Chapter 11
Revenga
"Uh, my aching head..." Jewel muttered, still dizzy and semiconscious from the battle they just endured. When the light blue bird came to her senses, she realized that she was in a draped cage and was being carried somewhere. Although it was few, the footsteps she heard had kept ringing through her head. "Oh god, no...not again..." Jewel whispered to herself, now scared.
In another cage, Blu was pacing in circles in his cage, biting the tips of his feathers in nervousness and fear. "Jewel! Colby! Diamond! Isaac! Where are you guys!" He yelled out as loud as he could. Luckily, he heard his kids yelling back at him.
"Dad! What is going on?" Diamond cried out while tears streamed down her face.
"Help us!" Isaac also cried out fearfully.
"I don't wanna die!" Cobalt shouted as if he was in agony. Then while they yelled out to their father, a hand struck the cage with intense force.
"Shut up you stupid birds!" A Brazilian man lashed out angrily. Both the power in his voice and his hand which struck the cage, scared the young Spix macaws so much, that they all started to cry from terror. Blu, able to hear their pleas, started to yell aimlessly, despite that neither of them could see each other due to the fact that their cages were covered. Jewel, as she felt her cage being placed down, faintly hear her mate and kids. She yelled out Blu's name, but instead of a response from Blu, the rag cover was peeled of by a familiar sulfur-crested cockatoo.
"Why, it's so nice to see this big, beautiful, blue face once more." The white bird said in a low monotonous voice. His sarcastic quote was followed by lunatic-like hysterical laughter. Jewel grimaced at the sight of the cockatoos face, but her eyes still focused on him sternly.
"Nigel..." She muttered. "Where is my family?" Jewel said with rage as she gritted her beak together.
"Oh my dear, they are just boarding the plane, let me show them to you." Nigel chuckled manically before flying over to another cage. With the cover off, Jewel now knew that they were on board of a plane. She gulped as she turned back around to see Nigel pull the cover off of her mate's cage, followed by a quick dash to the kids' cage to pull off their cover. "You know, I'd let you guys reunited and all of that cutesy crap, but we don't have the time. We gotta get this plane into the air after we load up a few other birds on top of your cages. I say this so the smart one doesn't escape. Now Buckle your seat belts kiddies." He said evilly as he flew towards his owner, Marcel, who was back to his old trick again. Once he landed on Marcel's shoulder he squawked for attention as is he was asking the human for something.
While everyone sulked in their own separate cages, Blu couldn't help but gaze outside of the plane. Off in the distance, Blu saw Nigel fly over to another bird and Blu noticed that Nigel had a medium-sized brown bag in one of his talons as he flew up to this unknown bird. Blu, although he had to squint, could tell that the bird was a macaw, but he couldn't tell the color of the feathers from afar. When he realized that the bird was a macaw, Blu immediately tried to shove any quick conclusions that popped into his mind. Before he could even determine the macaw that Nigel was conversing with, it flew off, taking the bag with him or her.
Katia flew as fast as she could into the jungle to locate Rafael. When Jax told Katia to leave the battle grounds at the fruit market, she left the area just as told. However, before she even left the favela, she had the feeling that something bad was happening. When she returned to the fight, she saw the marmosets load up some of their fallen comrades into the back of a large truck, but she also saw Kipo lying on the ground, semi-conscious. While she went to get help, the marmosets loaded the truck with the three covered cages before the truck drove off. Once Katia came back with a few birds that could help Kipo, she realized that the cages were gone. Katia pleaded Kipo to help her look for the Spix macaw family. Unfortunately, the birds that helped Kipo regain a small amount of strength notified the blue-and-yellow bird that Kipo had suffered a concussion and needed to rest. Now she is on the search for Rafael in the jungle. If he wasn't able to help, then she would have to save her friends on her own. Funniest thing is, she completely skipped out on the fact that Nico and Pedro weren't at the scene either.
