In the Indonesian rainforest, the Tortuga was landed close to Mina's temple. The Earth Gem have been moved to a safer place. Where? Nobody knew.
Chris was jumping from tree to tree, with Mina following him.
"So you want to find a perfect present for Martin?"
"Sure, Mina. This year, I shall give him the best present ever!" Chris agreed.
"Wow. You sound determinated." Mina stopped for a moment in a branch, and Chris joined her.
"I do have a good reason…every year, in my birthday, Martin gives me lots of cool stuff, and on his birthday, i NEVER give him anything. I search around every single place to find the perfect present, but i never succeed." Chris explained.
"Wow…that's intense." Mina said. "Don't worry, big bro. I'll help you. together, we'll give Martin the bestest present ever!"
Inside the Tortuga, Martin observed the pictures in a book, remembering everything he did with the Wild Kratts during all that year.
"Wow… what a day," he said. "Isn't that right, guys?" He turned around, and saw that no one was there. "Uh… guys? Hey… where is everybody?"
Meanwhile, in Mina's temple, the crew was organizing everything for Martin's birthday party.
Aviva was using her air powers, to camouflage the place, until they finished decorating.
"I only hope Chris return soon. I can't keep this fog forever." She said.
"Relax. If there's someone who can find a perfect present for him, it's the one who knows Martin even better than we do." Koki assured her.
"Maybe…"
Mina and Chris landed close to the river.
"I'm gonna feel terrible if I don't give him anything this year." Chris reminded Mina. "It has to be just like him."
"Hmm… Martin loves animals, don't he?" Mina thought for a moment.
"Sure. After all he is a Kratt." Chris smiled.
"Why not giving him something from an animal?" Mina gave an idea.
"Yeah… like when he gave Aviva a porcupine quill necklace on her birthday." Chris agreed, remembering the time they met Quillber. "That's perfect, Mina!"
Suddenly, they heard a thunder. "Huh? Is it gonna rain?"
Some raindrops fell on their heads. "I think it's a yes! Let's find a place to stay. Quick!" Chris grabbed his little sister's hand.
"Weird…i wonder why it's raining like this…"
In the Tortuga, Martin felt a little upset.
"It happened again…He spents every day of the year with me…but just in one of the most important days in my lfe, he's not here…is it too hard to make this year different?" He complained, sitting on his hammock, with the sprigs of his hair down.
In the temple, everything was almost ready.
"Where are you? We're almost finished around here." Koki asked.
"It started raining, so we entered a cave to protect ourselves." Chris explained .
"Raining? Why it's raining only there?" Koki wondered. After all, it was a pretty sunny day. Then, secretly spying through Aviva's fog, she saw Martin in the Tortuga's window, with a sad face.
"Hmm…i'm feeling a light use of a Nature Power Necklace." Mina held the flower on her dress.
"Martin's medallion?" Koki asked.
"Maybe…He is a Water Guardian, and if he caused it to rain…he must be feeling upset or something like this."
"Well, he is upset already." Koki said. "But why only where you guys are?"
"This must be an involuntary use of his…Ouch!" Mina flinched. She stepped on something sharp.
"Uh…we'll call you later." Chris said.
Chris removed what injured Mina's foot. It looked like a rock.
"Hey, what's that?" Mina asked, trying to see two shadows in the dephts of the cave.
"Oh…it's the orangutam mom, and her baby." Chris said, smiling. "Hmm…maybe Huge-O is here too."
"Huge-O?"
"An orangutan friend of ours. The one of the Huge Orange Problem chapter." He pointed out in the Wild Kratts Diary. "He taught us about how using special leaves to make a cure for sore muscles. Wait…"
Chris analyzed the rock Mina stepped on. "It's a tooth."
"A tooth?" Mina asked .
"According to the analysis, it's a orangutan tooth." Chris said." Just like humans, many animals have dentitions. Some species never stop growing teeth, like the great white shark, others have only a limited number of dentitions, like us. And there are teeth of all kinds, and all very different and special."
"Different? Special? Hey…" Mina said.
"Martin's gift!" Mina and Chris concluded.
"This is perfect!" The Kratt in green said. "I'll call Koki."
Meanwhile, in a pink plane, Donita Donata was trying to have a new idea for her new collection.
"No, no, no! I simply don't have new ideas for my new autumn collection." She complained. Then, suddenly, she thought about something. "Hmm…but maybe someone has…"
Everything was ready for Martin's party: balloons, streamers, animal decorations…all was needed now was to surprise Martin.
"Lots of animals lose their teeth, during battles or naturally." Mina said. "There are all kinds, and they're all special."
"Hmm…a teeth necklace would be perfect for him." Koki agreed. "And we do have some animal teeth on the Tortuga. The only thing is…Martin's still there…" Suddenly, the signal started to fall.
"Hey…what's…going…on?" Koki's face disappeared from Chris's Creaturepod.
"The transmission was cut! What happened?" Mina asked.
"I don't know." Chris said.
