Sandalwood and his Friends and the Paradise Sanctuary- edited

by VPVPVP

Carla and company's trip to Rio goes badly wrong when some of their kids are caught by poachers. The kids get rescued and placed in a conservation area with various animals from around the world, but they soon suspect something off about the area. In Rio, Blu and the others must deal with another problem on the Blu Bird Sanctuary while figuring out a way to rescue the poached kids

51. 51- out of place birds, that cockatoo

Chapter 51- some out-of-place birds and here comes that cockatoo again!

Back in Rio

The night continued to roll by and along with it, the activities of the nightshift jobs of the people in Rio and activities of the nocturnal animals on the Blu Bird Sanctuary. Most of Blu and company's group members, or the remainders of them, had turned in for the remainder of the night, especially the remaining seven kids for it was WAY past their bedtime indeed, and had gone to Susan and Lucy's cottage attic. Broccoli, Dash, Ginger and James had helped the remaining macaws to set up the beds in the place for them and the chicks. Some had managed to drop off into the world of sleep within minutes but for everyone else, because of the worry for Blu and company and their safety on their trip to Peru to rescue Sandalwood and the others, alongside the shock of tonight's incidents, storming their minds, these individuals got off to sleep far later. However, a few of them did not feel like going to bed at all and had stayed up for the rest of the night.

In one part of Rio, just near the dark Copacabana Beach where few people dotted the night seaside and sandy landscape in front of the first line of city buildings and road, a certain pair of large navy blue birds, one who had a bandana covering his damaged left eye and most of his scars, was having a flight out to spend some time together and to get away from the stresses of the happenings and take a break from them. However, worry still churned inside their heads, especially after the most recent happenings at Tulio's Aviary such as the theft of the golden fruithawks. Zebedee and Iris were gliding slowly over the sandy beach, the very dark midnight blue-black water of the sea that reflected the light from the stars and the moon from the sky and the artificial lights from the city to the side of them, lapping against the sand. Zebedee looked badly shaken. His feathers were flat and he felt weak in the muscles as his nerves trembled, but it wasn't just from the sleeping gas attack and the subsequent theft at Tulio's Aviary resulting in the two golden fruithawks and several other individuals getting taken while everyone in the building was knocked out by the sleep-inducing gas cloud.

"I didn't like Tulio's reaction when he turned up at the aviary, Iris," said the one-eyed hyacinth macaw to his girlfriend, "Honestly; he was like Mt St Helens and its eruption, especially after finding those only two fruithawks missing and the staff and animals in the aviary knocked out when he, Linda, Fernando and several of the other workers turned up at the place."

"That was when we had to make a hasty retreat. I honestly think that's the breaking point for poor Tulio," said Iris nervously, "Not to mention the fact that there are several poachers who have successfully intruded into the Sanctuary de Amazon to pinch some of the extremely rare animals there, among them some of the archaeobirds and bat-birds," she breathed a sigh, "Luckily they have been caught by the patrollers and have been questioned as reported by Fernando."

"It must have been the toucan incident when we had to beat as hasty retreat when those horrible birds attacked us at his and Linda's family's cottage," said Zebedee. Iris shuddered. She did not want to remember that incident and wanted to put it to one side. Then she moved on and gazed into the night sea, the glitter of stars rippling with the surface of the water.

"Anyway, I hope Blu and company are alright," she continued, "I believe they must have reached those poachers' base by now."

"And have possibly found out their 'employers', or the group behind this poacher organisation," said Zebedee. Iris nodded.

The couple continued to fly along when suddenly; the pair spotted a flying form approach them. The creature's plumage flashed in the artificial light from the city's streetlights, vehicles and building lights and based on the colour and shape of the form, it was a red macaw. Zebedee and Iris stopped to a hover in surprise. What was a red macaw doing flying out above Copacabana beach at this time of night?

"Excuse me," called Iris to the macaw, "What are you doing out here this late?"

