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INT. HIGH SCHOOL HALLWAY - DAY

Taylor SLAMS shut his locker, his eyes staring ahead seemingly at nothing. He then POUNDS his fist against the locker, bringing his head up to rest against his arm, holding back tears as best he can.

KEITH, his best friend and basketball teammate, walks up from his right, already wearing his practice jersey and holding a ball under one arm.

KEITH (confused) Taylor, aren't you coming? It's the first practice of the season! You don't want Coach to be on your ass all year, do you?

Taylor turns to look at Keith, his eyes wet and red.

TAYLOR I'm not going to play basketball this year.

Gasping, Keith jaw falls open and he drops the ball he was carrying.

KEITH (incredulous) What?! What the hell are you saying?! You're the best player in the state! You can't quit! What would you do instead?

His jaw quivering only slightly and his whiskers twitching, Taylor takes a deep breath, a determined look starting to appear on his face. He hands Keith a slip of paper.

INSERT PAPER

It's a photocopy of a cast list for the West Eagle High School production of The Music Man. Taylor's name is listed on top, next to the name Harold Hill, the main character.

BACK TO TAYLOR

TAYLOR I got the lead, Keith. I'm going to do what I've always dreamed: be in a musical.

Stunned, Keith turns his head, looking back and forth between Taylor and the paper, before--

Quinton tossed the script aside in disgust, it landing on the ground next to three others that had been rejected in much the same way. The slender, handsome stoat removed his wire-frame glasses, grimacing as he rubbed his eyes. "I've got to fire my agent," he muttered. "Every script's the same damn thing. No matter what the character is named, they all want me to play Victor again."

He opened his eyes and gazed out onto the ocean in front of him, the calm, sapphire waters gently lapping against the white sands of the beach. So peaceful, so relaxing. Not a soul around: no directors, publicists, or studio execs within five hundred miles. The complete opposite from the noise, lights, and pressure of Hollywood. This was the fourth year in a row that Quinton had chosen to travel after filming wrapped to this exclusive, extremely expensive resort on a secluded tropical island in the Caribbean, and each time the urge to stay here and not return intensified. Thankfully, the studio had agreed to his demand that, since he had just graduated from college, the sixth film in the Senior High Drama series should be the last, giving him a chance to escape the role of Victor, the athlete with the secret desire to be on stage and branch out as an actor. But it seemed that the only producers who had an interest in casting him just wanted to do the same exact character with slightly different dressing. In short, he had been typecast.

Leaning back against his lounge chair, Quinton unzipped his vest, letting the beige fur on his toned chest and stomach absorb the warm sun rays. Closing his eyes, he began meditating, trying to clear his head of all of the emotion and frustration that clouded it. As he did so, he started to remember some advice his father had given him the last time he was home: "The only way you're going to get a role that you will truly appreciate is to write it yourself."

"Of course!" The thought seemed to bring a sudden new energy to him, story and character ideas springing to the stoat's mind. "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" He had read so many bad scripts over the years, always thinking that he could do better. Now was his chance to prove it. Bolting back upright, Quinton reached into his black leather Prada messenger bag and pulled out a small moleskine notebook and pen. Opening to a blank page, he started jotting down the ideas, his pen moving so fast that the words were barely legible. Each idea written down brought two new ideas to mind, and he continued scribbling, trying to capture them all, a sense of manic determination building inside of him

"Hey! You're Quinton Beck!"

Quinton's arm jerked instinctively, the point of the pin ripping a small hole in the page where he was writing. So absorbed in his brainstorming session, he had been completely oblivious to the fact that he was no longer alone on the beach.

Frowning slightly, he glanced up and saw the beaming face of an ocelot in front of him, looking to be only a few years younger than him, wide-eyed and very excited. Judging by his unkempt appearance, the tattered navy shorts he was wearing, and his dirty bare paws, Quinton guessed this ocelot couldn't be a guest at the resort, and was more likely from the small village on the other side of the island. Unless they were resort staff, the natives tended not to stray too far from their village, knowing that one of the reasons celebrities like him would spend so much money to stay here was to be left alone and avoid the prying eyes of fans and the media. Apparently, though, this young feline hadn't gotten the message.

