Chapter 10

Monkey Business

Almost everyone went to take Jax around another trip of Rio de Janeiro. The only people that stayed back was Rafael, Eva, and their eighteen children. This tour lasted until dawn. Nico and Pedro, both really anxious to see Jax perform, tried their best to imply it to the still sullen military macaw. Eventually the implying didn't work, so Pedro resorted to begging and pestering while Nico tried to convince him with amiable compliments.

"Bleh, it's alright. My voice isn't all THAT special..." Jax said humbly.

"Oh come on, you know you can sing really well. I think you'll be a huge hit and The Canopy." Nico remarked smoothly, tipping his bottle-cap mannerly.

"Come on big guy, why don't you do it? It'll be awesome and fun. Please perform...please?" Pedro pleaded. The cardinal flew up to Jax's face and tried to give him an irresistible cute face to help sway his decision. The face definitely wasn't irresistible anymore.

"Look, thanks for all the nice things and all, but I'm not going to perform. For the last two or three hours, you two have done nothing but beg for me to perform at your club. And for that same duration, I told you the same answer, I'm NOT a performer and probably never be one." Jax retorted in a semi-irritated tone, "Besides, I'm still in shock and depression over Nick's death." Both the canary and the cardinal lowered their heads shamefully and apologized. Jax dismissed the two smaller birds playfully before turning to Katia and the Spix macaws.

"Where next?"

"Uh...I'm not sure..." Katia replied with a nervous and sheepish chuckle. Everyone then simultaneously mentally brainstormed their next destination. Just as everyone flew over some sidewalks on the Ipanema beach, Jax took a gander at an ice cream vendor at one of the street corners.

"Hey you guys wanna get some ice cream?" He asked. As soon as the sentence was formed, all three of Blu and Jewel's children flailed around hysterically.

"Come on come on come on. Please can we get ice cream?" Cobalt begged, trying the same 'cutesy' tactic Pedro used on his mom.

"I promise I'll be good." Isaac directed towards both of his parents. Diamond repeated what Isaac said, but also added in a cutesy begging face too.

"Kids, I've told you already, you don't need those sweet sna-" Jewel tried to explain in a motherly tone before getting cut off by Jax.

"Hey don't worry about Jewel, it's my treat. They can all split an ice cream sandwich or something if you are really worried about them eating human food. I'll get you all something too while we're at it." Jax said, "Besides, human food won't kill them."

Jewel sighed and allowed Jax to retrieve the ice cream treats. Blu questioned how the military macaw would get the ice cream. His response was a chuckle and a shrug from Jax.

"I guess I just have to roll with the punches." Jax responded in a smart alec tone. Jax asked what everyone wanted and after the orders were taken, he flew over to the ice cream cart while everyone else watched him pull off his plan. There was a seagull close to the cart and Jax spoke to him as if he was trying to negotiate with him. The other birds were puzzled by the event they were seeing. With a nod from the seagull, Jax flew back to the confused group while the seagull took a plastic bag in his bill and waited until the ice cream vendor was not looking at he quickly swiped all of the food that was desired. The seagull then flew back to Jax and handed him the bag and left.

"Wow, that wasn't the right for the seagull to steal it." Katia pointed out as she scoured the bag for a orange cream Popsicle.

"How did you even get that seagull to steal the desserts?" Nico asked as he took out a wrapped Drumstick ice cream cone.

Jax looked a little content with himself before answering, "Well, I didn't ask him to steal the desserts specifically. However, I didn't have any money on me, so I asked the guy if he'd like to get these sweet treats for us, in any method, and we ended up bargaining. He said he was banned from that samba club and I told him if he was able to get us the ice cream, then I'd talk to Nico and Pedro about letting him back in."

Nico and Pedro nearly dropped their ice cream upon hearing the brief little story.

"Dude, we kicked out a seagull guy for creeping on too many ladies. We like to keep things fun at The Canopy, that can't happen when we have some dude harassing girls. That must've been him." Pedro retorted, a little flustered with Jax's decisions.

"Hey, I didn't tell him he'd be back there permanently. Just let him in there, and if he is like that again, give him another eighty-six." Jax answered back in another smart alec tone. Nico and Pedro stared at each other and sighed, and decided Jax was right. They all decided to talk about a new subject and just eat their ice cream. And just like Jax promised, Blu and Jewel's children spit an ice cream sandwich while listening intently on the new topic: Carnaval.