"Shouldn't you be back at either the Blu Bird Sanctuary jungle or Susan and Lucy's cottage?" asked Zebedee. Within moments, the red macaw flew towards the hyacinth macaws and slowed to a hover before them. To Zebedee and Iris's further surprise, this macaw wasn't any scarlet or green-winged macaw. In fact, he was a hybrid of the two species for his wings bore both the green and the yellow contour bands and his eyes were blue. These features indicated that this macaw was a certain macaw Zebedee and Iris knew to be Spinel's mate.

"Sheldon!?" gasped Zebedee in utter disbelief.

"What are you doing out here?" asked Iris. The red macaw, Sheldon, then shot Zebedee and Iris an equally disbelieving look.

"I was gonna ask the same question, you two," he said. Zebedee and Iris flashed a glance at each other and gazed back at Sheldon.

"We were supposed to be at Susan and her family's house after an incident at Tulio and his family's cottage," explained Zebedee, "But between that and our move to Dad and company's former owners' cottage, something horrible has happened at Tulio's Aviary."

Sheldon blinked in horror.

"Oh, no, what has happened?" he asked. Then desperation, and the reason for his flying out here, took hold. "Don't tell me something horrible has happened to Spinel, has it? I've been searching for her up and down most of the city of Rio in the past few hours."

There was genuine desperation in Sheldon's voice, and Zebedee and Iris had come to the conclusion that Sheldon was desperate to find Spinel and make up with her and put their relationship back together. However, the hyacinth macaw couple was reluctant to tell Sheldon that she had left for Peru with Blu and some of the others to find Sandalwood and the other missing kids, including their own three, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares.

"No," said Zebedee at last, much to Sheldon's relief, "But while we were at Tulio's Aviary after taking some of our injured comrades there to be tended to…"

"Has something happened also at Spinel's friends and families' human friends' place?" asked Sheldon, interrupting Zebedee's explanation, "I've been to that building of those two humans I've been told were called Tulio and Linda to look for Spinel there but to my horror and surprise, the things they call windows were smashed and the birdhouses looked a right state with one of them reduced to a black pile of wood…"

Zebedee and Iris sighed and decided to tell Sheldon the story.

"We came under fire by a bunch of horribly vengeful toucans," said Zebedee after some reluctance. The colour under Sheldon's feathers, as well as the white area around his eyes and beak, turned a funny colour and his eyes and mouth widened in utter horror.

"Oh, no, what did those pesky birds do?" he asked.

"They threw stones at us and forced us to hastily evacuate," said Iris, "Unfortunately, some of us got hurt. Neytiri suffered a broken wing; Eustace and company were almost burned alive…"

"And Tulio and Linda's cottage suffered smashed windows as some of those toucans went on a frenzy in throwing stones at them and breaking the glass," said Zebedee, "Alongside other things that I would rather not mention…"

"Has Spinel been hurt?" demanded Sheldon, desperation for his mate's wellbeing flaring up.

"No, she hasn't," said Iris immediately before worry could explosively consume the panicked ruby macaw. A flash of relief sparked within Sheldon but his worry for Spinel soon returned.

"Please, I'm trying to find her," said he guiltily and desperately, "I wanna make up with her and fix our relationship. Do you know where she is? Have you seen her anywhere?"

This took Zebedee and Iris by surprise and stuck them in a pit of reluctance. They did not want to tell Sheldon that Spinel had left for fear of adding to the worry Sheldon already had for his pink-red scarlet mate, but Sheldon's face began to press the hyacinth pair further until finally, Zebedee relented.

"It's gonna take some explaining but you're not gonna like it," he said. Sheldon braced himself to hear the news but before Zebedee and Iris could enter that explanation, the trio heard the sounds of groans. Hearing this, the two hyacinth macaws and ruby macaw froze and began to shoot confused glances this way and that. More groans emanated and soon, the trio realised that they were coming from the beach below them. They peered down to the sand and lapping water below them.

