I don't own The Rescuers: Down Under characters, nor do I hold any claim over Steve Irwin. This was just a silly one-shot I wrote up because we thought it would be fun. Enjoy.
The legendary Australian animal conservationist took a glance around the crime scene with a critical eye. The rangers were gathered around him, murmuring to each other, wondering just how this could have happened. The koala family was a beloved site on the wildlife tour, and now they were all missing, and the tracks all over the scene pointed to one conclusion.
He's back.
Steve didn't know how, but he knew, he knew, that Percival C. McLeach was behind this. His arch nemesis, the monster who terrified him as a child and haunted his nightmares to this day. Somehow he survived the waterfall and the crocodiles and he was back to finish the job. Oh how he wished Bernard and Miss Bianca were there. As it was, he still had Jake, so Steve knew he wasn't completely alone.
"Cody?" Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Jake spoke from Steve's shoulder. Cody… he hadn't heard that name in years. Only his animal friends and his mother still called him by that name. Of course, they were the only ones who knew that was his real name. After he became an adult and went into his current profession, he called himself Steve Irwin, to keep his loved ones out of the sight of the media.
"I'm fine, Jake. I've grown past all of that. I'm all grown up now, and if he decides he wants to face me again, then I'll be ready."
"So McLeach is really back, then? It's really him?"
Steve sighed, and sadly nodded his head.
"I'm afraid it is, old friend. Except, this time he won't get off so easily."
The hunter becomes the hunted.
Steve and Jake pushed up the dusty old doors of McLeach's hideout. The place hadn't been used in years, and yet looking at the furniture in the same spots as before, covered in dust, Steve could still remember vividly his brief stay in the wretched place.
"Well, boy, let's see if we can do something to refresh that rusty, old memory of yours. Is she on Satan's Ridge? Or Nightmare Canyon?" Cody flinched as two knives impaled the map behind him. "What do you think?" McLeach turned to his pet monitor lizard Joanna, who was relaxing in a tub eating crackers.
She looked to McLeach and snapped a cracker in half.
"Yeah, that's it." He flipped a knife in the air. "Right smack dab in the middle at Croc Falls!" He threw the third knife and Cody was barely able to duck out of the way as it impaled in the map right where his head was.
Steve shook his head to dispel the old memories. "That was a long time ago, it's all over now." he mumbled to himself. Jake looked at him in concern, before hopping ahead to check out the old animal cages.
"That's what you think, boy."
Steve froze, paralyzed with fear, before forcing himself to breathe and turn around to face his nemesis. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jake moving to a better tactical position, though what he would do, Steve didn't know. Waltzing out of the shadows, McLeach stood there disheveled and without his hat, but he still wore his sadistic grin with a manic gleam in his eye so Steve doubted he actually cared. His hand inched for his radio.
"So! I hear you're going by another name these days, kid! Steve Irwin, was it?"
"Is this what you've been doing all this time? Lurking about in the shadows stalking me? All because you couldn't get Marahute?"
"That bird was worth a fortune! If you'd just led me to her like a good boy I could've been rich! I even offered to split the earnings with you, and yet you said you didn't remember." His face darkened as he stepped even closer to Steve. "Those crocs and that waterfall ain't got nothin' on the amount of rage I got." Steve's mind whirled as he tried to think of a way out of this.
"So you took the family of koalas to spite me?" At this point, he was stalling for time until the rangers could get there.
"My dear, stupid Joanna isn't here, so I took your precious koalas as repayment." He casually twirled one of his knives, before suddenly launching it at Steve. He twisted, dodging out of the way as the knife sailed past his face.
"Sorry, mate. I wanted to just leave it be and avoid violence, but now it's personal. You nabbed my friends, and poached countless innocent animals in your lifetime; I can't forgive that!" Steve pulled out his own knife and threw it at McLeach, nicking his shoulder and dragging him back to the wall where it embedded itself, his shirt in tow. McLeach grabbed for the knife but before he could pull it out Jake was there, using his lasso to keep his hand from reaching its mark.
"You dang rat! Both of you! You'll pay for this!"
"Actually, I think you'll be the one to pay for it all, McLeach. When the rangers get here, you'll be put away for a long time." At that moment, the door burst open and rangers swarmed in. Perfect timing… Steve thought with a grin. His eyes hardened as he turned back to McLeach. "Take him away, boys." He stepped back to let the rangers through. Jake whistled.
"Cody, I think you'll want to see this." He hopped over to the animal room. Pushing open the door, Steve stopped in his tracks.
"Looks like McLeach has been busy." Filling the old cages were not only the missing koala family, but several other wild species as well. Grabbing the keys from the hook on the wall, Steve rushed to open the locks. "Don't worry, mates. Ol' Steve here will get ya out of there and abc home safe and sound." He set to work freeing the animals, calming them down and with Jake's help they got the job done until there was one cage left.
The term 'cage' was stretching it a bit. This one was less of a cage and more of a tank. He peered inside and gasped at what he saw. A baby stingray was swimming along the bottom, but it was clear from the size of the tank that McLeach was expecting it to grow before getting rid of it.
"Jake…"
"Yeah, I see it, kid. McLeach really outdid himself this time."
Steve poked his head out the door where the rangers were waiting for his call and herding the animals out into trucks where they could be taken to their homes.
"Hey! I'm gonna need some help with this one in the back here." He waved a few extra rangers over, where they then maneuvered the tank out to the truck Steve and Jake drove. They hopped in the front and began the long trek out to the ocean, where they could return the baby stingray. A few trucks followed behind them to help when they got there. "Alright, let's get everybody home safe and sound. We won't be worrying about Percival C. McLeach any longer, now that he's going behind bars."
"Yeah." Jake replied. "It'll be a relief to not worry about him again, and to know he's finally getting justice for all the pain he's caused." Steve smiled, before he started whistling Home on the Range.
In a maximum security prison on an undisclosed part of the island, Percival C. McLeach was fighting his bonds as the guards took him to a cell. He broke free and decked the guards closest to him before making a run for it. He almost made it, but a few extra guards tackled him to the ground. Two guards grabbed him by the arms and dragged him the last few steps to his new cell.
"You haven't heard the last of me! You hear me? Percival C. McLeach will return again! And when I come back, I won't be just Percival C. McLeach." He started chuckling darkly. "Anti-Irwin will rise! And I will have. My. Revenge."
"Whatever you say, Anti-Irwin." The guards all laughed as they walked away, leaving the mad McLeach to his rambling.
Elsewhere, Steve and Jake finally made it to the ocean to deliver their precious cargo home. Turning off the truck's engine, they exited the vehicle and went to unload the tank.
"Alright, over here fellas, yeah that's it." The stingray was released back into the ocean and Steve waded out to meet it before it went off. "You take care of yourself out there, mate. Maybe someday we'll meet again."
Steve waved as the stingray swam away, turning so it seemed its fin was waving back at Steve.
"We did good, mate."
"You're right, Jake. We sure did."