Three hours later, as the dawn approaches, Puss in Boots, Kitty Softpaws, Jose, and Dulcinea were outside the dessert of the now hidden town of San Lorenzo, looking at the main cave as their horses slowly galloped their way towards the entrance.
"Let us stop there," says Puss as he and his friends stopped their horses. They got off and wrap their horses on some branches as as they rub them.
"Take care, Babieca," says Puss, talking to his trusted horse.
"Oh, Sweetness, don't be sad. I will return before you know it," Dulcinea says, calming her sad horse down for a moment.
"Let's go," says Jose, nodding to his trusted and valiant horse Rocky, while Kitty follows him towards the cave.
"Ready, Dulcinea," says Puss as he looked at her while they finished up calming down Babieca and Sweetness.
"Right there with you, Puss," she says, giving him a determined smirk while they walk to follow their friends as they enter the cage.
The team enters the dark cave as some blue lights brighten their view. Jose looked around and felt a bit cold while the rest of his team felt the same.
"Puss, you know this place so much. What can you tell us about this cave?" Jose says as Kitty and Dulcinea agree to his thoughts, while Puss and the rest of the team looked around the cave.
"This is just a normal cave, where in my days as a citizen and hero in San Lorenzo, this cave is been known for treasures and dragons," says Puss as Jose suddenly felt shocked by that last word.
"Dra... Dragons?!" Jose says as he is frighten by the though of encountering a dragon. Dulcinea sees this and holds right hand and Jose looks at her.
"Don't worry, Jose. This dragon is actually a good one. We may even meet it," says Dulcinea with a giggle. Jose smiles a little bit knowing that he will trust Dulcinea's words.
"Puss, look at this," says Kitty as Puss heard her voice. He goes towards her.
"What is it, Kitty?" says Puss, while Kitty points him out a pile of dirt... with footprints. Puss crouched himself and touched the dirt and licked the dirt, like a all around detective.
"Puss, what's wrong?" says Jose as he and Dulcinea were kinda worried about this sudden development. Puss then stops investigating the footprints as he puts on a sudden glare.
"We have company, amigos," says Puss as everyone releases their swords after that. Then, Puss slowly walks around and then he stops, with his ears moving around. Dulcinea and Kitty did the same, like they are hearing something.
"Uh, cats?" says a confused Jose as he has absolutely no idea what's going on.
"There!" says Kitty as she spotted something and she runs on four paws, same as Puss. Dulcinea and Jose just ran like normal humans as they follow their fellow friends.
The team were running throughout the cave for a couple of seconds with a lot of speed. Then, they stop as they see several thugs, bad thugs, laughing in pride, because they have found another key to the Chaos Emeralds.Three thugs, about the same size as the three cats, were starting to march away from the cave. But the heroes kept close sharp on them. They weren't desperate, but were patiently looking at the bad guys, waiting for that opening.
"Follow me," Puss whispers as he and his friends slowly used their stealthy skills to avoid any contact with the enemy. They reach the top of the cave, where they see three undetected thugs below them, waiting for them to strike.
"What is the plan, Puss?" says Kitty as she and Dulcinea moved their heads to look closer on the surroundings.
"We need to get that key from those three thugs, Puss. But we have to do it without every single one of them get to us before we face them, but it will be too late," Dulcinea clarifies to Puss and the rest of her friends the situation at hand.
"I know, Dulcinea," Puss says, staring down at the key. All three were so focused that they did not see Jose was preparing a couple of arrows and brought a bow out of his wristband, the same kind that has the nanotechnology clock his brother made for him, and put his swords on his back and make a stance with his newly created weapon.
"Puss, Kitty, Dulcinea. You handle those three thugs with the key. I'll get you some cover firefire and hold them off as long as I can," says a determined Jose as everyone turns around and looks at him ready to go.
"Are you sure you up for this, amigo?" says Puss with a soft smile.
"Trust me, Puss. I am so ready for this," says Jose as he locks in his bow and arrow and he jumps down to stealth attack the three thugs below. With hard kicks, and a pierce through the chest with the arrow, Jose successfully defeats them without unwanted attention and pushes foward towards his mission.
"Wow!" Puss gasps in awe as he was impress by Jose's actions. He then runs in pursuit of the key alongside Dulcinea and Kitty.
Jose runs around below the cave and shoots a bunch of arrows at two undetected thugs. Then, a bunch of them turns around and saw Jose as they all prep their guns.
