Chapter 4: Benson and Dave
Outside in the street, it was night and there was a human boy with dark skin walking down said street while humming a song casually. His attire consisted of a button-up lilac shirt with an off-white sweater with a graphic cat head on the chest a slight tear near the collar over it, a pair of light brown pants, sneakers in black, cyan, and white, a pale-green baseball cap, and a magenta robot backpack. He goes over and rummages through a car before moving on to another car and looks around in it. He looks to the radio and presses a button, causing a cassette tape to pop out of the player.
"Come to papa!" the boy said as he took the tape, gaining a smile before he took out a cassette player of his own and put it in. Before he played it, he looked towards a metal tower and saw a truck on top of it. "Whoa!" Putting on some headphones, he plays the tape and listens to the tape as he walks his way towards the tower.
After climbing up the tower towards the top, he sits that as he casually listens to the song on the tape, acting so carefree that he even hangs upside down from his legs. After a moment, he climbs up further and goes into the truck.
"Nice!" he said as he sees the truck full of boxes, boxes that were filled with soda cans.
He takes some packs of soda and stuffs them in his backpack. After obtaining three packs, he stops and gains a nonchalant expression, seemingly not noticing what appears to be a turtle Mega Mutant walking towards him. The Mega Mutant walks past the tower, but its foot grazes against the truck, causing it to spin around with the boy inside. The boy screams as the truck continues to spin. He stops screaming as the truck stops spinning.
"Oh." He said before he got himself up. "Whoa!" He gains a smile as he took off his headphones. "That beat is fire!" As the truck begins to move again, he puts his headphones back on before running towards the front.
Jumping through the broken windshield, he grabs onto the tower as the truck falls and crashes on the ground. After looking at it for a while, the boy then takes off his backpack, tosses it over the truck, and slides down the tower as the bag lands on the ground. After walking over to it, the boy takes one of the cans out from his backpack, preparing to drink it.
"We're drinking bubbly tonight!" the boy said before the can sprayed soda at his face as soon as he opened it, knocking his headphones off as he sputters from being sprayed on. He manages to drink some of it somehow and gives a sigh of content before he hears the sound of a baby crying. He then gains a look of surprise before grabbing his headphones and his backpack off the ground, walking towards the crying. "Hang on, Dave! I'm coming, you big baby!"
As the Mod Frogs searched the house, we all tried our best to keep quiet, hoping they would leave if they didn't find anything. Though it wasn't actually easy since we were also trying to keep a Wonderbeast larva from crying. We were lucky that Aisha and Nabu were able to create some orbs to entertain the baby. Good thing we had Nabu the Energy Elemental and Aisha the Light Elemental around. Nabu created a small orb of energy in both his hands while Aisha created a little orb of light on her finger.
"That's it, little one." Aisha said as she made sure to entertain the baby with her light, the little larva cooing in enjoyment. "Everything is all right."
"Thanks for the help, guys." Kipo said to the two with a grateful smile, holding the baby in her arms.
"No problem." Aisha said to her, returning the smile. "Good thing I have the power of light and Nabu's got energy power or else we wouldn't get this little guy to calm down."
"I can't believe the first I'm using my powers from something other than salvaging is took keep a baby from crying." Nadu said as he tried his best to keep his energy orb up, not really much enjoying what he was using it for. "Are those frogs gone yet?"
"Not yet. Just keep it up." I said to him and Aisha before I heard Jamack speak out from outside the room.
"Maybe… they're in here!" He said, but the door didn't open which meant that he was at the wrong door. "Huh, not in this closet." I then heard a door close. "But maybe they're… in here!" Another door was opened, but it wasn't to the room the others and I were in. Before he closed the door he was at, I heard Jamack groan in pain. "Man, what was in that poison?"
"What is going on down there?" I asked, wondering what those frogs were doing.
"Looks like the leader down there suffering the effect of the poison." Aurico chuckled in amusement. "I think he might've checked the same room or two twice."
"Maybe there in here!" Jamack said as he opened another door, getting it wrong again.
"Uh, Jamack?" One of the goons said. "You checked that closet like, six times."
"I did? Huh." He closes the door. "Oh, maybe there in here!"
"Yep." Uncle Donnie said in agreement. "He's suffering from short-term memory loss."
"Maybe if we're lucky, they'll leave to get that guy some medical attention." I said, seeing how Jamack's condition will lead them to call off the search.
"Yeah, that is if that baby doesn't expose us." Aurico said, doubting the idea.