Dylan and the Monteiro family were at the security check at the airport, ready to say goodbye to the Williams brothers. The two young adults already started putting their objects into the plastic container the airport security guards gave them. While the security guards slid the containers through the x-ray machine, the two brothers gave everyone a hug.

"Man, although it's only been a day, I gotta say, you guys are a cool family. It was great meeting you." Corbyn complimented to the Monteiros. Grant broke away from a friendly hug from Dylan and stared at him straight in the eyes.

"Dylan, I'm so sorry that you had to lose Nick. I know it'll be tough for you, but you're going to make it through this tough time. Got it?" Grant said sternly to his best friend. Dylan nodded and smiled in response. "I wish we could've stayed longer and explore Brazil, but I can't request any vacation time with school still going on, it would be too risky for me." Grant chuckled as his eyes met Dylan's violin tattoo. "Oh yeah, how's that spider bite treating you lately?" This last statement sort of shocked the Monteiros.

"Haven't had any problems really." Dylan responded as he raised up his right hand to take a look at the two small bite marks on the tattoo, "It sometimes gets really itchy though."

"Good then. The itchiness should just gradually decrease in time, so I guess there's nothing wrong with ya then." Grant said as he gave Dylan one last firm handshake. "Well this is were we part for now. Until next time."

"Good luck you guys! It was definitely nice meeting you. We hope you visit again." Tulio shouted to the brothers as they entered the metal detectors in the security check.

"Don't worry, after seeing this place, I just might have to bring my fiancé down to Rio for our wedding." Grant hollered back, waving as he and he brother back-pedaled towards their terminal.

"That would be amazing! Make sure you call us if you decide to get married here!" Linda yelled as the two brothers walked out of sight. After a long, awkward silence, the group silently left the airport and drove back into the heart of the city.

After leaving the airport, everyone agreed on going over to the Copacabana beach area to show Dylan around some more. The group was walking along the signature wave pavement and just having a regular conversation when Linda decided to bring up the tattoo.

"So Grant said that on that violin tattoo is a spider bite scar?" She asked curiously. Dylan raised both eyebrows, not expecting the question to be brought up. After recalling the events that happened, Dylan sighed and turned to look at Linda.

"Yep. I have a spider bite scar, from a brown recluse. The scar is actually pretty recent, but uh...I'll tell you guys that story another day, I don't feel like bringing up that situation after today's schedule." Dylan answered, trying his best to masquerade his sorrow that still trailed him after the funeral. Linda understood what Dylan said and politely branched off from the topic. Fernando, realizing that the conversation was fading, decided to compliment Dylan's singing. The tattooed young man felt very honored by the compliment and couldn't help but smile at the boy.

"Thanks Fernando. That actually means quite a lot." He thanked as he eyes came across a music store. The store was fairly modest in size, and there was some decent instruments and drums displayed in the windows, which only made Dylan's eagerness to rise. "Whoa. Come on, I wanna check that place out!" Dylan yelped eagerly as he ran towards the store's door. Linda, Fernando, and Tulio all shrugged and followed him inside. Almost immediately, Dylan hustled to the percussion section of the store and started looking at all of the instruments the store had out for display.

"I didn't now that you were into music Dylan." Tulio nonchalantly pointed out while he and his family watched Dylan hit and mess with some of the various drums throughout the store. They could help but feel amused by the young man's inability to pass a single drum without hitting it once. Dylan, who at first ignored Tulio comment, turned around to him with a confused look.

"Didn't you just see me sing at my brother's funeral not even ten hours ago? Of course I'm into music." Dylan taunted, chuckling at Tulio's odd question.

"Well I just thought you were doing that in memory of your brother..." Tulio responded in a soft tone. Dylan chuckled some more and slightly shook his head. Afterwards, Dylan's eye's caught onto a large twelve piece drum set out in the back of the store and he couldn't resist the urge to sit down on the drum throne and admire the kit. 'Definitely is way nicer than my kit.' Dylan thought to himself as he inspected the shining bronze splash cymbals on the set. Without leaving the stool, Dylan beckoned one of the employees at the store to the drum set to ask if he was allowed to play it. The worker shook his head.

