Chapter 9: Twilight Disaster
The brakes of the trolley car engaged, and the metal miniature ferry ground to a halt briefly to let its passengers off. There were none, but according to Rio's and Brazil's transportation laws, a minimum wait time had to be observed on public transportation services to both allow passengers to exit the trolley and to enter in a timely fashion. Rio's laws set the mandatory standard at thirty seconds, which was just enough time for Blu to use his beak and feet to climb down with Jewel flying next to him, making sure he didn't fall. Nanashi, Rafael, Nico, and Pedro flew down next to them.
As the trolley car started making its way down the last half-kilometer stretch of the track, Rafael extended his wing in a revealing gesture to the rusted gate whose upper metal hinge had snapped clean off, leaving the bottom corner of the gate to hug the concrete to support the rest of the old doorway. "I give you… Luiz's garage!"
Nanashi winced as the other hinge of the gate snapped, as if on cue, and left the gate to crash to the ground with a dull, ringing thud. "Bit rundown, don't you think, Old Man Rafi?"
Rafael chuckled. "He prefers to think of it as… antique. Come on, let's head inside!" Rafael jumped around on his feet and flew into the garage as the others followed him.
Blu looked around at the dark, dank mechanics' shop that had obviously not been used in months, if not years, if the mold-covered ceiling, the loose, nearly detached wall tiles, and the vegetation slowly taking over were any indication.
Blu turned to Nanashi as something he'd completely forgotten about jumped to the front of his thoughts. "Hey, Nanashi, how exactly did you get out of the artificial jungle?"
"Got lucky. Janitor came in for cleaning about fifteen minutes after whoever that kid was kidnapped you two. Were it not for him, I'd have probably sat in there for hours."
Blu h'mmed in affirmation, but all of them froze momentarily upon hearing the screeching, grinding noise of metal moving against metal. "So where exactly is Luiz?"
"Oh, he's around here somewhere. When he's not out and about, he's finding ways to get the old parts in here working. He always wanted to turn this garbage heap into an actual shop."
As that finished, Blu and Jewel walked toward a dilapidated car that had to have been sitting in the rundown shop for at least five years. Most of the brown paint had been worn away, and the metal underneath rusted, until the frame could barely be recognized as one.
They stopped a few feet away, but were suddenly shocked into rapidly stumbling backwards, nearly tripping over the chain, when, of all things, a bulldog jumped out of the internal assembly of the car, nearly breaking the hood of it off, and ran at them, growling and barking angrily, as if someone had just invaded its territory.
Blu and Jewel tripped over the chain and landed side-by-side, and both of them became intimately familiar with the concrete as the bulldog stood over them, growling as the disproportionate amount of droll that leaked out of its jaw and down the sagging flaps of its rapidly-aging skin.
"Luiz, enough!" Rafael called out, and the bulldog, now revealed as Luiz, sucked back up his drool as best he could, though some still hung out.
"Ugh, that's just gross," Jewel commented in disdain as she tried to get the mental image of drool nearly touching her eye out of her brain.
"What, you got a problem with bulldogs?" Luiz asked in a low voice as he stepped back, allowing the two to stand up.
"I do when they're drooling on me."
Luiz looked down to the ground sadly, as if shamed. "It's a medical condition." He turned to Rafael. "She's mean, man."
"As good as it is to see you, old friend, I'm not here for a house call." Rafael commented as he held up the chain for Luiz to examine. Luiz stepped closer and looked at the chain for a moment. "Hmm… I think I know just the trick."
He guided the two macaws to get up onto a large table next to the car, and he pressed a few buttons that seemed to be adjusted specifically for him, before using his body weight and ramming into the table a few times, and out popped a table saw blade.
While Jewel was starting to freak out, Blu's human-raised mind immediately went to work. Let's see… blade's not straight… dull edges… oh no. Those rings in the center are too wide and dark, which means not only is that not a proper weld, but… "…oh shit."
Jewel looked at Blu in shock. "Blu, what's wrong?"
"That blade isn't strong or sharp enough to cut the chain. It's only made of ten-forty-five round stock steel. You need at least ten-ninety-five or tamahagane steel to cut this kind of chain. The worst part about it… that blade is supposed to be made of ten-ninety-five. That has to be some cheap Chinese knock-off." Blu gulped in fear. I'm about to die… again.