"Gotta hurry. Gotta hurry. Gotta hurry." Katia panted worriedly as she looked for each landmark that indicated the directions to Rafael's home. After about five minutes, when the sun went down, she was able to find Rafael's home. Prepared for the bombardment of children as she entered their property, Katia yelled out Rafael's name at the top of her lungs. To her surprise, no toucan chicks attacked her. Both Eva and Rafael popped their heads out of their hollow to greet their friend, but then they realized that she looked incredibly concerned and she paced back and forth to kept from panicking.
"We just got done putting the kids to bed. And yes it is early and sundown was not long ago, so you don't say anything about that; they are in trouble. Anyways, since our kids are asleep, you gotta calm down and quietly tell us what is going on meu amigo." Rafael said quietly as he and his mate flew down to meet Katia at the ground.
"Yes. O que é querida errado?" Eva asked. Katia gulped and let out a long, deep breath.
"Okay you see, we were helping cheer up Jax by taking him around Rio." Katia started, still panicking, "Then when we went to go meet up with Kipo, we were ambushed and outnumbered by marmosets. Now they have Blu, Jewel, and her kids!"
Rafael and Eva's eyes widened with shock and they stared at each other with their beaks dropped. "Oh god, we don't much time. I still remember the small airport where I was taken last time we were captured. We have to assume they are there." Rafael bursted out, terrified from the news. Eva looked in in the eyes with concern and gave him a quick kiss.
"I'll stay here and watch the kids. You go and help our friends my love." Eva said in a near demanding, yet worried tone. Rafael nodded and while he watched Katia immediately go into the sky, Rafael couldn't help but feel puzzled.
"Hey, where's Nico and Pedro?" He asked, scratching the underside of his beak. Katia turned her head to face Rafael. She felt a single sweat drop fall from her head.
"Um...uh...I...uh...completely forgot about them. If I'm right, they got captured too?" She said, making her assumption sound more like a question. "Wow, I'm a horrible friend."
"This is a stressful situation, I don't blame you for forgetting them. But we need to go now."
"Come on! I've been sitting here for nearly ten minutes already waiting for you idiots to finish up loading the cargo hold." Marcel yelled to his two new henchmen. Unfortunately they weren't smarter than the previous two men he worked with, but he didn't care, he was sure that he could get away with paying them less of the share than he promised. "I'm going to go to the cockpit now. If you guys do not finish and do not enter the cockpit in five minutes, I will not split the payment for you two. That'll suck too, because getting paid in advanced means we all could've gone on vacation..." He said aimlessly, trying his best to inspire his two workers into working even harder. The henchmen were definitely motivated to finished now.
Nigel fly into the cargo hold and made sure that the blue macaws were in his vision at all times. "I learned from my mistakes. I'm not letting the smart one destroy my feathers again. You wouldn't believe how long it took to regrow all of those feathers back." The cockatoo chuckled as if nothing was wrong. Blu gave him a dirty look and Nigel shook his head and smirked as a response. "Oh how rude of you to stare at me like that. It doesn't matter, before when we land in the Americas to deliver you, I'll probably have already exacted my revenge on you." He said in a menacing tone, flying over to the cage and griping Blu by his throat. Jewel yelled at Nigel to stop and their kids covered their eyes. Nigel laughed hysterically and flew back to his post. He sighed in relief and let his eyes wander around the near-completely loaded cargo hold and smiled slightly. "This is going to be one fun flight."
About five minutes prior...
Rafael and Katia flew as fast as they can to locate the airport which their friends were held captive at. The airport was about twenty five minutes away from Rafael's home at the speed the two were flying. Miraculously, while on their flight, the two henchmen that Marcel hired were not very time-efficient with their work, so that gave them a small, but generous, time gap to reach the airport. Luckily, Katia and Rafael arrived five minutes before Marcel's new henchmen finished up loading up the cargo hold. Although out of breath, Rafael was still able to guide Katia to their destination. After their speedy escapade, the duo located the airport. Katia, feeling uneasy, leaned up against Rafael. The old toucan tried to be as reassuring as he can with only facial expressions, but it only seem to have a light effect.
