magical blasts as I flowed to the beat of Ruby’s rhythm.
Duck under a shot, bend around one to the right and jerk to the left and shifted my hips to the rhythm while raising my hooves above my head.
I was soon dancing around the blast of magic coming from her belly slapping rhythm, she be looking shocked that I could keep up with her rapid fire mouth as magic blasts launched at me at an incredible speed.
“I-DOOooo, VoooDOOooo~! I-DOOooo, VoooDOOooo~!” She opened her jaw wide and fired a sweeping beam of pulsing magic, which made me jump over it to a different lily pad as the large one be getting cut in half. I leapt off the smaller lily pad and the one I was on was also ripped in half by the vertical beam of pulsing magic.
Ruby be singing rapidly again, but I now had the rhythm of her attacks down and could be dodging the incoming attacks easily enough. I only had two lily pads left though and I did not like the look on Ruby’s face.
I twirled and jerked around the attacks and ducked under one that would be taking my head off were I not currently being in the groove, this is when she started her next two waves pulsing magic.
Wait… I only be having two lily pads left... my eyes be widening at the realization.
“I-DOOooo, VoooDOOooo~! I-DOOooo, VoooDOOooo~!” She seemed to be knowing this already as she sent a sweeping wave at the one I was on.
I leapt over it to land on my stomach on the second lily pad as the following vertical wave of magic tore straight through the swamp at me. Not wanting to be hit by voodoo magic, I threw myself into a sideways flip.
I slapped into something solid and looked beneath me as my hooves continued to follow the rhythmic magic Ruby had going.
I had no clue how I be doing this, but I don’t think I want to be questioning that right now…
“You’re dancing on the… agh!” Ruby didn’t be seeing Sly coming as he smack her with his cane, she teleported away to a third platform.
Sly quickly used his cane to rip the rotting foundation out from under the platform. He did that spire jump thing away from it as the second platform be dropping into the swamp.
“You okay Shanty!" Sly be looking to my hooves as I crossed, uncrossed and alternated my front and back hooves to stay bouncing above the swamp. "How are you even doing that?!”
“Sly you need to deal with Mz. Ruby fast, we’re under attack by muck monsters and twisted nature still under her control! We don’t know how much longer Shanty can keep that up or how much longer we can hold out for!” Bentley’s voice be coming from Sly’s binoculars sounded panicked. “While I do have an idea of how Shanty’s doing that, I’ll tell you later if we survive this night Sly. Now take out that awful, acrid, asinine alligator!”
Mz. Ruby made a motion to summon ghost rats and then… nothing.
“Can’t summon anymore ghost rats eh Mz. Ruby? I’m quite sure those spirit totems I destroyed weren’t that important.” Sly said with a grin, Ruby stomped her feet angrily and pointed at me and I leapt up as a muck monster rose up beneath me trying to snatch me.
I tapped danced on its head and then stomped that it down into its torso. Following that with a second stomp that destroyed it, I bounced away as the monster sunk back into the swamp and created a small sink hole for a few seconds. I be needing to be careful about destroying muck monsters.
Sly’s grin quickly fell away and he leapt off to start slowly navigating the shifting tree branches leading him to Mz. Ruby on a third platform.
I decided it being time to be a good pirate and return fire!
“I am Shanty, can’t you hear~? This be one goat that you— should— truly fear~!” I taunted Mz. Ruby and seeing her gesture, two muck monster rose up on both sides of me.
I bounced forward as they slammed into each other. I back flipped and knocked the head off the muck monster on my right and landed on its stump of a neck.
“Oh— you’re— a flagrant gator~! No— time— to say hi, but later~!” I leapt off the muck monster torso as the other smashed it with an overhead strike, I clung to the attacking muck monsters back. “You’ll— fall—~!”
The muck monster swung its arms around in a full circle, I crawled on top of its head to avoid this and pointed my right hoof at Ruby.
“Your voodoo is bad, you swampy witch~.” I danced around on the five other muck monsters slapping at me, had it been Sly in this situation he wouldn’t have been able to save himself from the swamp. “You seriously smell, did you crawl out of a garbage ditch~? You’ll seriously burn my nose off— oh, smelly fogger~!”
