A Brother's Bond:

By: Taralynn Wakelin

The rain that had been threatening to fall all day finally began by early evening. He sighed as he watched it fall amongst the trees and flowers of the forest. He leaned back in his chair putting his feet up on the table, he was happy he loved nature; he loved being in it, reading about it, or watching it from a window. He had been hoping to go exploring after being cooped up inside all day doing various jobs around the ship with his friends, but he'd have to wait Mother Nature had other plans it seemed. As he sat there watching the rain he suddenly felt tired, he yawned and rubbed his hands over his face before running them through his short, brown hair. He tried to stay awake, but soon his brown eyes drifted closed. He must have fallen asleep because the sound of the door opening behind him and someone running into the room woke him…actually it scared him. Forgetting where he was he fell backwards to the floor still in his chair, he groaned. Seconds later a familiar face with short, blond hair, and blue eyes appeared in front of him.

"Wow bro, you're pretty graceful! I give the landing a…five out of ten!" His older brother and best friend said smiling.

"You scared the crap out of me!" He responded rubbing his head.

"Sorry man, I didn't know you were in here." His brother said holding out his hand to help him up, he took it and started to get up.

"I figured that when…" He began, but was cut off by an angry female voice.

"MARTIN KRATT WHERE ARE YOU?" She yelled looking for his brother.

"She found me! I need to hide! Don't tell her where I' am okay?" His brother said quickly as he let go of him causing him to fall back onto the chair, his brother hid as the doors opened again.

"MARTIN?" She began as she looked around spotting him instead of his brother. "Um, Chris…what ya doing?" She asked as she walked over to him.

"Oh, hey Aviva!" Chris began as she stood over him smiling. "I was tired so I thought I'd take a nap!"

"Oh…most people do that in a bed or sitting in a chair! Come on I'll help you up!" She said smiling holding out her hand.

"Thanks!" He said taking it, he began to get up when she suddenly spoke letting go causing him to once again fall back onto the chair.

"Freeze Martin!" She said turning around to see Martin almost at the door.

"Hey Aviva! What's up?" Martin asked smiling.

"Don't hey Aviva me!" She said angrily. "I was just in the garage and do you know what I found there?"

"Umm…our adventure vehicles?" Martin answered playing dumb.

"I found the Createrra…wrecked! Again!"

"I can explain…you see I…umm…Chris broke the AquaSub!" Martin said quickly.

"He what?" Aviva said turning to look at Chris who had finally stood up, he looked like he was ready to run. "You broke the…wait a minute, no one's been in the sub it's being upgraded! Martin you can't…" Aviva trailed off realizing Martin was long gone.

"You'll get him next time!" Chris said smiling as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, since you're here when were you planning on telling me about your missing Creature Pod?" She asked annoyed.

"Well…you see, I was…it's a funny story really Aviva! I…look, there's Martin!" Chris yelled pointing behind her, she turned to look.

"Where? I don't…" She said trailing off as she turned back to find Chris was gone too, she shook her head. "Wow, those two are fast!" She said as she left the room to look for them.

Three Days Later:

The jet landed in a clearing near a small lake without making any noise. Once on the ground the doors opened and five, large men got off while a sixth man drove a large truck out of the cargo bay. The men got into the truck before it drove off into the forest, inside the jet more men rushed around doing various jobs. In the control room a lone male with salt and pepper hair, a goatee, and many tattoo's covering his very muscular arms sat at a computer. He smiled as he thought of his reason for being at this disgusting forest, he had a very simple one…he wanted a pack of wolves! He wasn't a stupid man, far from it; some might even call him a genius, and so he knew finding a lone wolf would be difficult, let alone finding a whole pack! It took knowing the animal, and he had no interest like usual in doing his own dirty work, so he had begun a search days earlier to find the perfect candidates to find and capture his wolves for him. It had been a long, boring process, but he soon found who he needed, the Wild Kratts! As he did his background study into them he learned that they worked to protect animals around the world from people like him! This wouldn't be the first time he'd be forced to make some goody-goody do what he wanted. He had ways to make even the most law-abiding, honest person do his evil work and he was looking forward to using some of them on the brothers. Right now his men were out searching for them, he first needed to find the team and watch them for a period of time to see if they would find the wolves on their own. If they didn't, then he'd have the brothers brought to him and he'd use his powers of persuasion to convince them to help. He got up and went to the mini bar and made himself a drink before he went and stood looking out the window a smile on his face knowing that once again he would come out victorious!

