Hello once again everyone!
Sorry that this chapter has been delayed for so long! Lots of work for the summer on my plate right now, as well as Project NICK, who also has tons of work for himself. Meanwhile, Rio is almost on DVD here in the States! Can't wait until August 2nd!
Finally, I hope you can accept that we've taken awhile, and most of all, ENJOY OUR EFFORTS!
...
Rio: Fear and Feathers in Las Vegas
Chapter 3
Beauty of Adventure
"Wake up..."
Blu still felt hazy from the occurences in the past hour. It almost felt like he'd been asleep for hours. Days, even. All he could remember was a ton of commotion, and an extreme soreness in his wing. In fact, he could still feel the sensation now.
"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty..."
"Jewel? Is that you?" Blu asked sleepily.
"Just wake up, cerulean."
At the mention of "cerulean", Blu immeadiatley recognized the gravelly voice of Nigel. Blu opened his eyes wide open and finally could make out the shape of Nigel's sinister smile.
"Oh, it's just you..." Blu said angrily, still feeling the mind-numbing pain in his wing. The Spix macaw had actually started to think Nigel may have broken his wing...and if that were the case...
"Yes, it's just your favorite cockatoo in the world, cerulean." Nigel chuckled to himself as he paced back and forth in front of the cage. Blu then let out a low, fake laugh.
"Ha, that's so funny I forgot to laugh..." Blu said as he rolled his eyes with a clever smile. All of the sudden, Blu jumped when Nigel slammed into the cage he was sitting and grabbed Blu by his throat through the bars of the cage.
"You won't be able to laugh...or let alone breath when I'm done with you, my good friend." Nigel said with a low, sinister tone as he sharpened his grip on the now-gagging Blu. Finally, Nigel let go with his trademark cackle and then walked away, leaving Blu to try to regain his breath.
"Man, I hate that guy...You okay...Jewel?" Blu said to himself, suddenly noticing that Jewel wasn't in his cage as she was only a few hours ago. Blu's eyes shot open and frantically spun around the cage, looking for any trace of his mate.
"What did you do to Jewel?" Blu yelled accusingly, his tone an uncharacteristic angry one. Nigel muttered under his breath and then spun around.
"I seperated you two for a bit. I didn't want any funny business going on...after all, we have so many things to catch up on!" Nigel laughed lowly with a smile. Blu then noticed a cage from across the room that stored Jewel, who was currently asleep at the moment. Blu let out a shakey sigh, still feeling fear at Nigel possibly doing something to either of them.
"No offense Bad, Bad and Ugly, but I don't think cages are too romantic." Arthur commented from his cage from across Blu. Nigel growled at the reporter-bird's comments. Nigel hadn't exactly thought Arthur would be such an annoyance. At least he wasn't doing much else besides talk, Nigel thought to himself.
"I meant that they would try to escape! With no damsal at his side, what is a hero, hmm?" Nigel asked with his accent purring itself straight into Blu's eardrums like a nest of bees.
"Like you'll keep us from getting out here. We'll get out of this van just like we've gotten out of every other cage you've put us in." Blu guranteed with resiliancy in his voice. Nigel chuckled to himself and shook his head as if he held pity for the Spix macaw.
"Check that, Air-for-Brains. We left the van hours ago. We're now in an airplane heading straight for our destination." Nigel said with a smile. Blu suddenly noticed that they were indeed in a completely different storage area. Instead of just them, there were now about 10 more cages to the right of the group, filled to the brim with canaries, ducks and even owls.
"Oh," Blu said softly, feeling somewhat embarassed at his mistake.
"Sweet nightmares, ladies. Don't ask for peanuts, either." Nigel cackled as he walked through a small door seperating the storage area and the cockpit.
"Man, I hate that creep..." Pedro commented. Blu rested his head back down, his mind swirling with millions of thoughts. What was a romantic honeymoon between him and Jewel had turned into getting trapped in cages in a plane heading who knows where. He almost felt like it was all his fault for getting Jewel and everyone into a situation that he had caused by getting Nigel de-feathered back in the Amazon. In fact, everything between the cockatoo and himself had sparked this. The plane in Rio, Vito and the mafia, the Amazon...it all just balled itself into an array of guilt upon the Spix's head and reasons to seek revenge on him and his friends for Nigel.
"Yo Blu, you got any ideas on how to get out?" Wally asked as he examined the bars on the cage. Blu tried to think of any way to escape, but it seemed almost full-proof this time. The cage he was in was completely locked, not allowing any means of escape without a makeshift key of some sort, and with his possibly-broken wing, Blu couldn't see any way he could break out.