I be really annoying her now, she be forgetting entirely about Sly. Not that that be a good thing. She be summoning more maggot snakes on top of the muck monster I be having problems with already, I be tiring quickly and I think the swamp water in my rat ghost scratches be getting to me. Might be infected with something too.
“And it doesn’t help that you’re so very ugly, toooOOOooo—~!” I think I be getting her goat and badly at that, because Ruby be roaring and red with anger.
The snakes and muck monsters be thrashing at me as I be kicking off of them, I not be very good at jumping high, but I be learning Fleet Cunning Doe from Pom! I slipped between two snakes trying to wrap around me and into slid on top of the water under a pair of muck monsters claws before leaping up to cling to the face of another muck monster.
“So what is that you really do~? Don’t have any other hobbies DO you~. —oh, you lazy dodger~!” I hopped up landed on my rear hooves and kicked backwards with my left hoof while spreading my front hooves outwards creating a volatile vortex of water that blasted everything around me.
I bounced my way out of the vortex I created to hop in place and point at her.
“You— need— help, you second rater~. Get that please, now you vicious hater~!” I slashed apart another snake before it could rise up out of the water. “Or, you’ll always bawl—~!
“Who are you, to tell me what to do~?” Mz. Ruby sang as she kept leading the third dancing zombie chicken line with her bouncy rhythm.
“Anybody around this toxicity would certainly spew~!” I sang back as I lashed out and took off another snakes head, she is really laying it on with the snakes now and I be in a pickle and was getting sleepy.
“Who are you for coming into ‘MY’ swamp~!” She continued to beat out the rhythm. “You, arrogant pirate~! Oh— you should perish right now ah—!”
I felt a claw wrap around my waist and I started to struggle, I smacked at the muck tightly squeezing me. Narrowing my eyes at the arm holding me, I slashed my left rear leg back and the arm suddenly fell off and I landed on the swamp and quickly did a rolling bounce on top of the water as several muck monster slammed down on where I was.
“False— pretty—! Ugly— really—~!” I sang in taunt out with my front two hooves bracketing my face and skipped back and forth on the swamp using my hind legs. I noted that the snakes be melting into skeletons and collapsing into the muck. Looking beyond Ruby, I saw Sly had destroyed something behind Mz. Ruby and was in position to move towards her. That drew her attention off of me as the muck monsters surged. “False— pretty—! Ugly— really—~!”
I tried, but she was no longer paying attention to me, she just flicked her middle claws at me and numerous muck monsters started to rise around me. I really needed to light another torch as things were getting very cold, I reached into my satchel for some light and heat…
My hoof didn’t find any more torches, I only had flashbangs… them being mostly useless against swamp monsters…
I didn’t be having any torches left after I spat out the last one I be putting into my mouth to dance on the swamp.
The glow of many yellow eyes surrounded me in the dark as I kept bouncing.
I be letting out a slight squeak of fear as darkness engulfed me.
-Sly, the master class biped raccoon thief-
I dropped down and looked at the spikes on the path between me and Mz. Ruby. My skills as a magical thief better not fail me now.
Mz. Ruby turned to me, Shanty had been putting up one heck of a struggle down there, but she looked to be flagging badly. From what little I could see of the shadows moving in the darkness in that bubble, she wasn’t doing too hot.
At least I had Mz. Ruby’s attention squarely on me since I took down her main undead animal controlling totem.
“You are seriously what I should be focusing on now~. Mr. Cooper your friend will soon surely drown~. She said as she sang creepily with a grin, she continued to beat the rhythm out and she looked to be preparing to magic mouth at me like she did to Shanty. “Such a precious young life and how~. I’m taking her with me, if I am to be going down~.”
The fur on the back of my neck stood on end and I glared at her, I charged forward over the bits of wood and leapt onto the first bony spike. She started to sing rapidly.
I twirled and landed on it and immediately kicked off, the upper part of the skull slammed down on where I was as I landed on a molar and leapt for the next spike and onto the next tooth.
I didn’t stop and wait, I didn’t care what it takes, I had to take Mz. Ruby down now!
Mz. Ruby smiled as I leapt towards the next molar and the mouth clamped shut, but I wasn’t aiming to land on the tooth of the giant skull she was controlling.
The crook of my cane caught the edge of the molar and I slung myself forward and snapped it onto a hook and swung my way onto the platform where I struck Mz. Ruby across the face as I passed her spinning her dizzily.