"No problemo, Koki." Bite-Size said, then he whispered something to an animal in a tree. "About Martin's distraction…i have the perfect agent for this…" Then, he flied away. "I'll follow him, just to be sure everything will go according to the plan."
"This bat is a little rascal." Jimmy said. "In a good way."
"He learned it with me." Koki said.
Martin sighed, looking at the window. Then, he saw a familiar draco lizard zipping on a tree, and Bite-Size following him.
"Hey, Martin. Guess who i found around the trees." The bat said.
"Zippy! Hey, buddy!" Soon, he forgot about his sadness, his sprigs lifted up, and he followed the draco lizard. "Wait for me!"
Aviva took the oportunity to enter the HQ and get all the animal teeth they had.
After the rain stopped, Chris received a message by Koki.
"The distraction worked. Martin's far away from the Tortuga, and we got the teeth." Chris read it.
"Hmm .." Mina thought. "You have all sorts of animal teeth at the HQ?"
"No, unfortunately." Chris said. "They are very unique in our collection…just like my lucky tooth." Chris showed her a baby tooth on a pot. "I lost it when i was a kid, when Heidi made me find the three ducklings i told you about."
"We can find some more teeth around the world." Mina asked.
"How?" Chris asked
"This would be an opportunity to train my teleportation power." Mina said. "I think we should invite some "special friends" for the party … and during this, find some more teeth."
"Oh, I see your point." Chris said, holding her hand. Mina opened the Wild Kratts Diary, and stopped in a certain page.
"Next stop, Africa!"
After she teleported, Donita and Dabio looked from behind a tree.
"Now i see what are they planning. We haven't got anything when we intercepted their signal, but now we know where to go."
Chris and Mina ended up just where Mina wanted. In the middle of the African savannah.
"It worked. Let's find some more teeth." Mina said, and Chris agreed. Suddenly, a cheetah passed close to them.
"Hey, Blur!" Mina called, recognizing the cheetah. She immediatly stopped running and looked around.
"Chris? Mina? Wow, am i surprised to see you." The cheetah said, approaching them and chirping, calling her cub. Spot-Swat appeared, running in Mina's direction. He looked a little different: that striped marks on his back were disappearing and he was looking a little more like his mother.
"Wow...they grow up fast." Mina chuckled. Chris agreed.
"Look, we need your help. We need to find some animal teeth. Teeth that are not used anymore. It's for a very special surprise for Martin." Chris explained.
"Hey, i lost a tooth while hunting with Mom." Spot-Swat said. "It must be around this same place."
Chris used the Creaturepod to localize it, and it didn't took long to find the cheetah's missing tooth. "Thanks, Spot-Swat. Hey…wanna come to Martin's birthday party?" Chris asked.
"Can i, mom?" Spot-Swat asked.
"Sure. It sounds really fun." Blur said. Spot-Swat followed Chris and Mina.
"Thanks, Blur. Once the party's over, we'll bring him back." Chris guaranteed. They left to search for more teeth, but once they left, someone grabbed the cheetah.
*BG music: The Animal Song - Savage Garden*
Across the African savannah, they got some teeth from Crocodilla (who lost them while protecting her little ones), and her six daughters followed the two adventurers.
With a help from Thornsley, they found some elephant teeth in a skeleton left after a lion's hunting, and in a rhino skeleton, with a little help from Nubs, they found a Rhino horn. Even though those ones were really big, nothing that the Miniturizer couldn't solve.
"Good. We'll only need a few more." Chris said, while miniturizing the rhino horn. Suddenly, they saw something jumping really high.
"A caracal! No, three caracals!" It was Hang Time and her kittens. One of the kittens recognized Chris and ran toward them through the grass.
"Hey, i know you. You saved me from an owl a long time ago." The caracal said.
"Pouncemore! It's great to see you." Chris said.
"Wait…you understood what i said?" The kitten asked. "How?"
"Long story…" Chris saw he needed to explain what the crew already explained to Blur and Spot-Swat. "But first, we need your help."
"I only hope Bite-Size's distraction is working…" Mina commented.
Martin followed Zippy around with his draco power suit, being followed by Bite-Size.
"Zippy's winning, Bite-Size! We better hurry up!" Martin said.
"More that…i'm…hurrying…up?" The brown bat said, heavily breathing. He was exhausted. He needed to stop.
He stopped for an instant, hanging upside down in a branch, to catch his breath.
"I can't stand much longer. I only hope Mina and Chris return soon…"
"You're lucky!" Pouncemore said, while Mina and Chris followed him inside his home. "I lost some teeth while playing with my little sister."
"New ones will come soon, buddy." Chris observed, while Mina grabbed the teeth.
"And thanks for inviting us to Martin's birthday." Pouncemore's little sister said. "This is gonna be fun!"
"And don't worry, Hang Time. We'll bring them back once the party…" Mina was saying, until she noticed the adult female caracal wasn't there.
Outside, Dabio put the caracal into a cage, and returned to the plane.