"Hello," he says as he was smirking. Then the thugs rain a bunch of bullets as Jose took cover in one of the rocks and he started hitting thugs left and right with incredible aiming and precision with his arrows. The thugs were beginning to fall one by one as they couldn't find an answer for Jose.
Then, some reinforcements arrives as they fire at Jose. He quickly notices it and runs as far from the danger zone as possible. He jumps and slides towards another cover, this time he was pinned, but he did his best to kill anyone in sight with his weapon.
The three thugs were leaving the cave as they see the exit, only for Puss in Boots, Kitty Softpaws, and Dulcinea blocking the way. The three cats got their swords and were surprised, as the thugs were three cats with similar size and fur color as all three of the heroes, and they did not had mouths.
"So, quiet ones, are you ready to feel the combine wrath of Puss, Kitty, and Dulcinea?" says an energetic Puss as Kitty and Dulcinea agrees. Then, the three thugs quickly got their own swords and began to attack the three heroes and the six cats took one of them one by one.
Puss was fighting one of the thugs. They were fencing their swords back and forth with incredible speed and agility.
"You will not beat me, puppet!" says Puss as he was striking him down, before the silent thug kicks him in the gut. Puss growls in pain but he shakes off his pain and immediately fights it back.
Dulcinea and Kitty teamed up to attack against their two other thugs with amazing teamwork, but the thugs sepreated them by kicking Dulcinea out of the way with enormous power, leaving Kitty to defend herself.
"Dulcinea!" she says as she struggles to defend against two thugs that surprisingly matches her style and swords fencing skills. The two thugs managed to kick Kitty's gut while one of them grabs her right arm, turns it around, and then it grabs her throat from behind and chokes Kitty.
"Ahhrgh!" Kitty screams as she was struggling to breath and she dropsdrops her sword due to her struggles. One of the silent thug with the white fur holds its sword high and was about to slash Kitty with it. The black and white fur cat kept applying its intense pressure on the sleeper hold on Kitty as Kitty gasps in desperation and closes her eyes because she was passing out, without any room to breathe. The white cat slash its sword and... was blocked by another sword. It was Dulcinea, and she was growling in effort as Kitty tries to escape her predicament.
Dulcinea lifts its sword up and delivers a jumping sidekick to the white cat, while Kitty escapes the hold and grabs the black and white cat's back of its head and throws her, crashing into the white cat as they hit a wall of rocks hard.
"Are you okay, Kitty?" Dulcinea says as she offers her left paw towards a fallen Softpaws, who was desperately breathing after being choked by those thugs. Kitty then grabs Dulcinea's paw and lifts herself up.
"I am now, thanks to you," says Kitty as she smiles at Dulcinea, which the white cat smiles back at her. Then, they turn their attention at their enemies, who were moving their bodies strangely.
"Dulcinea?" says a confused Kitty while she look at Dulcinea, who stares down at those thugs and holds her sword very tight like she was ready for any strategy these thugs were planning to do now. Then, the thugs finished their weird stuff, and to Kitty and Dulcinea's surprise, they turned into mere copies of themselves.
"What the?!" Kitty shouts in surprise as she couldn't believe this turn of events. But Dulcinea swings her sword and stance her position, while picking her friend's sword with her foot as Kitty grabs it.
"I got your back," Dulcinea glares as she gives a determine smirk to Kitty. That made Kitty have complete confidence and trust towards Dulcinea, while the duplicate cats growls towards them as they approach them.
"Let's go!" says Kitty as she and Dulcinea approach their enemies and the two teams continue to fight in this cave for bragging rights, with incredible sword techniques, speed, agility, and teamwork.
Meanwhile, Puss fights off the other thug as Puds reaches his sword towards its chest, and takes a chance at grabbing the key on its belt using his right paw. But the intelligent orange cat grabbed Puss's right arm and stated twisting it.
"Ahhh!" Puss screams in pain as a few bones were breaking by that hold, and the thug followed that up by swinging his body and slams Puss onto a wall. Puss groaned in agony as his vision was blurry, and he was becoming dizzy after he took that hard hit. Then, the thug was moving strangely.
"What?" says a confused Puss as he saw his foe suddenly changing into Puss.
"What's the matter, Puss? Afraid of figthing yourself?" says the clone Puss with a sinister voice, almost as if it was controlled from the inside by an even more powerful evil. But Puss did not vare one bit. He slams a fist to the ground as he grits his teeth and gets up. He then holds his sword very tight as he stares down as his doppelganger.