"You are definitely sure that this is the airport?" Katia quivered. Rafael nodded as they landed on top of one of the hangers and laid on their bellies to avoid being seen.
"Yes, I'm sure Katia. Look, that plane is loading up cages, we need to get a closer look." Rafael noted before flying down slowly and as stealthily as he could towards the runway. He motioned with his wings to move down next to him, so she followed his orders, however, she kept behind Rafael at all times. The two hooked a left so that no one could seem them from the cargo hold, then they flew over to the plane from above and they landed on top of it. While Katia listened to Marcel yell at his men once more form slow work, Rafael bent over the edge of the plane to peer into the cargo hold. Without sticking his entire head or beak into the hold, Rafael was able to quickly scope out the cargo hold before anyone saw him. He noticed Nigel was in the room, keeping an eye on the entire back of the plane. After the henchmen finished loading the cargo hold and started walking towards the cockpit, Rafael and Katia glided down near the hatch and glanced inside to see Nigel yawn and look inside to see if the doofus henchmen were in the cockpit yet. For some reason, Nigel groaned and opened the door to the cockpit. He was most likely checking on something with Marcel.
"Alright we sneak in now, You stay behind the last crates on the left, I'll go to the ones on the right." Rafael commanded confidently but quietly. Katia nodded and the two exotic birds crept into the plane. Both of them had to tell the birds in the cage to be quiet because they were starting to get rambunctious with the knowledge that someone is going to save them.
The cockatoo seemed ticked off now and he immediately shut the hatch after coming back into the cargo hold. Once the hatched closed, Katia and Rafael felt the plane move faster along the runway and then quickly shot up at an angle. This caused both of them to fall backwards and make a loud thump on the hatch. Nigel raised his "eyebrow" at the sound and decided to check out what was going on. Knowing that there was no escape, Rafael whispered a plan to the cage of small birds. Once Nigel made his way to the back to the plane, he turned to be greeted by the face of Katia.
"So you must be Nigel." She said in a condescending tone. Nigel Rubbed the tips of his feathers on his chest feathers as if he was flattered. The Spix macaw family, Nico, and Pedro heard the voice and were shocked. None of them could believe that she was on the plane. However, no one knew if she was a captive or she was going to be their heroine.
"Why yes my darling. But why are you on this plane. I don't want to hurt an innocent pretty face such as yourself."
"Is that so? So why would you hurt all the other pretty faces on this plane then? Does it help you cope with the fact that you are a washed up and trashy actor? Come on, you have to resort to selling our own kind to earn money. That's pathetic and disgusting. Maybe it's the shallow fact that you think you are ugly in comparison to us. Nigel, I'm sure you wouldn't appear ugly if your soul wasn't so repulsive." Katia insulted, trying her best to keep calm. "When I look at you, I see something pathetic and nasty. You make me want to throw up."
That was the last straw for Nigel. He was not going to stand around and let this random macaw insult him. He roared and started flying towards her, enraged. But once Nigel started flying towards Katia, Rafael, who he didn't notice, opened the cage he stood next to and yelled: "ATTACK!" As soon as the word formed, about seven or eight small round birds flew out and tackled Nigel to the ground in front of Katia. While they kept the cockatoo distracted, Katia and Rafael searched for their friends on the cargo plane. While they searched, they unlock a few of the cages and the birds threw the cages into the door so Marcel couldn't get to them. Nigel eventually broke free from the small birds and he flung each one of them into the walls of the plane. Katia was able to locate Nico and Pedro and Rafael was able to find Jewel.
"Alright you two gotta help us free everyone." Katia shouted, quickly glancing back every few seconds to make sure Nigel was occupied with other birds. Enraged, every bird that tried to help pin down Nigel was almost immediately flung off. Nigel even slammed a few birds into the walls of the plane as hard as he can. While Rafael was opening Jewel's cage, he couldn't help but realize that Nigel was a lot mroe angry than the last time they met. He gulped and he freed Jewel, but as soon as he moved the cage door open, he was tackled by the raging cockatoo.