"Wally, I think we're going to have to get used to this for a bit, because I can't find anything that could get us out of here..." Blu sighed as he stared at Jewel from his cage, at least wanting to brave through this in the same cage as her. Wally sighed in response and then rested his head on a bar on the cage.
"Don't worry about it, Blu. We'll find some way out of this..." Jez assured in a comforting tone, but Blu still felt awful. Maybe it was the guilt, maybe it was the pain he felt in his wing. Either way, all of it was tearing him apart inside.
"I just feel bad. I keep thinking this is all my fault for getting us stuck into all of this Nigel stuff again." Blu replied as he continued to watch his mate from his cage.
"Don't think that way amigo! We'll find some way out of this...Just rest a bit..." Arthur answered as he tapped on the cage bar, inspecting for any weak points.
"Thanks Artie..."
...
Meanwhile, Bobby was flying across mountaintop after mountaintop towards Rio de Janeiro, frantic to spread the news to his other friends that everyone had been birdnapped. Every landmark that Bobby had laid eyes on when Wally, Arthur and him had flown to Niagra Falls was completely omitted from his mind. Flying colors of green, blue and...a black bird carrying something continously zipped past Bobby, until Bobby finally was able to spot the jungle that Blu, Jewel and the rest of the gang lived in, and Bobby quickly rushed faster, his wings feeling as if they were ready to rip off and take on a life of their own. Bobby finally reached the inside of the jungle, and loudly began yelling for his friends.
"Nico!...Rafael!..Guys! I need your help! Big...trouble!" Bobby said, frequently gasping for air after every name was called. Bobby finally spotted the familiar, small yellow dots of Nico and Flora, and he finally crashed into the ground, landing in front of Rafael in a daze.
"Jeez Bobby! You really need to learn how to stick the dismount..." Nico exclaimed as helped pull up Bobby, who's eyes were rapidly spinning and turning frantically.
"Woah amigo, what's the matter?" Rafael asked, grabbing Bobby to hault his shaking and vibrating.
"LOTS OF THINGS ARE THE MATTER!" Bobby screamed out, his yelling echoing practically across the entire city. Rafael, Nico and Flora quickly backed off in shock, the exploding pigeon beginning to become frantic in his movement and his constant nervous mumbling making him sound unstable.
"Woah man, take it easy! What the heck happened?...And where's the other guys?" Nico said calmly. Bobby jumped at the mention of the rest of the birds, and he finally screamed out the answer to the past few questions.
"Blu and the guys got birdnapped!" Bobby yelled, the new realization slapping everyone across the face mentally like a glove.
"See what happened Nico? Now that poor Carlos is kidnapped and now the guys too!" Flora said as if Nico was the cause of it all.
"Hey! Hey! I may have lost Carlos, but it's not like I was the one who let the others get birdnapped!" Nico said in defense, when everyone suddenly realized what that could be blamed on. Bobby suddenly felt the looks of three birds staring at him, not counting the blue macaw kids who were distracted at the moment by a butterfly passing by.
"What? Me, Pedro and Robyn tried savin' 'em, but that crazy cockatoo threw them into cages! He almost woulda had me if I didn't get the heck outta there!" Bobby said nervously. Nico and Flora both gasped at the mention of Pedro and Robyn being thrown into cages, and Nico suddenly donned a surprisingly angry look.
"No one throws my best bud into a cage! It's on now!" Nico said, looking ready to pound the daylights out of Nigel.
"You have any idea where they were going?" Rafael asked, ignoring the angry canary next to him.
"The guys who captured him were headin' to Vegas, I think. We gotta get there quick if we wanna catch up!" Bobby exclaimed frantically.
"Then let's go! We gotta find that nasty old crow too!" Flora insisted, quickly beginning to take off to the skies. Bobby expressed clear confusion at this statement, to which Rafael then glanced at the now-guilty looking Nico.
"Eh...Carlos kinda got kidnapped by that crow from the bird mafia..." Nico said, his face looking like a guilty child. Bobby thought for a moment, and he suddenly realized what the black bird from before was...
"Oh man! I saw him when I was flyin' over here...Aw man, now I feel guilt!" Bobby cried, his tone sounding like a five-year old kid.
"Look, you stay here with Eva and watch over the ninos . We'll go find Carlos and the rest of our amigos!" Rafael exclaimed as he quickly took off to the sky along with Nico, Flora and the Macaw kids.