"Sounds like someone's struggling down there," said Zebedee. Sheldon then spotted something in a spot of light on the dark sand. Alarm tore through him.

"Zebedee, Iris, LOOK!" he shouted and pointed a talon to what he spotted. Zebedee and Iris followed Sheldon's point and also spotted the something on the sand. What the three macaws saw were three bundles of soft feathers and those bundles were lying in the sand, struggling and groaning. It was clear that they were exhausted. At first, Iris, Sheldon and Zebedee thought the three feathered forms were some type of frigatebird, a species of bird they sometimes saw in the Blu Bird Sanctuary jungle for there was a small clan of them living near the water's edge and who used their red chest sacs as drums for the 'Real in Rio' song (and thankfully were nothing at all like the horrible frigatebird gangster leader Zebedee and company including Carla, Bia and Tiago, met during their trip to Guyana), but on closer inspection, these feather bundles appeared too chubby to be such birds. Furthermore, they did not have the forked tails and long, slender wings frigatebirds possessed. Instead, the forms' tails were stubby and their wings, which the forms used to pull themselves along the sand, resembled the wings of a newborn macaw chick: flat and kinked but covered in feathers but not flight feathers. Zebedee immediately recognised the types of bird the three forms were for he had seen these birds in a book at Linda's bookstore.

"Are those three penguins?" he asked.

"Penguins!?" repeated Iris in shock, "B-but… Rio de Janeiro does not have any penguins living around it except those penguins in the penguin enclosures."

Sheldon then frowned and descended towards the three struggling penguins, the two hyacinth macaws following.

As he and Iris and Zebedee touched down, they saw that the three penguins were massive compared to them, taller even than Zebedee and Iris. Two of the penguins' backs were blue-black in colour while their undersides were white. Bordering their black and white areas on their necks and chests was a splash of golden yellow, like the yellow on Sheldon's wing contours but with a darker orange tint added. The third penguin, however, was strange. Instead of being entirely black and white with the dividing yellow-orange mark on the neck, this penguin's upper half bore grey feathers which appeared to be downy. Its head was black with white patches around its eyes and its eyes appeared to be a shade of blue. The lower half of the penguin's body melted to the adult plumage characteristic of the species. Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon blinked in confusion. They had seen images of the chicks of this penguin species and how they looked in a book and yet this penguin was an adult.

"They're emperor penguins, a species of penguin from Antarctica," said Zebedee as he identified the species of the three struggling penguins based on their features. But then this confused him. What were three penguins that normally lived in an area of the Earth's South Pole doing this far up north? Then Zebedee's gaze turned to the downy feather topped penguin, "But this one looks like a chick in an adult's body."

"Maybe this penguin is what Blu, Bia, Poinsettia and some other nerd birds would call 'neotenous'?" asked Iris. When Sheldon flashed her a confused look, Iris explained, "It's a term in ecology used to describe animals that still have their baby traits as adults, like certain species of salamanders," her gaze returned to the chick-like penguin, "It seems that this penguin is either that or is very, very late in shedding its downy chick plumage."

Sheldon smiled; the first smile he had managed since his breakup with Spinel which he had hoped to set right when he found her. Iris appeared to have a good understanding of fancy scientific terms like Blu, Bia, Poinsettia and the others who were nerdy and science minded. He then turned his attention back to the penguins and checked their vital signs. When he saw that they were breathing and twitching, he said, "They're very exhausted but they're still alive," he then prepared to move one of the emperor penguins, "Let's get these three off this beach. It's not safe here."