"Excellent! I'll extract all of your teeth to my new line of dresses and accesories." Donita looked at the trapped crocodile, cheetah and caracal. "Hm…but maybe one more creature…"
"Martin! Zippy!" Bite-Size called the Kratt in blue and the draco lizard. "Wait for me! Man, you are hard to catch up with, compared to a mosquito!"
Suddenly, something sucked the bat up. "Hey! What the…Yikes! HELP!"
Martin and Zippy stopped running and looked up. It was Donita's giant vacuum.
"Oh, not her! I hope the others returned." Martin turned around, returning to the temple.
"Here, Koki." Chris gave her a bag full of different kinds of teeth.
"Chris, look!" Mina pointed out to the sky. Donita's pink plane flied above them.
"Uh-oh. We have trouble." Koki stated.
"Hey, the fog disappeared." They heard Martin's voice, and turned around. Martin entered the temple, with Zippy on his shoulder, and stared at the crew, surprised.
"Well…i think it's too late to say "Surp…" Mina was saying, until Martin embraced Chris.
"You're here! You're, here, you're here, you're here!" Martin cheerfully said.
"Huh…what?" Chris asked.
"You mean, all you ever wanted was Chris by your side in your birthday?" Mina linked the facts, understanding her big brother's reaction.
Chris's eyes glowed. He could have done this years ago…this, for Martin, was way more important that any gift in the world.
"Well.." Chris cleared his throat, wiping a tear. "I had a reason to my absence. And finally, i can justify it."
Martin felt ticklish, then he looked down to see Spot-Swat licking his leg.
"Well, that's my surprise: i brought some more guests!" Mina said, cheerfully. Thornsley, Nubs, Crocodilla's daughters, and Pouncemore and his sister entered the temple.
"And with them, i brought the perfect gift." Chris said, showing his brother the teeth they caught in Africa. "Some were lost during hunting, others fell naturally…but they're all unique and special. Like you."
Martin smiled, putting a hand on his little brother's shoulder, then turning around to thank his animal friends. "Thanks, guys. That is a gift i will never forget."
Then, he made a "just-realized" face. "Oh! I did forgot something! Donita's here, and she got Bite-Size!"
"WHAT?!" Koki asked. "We gotta save him!"
"She just passed above the temple. We'll never reach her in time." Aviva said. "Unless…"
"I think you're thinking what we are thinking." Chris winked to his big brother and little sister.
"Woo-hoo!" Martin said, in his falcon power suit, with Mina sitting on his back.
"In land, cheetahs may be fast, but in the air, nothing better to catch up with a plane than FALCON POWERS!" Chris said. They soon reached the plane, that landed close to a cliff.
"Soon, i'll be getting all of your wonderful teeth for my dresses! Donita Donata's African Autumn Collection will be my masterpiece!" Donita chuckled.
Bite-Size, who was freezed by a pose beam, couldn't hold his mouth. "Huh?! Teeth for dresses?! Getting teeth that fell naturally it's okay, but pull the ones that are still growing is cruel!"
"Huh? A talking bat?!" Donita stared at him, surprised. "Even better! Your teeth are more valuable!" Bite-Size shut his mouth once he heard that.
"Don't even touch him!" Chris said, opening the door with his claws. "Wow. Aviva made such an upgrade on this falcon claws." Martin and Mina entered.
"Leave this creatures alone, Lady Crazy-Clothes!" Mina shouted, hitting the pose beam that was trapping Bite-Size. "Ouch…" She rubbed her hand.
"Dabio, do something!" Donita ordered. Dabio ran against the Kratt brothers, but Mina held him with her levitation powers. "Go! Free the others!" She threwed Dabio on Donita, and they both hit the wall. She knelt, exhausted.
"Let's go, ani-moms!" Martin said.
"The only teeth you're going to get are the ones in your denture!" Mina joked, making Chris laugh. "Learned this one with the girls. Let's go." Once on Chris's back, she looked around and saw Dabio. "I must admit, it hurts doing this things to Dabio. He seems like a cool guy."
"Yeah, if only he could see how horrible Donita really is…" Chris sighed, agreeing with Mina, while they left the plane.
Martin blew up the candles of his cake, while everyone around him cheered. "Happy birthday, Martin!"
Mina and Chris gave him a small package. "You made a necklace with all those teeth! I LOVED IT!" Martin said, once he opened it. "Thanks, guys." He placed it on his neck. Then, he noticed one single tooth between the others. "Hey, isn't this one your…lucky tooth?"
"Yup." Chris said.
"You…gave it to me?"
"Sure. These are teeth of all the ones you named. And wasn't you who picked up my name?" Chris winked.
"Aww…" Martin hugged his little brother. How thoughtful of him…
"Oh, this reminds me…Cake Time, animals!" Mina and Jimmy brought a special cake for all the animals.
"Yummy." Pouncemore said, after taking a bite.
"Nothing better as celebrating with ALL your family around." Martin said. "Animals, humans…"
"Nymphs too?" Mina asked.
"Sure. Nymphs too." Martin chuckled. They all laughed as they celebrated together.
Martin was right: no matter how simple your party is, the best thing to have around is your family.