"Oh, relax! I've got this. Now, scream really loud if you need something, because I can't really hear very well through this thing!" Luiz pushed on what Blu recognized as a welder's mask. "Oh, and try not to move very much! I can't really see out of this thing either!"
Blu internally scoffed despite the situation he now found himself in. Of course you can't see out of the damn thing, it's made for humans, not bulldogs, he sardonically thought.
The two macaws looked in hesitation and more than a slight amount of fear as Rafael flew up to a large switch. Luiz called out to the bird as he flew. "Rafi, hit it!"
Rafael smiled in reassurance that didn't get across to Blu or Jewel. "Relax, he's a professional!" Rafael threw the switch, and the blade quickly spun up to over ten thousand RPMs.
Luiz slowly pushed Blu and Jewel forward, but he wasn't pushing in the right direction, and on top of that, the bulldog slipped and threw the two macaws forward when he stepped in a spot of his own drool that had just leaked onto the already slippery floor.
Only a combination of Jewel's fast reflexes and avian instincts saved Blu from an untimely death. Right as the blade would have started cutting into Blu's skull, Jewel flew up and grabbed the worker's light with her beak, pushing as hard as she could with her wings and dragging Blu feet-first into the air. A testament of how close Blu had come to dying was the fact that one of the three feathers that stuck up on the top of his head was now gone.
Rafael tried in vain, with Pedro and Nanashi's help, to turn the table saw off, and the switch was locked in place. Luiz stumbled into the blade, and it managed to cut his welder's helmet straight in half, leaving the bulldog dumbfounded and shocked.
Unfortunately, Jewel fell past the other side of the table, dragging Blu down with her, and the chain got caught in Luiz's exposed teeth. The two macaws now dangled by their chain, unable to do anything as the table was too high for Jewel to fly back up.
Luiz, his mouth having been forced open by the two macaws now dangling from his tooth, was unable to control his drooling, and some of it slipped off and landed on Blu and Jewel's clasped feet, the slickness of it causing the clasps of the chain to slip off without damaging their feet. They fell to the ground, both getting as much of the drool off as they could, before Jewel momentarily froze. "Hey, Jewel, can you believe it?! We're… free?" Blu looked around to see where Jewel had gone, and found her flying in the air with Pedro and Nico.
"I'm free! Whoo-hoo!" Blu was happy for a moment, but the happiness faded away as he came to the realization that this was now the end. With the chain off, it seemed all the adventures had finally come to a close, his inability to fly having been an insurmountable obstacle, and the crushing realization that there was no way to avoid going back to Minnesota settled in the pit of his now upset stomach. He slowly walked out of Luiz's garage as the other birds, Nanashi excluded, flew into the air celebrating Jewel's freedom. "I wanna fly! Fly just like a bird!"
"But you are a bird, Jewel!" Pedro exclaimed, causing the four birds to chuckle.
Jewel continued flying around until she noticed Blu walking down the street toward the aviary, his head down. She became very worried and flew down, landing behind him and causing Blu to stop. "Blu… Blu, what's wrong?"
Unable to control his emotions in lieu of the realization that everything he had done was for nothing, Blu said something he would come to deeply regret. "Oh, everything's fine! Yep. You'll be off to the rainforest, I'll be back with Linda, just like we planned."
"Hey, birds! Stop yapping and start flapping! Let's go!" Nico exclaimed, flying by before darting back into the sky.
Nanashi's eyes widened in mounting horror. Nico, you hopeless idiot. What have you done?
Blu's spirit was instantly crushed by Nico's words. "Well, I… I just thought that…"
"That what? You would come back to Minnesota? Well, that's great, I guess I'll knit you a scarf."
Jewel winced. "That's not what I meant, Blu."
Blu turned around, pacing in distress. "Look, Jewel, I-I-I can't spend my like walking around, following you wherever you're going."
Jewel's eyes widened. "Look, it's not my fault you can't fly."
Nanashi froze. He knew what was about to happen; he'd seen it happen before. Oh no… Blu, I'm so sorry.
Rafael jumped between the two, raising his wings. "Okay, okay. You know what? This is good. Let's clear the air. Just be completely honest with each other!"
"Fine. Fine! I can be honest. I can't stand having to walk around everywhere, watching everyone else embrace the freedom I never had! And… you… you know what? I hate samba!"
Nico's eyes widened in horror, and he buried himself in Pedro's chest. "No! Make the mean bird take it back!" Rafael stepped back, and Jewel flinched.
