Khufu restrained a laugh as two Shadow Balls penetrated Rumble's gel body, sinking in and leaving a blackish impression. He heard an unwelcome noise from above ground, and snapping his head back above to see --
He wished he hadn't. Three unfriendly-looking humans, each with an unfriendly-looking weapon, had surrounded him. Khufu's face dropped into fear as he realised how bad things looked, then glanced down at the manhole. It didn't look like it would be very pleasant to drop down through there, but it was his only escape. A human smiled a disgusting smile with his black lips and teeth, or at least the teeth he had left. He looked nasty to even humans, but to Khufu he looked even worse. "Looks like we got the PR General here. Let's give 'im hell," he remarked.
Another human, evidently the leader, held out a hand. By human standards, he would have been considered good-looking, but to Khufu, even he looked like a monster. The human's eyes were on Khufu, and he could see that he kept glancing at the manhole as if he was about to go through it. Moving quickly, the human picked up the cover of the manhole and laid it down where it belonged. He frowned as he realised his aim hadn't been perfect: it was slightly off-centre, so the sewers below were still visible through a crack between pavement and rusted metal. With his last escape being sealed off, Khufu had to take action now or give up. He was too proud to give up, so naturally, he took action. A quick Shadow Ball to each of the humans' heads stunned them long enough for Khufu to lift the cover away. It was heavy, and if it had been placed over the hole, he wouldn't have been able to lift it. But that tiny gap that meant it wasn't perfectly in place gave Khufu enough leverage to push it away.
There was nothing Khufu could hear except the voices in his own head, and they were coming from everywhere and mixing together, so he couldn't hear one above the others. They were congratulating him, scolding him, telling him what to do next, and expressing his own doubts, all at the same time. They were dispersed when he felt an immense pain in his side, and felt the blood oozing out the wound. The nastiest of the bunch, who evidently hated Khufu the most, had shot him, and kept firing. Most of them missed, but one more hit Khufu's shoulder. It took strength for Khufu not to cry out in pain. Fortunately, he'd pushed the cover far enough away so that he could fit down through it. Crawling through was painful, and it was hard to breathe, but after a short struggle, he felt himself falling into the sewers, then felt water all around him, sweeping him in whatever direction it chose.
Doubts reached Khufu's mind again. Rumble was ahead somewhere, no doubt, and his reaction to the one who'd just been attacking him would be unfriendly, to say the best. His eyes closed, and he focused on breathing deeply to quell the growing fear in him, as the blood leaked out and mingled with the nasty waters of the sewers. He felt weak, but just when he felt at the edge of consciousness, he heard far-off voices.
"I guess I was wrong. In that case, if you're alive, I'd want to talk to you about our plans and strategies. Mind givin' me a hand here while I fill you in on what happened the last week?" It was Rumble's voice, no doubt there. But from the words, Khufu knew there was someone else there. He had a hunch, and when he floated out of the sewers into a river, and his eyes got used to the light there, he turned out to be correct. Dragging his body to shore, he stumbled onto land and forced a smile at Commander Hector Arcturus, trying to ignore Rumble.
"Finally, you're back. It's been hard to manage this one, Hector. I'm seriously doubting his motives by now." He glared at Rumble with the trace of a smile in his expression, as if a threat. He wasn't sure how to back up his threat, but still, that didn't mean it wasn't a threat. "I accepted a new Medic into the PR, Mandel's his name. He doesn't know much, but I'll let it slide."