"I am Puss in Boots. And I fear nothing!" the prideful cat yells proudly as he jumps towards his foe and the two of them slashes and clashes their swords as Puss continues to fight back. The clone Puss goes for a slash at the chest of Puss, but the Ginger Hitler holds his sword, penetrated through its attack, grabs the key, and delivers a right kick uppercut to its neck, which knocks the clone Puss down.
"Hehe, back for more?" says Puss as he puts the key onto his hat, smirking at his foe. The clone growls angrily and attacks Puss, while Puss defends his vicious attacks.
On the other side, Jose kept firing and destroying many thugs with his arrows, but his arrows were all out and every thug were firing their guns and surround him in a corner.
"Shit!" Jose says as he is in a tight corner, surrounded by three hundred thugs, all of them just transformed into mere copies of Jose himself.
"Hello, Jose," says every clone with the voice of a serial killer, one that made Jose clutched his fists hard with a death stare.
"Who are you, and why do you know my name?" says Jose as he stares at the clone in front of him, as it was laughing so diabolical, so sinister, that it wanted to simply show that this evil withing the clones that he will be Jose's biggest nightmare.
"You will never found out. After I kill you and your friends," it says.
"Then I will hunt you down, and kick your bots to shreds," Jose determinedly as he suddenly released his swords and started shredding the clones to pieces.
Jose was out of this world, using his powers as a sword igniter and destroyed each and every clone on sight. Every back up did little to stop him, while he marches forward, attacking his foes, while making his mark on helping out Kitty, Puss, and Dulcinea.
Dulcinea and Kitty continues to fight their clone selves. The clones managed to created a super beam, with clone Dulcinea's sword, to mimic the powers of Dulcinea.
"Kitty, look out!" Dulcinea yells as Kitty moves out of the way with her tuck and roll, and Dulcinea uses her sword to block their attack and was struggling to block that attack.
"Argh!" Dulcinea grunts in effort as she tries her best, but the evil clones were too powerful for one cat, as powerful as Dulcinea, to handle. But then, Kitty stays by her side and pushes her back and holds her sword with her paws, to help her friend.
"Two are better than one," says a determined, while Dulcinea looks at her and gives her a determine smile and smirk. They turn around and push foward, and the clones were in shock. Then, with a strong push, Kitty and Dulcinea moved their beam super forward and completely destroyed the beam of the clones and the clones screamed as their bodies were burned down and crippled to pieces.
Dulcinea and Kitty sat down and breathe heavily as they were tired after their fight.
"So, still I am worth joining this adventure?" says Kitty, referring to when she decided to join her instead of staying with El Guante Blanco, with a smile on her face.
"You were always was worthy of anything, Kitty. I am very glad you came along, and thank you for helping me," Dulcinea says as she giggles a bit. Kitty smiles and nods towards her friend, thankful for her friend's hospitality. They got up as they ran out of the cave and join their horses to protect them in case enemies comes out of that cave.
Puss in Boots was still battling his clone self as he was defending from its attacks. Then, a clone hits Puss's sword with a strong strike and it made Puss wiggle around because he was on the edge of the cliff and was about to fall.
"Woah!" says Puss as he barely escapes his fall predicament, but the clone uses that as an advantage and slams Puss to the ground with a body slam. Then he locks Puss in a sleeper hold.
Puss was choking in agony as he was struggling to breathe. The clone uses his sword to strike Puss's chest, but Puss grabs the sword and tries to prevent that. The clone applies more pressure to Puss's throat, and Puss was struggling to breathe, and the sword was almost pierce right through his chest. But then, someone fires a gunshot and it hits the clone Puss's head, immediately killing it. Jose comes out as he was who killed the clone, while Puss breathes desperately and was getting up.
"Are you okay, Puss?" says Jose as he looks at his friend.
"Yes. I will be, thanks to you," says Puss as he smiles at him. Then, he takes out the key out off his hat and shows it to Jose, and his friend smiles as he takes out his own key and both friends put it back on.
"Let's go," Jose says as Puss agrees. Both of them run towards the exit to join their lady friends. Jose destroys the entrance of the cave so that anyone doesn't come in or out.
"Puss! Jose! Let's get out of here!" Dulcinea shouts as she and Kitty were already on their horses and were galloping out of there.
"Come, Puss!" Jose excitedly says as he jumps on his horse Rocky, and Puss glares with an adventurous look, and he jumps, doing his spinning-throughout-the-air cartwheel jump.
"Come, Babieca! Hyiah! says Puss as he shouts proudly to his horse and Babieca runs as Puss rides in the great sunrise along with his friends, with one more key left for them to capture as their journey for the Chaos Emeralds continues.