Pedro almost glared at Blu. "Hey! That's a little too far."
Blu hadn't wanted to say any of it, but he kept going anyway. I've already dug myself into a hole, let's see how deep I can make it! He cynically thought. "Yeah, I said it! Every song sounds exactly the same! Tico, taco, ya-ya-ya! Tico, taco, ya-ya-ya!" He nearly growled, stretching his face out with his wings angrily. "Well, I'm tico-taco out of here." He turned around and ran as fast as he could in the other direction, trying desperately to keep the tears from leaking out.
"… Fine! See you later, pet!"
…much, much worse.
And just like that, the death-knell of the macaws' happiness had been sounded. Rafael watched, shocked as Jewel flew away, and decided this situation needed his personal touch. "Nonono, wait, wait, wait! Come back! You belong together!" he shouted to Jewel as she took to the air. "You are Juliet to his Romeo! Sure, they both die in the end, but… you get my point!" Nico and Pedro flew down next to Rafael as he sighed. "Oh, young love. Always so melodramatic."
Nanashi looked down sadly. "I know that things sometimes have to get worse before they can get better… but we already had that. This was a turning point of the wrong kind." He turned to the three. "Pedro, Nico, fly after Jewel. Even if she doesn't want your company, make sure she gets back safe to wherever she's going. Rafael, go after Blu."
Rafael raised his eyebrow as Pedro and Nico took off after Jewel. "And why can't you go after him? He's your brother."
"I can't help but feel like I've failed him. Everything I've done since I came back to our homeland has been for him. And now, we've even failed at the goal we didn't want to talk about. I can't face my brother in good conscience right now. I'm sorry, Rafael." Nanashi flew away in the direction of the center of the city, and Rafael cursed, before remembering Blu needed help of his own.
"Wait, Blu! Come on!" Rafael flew over and landed, walking next to Blu.
Blu turned his head in Rafael's direction solemnly. "Isn't Carnaval that way?" he asked, pointing his wing in the direction of the garage.
"I'm not going to Carnaval. No, I'm heading home."
Blu turned to Rafael and stopped. "Why? Don't you love Carnaval?"
"I do," Rafael said, turning out to look at the moon. "But I love my family much more." He turned back to Blu, tapping his chest. "That's a decision I made with this, not with this." He tapped Blu's head after to get his point across.
Jewel flew away, in the direction of the moonlight, tears falling away and being swept up by the wind as she flew. Why? Why did I say those hurtful things? Not three hours ago, I was happier than I ever have been… and I ruined it… Why? Why did you do it, Jewel?!
Suddenly, she grabbed by the throat by a bird, who she quickly recognized was Nigel the cockatoo. "Going somewhere, pretty birdie?"
Survival instinct kicked in and overrode emotional thought, and Jewel smirked. "Oh yeah! I was just on my way to claw your eyes out!" She kicked Nigel straight in the chest, managing to draw a small bit of blood, and the two fought for a moment before Nigel hit Jewel in the tail hard, and she tried to hold it, only to stop flying as Nigel caught her feet. "No! No! Let… me go!"
Two hundred meters back, Nico and Pedro's eyes widened in shock. 'Oh no! We gotta go warn Blu!"
"And where's Nanashi? I figured he'd be around to talk some sense into me for what I did. I completely screwed up. I finally managed to do something right without something going wrong in the process, and right after, this happens." Blu angrily commented in self-deprecation.
Before Rafael could reply, the power to most of Rio suddenly shifted back to normal, and loudspeakers placed all over the city blared to life. "Power has successfully been restored, and Carnaval is back on schedule! We hope to see how creative your floats can get! The parade will start in one hour! And to all a good party!"
"Good. Since the parade is back on schedule, with the uproar Rio is likely in now, you'll use that to your advantage. I've secured a float nearby for you to use. It's not the best, but your lackeys will bring it to you. Remember, Juan, those macaws better be on that plane, or your life will be forfeit," the voice on the other end of the line said, before the line cut. Juan got up and put the disposable phone in his pocket.
He got up and checked the papers he'd use to get the birds turned over in San Juan, and grabbed his blazer jacket, leaving as Nigel showed up and threw Jewel into a cage and locked the door, making sure to put a key lock on so she couldn't escape. She groaned in protest, but wasn't able to do much else as Nigel grabbed the top of the cage and flew off.