The ocelot's enthusiasm didn't seem to waver with Quinton's awkwardly silent stare. "I'm your biggest fan!" he continued. "The name's Luca. I've seen all of the Senior High Drama movies at least ten times each! I think you're the best actor in the world!"

Shifting in his chair, Quinton realized that he wouldn't be able to get this cat to leave without saying at least something to him. "W-well, I wouldn't know about that, but thank you, Luca."

It didn't seem possible, but Luca's smile seemed to get even wider at hearing the famous stoat say his name. "Oh, you bet! I can't wait until Senior High Drama 6 comes out. Is it as awesome as the fifth one was? Do you and the rest of the club find a way to keep Principal Campbell from cutting your funding?"

"Uh..."

"No, don't tell me! I want to be surprised for myself when I see it!" Luca hopped up and down slightly, unable to contain his excitement. "Gosh, I can't believe that Quinton Beck the movie star vacations on my island!"

Getting nervous, Quinton glanced to his left and right, realizing that one of the downsides of being on this isolated beach was that the nearest security guard was back at the resort buildings, a half-mile trek through the jungle away. "Well... i-it was nice to meet you, Luca," he stammered, turning back to his notebook, hoping that he could get the kid to realize he wanted to be left alone.

Luca, however, didn't take the hint. "I saw online that this one may be the last in the series. Is that true? I really hope not. I mean, why stop now when the story's still so good?"

Quinton tried to resume his brainstorming, but the flow of ideas seemed to have been cut off. "Look," he said, gritting his teeth, "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm trying to do some writing here, so if you don't mind...?"

"Ooooh, you write too?" The ocelot's eyes widened, and he leaned in, trying to get a closer look at the contents of the notebook. "Man, I knew you were talented, but I didn't realize that you were so versatile. Are you writing a screenplay? I can think of a million types of roles you'd be perfect for!"

That's it, Quinton thought to himself. He reached down and grabbed the discarded screenplays from the ground, stuffing them into his bag haphazardly as he stood up, glaring at the young feline. "Goodbye, Luca." He stormed off, heading towards the jungle, hoping that by the time he got to the resort, the ocelot would have either given up, or security would be able to handle it for him.

"Oh... okay." Luca's ears flattened as he watched the stoat disappear past the trees. He had fantasized for years about getting the chance to meet his idol face-to-face, but this hadn't gone exactly as he had planned. Had he said or done something to offend? He couldn't imagine Victor getting that upset in any of the films, or storming off like that back to--

"Hey, wait!" Luca hadn't thought about it at first, but Quinton must've gotten mixed up, and was heading the wrong direction. "Your resort's back to the east! That way leads deeper into the jungle, towards--" His eyes widened as he realized just what lay in the direction the stoat was going, and what that could mean. The fur on the back of his neck started to stand up, and he began to panic. "Quinton! Turn around! You don't want to go that way!"

Quinton could hear Luca calling after him, but his words were obscured by the noise of the surrounding jungle. Shaking his head, he began to mutter under his breath. "Crazy stalker. Can't he just leave me alone?" So caught up in trying to lose the ocelot, Quinton didn't notice how unfamiliar his surroundings looked, and how much thicker and darker the overgrowth of the jungle was getting. He didn't realize that he had gone the wrong direction until he saw the temple ruins.

Built into a small cliffside and overrun with leaves and vines, the entrance would've been easy to miss if not for the large golden statues on either side, both over thirty feet tall, their heads rising above the edge of the cliffs. They seemed worn by age and the elements, and the details of their appearance had faded with age, but they clearly were anthro in nature, and very muscular anthros at that, wide-shouldered with powerfully-built chests and thick arms. Judging by their pointed ears, rounded muzzle, and long, curled tail, Quinton guessed that they were depicting some kind of feline, perhaps the ancestors of the island natives, or at least an idealized version of them. In between the statues, a fallen tree partially blocked the entranceway, a dimly-lit hall stretching on behind it.

The amazement of his discovery soon vanished as Quinton realized that Luca's voice was getting closer. Damn his persistence, the stoat thought. I need to hide. I doubt he'd think I'd head in here. Looking back to make sure the ocelot wasn't close enough to see him yet, he climbed over the fallen tree and headed into the temple, stopping once he was deep enough to not be visible from the outside.