"Wait, I have to watch kids? I didn't agree to this!" Bobby yelled out, his mind suddenly realizing...he was going to be a babysitter...
"Man Rafy, I don't know anything about kids...'cept that they make some nasty messes..."
...
Blu's eyes popped open after what seemed like hours of sleep. The Spix macaw raised his head to find his friends, still sitting in the same cages with the same looks of despair in their faces.
"We didn't get very far, did we?" Blu asked hazily, noticing not a single thing had moved. Arthur sighed deeply and then knocked on the bars of his cage angrily.
"We checked, buddy...There ain't any way to get out of these cages without some kind of key..." Arthur said sadly. Blu laid his head back down in almost-agony, not knowing what came next for him. Blu wasn't sure if he was even going to be alive much longer. It had supposedly been a day already (Judging by the window down the side of the storage area of the plane) and he hadn't eaten at all, and the simple fact he was as far as he'd ever been from Rio de Janeiro or Linda than he'd ever been made his stomach churn in agony. Even still, wherever he was heading, he may be killed right after arrival. He could be turned into a coat or ripped open and stuffed or turned into one of those performing birds in those wildlife shows he disliked so much. All of this thinking didn't help ease him at all, and the simple fear and guilt and lonliness was tearing him to bits...and the thought of possibly never being able to fly again ate away at any innocent thoughts he had left.
"I'm sorry guys...for everything. I just wish I could think of some way to get us out of here..." Blu said with his usual emphasis in his voice dying into a sqweak now. Unknown to the group, an owl from a cage nearby had overheard their conversation and listening in attentively.
"Perhaps thinking is not what you should do?" The owl suggested, suddenly bringing himself to attention to the birds.
"Perhaps it is bad to think too much?"
"Ha...you're starting to sound like a friend of mine who told me I think too much..." Blu said with a small laugh. The owl, however, didn't make a single emotional move. The owl looked tattered and showed his age, his brown and white feathers looking worn and obviously used for more than 30 good years.
"I wouldn't laugh at what is true...You do indeed think too much...From what I've observed, at least." The owl said, his voice flowing with a tone of knowledge and wisdom.
"Hey, who are you to make fun of my bud? He's going through alot right now!" Arthur fired to the owl, who simply reacted with a disapproving look from his big, round, intelligent-looking eyes.
"When I was young, my mother taught me not to think with my brain, but to think with this." The owl said slowly, motioning to where his heart was. "She told me that it was important for the fact it saw all reason, and saw what compassion truly was and was what made you who you are. If anything, Blu here should be using his main point of reason, not his brain, to solve what is wrong here and do what is right."
"His utter?" Wally asked, obviously confused at what the owl meant when he pointed at his heart. Robyn simply replied with a groan and a deep frown.
"Were you dropped on your head as a chick?" Robyn asked with a stern expression. Wally and Arthur both gasped in shock, as if insulted, but then Wally laughed heartily.
"How'd ya know?" Wally asked, his goofy smile on his beak reassuring Arthur he didn't feel insulted.
"Psychic powers." Robyn fired back.
"What I'm trying to say is, you must learn to follow your heart. It's the part of you that knows the most and sees the most." The owl said sternly. Blu thought to himself slowly, and then quickly answered back.
"But I already know that. That's how I ended up with Jewel...three years ago..."
"Exactly. You must realize, young man, that you've forgotten that your heart is what leads you through your life. I'm sorry if I sound so blunt, but you must listen to your heart and realize that's what is what truly matters, not what your brain thinks of it all." The owl explained. Blu suddenly realized that what this strange owl was saying was absolutely true. Blu had completely forgotten about what Rafael and Jewel had taught him all those years back when he first came to Rio.
"You know something...He's right." Blu said thoughtfully, picking his head up and his voice gaining strength again.
"He is, buddy. Now, how exactly are we going to get out of here?" Arthur responded, scanning the floor for anything he could use to break out.
"Easy. I've had a paperclip to open this up the entire time..." The old owl laughed as he fiddled with a paper clip and easily opened his cage's lock.
"Why didn't you tell us that in the first place?" Jez asked, sounding somewhat irritated that the owl was playing them the whole time. The owl chuckled lightly, sounding as if he was having a fun time in it all.
"Well then your little blue friend here wouldn't have learned anything, now would he?" The owl laughed as he popped his cage door open and hopped out.
