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The Branch was a mess.

Stray fruit littered the ground. A turntable lay in the corner, destroyed but for one record still spinning feebly. Crates that had been artfully arranged to provide optimal seating were now stacked haphazardly in random locations, effectively blocking any and all points of exit. Worst of all, the main stage was in ruins.

The tin can drum set had been dismantled. One of the speakers was emitting a constant droning noise, as if wailing for the loss of its top half. A strobe light, hanging dangerously by a damaged thread valiantly trying to pass as a cord, flickered on and off, casting unearthly hues on the pavement below. The sickly light did nothing to help the spirits of the birds it illuminated—like everything else in the alley, they were broken.

One monkey, amidst the many that crowded The Branch, stood atop an overturned crate positioned in the middle of the festivities. One of the towers of broken crates loomed behind him, a backdrop of intimidating destruction, as he smugly absorbed the view before him. The satisfaction at seeing the devastation in the alley was topped only by the satisfaction of seeing the devastation in the faces of the birds.

"Marmosets, birds, Brazilians, lend me your ear," he began, holding his arms behind his back and rocking back and forth on his feet. "What was once known to you as The Branch will now and forever more be known as The Banana Tree."

More than a few birds in the audience rolled their eyes, causing the living fence of marmosets surrounding them to move in even closer. The already crowded corral of captured birds became even more cramped as the monkeys pushed them closer and closer together, effectively removing any elbow space they previously had.

Mauro harrumphed at their obvious distaste. "It's a better name than The Branch, that's for sure. I never understood why the name was so popular…"

"Because you didn't think of it."

Mauro turned, the easy humor from a moment before vanishing as his eyes met with the toucan behind him.

"What did you say?"

"You heard me," Rafael scoffed.

"You're already in deep water, Mr. King of Carnevale," the monkey snapped. He gestured towards the four marmosets poised behind Rafael, on the edge of the crate. "One false move and not only are you done for, but I snap my fingers and every other bird here is too." He turned back towards the throng of birds surrounded by his ready army of monkeys. Both groups had watched his threat with rapt attention. "And vice-versa. Any of you so much as try to get past my monkeys, your precious King of Carnevale is…how shall we say….disposed of?"

Rafael crossed his arms and glared at Mauro, though the monkey's back was turned. Although his hostage situation made him feel slightly (no, really) humiliated, he knew he could take Mauro and the four guard monkeys behind him, if he only got the chance—but unfortunately for the fierce anger burning inside him, Rafael was smart enough to know that they were vastly outnumbered. Somehow the monkeys' ranks had grown from the last attack; perhaps they'd sent out for help from relatives, their communication had become extremely efficient since they'd started pilfering cell phones. Either way, Rafael knew it was next to hopeless, as the hour-long fight leaving the birds battered, bruised, and beaten down had just proved.

Rafael's most stirring cause for hesitation stared him straight in the face from the middle of the crowd—six birds, one yellow, five blue. What a night for Rafael to introduce Richie, the sheltered introvert, to the glories of The Branch, and what a night for Blu and Jewel to bring their kids. He sighed inwardly, praying for some sort of miracle—monkeys taking over The Branch held more consequences than anyone would ever think.

Rafael found himself scanning the crowd for a flash of yellow and a burst of red. He panicked when he couldn't locate the familiar faces of the canary and cardinal, thoughts of them as casualties (of which they'd had none, Gracas a Deus), barraging his mind. Then he remembered, with a bittersweet inflection, that they had forfeited The Branch that night.

Had Pedro caught up to Nico before the stupid little drama queen left Rio? If they had, would they come to The Branch…? Rafael hoped yes and no, respectively. The one good thing Rafael could dwell on at this point was that the two birds had inadvertently escaped the most threatening monkey invasion to date. Granted, Nico and Pedro were fairly handy in a fight, and they would have fought valiantly for the sanctity of The Branch…

Rafael inwardly sighed again. Whether Nico and Pedro's absence was a blessing or a nuisance, he didn't know.


"Well I didn't mean it literally," Pedro whispered fervently in response to Nico's glare. "How was I supposed to know monkeys had actually taken over The Branch?"

"This has never happened before!" Nico said, voice also a frazzled whisper. "Look at how many of them there are! They must want our club more than we thought!"