She started belting out bursts of magic at nearly point blank range, but I had watched a bit of Shanty’s dancing earlier. I learned the rhythm and slide around each of her bursts of magic.
I hopped over the first wide wave of magic that sent the zombie chickens flying, ignoring that I readied my cane to wallop her as hard as I could.
“I-DOOooo, VoooDOOooo~! I-DOOooo, VoooDOOooo~!” I tumbled forward and around the vertical wave of magic and slapped my cane up into her chin harshly making her stumble back.
Mz. Ruby looked dazed as I slapped her harshly across the left side of her face and then brought it down on top of her head.
She wobbled back and forth on her feet and then she turned about and looked at something, I saw it too.
“So this… is the end… of my world-~!” Mz. Ruby, being too dazed by me to move out of the path of it, promptly took a fully supercharged shock pistol blast to the face and flopped over in a smoking heap. “Ohhhn—~.”
Carmelita looked like she was about to say something as she hopped onto a nearby bit of wood from one of the broken platforms while aiming her pistol at me.
I was more worried about something else, a life that still had a lot left to give!
“No time for fun Inspector, you have to help the girl!” I pointed out as the barrier fell and I could see bubbles slowly started to fade from the center of the muck pit where the destroyed lily pads vaguely float about. “She’s drowning in the swamp and I can’t swim, go!”
Only a split second of indecisiveness and then…
“Catch!” Carmelita, much to my shock, tossed me her shock pistol and dove straight into the swamp.
I quickly made my way over towards the swamps one edge, Carmelita soon erupted onto it with Shanty.
Shanty didn’t look to be breathing.
“Stand back ringtail!” Carmelita inhaled and blew air into Shanty’s mouth, she then put pressure on Shanty’s stomach and was about to press down when a mass of sludge exploded out of Shanty’s mouth and into Carmelita’s face.
Shanty quickly managed to crawl backwards away from Carmelita, who had been knocked onto her back and was wiping the muck off of her face, and rolled over to empty the contents of her stomach onto the ground.
“Are you okay?” I asked in a worried tone. Shanty was covered in scratches, her fur was a mess, she could use a good bath and aside from being a total mess, she might seriously need a doctor after that.
“I really do I not be liking voodoo witches. I be only holding my breath for three minutes… need to… be working on… that… ulp.” After she said that she continued to chunk more swamp muck everywhere, then flopped onto the ground breathing roughly. “Also no… help…”
Shanty whimpered where she lay.
“HOLD IT RIGHT… oh right… you have my gun!” Carmelita smacked herself in the forehead with her left hand.
“No I don’t, I put it in your holster as soon as you got knocked down by being barfed on. Now if you’ll excuse me… I’ve got to quickly take this girl to the best hospital I can find!” I quickly scooped up Shanty into my arms and started making my way for the Cooper Van with a very ill looking Shanty.
I heard Carmelita pull her pistol on me, with requisite Cooper calling card attached to it because it felt right somehow, but she didn’t pull the trigger and instead turned and leapt back in the direction of Mz. Ruby without a word or a yell in my direction.
It seems our favorite Inspector had her priorities in order when it came to someone who would try to drown a kid.
“Don’t worry Shanty, you’ll be fine, I promise!” I don’t know if I was shouting that for her or myself as she whimpered and snuggled into my arms.
She got stuck in that barrier that was meant for me and was almost drowned by Mz. Ruby’s muck monsters, she faired far better than I would have in that situation.
I really needed some help to get to the nearest hospital as quickly as… I heard a mechanical warbling as Dodo rushed up to me and skidded into a stop with his back facing me.
Dodo warbled again and pointed his beak at his seat
I hopped inside without a second thought.
Dodo started urgently running straight towards the nearest town, Carmelita was sure to be interested in Shanty and would look her up.
Things might get… a bit complicated.
-Camden Town, Interpol Officer Judy Hopps-
“I want to investigate the bodyguard of Hunter De Ville in depth, where is she currently living?” I asked my partner.
He looked confused as he couldn’t find any information about this Pom.
Oh great, another one that's entirely off the grid!
-Duckberg, Scrooge-
International Police were looking for Phantom Blot’s trail after he assaulted my home, I kept them from investigating my guests.
-Haiti, Cooper Van-
The recently freed zombie chicken questioned her existence.