Zebedee and Iris agreed to this and, together with Sheldon, they latched their talons onto the massive penguins and began to help drag them to safety. However, they were very heavy but Zebedee soon found an abandoned box. This box was red, had wheels beneath it like a cart and two flaps of cardboard extending from its sides, like the wings of an airplane. A pair of brooms was attached on its rear end with the bristles of the brooms pointing back. These bristles appeared to be painted in a colour of rainbows and had colourful ribbons attached to give the illusion of a trail. On the front of the cart opposite the colourful brooms; a stick with a handle was attached. Immediately, Zebedee rushed over to it and seized it. As he brought back the wheeled box, which appeared to be an abandoned and disused toy left by some of the human kids who came here to play during the daytime, Iris and Sheldon set to helping the three emperor penguins climb into the red box part of the cart. As soon as the third one was in, Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon quickly pulled the box and its contents away from the seaside and in the direction of the city and out of danger.

Sometime later, Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon had hauled the penguins to a secluded area in the city, well away from the beach. Iris and Sheldon looked over the three penguins to check for any injuries while Zebedee splashed water over the three flightless seabirds' faces to help wake them up.

"No injuries, except for a few cuts and bruises," said Sheldon, "Which is good."

As Zebedee continued dowsing the three emperor penguins' heads, the chick-like one jolted awake and opened its blue eyes. As it raised its head, it began to look around just as the other two were coming round, the coolness of the water pulling them out of near-unconsciousness.

"Oooh, where am I," groaned the massive Antarctic bird. As the penguin's blue eyes found Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon, who at first appeared as blurry red and navy blue shapes before its eyes, the penguin thought it was dreaming but as reality set in, the penguin suddenly jolted, rolled onto its back and tried to scrabble away from the three macaws, its back pressed against one side of the cart.

"Who are you, and where are we?" asked the flightless seabirdy, its blue eyes laced with immense fright, "And ow-ow-ow!" it felt a surge of pain from its wing muscles and clasped its chest, "Why is my chest hurting?"

"It seems that you've journeyed all the way from Antarctica to here," said Zebedee. He then gazed in astonishment at Sheldon and Iris who put on equally astonished faces. Zebedee returned his gaze to the penguin. "That's a long, long, long way."

"It's gotta be about WELL over 8000 kilometres," said Iris. The chick-like penguin just gazed back at the macaws and said nothing. Just then the two other penguins came round and as their gaze landed on Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon, they also flinched in fright and huddled against the first penguin.

"What sort of seabirds ARE those, Mumble!?" said one of them, a female. Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon exchanged perplexed glances. Then the first penguin began to examine the three macaws and saw their talons.

"I don't know but they don't have webbed feet," it said, before its blue gaze ascended the macaws' bodies, "and their feathers certainly don't seem to be suitable for water…"

"Of course we're not suitable for water," said Zebedee with an amused frown, "We're macaws."

"We live in trees," said Sheldon. The three penguins exchanged confused glances. It was clear they had never, ever heard of a type of bird called a 'macaw' before, much less seen one, or rather three, of those kinds of birds in the flesh. Then the downy feather topped penguin moved on. "Anyway, where are we?"

"You're in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil," said Iris. Another confused look flashed on the penguins' faces.

"A what?" said one of the other two penguins, a male.

"Ree-oh duh… something or other?" asked the female penguin.

"What sort of a place is that? A tropical island?" asked the chick-like penguin. Iris, Zebedee and Sheldon exchanged glances again.

"No, it's a human city," said Zebedee. Hearing this, the penguin shook its head in disbelief. The words 'city' and 'human' appeared familiar to it. However, the other two penguins appeared to have not heard those two words before.

"Are we in the land of the aliens?" asked the female penguin.

"Aliens!?" snapped Sheldon in disbelief. Zebedee just raised a wing.

"Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?" he said before turning to the penguins, "So who are you and what are you three doing all the way up here?"

"Since you normally live in the Antarctic," added Iris. The three penguins took their turn to exchange glances and gazed back at the macaws silently, unsure of how to answer the question. Finally the chick-like penguin, which was a male, spoke.

"We come from a place called Emperor-Land," he explained, "It's a place where our emperor penguin colony lives."

