The Bad Guys in Blood Moon

Escape!

“Minerva couldn't handle that pretty little angelfish rejecting her for your Papi," Piranha continued. “She was very controlling over her followers, and developed an obsession for your mama. Kinda like Bowser."

The kids giggled at the comparison.

“But Minerva still had at least one thing that gave her the upper hand. Or, in this case, wing."

🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶

Without warning, Minerva let out an ear-piercing screech, nearly deafening the entire Flock. Deep underground, the Hatchling had awoken and began clawing through the stone over him with his massive front paws. Above, everyone felt the Earth moving.

“Whoa! What's happening?!" Snake exclaimed.

“It's the Hatchling!" Scarlet answered. “He's rising!"

“With or without your support, I am still taking back the Earth for you!" Minerva declared, opening up her cloak as she spread her wings. Just as she took flight, Gabi noticed a medallion with a glowing blue gem in the pendant.

“Look out!" a zebra shouted as the ground below began to crack. Bursting out was the monstrous Hatchling.

“Let us rise into the darkness, my son!" Minerva screamed manically, landing on the creature's back as he continued digging through the ground all the way up to New York.

“We need to get those people out of the city!" Wolf said as debris began to fall from the ceiling.

“It's too late for that!" Ismene argued. “Unless we kill the Hatchling before he destroys the city completely, everyone will die."

“But how?!" Webs asked. “She still controls it and it doesn't say how on her computer! The answer disappeared with Atlas!"

“She's wearing it," Gabi revealed. “It's a medallion made from the Love Crater meteorite."

“She made a necklace out of a butt?" Piranha asked.

“You guys get to higher ground," Webs ordered the gang. “I'll catch up in a minute. I'm just gonna try to hack into the city's emergency alert system to give the people a warning."

“Be careful, chica!" Piranha said as they began heading up. The moment they were out, Webs successfully uploaded the statement that read: MIND-CONTROLLED MONSTER ATTACKING MANHATTAN. EVACUATE THE CITY IMMEDIATELY! SERIOUSLY! GET OUT! RUN! SWIM! DRIVE! Oh, right. This is New York.

“Get it, queen!" she said to herself. Suddenly, the ceiling above her began to cave in. “Oh, no."

As the room imploded, Webs braced for impact, but then saw, after noticing she hadn't been squashed, Janus crouching over her like a protective shield.

“I got you, little tarantula!" he groaned, and attempted to push back the rubble.

“Uh, that's Miss Little Tarantula to you!" she pointed out, quite offended. “Why are you helping me?"

“Your friend's song was very persuasive!" he answered, lifting a massive boulder and tossing it like a football. “Let's ride!"

🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶

On the surface, the people were going about their normal lives when all of a sudden, the ground beneath them began to quake. Webs's warning quickly began going off on every device in the city.

“How can I have a virus?" a man asked himself. “I was only on that site once!"

At that moment, the Hatchling bursted through the pavement of 5th Avenue, let out what sounded like a combination of an owl's screech, a lion's roar, and a wolf's howl, and climbed out of the ground.

“Your reign of terror has come to end, Oppressors!" Minerva exclaimed. “Rise, my beautiful creation! And reclaim what is ours!"

As the Hatchling began to climb up the buildings, the Bad Guys and the Flock crawled and flew up from the abyss to find the people running in panic. Gabi looked up and saw the total lunar eclipse in its red glory.

“La Luna Sangre," she muttered nervously. Piranha held her fin tight.

“Everyone!" Wolf hollered to the hundreds of animals before him. “We need to help these people get out of here! Take them through the tunnels to the mainland!"

“You heard him! Let's go!" Scarlet shouted, sprinting to grab a little boy right before a chunk of an imploding building landed on top of him. Feeling motivated, the other animals rushed in to help more humans.

In the chaos, Snake helped people get in a car, but afterwards, a boulder landed on the end of his tail. He screamed in pain, then in panic as another building collapsed and closed his eyes right before it would crush him. However, when he opened them, he saw Janus shielding him with his giant body.

“Need help?" he groaned.

“Help?! Didn't you just try to kill us?!"

“I'm a former fighting bull, old habits die hard," Janus admitted, lifting the rock off Snake's tail.

“It's okay, I think we convinced him," Webs explained, crawling up his horns.

“Webs!" Wolf shouted, running up to them with the rest of the Bad Guys. “The city's being evacuated. Now, how do we stop that thing?!"

“One of us has to go up there and destroy the medallion!" she replied as the Hatchling climbed the Empire State Building. “If what Scarlet said was true, then its heart will give out and die once we do."

“But how?!" Janus asked. “I could throw one of you guys up there, but once Mother sees you, she'll have the Hatchling kill you! Well, except for the pink one."

“There has to be another way!" Shark exclaimed.

As the rest of them frantically discussed their options, Gabi noticed a frightened little guinea pig scurrying across the street. At that moment, she saw every horrible memory flash through her head. Mi-Na's oppression, Marmalade's abuse, Millicent's determinism...

“What are you on about now, girl?"

With each pain she felt, there came another strong feeling. One she couldn't quite describe, but she knew it to be there all along without her knowing it.

“I'm done running," she declared, and approached the bull.

Piranha was confused. “Gabi, what are you doing?!"

“Putting the past behind me," she answered. “Janus, get me up there."

“Sure thing," he replied, lifting her up with his hoof. “And call me Buck."

“Gabi, wait!" Piranha called out. The others,  too, attempted to talk her out of it, but Buck had thrown her with all his strength up to the skyscraper, and she managed to grab onto his snakelike tail.

“What is she doing?" Snake asked the others as Gabi climbed up the Hatchling's back.

“I don't know," Webs admitted, “but she's the only one who can do it."