"Meu amigo, você é um furioso muito desta vez!" Rafael grunted as he tried to pry off Nigel's talons from his neck, "You're surprisingly not as satirical as the first time we met."
Nigel gripped his hold tighter, causing Rafael to wince. "Listen you old big nose, I'm not letting you ruin this for me. You and your friends had me nearly killed last time we met, had my feathers ripped to shreds. I'd like to find some sort of way for revenge. But seeing as humble and noble you are, it looks like you'll be my practice dummy." He said sinisterly as he grit his beak. He then slid Rafael forcefully down the floor and he hit the piled cages with his head. Rafael, being slow to get up, got pounced once more by Nigel, but instead of trying to peel of Nigel's talons, he swung his beak so it made contact with the side of Nigel's face. It dazed the cockatoo and now Rafael tackled him to the ground.
While Jewel, Katia, Nico and Pedro finished freeing the some more birds, they kept an eye on Rafael. The aged toucan notice their concerned but he dismissed them by giving them another order.
"Hurry up and free the other birds! Then open the plane so we can get out of here. Don't worry about me, I'll take care of Nigel!" He shouted as he kept Nigel pinned down by holding his head and one of his feather down with his claws. Nigel shook fiercely then gripped Rafael's beak. The toucan's eyes widened and before he knew it, Nigel slid slightly forward then tried to spring himself back to his feet by kicking Rafael in the stomach. It did the trick, because it knocked the wind out of Rafael and he hobbled backwards. Nigel laughed as he charged once more towards Rafael, and he attempted to claw the surprisingly agile bird, who hopped backwards to avoid the attack. Unfortunately Nigel cut Rafael's stomach; however, Rafael was able to counteract by tackling him and ramming him into the piled cages by the cockpit door. The impact dazed Nigel and Rafael turned back to his friends to check on them.
Everyone was working together to get the numerous amounts of birds free, and then Blu flew up to the hatch switch and made he cargo door open. A warning light flashed inside the cockpit and Marcel turned around to see what was happening.
"What the? This can't be happening again!" He shouted as he saw the familiar sight. He sighed angrily and tried to open the door, and then proceeded to kick the door with his foot when he realized that it wouldn't budge due to all of the cages being in its way. "Well I guess the birds outsmarted us again. Might as well jump out now. I'm not going to get humiliated and even...beat up for not bringing the birds after I was paid in advance. I'll leave that punishment to my henchmen." Marcel admitted as he took a parachute and jumped out of the plane without the two henchmen knowing. When they realized that he was gone, they raced for the last parachutes and ended up sharing it as they too jumped out.
"Hey you still need to pay us!" The henchmen shouted as they deployed their parachute. Without anyone to pilot the aircraft, it slowly started to descend downwards.
Inside the cargo hold, Blu, Nico, and Pedro made sure all of the birds were able to fly out of the plane. When Blu reunited with Jewel and their kids, he told them to go on ahead and bring the kids to safety. Jewel nodded and she asked Nico, Pedro, and Katia to come with her and they all left together. Meanwhile, Rafael still had Nigel pinned against the cages.
"Desculpe meu amigo. You need to calm down and at least return to your less outraged-self. Besides, I need to get out of here now, Eva's probably having a hard time controlling our kids." Rafael laughed as he gave Nigel a strong right hook with his wing. Nigel, who was already dazed from the impact of slamming against the cages, fell unconscious after getting hit square in the face. After knocking out their enemy, Rafael motioned to Blu to fly out of the plane with him and they did so. However, after they had already started flying outside of the plane, Rafael turned around to see Nigel's limp body still inside the plane. Blu was able to read Rafael's mind like a book.
"You know, as the right to do, we need to go bring him down to the ground safely. Rafael, I'll help you bring him down." Blu said as he dashed back into the plane and grabbing Nigel by the body. He was definitely a lot heavier than Jewel when he had to carry her around when her wing was healing. "Nigel, you need to stop eating whatever it is you eat." Blu grunted as he tried to pick up Nigel.