The interior of the temple appeared to be in about as bad of shape as the exterior. Every twenty feet or so, a section of the ceiling had collapsed, forming small piles of rubble on the stone floor. Several small pedestals lined the sides of the hall, looking as if they were designed to display an artifact or piece of artwork, but they all were empty, picked clean by thieves ages ago, Quinton guessed. Along the left wall, he could make out what appeared to be some form of writing, although he had never seen letters that looked that way before. Pictures appeared below the words, somewhat basic-looking but still-identifiable figures and shapes. A person, a cup, an arrow, a temple, a paw. Perhaps some form of hieroglyphics, he thought. Quinton tried to decipher a meaning from the placement of the pictures, but before he could piece anything together, he heard the sound of paw pads on stone coming from the entranceway.

Swearing under his breath, Quinton shook his head and went deeper into the temple, able to see less and less as the light from the outside got further away. He moved to the left side of the hall, running his hand against the wall for guidance. This is stupid, he thought. I should just turn around and head back to the resort. If the kid tries anything, I'm sure I can handle him.

Just before turning around, though, he saw a flickering light source out of the corner of his eye, and the wall he was guiding himself with turned a corner. Between a pair of barely-glowing torches, an archway appeared to lead to a larger room where more light, however faint, was beckoning. How could those torches still be lit? Quinton wondered. Is there possibly someone who still uses this decrepit place? His curiosity growing, Quinton carefully made his way through the archway and into the chamber beyond, stunned by what he saw.

The room was huge, at least thirty feet from floor to ceiling and double that to the opposite wall. The light he had seen seemed to be shining down through holes in the ceiling, though Quinton couldn't quite make out if it was coming from outside or from another room above. A row of large marble columns lined either side of the chamber, each column as big around as a tree trunk.

At the center of the room was a raised platform with stairs leading up to it on all sides. Two stone statues stood on either end of the platform, robed figures with their heads bowed, their faces completely obscured. Between them was a pedestal, much like the ones from the hallway leading in. This one, however, wasn't empty, but held what appeared to be a very ornately-carved golden chalice. Quinton couldn't help but stare, as the chalice seemed to be giving off its own light, shimmering and standing out from the surrounding darkness. It looked very out of place, appearing brand new, unlike everything else he had come across. Would someone have brought this here and just left it? he wondered. He had to take a closer look.

Slowly walking up the stairs, he began to make out some markings carved into the chalice. As he got closer, he recognized the the same style of the iconography that he had seen near the entrance, though the images on the cup appeared to only depict people. That's peculiar, he thought. Are they getting larger as they go around the cup?

Even stranger, an eerie blue glow emanated from inside the bowl of the chalice. Quinton's eyes widened, realizing that the cup wasn't empty, but held a thick, viscous liquid of an unearthly electric blue color, from where the glow seemed to be coming. What the hell could that be? he thought. His fingers reached out, needing to touch the blue liquid just to see what it felt like. As he placed his hand against the edge of the cup, however, he heard the sound of Luca's voice shouting at him from the chamber archway. "No!!"

A small but concentrated shock knocked Quinton back, and the chamber began to shake around him, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and his vision blurred. Coughing, the stoat wiped his eyes, feeling a tugging against his vest.

"Quinton!" Luca had run up behind him, franticly trying to help him to his feet. "Hurry! You've got to get out of here!"

Standing up, Quinton hesitated for just a moment, enough time for him to notice the stone statues on either side of them beginning to glow. Gasping, Quinton started to back away, but kept his eyes focused on the statues as the stone seemed to melt away, black fabric robes appearing underneath as if they'd been there the whole time. The heads of both figures slowly began to turn upwards, revealing two sets of glowing eyes inside, both a striking, bright blue.

"You should not have come here." A pair of deep voices filled the chamber, speaking in a cold, calculating tone. "The power you seek cannot be obtained by those from the outside world; your attempts to steal it are in vain."

"What? Power?" Quinton asked, his voice cracking slightly. "No, you don't understand! I only came to this temple trying to hide. I saw the cup, and I was curious. But I wasn't trying to steal--"

"Silence!" The word thundered throughout the chamber, their voices much louder than before, shaking the ground yet again and loosening more debris from the ceiling. Gulping, Quinton complied, as the two continued. "We are the Guardians of the Chalice, and we do not tolerate thieves. But if you seek the power it bestows, then you shall be witness to it!"