Well, it doesn't look like I'll be able to see you again, Blu. I don't know if you can hear me, but for what it's worth… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…
Nanashi waited patiently on top of his perch, and observed silently, stealthily as Juan and Nigel left, Jewel in hand. He'd been very lucky to observe Nigel taking Jewel somewhere as he flew away from the garage where disaster had occurred, and he knew it, so he followed Nigel from a distance and ended up here.
He was about to take off silently when he heard voices he recognized easily approaching the building from the back; Linda and Tulio were here, but why?
He quickly and silently flew to the back, where they stood in the old shop Blu and Jewel had been caged in, only now it was empty. He landed on top of one of the old, dilapidated boxes and called out. "Linda, Tulio, what are you doing here?"
Linda and Tulio's gazes, as well as that of a teenage boy with dark skin, shot to him. "Nanashi? Where have you been?"
Nanashi made a motion for the three to be silent. "You guys need to listen to me very carefully. Don't interrupt and don't ask questions until I'm done, understood?" The three nodded. "It seems another smuggling operation like the one that brought Blu and I to Linda is happening right now. I'm not going to let it happen because the idiots in charge, ones we've already had to deal with, just kidnapped Jewel." Linda and Tulio gasped in shock, but otherwise remained silent.
"Now here's the plan. I'm sure Blu already knows and is on his way to assist, but in the meantime, I need a backup plan. If I remember anything about my own kidnapping, we were hauled as cargo in a plane, and they're probably thinking of doing the same thing. Linda, I don't care what you have to do, get into Carnaval somehow, get a float, and drive it to the abandoned airport north of the parade stadium. If there's an open port for airplanes to fly out of, use the float to block it. And no matter what anyone tells you, don't move it until I get there, and I have both Blu and Jewel. Understood?" Linda nodded. "Good. Now go, you have to start now because they're probably already planning something of their own.
Nanashi turned to Tulio. "You're the head of the aviary, correct?" Tulio nodded. "Use your influence. Get in contact with the authorities and declare an environmental emergency. I don't care what you have to do, find some way to get police in every major point along Carnaval's route. I want eyes everywhere, and I refuse to let smugglers win a second time without one hell of a fight. Got it?" Tulio nodded. "You go too. This needs to happen yesterday, otherwise this won't work." Tulio ran out the back door.
Nanashi turned to the kid that had been left behind. "So, who are you, kid? You led my human friends here, so I know you're involved in this somehow."
The kid, Fernando, told Nanashi everything, and he sighed, controlling his anger. "Ignoring the fact that I really want to claw your eyes out for your role in my friends' distress, I have use for you. Do you know anyone who has a connection to a military force in the city?"
Fernando shook his head. "Dammit. Then just gather as many people as would reasonably fit on a float. Whatever float Linda gets a hold of, we're going to get you and that group on it. Preferably you need to find people that can hold their own in most fights. Understood?" Fernando nodded. "Good. Get going, and hurry. Time is of the utmost importance."
Nanashi flew out of the building at full speed. He already knew the group would be on their way to the parade route, so finding them later wouldn't be an issue. His goal in mind, he flew as fast as he could toward Luiz's garage. He would apologize to Blu for abandoning him in this trying time, and then they would solve this final puzzle together.
Blu couldn't believe his ears. Jewel had flown away because of him, and now she'd been kidnapped, again? He couldn't help but feel this was all his fault.
Rafael slapped Blu to get him out of his funk, going into full teacher mode. "Blu, look at me. You've carved a hole in your own heart, turned your best friend against you and ended any chance you could have a happy life here. Are you going to stand there and mope or are you going to make your wrongs right?"
It took Blu a moment of thought, but he continued to fight himself, thinking his mistakes were unforgivable. Wait… thinking… Blu stopped using his head and consulted his heart, and the answer was immediate.
Blu turned back to Rafael. "I want to save her… but I don't know how we're going to do it…"
Bu tried to think of a plan, but his eyes widened when he heard a plea from a voice he could swear was Jewel's. …it doesn't look like I'll be able to see you again… For what it's worth… I'm so sorry…
In that moment, Blu realized it didn't matter how he would do it. He would save Jewel. There would be no other outcome.
He turned his determined gaze to Rafael and Luiz, who had just joined the group wearing what looked to be an Edible Arrangements bouquet. "Let's fly!"