"Sorry, but this is only for display." Dylan could help but pout and feel flustered with the answer he received. Then, while the employee walked away, Dylan glanced around quickly then proceeded to take a boxed pair of drumsticks off of a nearby cabinet and slid the drumsticks out of the box. He then walked back over to the drum set at sat back down at the throne. Linda, Tulio, and Fernando, who had all decided to look around the store by themselves for a little while, reunited with their new friend at the drum set. Linda was about to ask if Dylan was ready to leave, but then she notice Dylan staring at the set while twirling both drumsticks through his fingers. Without even paying attention to his surroundings, Dylan started hitting random drums and cymbals on the kit to get a feeling for what the equipment was.

Upon hearing the sound of the drum kit, the owner of the store marched out to Dylan's position, ready to stop Dylan from playing. However, once he got there, he saw Dylan start playing a drum solo. Dylan at first a smooth jazz-like rhythm with many tom and hi-hat hits incorporated with many ride bell hits. His playing was well synchronized and it surprised the Monteiros and the owner himself. Then he started to play immensely fast rolls across the assortment of drums almost blissfully. Dylan then abruptly stopped when he saw the owner staring at him in amazement.

"Oh sorry I just had to pla-"

"No no no! We normally don't let people play the set because we don't want to upset people on the beach that are able to hear us with random deafening clashes and such- but you! You must be a professional drummer! Sir, you may play the set as long as you want. And those drumsticks you technically stole, I guess I'll make them on the house then! Divirta-se!" The owner interrupted. Dylan was thrown off by his use of the word professional, and he actually felt quite honored by it. When the drummer turned around, he saw lots of people watching him. The store had gone quiet with anticipation to see what the "tourist" was going to play next.

"Wow I didn't know I was great enough to attract a crowd." Dylan said humble. "Well if I have permission now, I might as well play to the best of my ability." With that said, Dylan hit the drums with more force, this time, breaking out into a fast and complicated tom pattern. He transitioned into a metal beat with ease, still content on demonstrating all of the hardest coordinated fills he knew. Linda, Tulio, and Fernando just stared at each other, flabbergasted.

Outside of the store, on the beach, people near the wavy sidewalk could hear the muffled sound of the drums. On that beach, a young Brazilian man, who looked like he was trying to avoid someone (he even wore large sunglasses), heard the skillful playing while sunbathing and was intrigued to enter the store to see who was playing inside. He got up slowly, looked around consciously, placed a and khaki shorts over his dry swim trunks. He crossed the street and entered the store and walked over the the enthusiastic musician.

"Man I gotta say, that statue was really cool close up. Thanks for taking me over there guys." Jax thanked as sincerely as he could. The group was just flying away from the Christ the Redeemer statue, which they hung out on for a little while and chatted about Carnaval. Nico and Pedro were obviously the most excited; they kept babbling on about how Rio de Janeiro was going to be so "hardcore and party heavy" in just three days. Now the group was flying back into the city, into the Dona Marta, a steep slum. At first, Jax wanted to visit the area, then when the others found out that their old friend Kipo was going to be in that area, they eagerly wanted the two birds to be introduced.

"Oh no problem Jax, it's the least we can do for you." Katia replied, return Jax's sincere tone with a sincere smile.

"Yeah, I mean, I haven't gotten around to checking out the city. It is definitely more fun to explore with people though." Jax noted.

"You can say that again." Jewel laughed as they entered the favela. Everyone landed at a fruit market at they saw their old friend Kipo talking with three other birds. As everyone walked towards Kipo, the other three birds bid farewell to Kipo flew off.

"Hey Kipo! Long time no see!" Blu greeted with a shout as the spoonbill turned around with a surprised expression. Jewel nodded with her mate's words and gave Kipo a friendly hug.

"Guys! It's been a while! I assume you little ones are doing fine." Kipo chuckled as he gave a hug to the little blue macaws. He then looked up to see Katia and Jax standing next to each other. "And who are these two birdies? I've never seen you guys before."

"This here is Katia." Nico pointed out, flying over to the blue-and-gold macaw.

"And this one's Jax!" Pedro finished, also flying over to his respective bird. Kipo just laughed and looked at them suggestively.

"Well, you two make a cute couple." He teased. Katia blushed immediately. Jax was going to do the same, but instead, he shook it off and placed his wing around Katia and gave off a smug look.