"Doesn't give him the excuse to be playin' us...Pedro don't get played..." Pedro said with a frown.
"Just calm down. We'll all be free to fly out in no time..." The owl said with an easy tone as he smashed the lock on Blu's cage open and swung the door open. Blu attempted to walk out, but he then smashed to the floor as he let out a groan.
"That's the problem...I can't exactly fly." Blu groaned, displaying his damaged wing to the owl. The owl reacted with a look of sympathy, recognizing the damage done.
"Well...We'll figure it out." The owl assured as he walked off towards Pedro and Robyn.
"How come Jewel has slept through all of this?" Wally said to no one in particular, noticing the female Spix macaw had indeed slept through everything in the last few minutes. However, Blu noticed this as well and slowly walked over.
"Jewel? Are you okay? Honey?" Blu said quietly, tapping one of the cage bars. Jewel reacted slowly as she opened her eyes lightly, and then noticed Blu in front of her.
"Blu? How are you out of your cage?" Jewel asked, still half-asleep but confused about what was going on.
"We're breaking out, Jewel. We're going back to Rio and living the rest of our life together in peace." Blu said lightly, sounding like everything would be perfect.
"But Blu, you can't fly with that wing. How are we going to get out? We can't just leave you here!" Jewel protested loudly. Arthur meanwhile was wondering how Nigel could possibly not hear their conversation going on.
"Remember what you said three years ago in the plane? That we'd figure this out...together?" Blu asked, his voice finally carrying emotion after a few hours of nothing in his voice.
"The same applies for now. I'm not going to let go of you..."
"I hate to not leave a tender moment alone, but we have to hurry. That demon cockatoo could come back at any moment..." The owl said ominously as he tore the door to Pedro and Robyn's cage open.
"Right...So, what exactly are we going to do about me not being able to fly and the fact we're one thousand feet up and millions of miles from Rio?" Blu asked as attempted to pick the lock on Jewel's cage.
"Lad, you go on what the greatest birds desire. What every explorer has experienced. The biggest thrill of a lifetime!" The owl exclaimed excitedly. However, Blu and Jewel both exchanged confused looks.
"That would be?..." Jewel asked slowly.
"A quest! A journey! An adventure!" The owl exclaimed with a wild smile, something Blu didn't expect out of the seemingly-dignified owl.
"Adventures?...Uh...we've kinda had enough of that for our life..." Blu said with a small smile and weak laugh.
"Oh come come...Every bird has to have his adventure in his life. After all, there is no hero to a story without an adventure to call his own." The owl explained, wrapping his wing around like he was his best chum.
"You make it sound like it's such an incredible thing when there's so much pain and sorrow involved...did I mention pain?" Blu said nervously. The owl rolled his eyes and then smiled.
"My blue friend, adventure is a wonderful thing! A quest to find what you seek. A journey to find your way to the goal! Dodging the challenges, the thrill of the chase, it's all grand! You should feel lucky! There are only so many birds in this world who can have more than one grand adventure in their lifetime!" The owl exclaimed.
"This guy seems a little off his rocker..." Jewel whispered to Blu, who nodded slightly in agreement.
"I heard that..." The owl said with a sly smile, which Blu responded to with a sheepish smile.
"Hey buddy, you mind getting off the adventure rant and cracking us out of these things?" Arthur asked with an annoyed tone, but his statement went without notice of the now-excited owl, who suddenly felt a strange sensation...in fact, he suddenly started to speak as if he was ready to sing...
"All you need is a map and a spirit for it, and adventure can be the greatest thing that could happen!" The owl exclaimed. Blu could already tell where this was heading, and was ready to interject.
"Please don't start singing..." Blu began, but he was too late as the owl was already set on singing.
Today's the day
in only a matter of moments you'll all be on your way!
What lurks around the corner? None of us can say...
But I can guess, more or less,
hidden dangers great to rest.
The moment of glory is close at hand!
Hoo wee, isn't it grand?
"Well this is great..." Jewel groaned as the owl danced around, seeming out of his character from what Blu had seen.
Adventure is a wonderful thing!
Pack only the essentials, I'll tell you what to bring!
Your strength!
Your nerves!
Your hearts!
Your wits!
And if vultures attack, the first aid kits!
Adventure is a hoot and a half!
You'll face un-Earthly dangers and look at them and laugh!
The claws!
The teeth!
The chase, the thrill!
You'll never want to go home. Maybe you never will!
That's the beauty of adventure, it keeps your hopes afloat!