In one smooth motion, both figures brought a hand to the hood of their robes and quickly pulled them back. The robes seemed to unwrap themselves from their bodies, and both fell to the ground, revealing a pair of tall, muscular jaguars underneath, now clad only in rather skimpy-looking loincloths. They appeared identical save for their fur colors, one a relatively standard jaguar fur pattern, with a sharp yellow base and black and brown rosettas, while the other's fur was completely black. Both jaguars' eyes continued to shine a bright blue, an almost alien-like appearance that sent shivers down Quinton's spine.

Frozen in fear, the stoat could only stare as the two jaguars stretched their arms towards the pedestal that stood between them, both hovering their hands inches above the cup. The blue light from inside seemed to glow brighter, as if their proximity to it had set off some sort of reaction. Soon the glow started to travel up their hands and arms, being absorbed into their skin and fur. It only took about ten seconds before their entire bodies were coated with the light, after which its intensity continued to brighten.

Complete bewilderment gripped Quinton, his brain unable to process what his eyes were seeing. He felt survival instincts clawing deep inside his gut, begging him to flee from this temple as fast as he could. Somewhere among the cloud of thoughts and emotions swirling around him, he could hear Luca's voice telling him to do the same thing. But before his legs could comply, he realized something that confused and terrified him even more: the jaguars had started to grow.

Quinton already had to turn his neck upward by the time he had processed just what was happening. Their bodies swelled, their heads rising with each breath, a slow but constant process. Their seven feet became eight, which soon became ten, and with each passing second their growth only accelerated, having doubled their starting height and continuing to get larger. The platform soon became too small for them to both keep their paws on it, and the two big cats stepped back down to the floor below, the loud thump of their footsteps echoing off the walls. They both shifted their bodies slightly, making sure to keep themselves turned to face the frightened stoat.

Even at their original sizes, the Guardians were imposing figures, with rippling arm muscles and powerful, sculpted chests. Quinton imagined that most normal furs would have had no chance in any kind of fight, much less a skinny, somewhat wimpy actor such as himself. But now, eye level with their knees and only getting smaller in comparison, he had no doubt that any direct attack from them would mean certain death. There could only be one option for survival: retreat.

"C'mon, Quinton!" Luca yanked at his arm, nearly pulling it out of its socket. "You need to leave. NOW!"

The stoat nodded, slowly taking a few steps back, but kept his eyes fixed on the towering felines. The heads of the two giants had reached the ceiling of the chamber, and their growth, thankfully, seemed to have stopped. At the same time, the blue glow throughout their bodies faded everywhere except for the eyes, where it shone bright as ever. For a moment, the Guardians stayed still, and Quinton hesitated to keep backing up, worrying that too quick a movement on his part would cause them to react in an unpleasant manner.

A few seconds later, though, he realized that wouldn't matter. The black-furred jaguar slowly lifted up his leg, high enough into the air that Quinton could see the dark paw pads on its underside. He then brought it back down, only a few feet in front of Quinton. The temple shook violently, and Quinton could barely keep himself upright.

"Go!" Luca jumped from behind and stood between Quinton and the jaguar's paw, his arms frantically motioning towards the exit. "I'll distract him. Run, Quinton, run!"

He couldn't argue with that. Spinning around, he started to run away as fast as he could, hearing Luca yelling something unintelligible at the Guardians. As he got close to the archway leading out of the chamber, Quinton pushed even harder, thinking that he just might be able to make it out of this bizarre situation alive.

The Guardians, however, had other ideas. "There is no escape for your kind!" Quinton couldn't tell which of the two was speaking, but the voice was so loud that he could feel his eardrums vibrating, and he lost his balance, falling to his knees. As he pushed himself back up to his feet, he turned his head back slightly, just in time to see the black jaguar lifting his paw up higher into the air than before, bringing it down with much greater force.