"What can I say? I'm a lady's man." The military macaw boasted. Katia sneered at the cocky bird and elbowed him in the stomach with her wing. While Jax was knelt over, coughing from the blow, Katia shook Kipo's wing. After Jax recuperated from the blow, he also went up to shake the spoonbill's wing.

Jewel then looked up and squinted her eyes. She saw some sort of small figure off in the distance. It looked like a monkey. She then looked back down to see everyone talking about The Canopy. Then Jewel noticed, that behind them was a gang of marmosets, sneaking up to. "Hey look out!" She yelled, pointing to where the little monkeys were emerging from. The small mammals practically froze and they waited while their leader, Mauro, nonchalantly walked up to the conversing birds.

"Why hello again. I'm back to reclaim those blue birds I failed to capture the first time." Mauro chuckled devilishly as he looked up to Blu. Jax looked uneasy and slightly backed away. The other birds just stared Mauro down, but the marmoset did not get intimidated.

"Alright shrimp, we've already gone through this once, you are NOT going to get Blu and Jewel, and especially their kids. You are just setting yourself up for failure once more." Kipo defended while moving in front of the Spix macaws, breathing heavily in hopes to scare Mauro. Still no avail. While the rest of the birds (except for Jax, who tried to remain unseen from the small monkeys) formed a wall in front of Blu, Jewel, and their children, Mauro stood in front of them and laughed sheepishly.

"Look at you guys, thinking that six of you, plus the three kids, are going to beat all of us in a fight..." Mauro said in a beckoning tone. Just then, about forty marmosets walked out from under boxes, popped out from crates, and emerged from the fruit stands. "You guys are out numbered. Might as well walked into the cages right now." Mauro ordered the frozen monkeys to reveal three cages that were under a fruit stand. Without any hesitation, Mauro, stared once more at the birds, and with a smirk, he yelled: "ATTACK!"

While Dylan mixed up his solo a little bit, the young Brazilian man walked up, stood by the Monteiros, and watched the drummer do his thing. He was impressed and he started to grin. When Dylan took a little breather, everyone started to clap and cheer. Then this mysterious young man spoke up loudly.

"Hey how about you play some samba? I'm sure us local Brazilians would love to hear it." The man said monotonously. Dylan shrugged at the request.

"Sure why not. Just let me come up with something." Almost immediately after finishing his sentence, Dylan started to play a Latin drum beat. He then flawlessly infused it into a mix between an Afro-Cuban and Samba beat. The young man was quite impressed and nodded his head. He then took off his sunglasses and rubbed them on his t-shirt, not realizing what he had just done. The whole crowd turned to look at him in shock. People were gasping and taking pictures of this man, all while Dylan stared at him confusedly whilst playing his samba solo.

"It's Marquis Richard Centeno." Tulio yelled excitedly, trying to nudge Linda into finding a pen and paper for him to sign. Dylan was so lost that he quit playing entirely. He watched entirely as the owner nervously walked up to this "Marquis" and shook his hand haphazardly.

"What is going on?" Dylan shouted, flustered at the randomness of the event that had just unfolded. Fernando decided to hop next to Dylan and explain.

"You see, Marquis Richard is very famous and one of the most popular, if not, the most popular samba and bossa-nova musician in Brazil. Just so know, if you didn't already, he is a guitarist and a singer. I don't know what he wants with you, but you are really lucky considering a Brazilian celebrity just walked up to talk to you." Fernando explained while Marquis made his way next to Dylan as well.

"Alright, well I can see that people are starting to flood around and it's going to make business hard for me." Marquis admitted as he pulled out a business card and handed it to the still confused drummer. "So..um...when you get home, give me a call right away on this number. My name and everything is on there if you don't know me. I'll talk to you soon...uh..."

"Dylan. Dylan Jackson."

"Dylan Jackson! I'll talk to you soon Dylan!" Marquis laughed as he firmly shook Dylan's hand and started to make his way out of the door. As soon as Marquis left, people started to flood out of the store to follow him. Without saying a single word, Dylan got up and walked out of the door.

"I think I've had enough today. My mind has probably melted just now. I think I'm going to head back up to my apartment." Dylan trailed off, still in shock with the fact that a professional musician just recognized his playing ability. With his sentence finished, the group walked back along the beach to go back to their cars. Needless to say, they were all speechless. After getting into their separate cars, Dylan waved goodbye to Linda, Tulio, and Fernando and drove back to Rocinha to his hotel.