With The Brothers:

The sun had only been up a couple of hours, but it was already hot. Like usual the brothers were both up not long after the sun rose, and had taken off to explore. They decided to go on foot this time, not wanting to miss anything that they might have missed the day before when they drove the Createrra. Chris was in the lead; Martin kept getting distracted by different animals and plants. They had been walking for about an hour when Chris suddenly got the feeling they were being watched, he looked around and saw nothing, but the feeling remained. He glanced at Martin who was busy watching two squirrels play in the trees, if Martin didn't sense anything was wrong maybe there wasn't anything there. So he pushed it out of his mind and continued to explore, but the feeling only grew stronger. After another 10 minutes of walking and pushing the feeling out of his mind he suddenly felt Martin grab his arm stopping him as he whispered.

"Do you feel like we're being watched?" Martin asked looking around.

"Now that you mention it, yeah I do! I have for awhile now." Chris answered looking around too. "Do you see anything?"

"No…wait, over there in those bushes!" Martin whispered pointing.

"I see it…something or someone's hiding there!" Chris answered.

"What is it?" Martin asked.

"I don't know, let's go check it out! You go left, I'll go right!" Chris said.

The brothers separated and slowly, quietly crept up on whatever it was that was following them. Once close enough both brothers jumped out, but ended up bumping into each other knocking them both onto the ground on their backs. They sat up laughing at their mistake, Chris got up first then helped Martin up they looked around, but saw nothing. Suddenly Martin noticed something moving through the bushes behind them and pointed it out to Chris, they quietly began following it. They followed the movement for 10 minutes before they came to a clearing with a small lake and a cave a few feet away.

"Whoa, is that what I think that is?" Martin asked smiling as they finally saw their mystery stalker as it came out of the bushes and went to the lake to have a drink.

"It's beautiful!" Chris said as they watched the lone grey wolf drink before seconds later three more wolves; one black, one white, and one grey and white came out of the cave to greet their returning family member. "How many more do you think there are?"

"I don't know." Martin answered his eyes never leaving the wolves.

"Wait, I think I see some more in the den." Chris said pointing as two more large wolves both grey came out, the others rushed to them it was obvious they were the Alpha pair.

"This is incredible!" Martin said excitedly. "I'm catching it all on my Creature Pod! Do you think there's cubs?"

"Yep, four!" Chris answered.

"How do you know that?" Martin asked surprised.

"Look at the entrance to the den!"

"Awesome!" Martin said smiling; suddenly the wolves became tense and began looking around on high alert. "What's going on? The wolves are on alert about something!" He said as they watched as the Alpha pair ushered the cubs back into the den. "I don't like this…something's wrong!"

"I feel it too!" Chris said as they looked around. "Come on let's get out of here!" He suggested, he wasn't sure what was wrong, but he didn't plan on sticking around to find out what it was!

Meanwhile:

He hated nature, he hated everything about it and he couldn't wait to get his wolves so he could get out of this disgusting, bug-infested forest. He decided to check in with his men and see if they had made any progress with either the wolves or the tree hugger's.

"This is Strikeforce, go ahead boss!" Came the voice of one of his men over the radio.

"Have you made contact?"

"The team we sent out after the wolves just returned and didn't find anything sir!"

"The tree hugger's?" He asked rubbing his forehead in frustration at the idiots he had working for him.

"We managed to find their ship, and we tracked the brothers into the woods."

"Perfect! Did they find my wolves?"

"Umm…we're unsure sir!" The guy said nervously.

"What do you mean you're unsure? You idiot it's a simple yes or no answer!" He yelled.

"We…we lost them in the trees!"

"Idiots! I'm surrounded by idiots!" He yelled again. "You had one job! One, little job and you screwed it up like usual!" He couldn't believe they had failed again.

"Do you want us to return or keep tracking them sir?"

"You're going to stay out there until you either find me my wolves or the tree hugger's do! Am I understood?"

"Yes sir, we'll report back in a couple of hours!"

"You do that!" He said ending the connection.

After ending the call he made himself a drink before he turned on his computer and pulled up pictures of the brothers. He sat in silence starring at the screen angrily as he took a sip of his drink. He knew that for his plan to work he'd have to get his hands dirty, which meant capturing the tree hugger's and forcing them to do what he wanted! He smiled at the thought, he had no problem stooping to such means and getting physical, he quite enjoyed it! Despite enjoying it he rarely did it anymore since he acquired his idiot thugs, they handled that kind of thing; he was more into using his intellect! This time though would be different; he had done a great deal of study into the brothers and knew mere intellect wouldn't be enough to convince them, no this time he'd have to let his fists do the persuading! The longer he thought about it the bigger his smile got and he hoped that his idiot stooge's failed, so he could bring the brothers to their knees! He got up and stood in front of a window his arms behind his back as he smiled, he sighed as he spoke aloud to himself.