The floor seemed to push up against Quinton, sending him flying into the air and crashing back down again, landing on his back a few feet in front of the archway. Dazed for a moment, he quickly opened his eyes, coughing and trying to wave away the cloud of dust that had formed around him. He looked up as his vision became clearer, only to see that the stone forming the arch was starting to collapse around him, rubble starting to block the entranceway. Trying to get to his feet and escape before it would be too late, he suddenly felt someone shove him hard in the side, causing him to fall to his right, just before a block of stone nearly as long as he was tall crashed right where he had been standing.

"Fuck!" Quinton screamed out of sheer shock. As he scrambled back up to his feet, he realized Luca was lying on the ground next to the large block, clutching his arm with his paw and groaning in pain.

"Luca?" For the first time since he had met the young ocelot, he started to feel something besides irritation. "You-- you saved my--"

Before he could finish that sentence, he saw the Guardians both starting to move closer again. It would only be a few seconds before one of them could get a hold of him and do god-knows-what. And the only exit in the room had collapsed. He was trapped, with no way to escape, and about to meet his demise.

"T-the Chalice..."

The words were barely more than a whisper from Luca's lips, but they were loud enough that Quinton could hear them, though he didn't quite know what Luca meant. "The Chalice? What about it?"

Coughing, Luca tried to sit upright, using his good arm to point at the cup still standing on its pedestal in the middle of the room. "They'll do anything to protect the Chalice. If you can grab it and throw it over by the columns against the wall, you might be able to get them to cause some major damage, maybe bring the roof down on them."

"Bring the roof down? But wouldn't that--"

Before he could finish his sentence, he felt himself getting pulled up into the air by his vest. He was spun around, suddenly face-to-face with the black jaguar, being brought closer and closer to his large open maw. Quinton couldn't help but notice how sharp the cat's teeth seemed, and for a moment he pictured his body being ripped apart by them, fur, flesh and muscle being ripped from his bones as easily as one would eat a chicken wing. A gruesome ending, life over, credits roll.

But Quinton wasn't ready for this movie to end yet. Pulling his arms inside his vest, he quickly wormed his way loose from it, falling to the ground some twenty feet below. As he landed, he did his best to roll himself into a ball and somersault forward, shirtless and bruised but not broken.

Jumping back up to his feet, he quickly remembered Luca's words, and knew he only had one shot. He dashed towards the platform, leaping up the stairs three at a time. The two huge cats seemed caught off guard by his sudden action, and by the time they reacted, he already had the chalice in hand. Surprisingly, the blue substance inside the cup didn't seem to slosh around one bit as he moved it, staying as still as glass.

"Hey, assholes!" Quinton called out, waving it back and forth in a taunting fashion. "Some Guardians you are!" This definitely seemed to both interest and infuriate the giants, and they started thundering towards him. The temple continued to quake and crumble around them, and Quinton had to reach out and steady himself against the pedestal to avoid falling down again.

Once they had gotten within reach, he turned towards the columns against the far wall, holding the chalice back behind his head. "You want this? Well then, FETCH!" The Chalice flew out of his hand, the glowing blue eyes following as it sailed between two of the columns and landed in the darkness beyond, its glow only faintly visible.

Enraged, both jaguars let out a deafening roar, but instead of going after Quinton, they turned and rushed towards where the Chalice had landed. As they reached the columns, they ignored the fact that their shoulders were too wide to fit, and both tried shoving their way through. One of the columns began teetering and then fell down, crashing into the column next to it, the whole row falling like dominos.

The roof started to crumble, the temple chamber falling apart around them. Running off the platform, Quinton dodged the raining debris and made his way back to Luca. As he turned back to face the far wall, he saw one of the Guardians reach down to grab the Chalice, just as that entire half of the temple collapsed. Massive amounts of stone crashed down onto both jaguars' heads, burying them underneath the avalanche of debris. Indeed, Quinton was surprised by the sheer amount of the wreckage, and as the dust cloud cleared, he saw that a large section of the cliffside had caved in as well, apparently having grown to rely on the temple structure for its support over the centuries. The cacophony of the building's collapse faded, and soon Quinton could hear the sound of the jungle coming from outside, and saw that sunlight was starting to pour in.

"Y-you did it." Quinton turned his head to see a smile forming across Luca's face. The ocelot turned to look at him, his voice weak but his enthusiasm still apparent. "I knew you could, Quinton! You always come out on top!"