The clashing animals had been attacking each other for about five minutes. Although Blu and Jewel did not want their kids to be fighting with the monkeys, they had no choice but to let them duke it out with the monkeys as well, but they were along side their parents the whole time.

"Mom, I'm kinda scared." Diamond said shakily as she inched closer to her mother. Jewel finished throwing a marmoset off her back and into a crate head-first, knocking him unconscious. She then comforted her daughter while Blu and his sons fended off some of the marmosets as well.

"Man this is so much fun! I feel powerful!" Cobalt yelled to Isaac as him as his brother double-teamed a few monkey by clothes-lining them. Isaac responded with an awkward-sounding battle cry. Nico and Pedro reused their fruit throwing technique from their last fight with the marmosets and successfully hit a few of them. Jax was protecting Katia, who started to get overwhelmed by monkeys. Whenever Jax stepped in front of a monkey, they always would stare at him inquisitively before getting hit in the face. Kipo was probably doing the best in terms of fighting. He dealt with the most monkeys and was dodging nearly all of the hits they threw and he knocked a few unconscious by slamming them against each other, dropping them onto the concrete, and dropping some of the fruit crates on them.

After about another ten minutes of fighting, only half of the monkeys were unconscious. The birds seemed to have been destroying the marmosets, but at the same time, the birds were also getting tired and fatigued as well. Kipo, eventually becoming the main target, was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of marmosets that charged at him at once. Only about seven marmosets did not attack Kipo. The small monkeys took out the tall bird and jumped on him and smacked his face around until they were certain he was knocked out. Luckily, Kipo, despite being knocked out, only suffered from bruises and a few scratches. The large group of marmosets that took out Kipo then charged towards the Spix macaws. Katia, who leaned on Jax's side for support, was breathing very heavily and wanted to back out of the fighting. Jax took notice of her condition and looked at her worriedly.

"Look Katia, you don't need to fight anymore. I know there's still a lot of monkeys out there and you don't want to leave, but you're no longer in condition to fight anymore. Don't worry about the amount of marmosets in this scrap, I'm a good fighter, I'll stop them from taking the blue macaws." Jax ordered as he flew towards the mass of where the fighting was. Katia understood and did her best to leave the area as soon as possible. Despite being a cocky jerk, she trusted that Jax, along with Nico and Pedro, were going to stop Mauro and his crew. When Jax got there, he saw about six marmosets dragging the exhausted offspring into a cage. The kids did not get knocked out, but however, passed out from exhaustion. Nico and Pedro chased after them since Blu and Jewel were blinded by the rest of the marmosets attacking them. However, someone clashed Nico and Pedro's heads together forcefully as they flew frantically, taking the two birds out of commission. Blu, just like Kipo, eventually was overwhelmed by marmosets and was eventually jumped and slapped into unconsciousness. Jewel, seeing this, took her rage out on as many marmosets as she could. She then turned to help Jax, who now was being attacked by multiple marmosets, including Mauro, but she then overheard something in his little skirmish.

"Whoa whoa wait...I know you!" Mauro shouted as he called off the attacks on Jax. The military macaw noticed that Jewel was staring at them and he grew tense and uneasy once more. "You're the guy tha-" Before Mauro could finish his statement, Jax hit him on the top of his head with his beak as hard as he could. It made Mauro collapse. Now with their leader knocked out, the remaining marmosets continued to attack Jax. Jewel, after breaking her puzzled train-of-thought, finally helps out Jax with taking out the small monkeys. She fought off a few, and a few dispatched to go carry Blu into one of the cages. Eventually, all of the marmosets just randomly dissipated from the fighting, which made Jewel confident and feel powerful. She then walked over to the cages to free her family.

"Man that was some intense stuff. You know Jax we-" Before she could even free her mate, Jewel herself was knocked unconscious and dragged into the last empty cage.

A.N: Woo! Man, I am so sorry again for the late update, school's really kicking my ass recently. My class work barely gives me anytime to work on my stories at all. Anyways, the story should be kicking in at full force from this point on. As always, please review, any constructive criticism is always welcome. If you spot any grammatical errors or any errors, please tell me through an IM or through the review system or something so I can fix them right away! Thanks for reading! BrokenMechanix out!