Chapter 26
Cash ran as fast as he could and jumped at Ken, whilst swinging his sword. Ken deflected this attack, but was left no time to counter attack, as Cash was already using his speed and agility to launch more attacks. This fighting style reminded Alvin of a certain fictional warrior. 'Yeah, get'em Yoda!" Alvin cried. "Go, Cash!" Eleanor yelled. 'Take him down!" Brittany cheered. The rest of the munks shouted various cries of support, all except for Katrina, who was busy trying to figure out how to open the lock. Ken saw this and, seeing that Ian wasn't doing anything, yelled to him. 'Quit imitating a rock and stop her, Ian!" Ian jumped at this call and rushed at Katrina. "Kate, look out!" Jeanette yelled. Katrina spun around in time to dodge Ian's dive at her. He slammed face first into the front of the crate upon which the munks cage sat. Alvin took this opportunity to hit Ian in the head as hard as he could. Ian snapped up and looked at Alvin, who was shuffling his feet and whistling innocently. "Heads up, Bald-o!" Katrina yelled at Ian. Ian turned in time to see Katrina as she pushed an old crate moving cart into his shins and bowled him over. She then pushed the cart, at full steam, into the nearby wall. Meanwhile, the rest of the munks sat in awe of just how much energy their siblings were putting into this fight. "We have to get into this battle! Come on, it's up to us to open this cage, guys!" Alvin yelled. "I agree, Alvin, but the question is how? I mean, surprisingly, Ian actually put a proper lock on this cage, and we don't have the key or anything to pick it with." Simon said. Alvin then noticed a certain spot on the cage behind Simon. It was the same spot where he had been banging his head against the cage earlier. "I don't think we need to pick the lock, Sy. Look." Alvin pointed out the spot. Simon looked at where Alvin was pointing. 'Isn't that?" "Yeah. That's where I was banging my head against the cage earlier. Now, look at it. It's all dented up. Now, I know I got a hard head, but, there's no way that I did that on my own." "So then that must mean that this cage.." Theodore said. 'That this cage is a piece of junk, that's right. Looks like Ian got the lock right, but messed up on the cage. That being said, I think that, if we all just rushed the door at the same time, we could bash it open enough for us to get out of here." Alvin said. "Not much of a plan, but it's better than just sitting here. Let's do it." Simon said. The munks all lined up and rushed the cage door. True to Alvin's theory, the door gave way under the munks combined strength and bent far enough out of shape to create a hole, through which the young munks squeezed through and escaped. After that, the chipmunks went off to help Cash and chipettes hurried off to assist Katrina. Just as the munks got within range of Ken and Cash's battle, Ken was flinging Cash from his blade, which Cash had been trying to run up. Cash went flying towards the floor, but his brothers caught him in time. Cash looked to see his brothers smiling faces. "Guys, you escaped." "Well, of course we did. We couldn't just sit by and let somebody try to make mincemeat of our brother, now could we?" Simon asked. Alvin and Theodore nodded in agreement with Simon's statement. Cash nodded in understanding. The brothers quickly did a four way fist bump and then turned to face Ken. "I see. So this how you operate, eh, freak? Couldn't handle me on your own, so you make four on one." "Ken, you never have gotten it, have you? It's never the lone solider who wins the war. It's always the army. That's what Agito always wanted us to be. An army, a unified force. Because, he knew that, no matter how strong one single warrior is, there will inevitably come a time when he would meet his match and fall. But, if the warrior had friends to back him up, then whoever was going to defeat the warrior, wouldn't stand a chance. And that's what Agito wanted. He wanted us to work together, so that none of us would ever fall before our time. That's why he stressed the importance of team work. But, apparently, that's one lesson you failed to learn. I ,meanwhile, learned it well. That's why, while you may call this cheating, I call this my power. The strength I get from working together with my brothers, more than anything else, is my power. And it is that power that will defeat you. Let's finish this, guys!" With this, the munks charged Ken. And, try as he might, Ken could not handle all four munks at once. They extended their claws and swiped and tore at every spot Ken did not protect. Finally, to finish him off, Simon and Theodore ran and got a piece of nearby rope and quickly tied an end around each of them. They then ran in opposite directions and stretched the rope taught. Alvin and Cash then lured Ken over to the rope, which Ken tripped over and fell. He hit his chin as he landed and was knocked unconscious. "yeah! That's what you get when you mess with the chipmunks!" Alvin cried. He then turned to Cash. "Hey, Cash, listen, I…" "Save it, Alvin. I've already figured it out and it's all water under the bridge." "Just don't let happen again." Simon said. "I won't! Chipmunks' honor." Just then, the chipettes came walking up. "Hey, girls. Did you take care of Ian?" Alvin asked. Brittany merely motioned behind her. Alvin looked to see Ian, laying in a heap, over by the far wall. "What the heck did you do to him?" "Do you really want to know?" Brittany asked, in a fairly dark tone. "Uh, you know what? Never mind." The girls laughed at this. "Ah, don't worry, Alvin. You know Ian. He pretty much took himself out. All we did was run circles around for a bit to get him dizzy and then we watched the train wreck unfold." Alvin then laughed. 'Yeah, that sounds about right, eh, Cash?" 'I'd say so." All eight munks then began to laugh. This laughing roused Ken. Ken opened his eyes and saw Cash laughing with his family. This infuriated him and so he grabbed his sword and flung it at Cash. However, Alvin had managed to see this out of the corner of his eye and pushed Cash out of the way just in time. However, the blade continued to fly and it sheered off the valve of an old compressed air tank which had been left in the warehouse long ago. The valve immediately turned into a makeshift missile and flew into a key support column. This set off a chain reaction which caused the old roof to begin to collapse. At around this time, Ian came to, and seeing what was happening, escaped out the back door. The munks meanwhile, scrambled for the front door. However, just as they neared the door, a large beam fell in front of them. They then noticed that a nearby window had been shattered by some debris. Everyone jumped out the window, one by one to safety, with Cash the last to go. However, just as he was about to jump out, Ken grabbed his foot. "Let go!" "Never! I told you I'd be the one who ended you, and this is how I'm going to do it! Now die!" Ken yelled. Just then, the main part of the roof collapsed and the resulting shock wave sent Cash and Ken shooting our of the window. Ken slammed head first into a large metal dumpster, while Cash got flung into the lid of the dumpster itself. Both were knocked unconscious. "Cash!" The munks yelled. They rushed to his aid. "Cash! Come on, bro! Wake up!" Alvin yelled. "Cash! Please, open your eyes!" Katrina begged. At this time, Dave came running around the corner. "What in the?" "Dave, Cash won't wake up!" Theodore yelled. Katrina pulled Cash close to her. "Cash, please, wake up! I need you, so please, wake up!" She looked down at Cash. There was no response. 'Cash!"