"One way or another Kratts you're going to help me get my wolves! I know all about those others who foolishly went up against you, and failed! They were weak in body and mind, that was their downfall! I' am neither gentlemen, and when not if, but when my men fail to bring me my wolves, you two will be my special little helpers! You two will be brought here and we shall come to an agreement that only I will find satisfactory! Until then dear brothers enjoy your freedom…while you still have it!" He said as he began to laugh.

The Next Day:

After their run-in with the wolves and whatever it was that had spooked them, the brothers returned to the Tortuga and excitedly told the team about their discovery. For some reason even the brothers didn't understand, they had decided to keep the location of the den secret from the team. They had never done that before and it wasn't that they didn't trust them, it was just a gut feeling they shared. The next day they were once again up with the sun and were ready to go exploring, they wanted to go back to the den and watch the wolves a little longer. They both remembered the way, and by late afternoon they arrived and found only the Alpha female there with the cubs the others off on a hunt. They sat watching them in silence from behind the bushes, Chris decided to record them again and the feeling from the previous day of something wrong was gone.

"Do you think she'll let us get closer?" Martin asked.

"I don't know, all we can do is try I guess!" Chris answered smiling.

"Let's try!" Martin said as they slowly left the bushes, their eyes never leaving the wolves. "Easy does it…so far so good!" Martin whispered.

"She sees us, but isn't concerned…yet!" Chris whispered back as they sat on a couple of rocks just in front of the bushes and watched them quietly.

"Chris, look over there!" Martin said pointing to the tree line across from them.

"Crap! Do you think we should hide?" Chris asked seeing the other wolves return.

"I don't know, let's see how they react before we decide." Martin suggested as the wolves went about their lives completely ignoring the brothers.

"I guess we're good!" Chris said smiling.

"This. Is. Awesome!" Martin said purposely dragging out each word.

Meanwhile:

After once again being unsuccessful to find the wolves and to have the brothers find them for him, he decided it was time to pay the brothers a visit! They arrived at the Wild Kratts ship and surrounded it, he got out and starred at the giant, turtle-shaped ship and shook his head in disgust one of his men joined him and spoke.

"We're ready when you are sir!"

"Well, then let's go pay the Wild Ratts a little visit huh?" He said smiling.

"Yes sir!" The man said smiling as he gave the signal and the men boarded the ship while he waited outside, seconds later his radio came on, he picked it up and answered it.

"All clear sir!"

"The brothers?"

"There's no sign of them on board sir, but we have the rest of the team!"

"Alright, I'm coming aboard!" He said throwing the radio onto the front seat of the jeep before he walked into the ship smiling.

"Who are you and what do you want?" The brunette woman demanded.

"My name is Zander Downs, and you three are?" Zander asked.

"None of your business!" She replied.

"No need to tell me, I know who you all are. You my feisty one are Aviva, the team's resident inventor!" He said standing in front of Aviva. "You are Koki, the team's communications tech!" He said going up to Koki. "And last we have the team's pilot Jimmy!" He said going up to Jimmy.

"So what? You know who we all are big deal!" Koki said angrily. "What do you want?"

"Where are the brothers?" Zander demanded.

"Not here!" Aviva answered.

"That's cute!" Zander said smiling as he walked up to her and grabbed her face. "Don't play dumb with me my dear, I don't like it! Where are they?"

"Leave her alone!" Jimmy yelled angrily.

"Such wasted loyalty!" Zander said shaking his head in disgust as he let her go. "We're done here, take them to the truck!"

"Let us go! Leave us alone!" Aviva yelled as all three fought to get free, but couldn't and they were tied up, taken off the ship and thrown roughly into the back of a cargo truck.

"I wonder how much loyalty the brothers will show you three in return?" Zander mocked them from the doorway of the truck.

"They'll come for us, and stop you for good you coward!" Koki yelled.

"Good…I'm counting on it!" Zander said smiling as he slammed the door shut before they could respond leaving them in darkness. Zander starred at the ship smiling while his men got back into the vehicles, once ready Zander got into the jeep and they took off back to their jet to get ready for their special guests!

TBC…