"They've wanted it since that day they were hunting down Blu and Jewel for Nigel." Pedro frowned, scanning the crowd of birds below for the telltale blue feathers of their friends. "Remind me to kill them later for leading the monkeys to our club. Before that, they had no idea where it was."

Nico pulled Pedro back just as a monkey looked over in their direction. "Talk quieter," he hissed. "We don't have a very good hiding place." The crate they crouched behind hid them well enough, but if they wanted to get a good view of the situation, they had to peer around the corner—meaning that if they wanted to see the monkeys, the monkeys would be able to see them, too.

"They've got Ralfy, man!" Pedro strained to keep his voice to a whisper. "Like, behind that Mauro guy in the middle!"

Nico forced himself to stay behind the protective covering of the crate. "What? Did you see the others?"

"Yeah, Blu and Jewel are in the middle, with the kids."

"They brought the kids?"

"Yeah. And Richie's there too."

"What else could possibly go wrong?"

"I think they're using Ralfy as leverage."

"Of course."

"There are a lot of monkeys, and they've got everyone kinda horded in the middle, but I think Ralfy's the only reason everyone stopped fighting," Pedro surmised.

Nico succumbed to the need to see the situation for himself and peered around the edge. His eyes instantly landed on the vibrant mix of blue and yellow feathers in the thick of the crowd—Blu stood in the middle of Richie and Jewel, holding Abelina. Rey had squeezed between his parents, burying his face in his father's feathers. Jewel had a wing draped over Javier, silently restraining him from going anywhere. Not that he could; the birds were so closely packed it reminded Nico of the cages in the back of the bird smugglers' plane.

Nico retreated back to their hiding place. "Okay, um….um…."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know! There are a whole lot of them, and…and…" The canary's voice lowered to a still quiet, making his previous whispers sound like shouts. "Pedro, do you know what will happen if they take over?"

"I got an idea."

"We won't have our club anymore. We won't be able to perform. We won't even be able to go downtown! I mean, monkeys and birds have never been friendly, but it was just a few isolated fights, and that one huge one when Blu and Jewel came to town. If they move their base from the forest to here…"

Pedro grimaced. "We're doomed."

"What do we do?" Nico grabbed Pedro's front feathers, shaking his friend desperately for an answer. "I don't know what to do!"

Pedro froze with surprise at Nico's frazzled desperation, staring blankly at the hyperventilating canary for lack of a better response. He snapped out of it when Nico suddenly swooned, legs buckling beneath his tiny frame. Pedro's hand shot out to catch his friend. Holding Nico above the ground by the arm, he suggested, "Why don't you sit down?"

Nico obeyed, plopping onto the ground and leaning against the back of the crate. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" Pedro asked.

Nico nodded. "Just lost my cool for a second there. " He frowned. "I've lost it a lot lately."

"What about, like, physically?" Pedro eyed the canary's bruised, heaving chest. "You don't look good, buddy." Nico's haggard look went far beyond exhaustion—Pedro suspected that the canary's flight here had been much more difficult than Nico let on, and could tell the canary was burnt both on the outside and inside.

"I'm fine," Nico replied tartly. "Just…tired."

"Are ya sure?"

"Positive."

Pedro plopped down next to his friend. Nico grinned.

"What are you grinning about?"

"I was just thinking that it's too bad we're not on the water. Maybe the monkeys are as scared of sharks as you."

"And maybe they're as paranoid about losing things as you are." Pedro flicked his friend's bottle cap, hitting it off center and issuing a metallic clang.

Nico laughed, managing to go for almost three whole seconds without coughing. "Man, why can't we just prank 'em…we're good at that…"

Pedro audibly inhaled, a sharp intake of breath that halted Nico's laughter. "Nico…I just got an idea."


"…and then we'll decorate The Branch—er, The Banana Tree—with some of the priceless treasures we've been saving for just such an occasion," Mauro drawled pleasantly. If he noticed the chagrined and rather bored expressions of his captive audience, he didn't acknowledge the antipathy. "And then once our club is established, we'll provide the limitations for your range."

"Range?" This was what Rafael had been afraid of.

"Yes, range," Mauro said, turning around and glaring at the interruption. "You stupid birds have always just flown around the city and the beach and the trolley lines all willy-nilly, while we've stayed to the shadows. There are no signs about not feeding the birds, there are no signs warning tourists against birds. You've enjoyed too much freedom."