"Let me help amigo. I'll stay under him and lift him up that way while you grab him like you are doing." Blu nodded to the plan and the two worked together as Rafael planned and were able to escape the descending plane. After flying back to the airport, Blu and Rafael placed Nigel down gently on the asphalt runway and they both let out a deep breath.
"Well, today was definitely exciting. I'm glad we made it through that." Blu muttered as he hovered in the air.
"Yep, well you know, we should probably go and meet up with the others now. So they don't think we had died honorably in the plane." Rafael said jokingly as he and Blu headed back home. Blu couldn't help but roll his eyes at his friend's comment.
"Come on know, we've been through this situation twice now, and I can fly this time, I'm sure there is no way we could've died." Blu retorted confidently, "But I gotta thank you Rafael for saving us."
"No problem amigo. Just remember to thank Katia too."
"I will as soon as I see her." Blu said sincerely
Brann stood outside the hotel's back porch door, watching Dylan cook himself an egg for a late night snack. The military macaw chuckled as his owner's quirky choice for snack food. After letting his owner finish, Brann knocked on the glass doors by clacking his beak on it. Dylan turned to see his bird standing there, smiling back at him.
"What's up my feathered friend?" He greeted as he slid the door open so Brann can walk into the hotel room. He shut it as soon as his parrot was in the room.
Brann squawked: "The ceiling" as his response. Dylan chuckled as he rolled his eyes playfully. He then turned on the small T.V. Brann stared at his owner concernedly. The day seemed to never end for either of them. 'Funeral's do that to people I guess...' Brann thought to himself. As soon as he thought of the funeral again, it seemed as if Dylan knew he was thinking about it, because his owner then started to well-up with tears.
"Brann...I can't believe he's gone..." He sobbed through sniffs. Dylan started to cry again for a few minutes. Brann landed on his shoulder and tied to console him, but there was no avail. Suddenly, Dylan's sadness turned into frustration. "I...I can't believe he's gone. Ah! I promised him! I promised him that I would be there by his side when it happened! I told him I would spend whatever I needed to just to see him before he passed, and I didn't even frikin do it!" He shouted as he stood up. Blinded by his frustration, Dylan flipped over the small table between the television and the couch and he then walked over to his suitcase and threw it at the wall across from it. Brann watched in terror as he saw his owner throw things out of anger. The military macaw had never seen his owner be this angry before. He knew that Dylan was rational, but this time he just snapped. Brann then heard random cuss words form from Dylan's mouth, which was sometimes a rarity too. Dylan then walked back to the couch and buried his head into his palms and cried loudly.
"Goddammit, why could I not have been there for my brother. He's always been here for me. I couldn't fulfill my promise...God how I wish money never interfered with my personal life." He muttered as he wiped the tears from his eyes. He let out a deep sigh and he turned to see Brann staring back at him. "I'm sorry you had to see that. It's just been a stressful day for me. I...I think I just need to lay down, clear my mind, and go to sleep." He said calmly as he got up and walked towards his bedroom. "Goodnight Brann."
"Goodnight." Brann said back to his owner solemnly as he laid down on the couch. He thought about his day as well and tried to clear his mind from any kind of stress. 'This is going to be a long, sleepless night then...' Brann admitted as he turned over on his side and closed his eyes and tried to rest.
Outside the hotel room, on the corner of the porch, hidden from the glass doors, sat a medium-sized brown bag. Inside the bag was a large sum of American money.
A.N: Woo! Another long wait for an update, I apologize. Well anyways, this is like THE chapter were the main bulk of the story kicks in, and boy did I have fun writing this chapter too. It was a little strange that this chapter mainly revolved around Rafael and Katia, but hey, they were the heroes in this chapter. Nigel was definitely a lot darker in terms of morality, and before anyone pelts me for it, I explained that in the text myself. Nigel is going to be a little darker in this story, just a head's up. As usual, please review and if you spot any grammatical errors and such that I may have missed, please tell me in anyway so that I can fix it as soon as possible. Any constructive criticism is always welcome.
BrokenMechanix out!