Iris, Zebedee and Sheldon just exchanged more confused glances as the female penguin continued. "We are on a search for a penguin chick named Atreyu. He is me and my mate Balthazar's son and he was separated from the rest of us during a fishing trip."

Shock tore through Zebedee's trio.

"That's horrible," said Zebedee in immense horror.

"And tragic," put in Sheldon.

"It was," said the first penguin, the downy feather covered one, wincing from his tired and pained wing flipper muscles, "It devastated Ginny and Balthazar here, as well as the rest of us including my mate Gloria and son Erik who loved him dearly."

"So, how did you three end up washed ashore on the beach here?" asked Sheldon.

"We left Emperor-Land to search for Atreyu despite our colony's protests of the dangers," said the female penguin who the macaws assumed was named Ginny, "but we got lost," the penguin breathed a sad sigh, "Then after a series of complicated events such as escaping some predatory sharks and other creatures ending up on an island where we took a rest before continuing, after another series of events we somehow ended up here."

"And here we are," said the other male penguin, the one who did not have the downy chick-like feathers covering the upper half of his body. He then gazed at Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon hopefully, "Have you seen an emperor penguin chick named Atreyu? That's who we're looking for."

The other two penguins gazed at the macaw trio desperately as they exchanged confused glances. Then after a few moments, the three penguins' hopes were dashed as Sheldon said, "We've never heard of a penguin chick called Ar-tree-yoo or however it's pronounced. Sorry."

The three penguins breathed sad and extremely disappointed sighs. Then tears of distress began to well in their eyes.

"We've been searching the oceans and encountering all kinds of hazards for weeks," cried the first penguin in despair, "Don't tell us our mighty journey's been all for nothing, has it?"

The other two penguins then began to weep as Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon could only look on in sympathy. They were clearly stuck for words for one, they knew nothing of these penguins' search and two, they had never heard of a chick called 'Atreyu'. Then suddenly, some noises reached the macaws' ears and Zebedee and Iris jumped up in alarm. Those noises were grunts from a bird, but those grunts were laced with anger and hatred. And they were emanating from not just any bird.

"Sheldon!" called Zebedee, "Help us take this cart and the penguins out of here. Nigel's coming."

Sheldon nodded and rushed to behind the cart where the colourful bristles and ribbons of the brooms were attached and began to push it while Zebedee and Iris worked to pull the wheeled box. The three penguins looked on in confusion.

"What's going on now?" asked the chick-like penguin. Iris turned to him.

"Sorry, but a nasty and extremely dangerous bird is coming our way," said the three-symmetry flower-crested hyacinth macaw, "Just hang on while we take you to safety."

Confusion saturating them, the three penguins exchanged glances and did so.

"Is it some sort of skua?" asked the female penguin. The three macaws did not answer and continued pushing or pulling the penguins in the cart through some discarded trash and hanging cloth, moments before a ragged grey bird with brown eyes, bags under those eyes and scars all over his face and body in addition to a fresh set of half-healed claw marks on his cheek; a pale, tatty crest and a black beak and talons, as well as an awfully tatty plumage and wings, appeared and began to examine the spot where Zebedee and company had been. In those brown eyes were a poisonous cocktail of hatred, malice, bitter rage and something else and those eyes began to examine the surroundings. Not too far away, Sheldon, Iris and Zebedee continued to push the penguins in the red box with wheels, running under a large table. Zebedee pushed another flap of cloth and helped Iris to pull the cart and the penguins under it. Sheldon flashed a glance behind, hoping that the familiar cockatoo wasn't following. Back in the spot where Zebedee and company had been, the cockatoo's head turned in the direction of the sounds. The ugly crested parrot then began to trace the sounds and follow the path taken by Zebedee and company. His glare hardened with the poisonous cocktail as he increased his pace rate.

Through the table, Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon flapped along, the red macaw pushing the cart from behind and the two hyacinth macaws pulling on the handle at the front. The three penguins shot confused glances this way and that at the passing humans and the four-legged things called tables.