"That doesn't make any—"

"Starting now, you'll stay to the rainforest, your natural habitat."

"That's your natural habitat too!"

"Not anymore. Now we belong to the streets. Or rather, the streets belong to us."

Rafael stared angrily at Mauro, who stared angrily back. Contempt and menace shone equally in both faces.

There was no way around it. The thieving monkeys had just added Rio to their collection of stolen treasures.


"Are you sure about this, Pedro?"

"Totally, bro! We got this." The cardinal's eyes glinted with determined revenge as he rubbed his hands together. "There ain't no possible way this can go wrong."

Nico eyed the sloping path leading from the top of the hill. The path was a straight shot to the club, although from up here, it looked like a straight shot to nothing—the curtains that had been draped over the outer abandoned market stalls easily fooled humans into thinking the bottom of the hill held nothing but splintered wood and rotten fruit. Only the birds of Rio knew that beneath the dejected surface lay the best samba club known to the human and avian populations of Brazil.

And now, so did the monkeys.

"Trust me, bro," Pedro pleaded from behind the still pensive canary.

Nico angled his bottle cap and assumed his position. "Let's go, bro. This'll be off the block."


"…and then maybe, if you're all good little birdies and obey our new rules, you can come and stand in the back for karaoke night." Mauro looked extremely pleased with his suggestion, like a parent who had just bribed his child into behaving for the afternoon. He opened his mouth to elaborate, but the sound of wheels grating against pavement overshadowed his words.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Birds and monkeys alike heard the scream before they saw the source.

A skateboard rapidly whizzed towards The Branch, progressing in speed as it rushed further and further downhill. A canary was perched on front, holding the barrel of a squirt gun, while a red-chested cardinal stood braced in the middle, frantically pumping the trigger. Water shot out of the gun, a stream of considerable force arcing its way through the air before hitting Mauro.

The monkey toppled off his crate, and as soon as he fell, the canary started to move the barrel of the gun back and forth, spreading the liquid bullets through the alley and effectively hitting every monkey in sight.

The birds, upon taking a second to piece everything together, had just started to cheer when another shout erupted from the skateboard.

"PEDRO! GO SLOWER! I CAN'T AIM!" Nico yelled frantically, struggling to hold the barrel somewhat straight as the skateboard sped downhill, getting faster by the second. The speed was starting to shake the board so hard that it was fairly vibrating with velocity, bouncing the canary and the gun around on the nose.

"I CAN'T CONTROL THE SPEED!" Pedro yelled back, still pumping furiously.

"WHAT?"

"WELL HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO—"

Screams from monkeys and birds alike eclipsed the volume of Pedro's yell. The skateboard had finally reached the heart of the alley, and the birds, their legion of monkey guards having been disengaged by water gun, scrambled to avoid the board now traveling at lethal speed. Nico and Pedro zipped through the crowd, suddenly aware of a crate looming ahead of them.

"LEAN!" Nico yelled, running to the right side of the board. Pedro followed suit: they both leaned off the edge, tipping the skateboard dangerously to the right, turning it away from the obstacle a few inches away. The angle was steep, and the board turned sideways, scraping across the pavement for a second before colliding with the crate broadside. The crate shook, knocking the rest of the crates behind it—the towers had been poorly stacked, and they ricketed dangerously.

The skateboard had hit the crate so hard that it bounced off and careened back into the alley, jarring the riders off in the process. Nico and Pedro flipped in mid-air, somehow still managing to hold onto the water gun, and smashed against the side of the crate. Each still clutching their part of the gun, they slowly scraped down the side until they landed on the ground headfirst, staring at the proceedings upside-down.

"Why didn't we think of steering before we jumped on a skateboard going downhill?" Nico mused.

"I dunno," Pedro answered. Both birds were clearly dazed from their misadventure.

Their daze couldn't last long, however: An entire army of wet monkeys stood up in front of them, shook off their fur, and fixed their menacing eyes on the duo leaning upside-down against the crate in the middle of the alley. Mauro had a particularly wicked gleam in his eye, and at his motion, they started to advance.

Nico quickly shifted the barrel of the gun so that it aimed directly at the oncoming horde of angry monkeys. "Pedro Pedro Pedro PEDRO PEDRO!"

Pedro didn't need Nico's frantic cries to stir him into action: he had already begun pumping. Jets of water hit some of the advancing marmosets, but most continued to move closer, and the empty gushing sound coming from the gun notified that it was running low on water.