It runs you 'till your ragged and then it grabs you by the throat!
You struggle to survive and you all stay so bold!
Woo-hoo, lucky you!
Wish I could come too!
Adventure is a wonderful thing!
"You aren't exactly proving anything besides that you love the idea of danger..." Blu said flatly.
"It's not about the danger, dear boy. It's about the simple thrill of it all! What you can accomplish and what you face! It shows what you've been missing and gives you strength! After all, look at what your last adventures have brought you." The owl said with a smile, motioning to Jewel and then to Pedro and the rest of the guys.
"You really think so?" Blu asked, now starting to grasp what the owl meant by it all.
"I know so! I've never had the oppurtunity to take a quest, which is likely why I've never met the friends I needed so...but you still have the years ahead of you! You've already found so many treasure along the way, and more are ahead when you go on an adventure!" The owl exclaimed giddily.
"...And that's the beauty of adventure..." Blu said with a smile of realization.
"Now you've got it!"
And you, General Blu!
Off you go!
Marching high and low,
with your friends until the end!
All of the sudden, the seemingly-musically gifted owl quickly whipped out a huge mape of the world and drew a circle around the small area that was labelled 'Rio de Janeiro'.
Take a look, the map is perfectly clear!
With your excellent sense of direction, you have nothing to fear.
Through the quicksand and the chasms!
Tempting fate and fighting spasms!
Dodging avalanching boulders, but remember,
the fate of you and your friends rest completely on your shoulders...
"Wait, completely on my shoulders..." Blu started, but was quickly cut off by the singing owl once more.
It's up to you!
That's the beauty of adventure, the treasure after the dread!
I can't think of another thing I'd rather do instead!
"If you feel that way, maybe you should come along?" Arthur chipped in, actually starting to enjoy this little routine of the owl's.
No, you go ahead!
The owl suddenly flew up to a small lever above a group of crates and pulled it down, suddenly causing a metallic sound to echo through the plane.
"He just opened the storage hatch didn't he?" Jewel groaned. As it turned out, the storage hatch to the plane began to open, the immense sunlight suddenly flooding the entire room and momentarily blinding everyone.
"You forgot to unlock our cages, dude!" Wally yelled out as he suddenly felt the cage that held him, Arthur and Jez begin to lurch towards the open door. The same began to occur to everyone else still in cages.
"Oops..." The owl said embarassingly as he smiled sheepishly. Blu quickly grabbed onto Jewel's cage as he quickly slid down towards the hatch door.
"Blu, do something!" Jewel exclaimed right as both Spix macaws flew off the edge of the plane's hatch door. Arthur and Wally both glanced at each other in horror as they watched the two disappear from sight.
"I DON'T WANNA DIE, ARTIE!" Wally screamed out as he grabbed tightly onto Arthur. While Pedro and Robyn were frantically trying to open the lock holding Jez, Arthur and Wally, the cage suddenly tipped over the edge, and it quickly began plummeting out of the plane and into the cloudy blue sky.
"I WANT MY MOMMY!" Arthur shrieked like a little girl as the cage quickly plummeted down through the sky.
Meanwhile from the plane above, the owl slowly poked his head over the plane with a scared expression, realizing how badly he'd just screwed up.
"Oh dear...Good luck to you all!" The owl called out sheepishly. All of the sudden, the old owl was smashed to the floor by none other than the sulfur-crested cockatoo himself.
"Very nice move, you dumb little owl. You made my life a whole lot easier by killing them..." Nigel said with a chuckle.
"You do realize they're not dead...and with the kind of souls they have, they'll figure out some way out of their perdicament...I hope..." The owl fired back.
"If that's the case, I suppose it's time for me to turn you into a bloody pulp, hmm?" Nigel said as he popped out his talons and his villianous smile as he walked slowly towards the owl.
"Oh dear...Good luck to you, my friends...You'll need it..."
"Good-as-dead birds don't need luck, silly owl..."
...
A/N: I'm glad to be able to update this story once more! I felt empty with this story being not being updated for so long, but now I can feel accomplished a bit! So...READ, ENJOY AND REVIEW!
P.S.
That song sung by the owl isn't actually written by me. In fact, it's from the movie "Pooh's Grand Adventure". I just found it an absolutely fitting song for this fic, so I figured "What the heck?" and added it right in there! Hope you enjoyed it, and I encourage you to at least look up the song on Youtube. It's officially called "Adventure is a Wonderful Thing".