"So this must be the land of the aliens?" said the female penguin in a mixture of awe and fear at the same time.

"I've been in a place like this before while I was investigating what was really causing the fish shortages the other year, Ginny," said the chick-like penguin as he also shot awed gazes in various directions, "But there's something different about this land for some reason…"

"Maybe the aliens' land is bigger than you thought previously, Mumble?" asked the other male penguin. Iris, Sheldon and Zebedee did not listen to the three penguins' comments about the street and the humans around them and continued pushing and pulling the cart and the penguins. Behind the six, the bedraggled cockatoo emerged from under the table and turned his acidic glare at the group as they hurried down the street. Sheldon flashed a glance at the cockatoo and as he did that, the scarred and tatty cockatoo, which was indeed Nigel, then began to follow them. His bedraggled feathers bristled dangerously and his brown glare became engulfed with the familiar brown flames of rancorous wrath, the same sort of glare Sheldon had received during his previous visit to Rio with Spinel and her family. The acidic glare and the way Nigel was picking up speed after the group sent alarm tearing through the ruby macaw.

"FLY, IRIS AND ZEBEDEE!" barked he, "Penguins, HANG ON!"

Zebedee and Iris also flashed a glance at Nigel as he accelerated after them and obeyed Sheldon's command. The three penguins flashed the macaw a confused look.

"Hang on?" repeated the chick-like penguin. He got his answer when he and his two companions suddenly felt the cart accelerate, sending the three rolling back. An alarmed shriek exploded from the penguins' beaks as Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon accelerated, and their wing-flippers shot to the sides of the crate and the broomsticks and clung onto them.

Soon, the colourful crate pulled and pushed along by three macaws with three large penguins sitting in it went shooting through the street, its rainbow-coloured ribbons trailing and flapping with the flow of air behind its brooms. Behind the crate came a bedraggled and scarred cockatoo. As he pursued the group, Nigel began to spew a river of caustic words at Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon.

"GET BACK HERE, you GOOD-FOR-NOTHING PRETTY BIRDS!" he screeched and this was followed by every kind of gory and gruesome threat that came into his head. The three penguins shot a flabbergasted look behind at the cockatoo as the caustic words reached their ears.

"What in ANTARCTICA!?" barked the chick-like penguin in immense shock.

"That crested skua sounds like he's been swimming in polluted water!" added the female penguin in utter disgust. The other male penguin covered his ears with his wing-flippers to block out the caustic music.

"You WON'T hear our son Atreyu spit things like THAT, honestly!" he cried. Iris, Sheldon and Zebedee, however, wore unsurprised faces.

"That bird isn't a skua, penguin," replied Iris, "It's a cockatoo."

"A what?" asked the chick-like penguin.

"Never mind," said Zebedee, "Just hang on and let's ESCAPE THAT ROTTEN CHICKEN FOUL-BEAK!"

The three penguins said nothing more after this and gripped the sides of the crate hard as the three macaws push and pulled the crate at high speed through the street with Nigel right behind them. Several humans jumped and dived out of the way as the crate shot through, followed by a savage cockatoo as he let loose a screech. The chick-like penguin continued flashing confused glances at the passing surroundings, especially at the bizarre fruit and items sold on the passing stalls, things he had never seen before in his entire life. Then Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon cornered sharply around a stack of crates, taking the cart and the penguins with them, and passed by another fruit stand.

As they did that, Zebedee seized one of the fruit, a dragonfruit, with a talon and without a second's hesitation, tossed it at Nigel, away from the crate so that it did not hit the penguins or Sheldon.

"You want some fruit, you flightless rotting egg!?" snarled the one-eyed hyacinth macaw wrathfully, "have a DRAGONFRUIT!"