Suddenly the skateboard flew in from the side, knocking the monkeys away from the two birds running out of ammo. Nico and Pedro glanced to their right (they were still upside-down) and saw Rafael, Blu, Jewel, Richie and the kids standing where the skateboard had been a second ago, looking extremely smug and newly determined.

A moment later, the birds of The Branch exploded into action. War cries undulated through the alley, their spirits of defense newly invigorated, as an avian-simian war erupted for the second time that night.

Rafael, Blu, Jewel, Richie, and the kids ran to the bottom of the crate, where Nico and Pedro were struggling to right themselves.

But Mauro got there first.

His murderous intent towards Nico and Pedro for ruining his glorious takeover was abundantly clear. Followed by ten other monkeys, he vengefully leaped at the two birds. Pedro dove to the left and Nico to the right just in time; Mauro slammed against the crate, one of his targets on either side. Nico and Pedro prepared to take off before the other monkeys could reach them, but a loud cracking noise made them look up instead.

Mauro's impact had been just enough to knock the crate into the towers surrounding it. Already loosened by the impact from the skateboard; they were thrown off balance even further. The towers collapsed simultaneously, wooden boxes bombarding Nico, Pedro, and the ten surrounding monkeys.

Wood splintered off the boxes, shooting in every direction. Nico and Pedro dove to the ground, covering their faces with their arms. Just out of range, their friends did the same in an effort to protect themselves from the random projectiles, Blu and Jewel turning their children back from the war zone.

The barrage ceased, and Nico and Pedro looked up carefully. At first, they breathed relief, but one final crate still lazily twisted above them atop the one Mauro had been using as a podium. Slowly, slowly, slowly, as if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to fall or not, it started to tilt towards the ground. And then it fell, opening side down.

Nico, Pedro, and the ten other monkeys caught in the immediate area barely had time to flinch before the crate slammed on top of them, rendering their world completely black.

Silence followed, uncharacteristically deafening when combined with the afflicted blindness. Hesitancy wavered in the air, neither the birds nor monkeys trapped beneath the crate sure of how or where to attack. Then, as depleted light streamed through the cracks between the wood, Mauro gained a surge of confidence—regardless of the blackening injuries Nico and Pedro had recently suffered, their vibrant yellow and red feathers were hard to miss, even in the dark.

Nico and Pedro scrambled backwards on instinct, but hit hard wood at their backs. Realizing they had little time to escape, they ducked, and Mauro hit the wall above their heads. Crawling to the opposite side of the wall yielded no results—despite the insufficient lighting, all the monkeys seemed determined to battle, and unfortunately for the two birds they were vastly outnumbered.

The dark space suddenly became a wrestling ring, an impromptu and inconciliatory cage match, one that wouldn't end until a clear victor emerged from what would likely be a pile of dead competitors.

One monkey pulled Nico roughly to the side while another tackled Pedro from behind. The canary kicked defiantly, struggling vehemently as more and more monkeys latched onto him. One of his kicks landed squarely on a monkey's jaw, and the would-be-assaulter was thrown back into three other monkeys behind him.

"HA!" Nico could not resist a triumphant laugh as his kick set off a domino effect of cascading monkeys. One of the monkeys hit had been the one attacking Pedro, and with his limbs suddenly available, the cardinal lashed out at another monkey coming towards him.

Nico wrested his arm free from the clutching monkey, who had become momentarily distracted by the failure of his comrades. He elbowed him in the chest, forcing the monkey to double over, gasping for air. The canary wasted no time in backhanding another monkey to the left of him, who had also made a valiant attempt at restraint.

Having freed himself, Nico leaped up and ran to Pedro, who had successfully deterred his own attacks. Neither of them could see in the dark, unlike the monkeys, and sounds of a blind scuffle still radiated from the surrounding area. They could, however, see one monkey, the one nursing his head after solidly hitting a wooden structure for the second time in about 15 seconds. Seeing the malice in his eyes, Nico and Pedro unconsciously backed up, hitting the wall on the other side.

The side of the crate behind them suddenly separated from the ground, pairs of black, yellow, blue, and various other colored wings straining to lift it. One of the black wings groped until it felt Pedro's leg, and one of the blue ones until its fingers closed around Nico's, and then both cardinal and canary were pulled roughly from the darkness, falling onto their stomachs and squeezing between the wood and the ground until they were outside the crate.

