Adora and Maria: The Staff of Apep Ch. 1 - Wax Amazon, Wax Amazoff
The Amazon Jungle, 1934. Darkness has swept over the lush jungle, the moon providing a pale light to illuminate a large camp of Nazis readying to sleep... and a red fox in the branches of a tree, looking through binoculars over said camp: Adora Reynard, famed American treasure hunter and archaeologist.
Come on, Maria, where are you? thought Adora to herself, searching for any sign of her partner, who had volunteered to scout the Nazi camp for their prize. Clad in a khaki shirt and pants and a fedora on her head, the fox spots her initial target, the reason they had come here in the first place: The Jaguar's Key, a golden pointed peg-shaped object decorated with a jaguar's head, small enough to fit in one's hand... right in the middle of the camp, seemingly with no one guarding it. She still was wondering just why the Nazis of all animals were doing here in South America. Still, not to be denied and equipped with her trusty bullwhip and pistol, she slid down the tree and made her way toward the camp when she was sure every wolf had gone to sleep.
Adora stealthily made her way to the center of camp, being sure to be extra quiet when walking past tents of loudly snoring wolves. When she got to where the Key was located, she found nothing. She heard a faint noise coming from one of the tents. Slowly walking over to it, she pulled back the sheet to reveal a female maned wolf, clad in attire identical to Adora's, gagged and bound by ropes in a wooden chair.
"Maria!?" exclaimed Adora. That was the last thing she said before a sudden sharp pain struck her head, then darkness...
Adora woke up in the large tent, big enough for several animals, in the same predicament as Maria. Their weapons, with Maria's being Chinese hook swords, were stowed at the far end of the tent. She was wondering what was taking her so long. She should've known it was a trap, because a familiar scent came to her nose just then. Three guards stood at attention as a tall black-furred she-wolf in traditional black Nazi Hauptmann attire, a pistol and crop at her right hip and a saber in its scabbard on the left, strode into the tent with deadly grace. She stopped in front of them, removing their gags as she stared at them with striking blue eyes.
"Hela Tempest," said Adora with disgust, narrowing her own blue eyes. "It's been a while. Last time was Tanzania, correct?"
"Yes," said the she-wolf in a smoky American-accented voice. "The Jewel of Kilimanjaro should've been mine... but alas. Now, however, I have something of yours'." said Hela as she opened a safe, taking the Jaguar's Key out of it.
"The Jaguar's Key," said Hela. "said to be able open a crypt housing the corpses of an army of Jaguar Knights. With it, I canreanimate and command them."
"How about you take the Key and schiebe es in deinen arsch, you traitor." said Adora, her voice full of malice. Hela gave her a slap across the face with her crop, snarling savagely.
"The only reason I keep you alive during all these missions," she said, returning to her calm manner of speaking. "is because I find you and your girlfriend's antics amusing. Don't piss me off again, or I will kill you."
"Nah," said Maria in a Brazilian-accented sarcastic tone. "You'll miss us, we have so much fun together."
"See, that right there is what I'm talking about," said Hela with a chuckle. Maria's gold eyes glared as Hela pulled the maned wolf's chin up with her crop.
"Still, if I'm going to be killing anyone, it's going to be Adora. I can think of a few reasons to keep you alive, my sweet." said Hela in a rather seductive and sinister manner as her eyes started pulsating with many colors.
"Not gonna work again, you crazy bitch." said Maria, shutting her eyes.
Without warning, Maria uppercut-kicked Hela's jaw using her species' signature long legs. She then front-flipped and crashed the chair she was bound to onto the dazed wolf, breaking the chair and freeing her as she dodged the fire of the guards as she made a dash for her and Adora's weapons. Grabbing Adora's pistol, she killed all three guards in three skillful shots.
"Holy shit, you're beautiful when you're kicking ass." said Adora in amazement.
"As if I'm ever not? I believe these are yours," said Maria, handing Adora her whip and pistol. "Got the Key." she said, picking up the Key.
"Great, let's get the hell out of here!" shouted Adora as the two of them sprinted out of the tent and through the camp.
"STOP THEM!!!" roared Hela, raising her pistol and unsheathing her saber.
Machine gunfire came from all sides as Adora and Maria ran as fast as they could out of the camp, all the while taking out Nazi wolves by means of whip, bullet, or hook sword.
"Come on," shouted Adora. "Into the jungle!" The canines sprinted into the thick jungle, the trees and vines shielding them from bullets and obscuring them from view. They ran for a few minutes, eventually stopping at a large cliff, a waterfall not too far on the right.
"Any bright ideas, mi dulce?" asked Maria. The snarls and howls of wolves grew ever closer as Adora looked back and forth at them and the bottom of the cliff.
"Jump!" she shouted as she and Maria leapt off the cliff and plummeted many stories into a lower level of the Amazon River. Wolves, led by Hela, stopped at the edge of the cliff, seeing no sign of their quarry. A fedora floated up to the water's surface. Hela glared at it, letting out a low snarl.
"They're not dead," she said coldly. "But give up the chase. For now."
Adora and Maria rose to the surface, gasping for air. They clambered to shore, their fur and clothes sopping wet.
"Got the Key?" said Adora, grabbing her soaked fedora and putting it on her head.
"Got it." said Maria, pulling the Key from her satchel.
"Good. Carlos shouldn't be too far downriver." said Adora as they made their way downriver.
At last they came to a silver and red floatplane with three seats, two passengers and one cockpit, inside which was a snoring basilisk lizard.
"Hey, Carlos," said Adora, flicking the basilisk on his nose, who woke in a burst of irritated Portuguese. "Take us to Rio, we have a Key to sell."
At the Rio de Janeiro airport the following afternoon, Adora and Maria got into their seats in an airliner, waiting to take off.
"I got a call from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in the airport." said Adora.
"Really?" said Maria with a smile. "I've always wanted to go to Egypt."
"Well, you're in luck," said Adora, pulling out a piece of paper, on it a sketch of a cobra-headed staff, it's mouth wide open in a fang-baring hiss, with some writing about it. "Because we're heading there to recover the Staff of Apep. Apparently it belonged to a tyrant who wanted to use it to bring up an army from the Underworld, but was stopped by her Medjai."
"Medjai?" asked Maria with a cute tilt of her head.
"Basically, the Pharaoh's secret police."
"Neat. So Egypt it is?" asked Maria.
"Yep. We're taking this flight to New York, then it's off to Cairo."
"And we're going to Cairo!?" exclaimed Maria excitedly as she hugged Adora tightly and kissed her on the cheek.
"This isn't exactly gonna be a leisure trip, you know." said Adora, struggling to breathe.
"Oh, come on," said Maria, still grinning like a madwoman. "We just nearly got killed like, twenty times during the past few days. We should take some time to relax."
"Fair point." said Adora as the plane began to take off.