The bright purple and green scaly fruit flew from Zebedee's talon and careened straight towards Nigel, landing right in the cockatoo's path. The cockatoo did not have time to react and his talons stepped right onto it. The next thing he knew, he was running on a rolling dragonfruit like a log! Nigel's vengeful determination to get his talons on Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon turned immediately to horror as he realised his situation. His tatty crest stood erect and his eyes inflated out of their sockets. His wings also went out and began to flap and a scream exploded from his beak. Zebedee, Iris, Sheldon and the three penguins watched as the cockatoo zoomed past on the dragonfruit and then crash into a pile of old soft toys. The six birds winced but then another horrified scream pulled their attention back to Nigel as he careened over the toy pile, carried further by his momentum, and landed… right into a massive plastic box full of stationery glitter! A massive spray of colourful sparkles splashed absolutely everywhere, accompanied by the horrified screams of onlookers as they watched Nigel plummet onto the floor in a pile of tiny and colourful sparkly flakes at the foot of the table. The cockatoo seethed as he glared at his scarred and ragged plumage which was now smothered and saturated with lots and lots and lots of the glitter before shooting Zebedee and company a vitriolic glare. Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon were laughing out loud as they went past with the crate containing the three penguins who were struggling to hold down giggles at the sight of the mess. Then Iris's talon went to the lower eyelid of her left eye and pulled it down while her tongue protruded out of her beak as she made a taunting facial expression referred to as an Akanbe at the cockatoo, much to his outrage. Sheldon and Zebedee, however, threw on cheeky smirks. Then Iris emitted a cheeky, "'Bye'" and with that, the three macaws turned another corner and disappeared down another street with the crate and the penguins.

Nigel then stood up and shook his plumage to rid the glitter from his ragged feathers, sending sparkles flying everywhere and then launched into a furious pursuit after the macaws. Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon continued to laugh at the sight of Nigel in the glitter.

"That reminds me of the incident when he fell into a pot of azure paint when Carla, Bia and Tiago taunted him," tittered Zebedee, one of his talons adjusting his bandana to cover his damaged eye and the upper part of his left face, "He sure looked like a Spix macaw with a crest, according to them.

"Blu and Jewel would have burst out laughing if they saw him in that state," said Sheldon, laughter boiling within him for the first time in days.

"Nice one, Zebedee," said Iris. Zebedee just shrugged while the penguins looked on.

"I can see that you three strange birds enjoy that poor skua's mishaps," said the chick-like penguin.

"We have a predatory leopard seal that likes to catch us penguins for dinner on the edge of our homeland," said the female penguin, "I once took the opportunity to call him 'Fat-Face when I first met him and he tried to eat me and I laughed at his reaction."

"Does that skua try to eat you?" asked the other male penguin. Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon gazed at the penguins, about to reply when suddenly, the three macaws' eyes caught sighted movement behind the cart.

"Oh, no," shouted Sheldon.

"Here he COMES!" cried Iris and with that she and Zebedee seized the front handle and began to pull the cart while Sheldon pushed from behind. The three penguins held on to the sides with their wing flippers as they were pulled at a high speed once again by the macaws, moments before the bedraggled and scarred form of Nigel, his tatty plumage still with some sparkles of glitter lingering and an extremely acidic, fiery, vengeance-saturated glare on his face drilling into the macaws, launched into a dash after the group, the determination of seizing three of his most detested types of birds volcanically erupting within him.

"WHEN I GET HOLD OF YOU, YOU COLOURFUL FEATHERED RATS," he bellowed, his crest fully flared, "I'm gonna FLAY YA!"

Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon did not reply and continued pulling the three penguins in the cart to safety. The chase then resumed as Zebedee's group and Nigel tore down another street, this time a path or sidewalk next to a road, and through a small forest of human legs. Zebedee and Iris weaved in and out of these legs, making some humans jump and dive out of the way while Sheldon pushed the cart behind, the penguins hanging on for dear life. Nigel did the same behind them, shouting and screeching acidic curses at the passers-by and telling them to move.