Nico and Pedro flipped onto their backs, blinking at the relatively bright light. Blu and Rafael stood over them, Blu still holding Nico's leg and Rafael still clutching Pedro's.

"We got 'em!" Rafael yelled in the vague direction of the crate. Five or six other birds, Richie and Jewel included, dropped the crate back down, trapping the monkeys inside. Javier, Rey, and Abelina fluttered to the top of the crate, weighing it down by hopping excitedly.

Rafael grinned and looked down at Nico and Pedro. His grin surrendered to puzzled scrutiny. "Did the monkeys do all that to you?"

"What? Oh, no—"

"Look, Mama! Look at us!"

"Yes, Abelina, good job," Jewel praised. She was about to join them when the other side of the crate suddenly lifted, spilling all three Blue Macaw chicks onto the ground. Blu and Jewel managed to catch Abelina and Javier, and Rey landed on Pedro.

They heard rather than saw the monkeys scrape their way out from under the crate. An angry shout, clearly Mauro's voice, accompanied the scuffling sounds: "WHERE ARE THEY?"

Knowing full well which two birds he meant, Pedro practically threw Rey to his parents and grabbed Nico by the arm. They took off before any of their surrounding friends could protest, flying nowhere in particular, just up, away from the monkeys.

Nico suddenly stopped, hovering in mid-air. "Hey, wait a minute. We don't need to run, you guys can't fly," he said, looking down at the monkeys glaring at them from the ground.

Pedro started laughing. "HA! YOU ALL CAN'T FLY! How does it feel to be stuck right there?" Ignoring Mauro's look of pure hatred, he continued to taunt. "TO THE GROUND!"

Nico stuck his tongue out. "My friend's insult didn't really make sense, but you get the picture."

"There's no way you're going to win this war," Mauro stated. "You might've disrupted my victory speech, but I will finish it."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Nico sung.

"Turn around," Pedro agreed.

Mauro turned, and saw, in a cruel twist of irony, all his monkeys corralled in by the birds of The Branch. Miguel the pelican held the water gun, which had been refilled with fruit juice, a much stickier and smellier ammunition than water. The birds surrounding him all either held the biggest pieces of fruit they could find or broken pieces of their sound equipment to be put to good use as weapons.

Mauro grimaced. The ranks of the monkeys still outnumbered those of the birds, but a lot of the marmosets lay unconscious on the ground, having been knocked out by the renewed vigor in the birds' fighting prowess. He could see the determination etched in the stance, posture, and expression of every bird there. It had been a gamble to win The Branch in the first place; Mauro knew full well that the only reason he'd succeeded earlier was the element of surprise. Otherwise, overcoming the birds' outstanding protective instincts devoted to their samba club was almost impossible.

And he had been so close.

Turning back towards Nico and Pedro, smiling smugly at their victory from the air, Mauro noticed that not all the monkeys had been caught in the corral. Very few had escaped, but one had climbed all the way to the top of one of the crate towers, clearly trying to dismantle it soundlessly in order to get out of The Branch. A very unsuccessful endeavor, sure, but his position was perfect—he and Mauro's eyes met, and Mauro glanced up at the strobe light. The other monkey understood immediately, and picked up a shard of glass, waving it desperately above his head in an effort to connect it with the already frayed cord preventing the light from falling.

"Fine. We'll leave," Mauro sneered at Nico and Pedro, now creating some sort of complicated fist bump maneuver.

"Be sure that you do," Nico commanded.

"And don't ever let us catch you 'round these parts again," Pedro said. Nico shot his friend a confused look, as if to ask "Why did you just speak in an American Western accent?", but Mauro's next words stopped him.

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem."

The sentence itself was not terribly frightening, but the double meaning imbibed in the words rendered the two birds momentarily still.

"I don't think I'll ever be seeing you two again." He smirked, and for a split second his eyes went to an area above Nico and Pedro. The two birds looked behind them, just as a sickening SNAP erupted from a cord supporting a broken strobe light.

The light completely disconnected from the building, falling at a heavy speed directly towards Nico and Pedro. Neither of them had time to move before the bulky light made impact.


BAHAHAHAHA. I couldn't resist.

Next chapter will be the last! So review while you still have the chance!