The stoat rose to his feet, reaching down and helping Luca do the same. Looking at the ocelot, injured, coughing, and covered in dust, Quinton couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him, despite how annoying he had been before. Taking a deep breath, he sucked up his pride, sticking out his hand. "Well, I should thank you for pushing me out of the way of that block there. You probably saved my life."

Beaming, Luca grabbed the hand and shook it vigorously. "Oh, well, I couldn't let anything happen to my new best friend now, could I?"

Flenching a little, Quinton bit his tongue. Best friend? he thought. Okay, now's not the time to break the kid's spirits. But when we get out of here, I'm probably going to have to find some way to get rid of him. "Well," he finally said, "I owe you one." One what, he wasn't sure. Maybe I should autograph his DVD collection or something...

As they broke the handshake, a loud noise suddenly came from the collapsed section of the building. For a moment, Quinton was afraid that the Guardians had somehow survived the cave-in and were rising back up. But the noise didn't appear to be anything like that; it was more rushing in nature, like a violent wind. "It's not starting to storm out," he asked Luca, "is it?"

Before the ocelot could answer, a pair of bright blue lights shot out of the pile of stone, both coming from where the two guardians had fallen. The lights seemed to curve through the air, coming together just before they hit Luca's body. Both of them watched in amazement as his body seemed to absorb the light, starting to glow just as the Guardians had before, but even more intense, nearly blindingly bright.

"What the hell?!" Quinton cried out, trying to shield his eyes with his hands. "Luca?!"

It only took a few seconds before Quinton realized what was going on, but by then, he was already eye-level with Luca's stomach. The ocelot seemed to be growing even faster than the Guardians had, his transformation apparently doubled by the infusion of power coming from both corpses. Quinton backed away as the ears of the formerly-small cat reached the ceiling.

"Ow!" Luca winced as his head slammed against the hard stone, his ever-increasing body not seeming to care that it had run out of room to grow in. He tried to crouch down, but he quickly pushed through the roof, continuing to grow outside. On the ground, Quinton found himself having to quickly back away to avoid being overtaken by the cat's encroaching paws, which soon crushed the platform and the pedestal at the center of the room.

Just before Quinton found himself with no more room to retreat to, the growth finally stopped, and the glow died down. Looking up through the now-fully-demolished roof, the stoat gazed in wonderment at the ocelot towering over him and the rest of the jungle, who himself appeared a little confused by what had just happened.

"Quinton?" His voice thundered across the jungle, shaking the walls of the temple that still stood. Not hearing a response, Luca started to crouch down, the movement of his body causing a large gale of wind to blow at Quinton. As he sat on the ground, his backside pressed up against the debris of the former archway, crushing it into dust underneath it. He had to bend his legs at the knees, unable to stretch them out entirely in the suddenly-cramped temple chamber.

For the moment, Quinton didn't know how he should react, and his jaw simply hung open as he gawked up at the feline titan before him. It didn't matter. Luca soon caught site of him, and his tail started to flick back and forth excitedly, slapping against boulders and sending them flying.

"There you are!" Reaching out a massive paw, the ocelot scooped his friend up, bringing him up to his knee and plopping him down on it. Disoriented and dizzy by the sudden elevation change, Quinton had to grip on to Luca's fur to avoid falling off the leg to the ground below.

Luca, though, couldn't have seemed happier. "For a moment there," he said once the stoat had steadied himself, "I thought I might have accidentally crushed my best friend as I grew. That would've been embarrassing."

Shaking his head, Quinton tried to make sense of what had just happened. "I- I don't understand," he finally stammered. "Why did killing the Guardians cause you to grow?"

"I dunno," Luca shrugged. "Probably all that energy has to go someplace, and I was the closest one to it. But I'm sure glad it happened, especially while you were here with me!"

"Why's that?" Quinton asked, having a funny feeling that he wouldn't like the answer.

The grin on Luca's face widened. "Because now me and my new best friend can play all we want together. Think about it: the biggest movie star in the world with his biggest fan." He started to chuckle, moving his knees up and down a little as he did so. "In more ways than one.

Quinton began to feel sick in his stomach, though he wasn't sure if it was due to what Luca had said or being tossed about on his knee. As he began to worry about just what Luca may have meant by "play", he realized that getting rid of this fan might be a little harder than he thought.