"Outa my way, you PESKY PATH-HOGS!" screeched the cockatoo at one point before resuming his bitter glare on Zebedee's group and accelerating. Zebedee's group continued zooming down the street until Iris spotted a large bush around a corner.

"In there, in there!" she called and with that, Zebedee, Iris and Sheldon pushed the cart towards the bush and then under it the leaves, the penguins ducking. Not too far away, Nigel screeched to a halt and began to shoot acidic glares this way and that, wondering where his targets had gone. One of the penguins, the chick-like one, peered out at the cockatoo as he climbed out of the cart.

"Shall I?" he asked.

"Okay but be careful," said Sheldon, "He's an extremely dangerous bird."

"Yes, we don't want him to find us," said Zebedee as he helped the other two penguins out of the cart with Iris. Outside, Nigel continued scouring the surroundings for any flash of colour until his boiling brown glare picked up movement from a certain bush. Seeing this and without hesitation, the cockatoo darted off to investigate, hoping to find his targets.

"You cannot HIDE FROM ME, you GOOD-FOR-NOTHING PRETTY BIRDS!" he screeched as he zoomed towards the bush, "Certainly NOT I, Nigel the cockatoo, who is CUNNING ENOUGH TO SNIFF YOU FILTHY FOWL OUT…"

But before he could finish, his talons snagged onto something. Nigel's wrath turned to immediate horror as he found himself falling forward, before entering a violent tumble. A massive scream erupted from him as he spun like a tumbleweed ball of bedraggled, scarred and ragged white and grey feathers, some of which flew from him, down the path. From their hiding place, Zebedee, Iris, Sheldon and the three penguins, the chick-like one who had stuck his foot out and tripped Nigel, watched on as the cockatoo continued spinning down the path until a massive metallic crash, followed by the sound of things falling out, made all six of them wince violently and screw their eyes shut.

After the six opened their eyes to look at where Nigel had crashed, they saw that the cockatoo had tumbled into a setup of dustbins, or trash cans, set outside someone's door. Two of the trash cans lie on their sides, their contents spilled onto the path; some of them had fallen over Nigel, festooning him with bits of banana peel, apple cores, bones, food wrapping and many other kinds of trash pieces and scenting him with the smells of decaying fruit and other foul smells. Nigel had obviously slammed into them and knocked them over, sending litter flying everywhere and showering himself. Nigel's face was twisted into an extremely outraged look as several pigeons appeared and laughed at his state. Zebedee, Iris, Sheldon and the three penguins looked on.

"I think he'd look great for a parade HIS type with all that rubbish all over him," sniggered Sheldon.

"Definitely," said Iris. Zebedee and the three penguins just smiled at Nigel as he directed his glare at the six birds, wrath at being outsmarted and winding up in a humiliating mess yet again boiling within him but before Nigel could open his beak and spit another river of caustic threats at Zebedee and company, a massive scream erupted from behind him. That scream sent the pigeons lofting into flight and Nigel shooting a terrified glance in the screamer's direction. Then to his horror, he saw a woman, her face plastered with extreme shock, gaze at him. To make matters worse, she had a mop in her hands and had been mopping the floor by her front door. Then her extreme horror flashed to outrage and as it did, the mop in her hands raised as it aimed for the bundle of bedraggled feathers that had bowled into the bins.

"GET OUTA HERE, you DISGUSTING FERAL ANIMAL!" screamed the woman and with that, the mop came down and struck its target, making it emit a screech. Zebedee, Iris, Sheldon and the three penguins watched on as the cockatoo, bits of trash still coating him with some of it falling off, scrabbled to escape the woman's wrath concentrated at the end of her mop. As Nigel dodged another mop strike, Sheldon sniggered, "If only his day couldn't get any worse."

"That sure was one disgusting skua with an equally disgusting beak," said the female penguin.

"Let's just get out of here," said Zebedee. With that, the six prepared to move out as Nigel continued screaming and running away from the screaming and angry woman down the road, her mop striking down on him again and again.