"Don't worry, Rico." I said to my cousin. "As long as Aisha and Nabu keep using their powers, we'll be fine."
"Ah-choo!" Aisha sneezed as we looked to see her facing Nabu, the light she had gone.
"Aaah! Aisha!" Nabu yelled out in disgust, canceling his energy orb to wipe his hands from the sneeze. With both lights gone, the baby started crying again.
"Wait, there was a baby?" Jamack said as we all began to silently panic.
"Kipo, get that baby to calm down!" Aurico quietly yelled.
"I'm trying!" Kipo said as she started making silly faces at the larva. Just as the baby was calming down, we all heard the frogs coming upstairs.
"Guys, the lock!" I told Gordy and Riku before Riku then locked the door.
We thought they would leave the room once they saw it was locked, but we were wrong as a tongue slid through the door's underside and wrapped around the knob. We thought we were gonna get caught until…
"Dave, I'm home!" Said a voice as a door opened, the group and I staying quiet as we listened to what happened.
"A uman?" Jamack said as the tongue retracted and we heard the frogs walk down the stairs. "A human?"
I heard a whimper of fear before the new voice said "I am so glad you frogs are here! You gotta help me! I fell into this whole bush of, um… uh… explosion berries!"
"What the… Is someone else out there?" Caldwell asked as we were all confused by this.
"Riku, Gord, move away from the door." I said as Kipo, Wolf, and I walked over, the two doing as I said.
With that, I then opened the door enough for me and the girls to take a peek at what was happening. I was surprised to find that, surrounded by frogs, there was a human boy who looked about mine and Kipo's age standing there. He had dark brown skin and wore a white sweater with a cat's head on the chest, a little tear near the collar, and a lilac button-up shirt underneath. He also wore a pair of light brown pants, a pair of sneakers in black, cyan, and white, a green baseball cap, and a weird-looking magenta backpack. Looking carefully at him, I saw he was covered in stains of this purple liquid. I had no doubt that the new voice we heard was him.
"No way." I said to myself, just surprised to find another human around.
"Do you guys know him?" Kipo questioned.
"No." Wolf replied.
"Yeah, I've never seen him before." I answered.
"Huh. Explosion Berries? I guess that could be a thing." Jamack groaned as he rubbed his head in pain. "I can't remember."
"Oh-oh, yeah! It's defiantly a real thing!" the guy said as I saw him reach into his backpack. "And-and contagious! If just one drop of their juice gets on your skin—boom!"
"Okay, have you guys heard of this?" The lead frog asked his associates.
"Boom! Boom!" The guy then began to act sick. "Oh! I feel…warm." The guy got on his knees as he gave the frogs a pleading look. "I don't have much time." He then fakes a scream in pain as he opened something up, causing a large amount of purple liquid to burst out in different directions, soaking the frogs, and scaring the crap out of them. "Oh, it's happening! Oh, the horror! The horror!"
"Explosion berries are real! They're real!" Jamack yelled as he and his goons ran out of the house.
"Wait! Wait!" The kid said, continuing his act. "Don't leave me!"
With the frogs gone, we all spoke at a regular volume as we came out of hiding.
"Oh, no! Are you okay?" Kipo said as she quickly rushed down over to him.
"Kipo, don't touch him!" Aurico told her before she turned the guy over. "He's covered in explosion berry juice!"
"Guys, there's no such thing as explosion berries. He's fine." I said as I walked over to Kipo before I spoke to the guy who flipped himself over. "Nice job scaring off those Mod Frogs."
"Thanks." He said before he pulled out a can from his sleeve. "Explosion berry?"
"A soda can." I said before I gave a little chuckle. "That explains the stains all over you. Sprayed yourself down, huh?"
"Yeah. Thought I could use it to get rid of those guys." He said before I helped him up.
"That was impressive!" Kipo said, catching on to what the guy did. "I fully believed explosion berries were a thing!"
"Guys, as much as I like some good acting," Aurico said as he and the others got down the stairs, "remember that we're still in Mod Frog territory!"
"He's right. We need to keep moving." Wolf said, agreeing with my cousin. "If we don't wanna die."
"Heh! Well, she seems like a lot of fun." The soaked teen said and continued to drink the rest of the soda.
A while after that, we were all walking down a street and I spoke to the guy who saved us from the frogs. The guy decided to take the baby who's name was actually Dave while Kipo took it upon herself to take the bike, carrying it while we walked through the street.
"You know, I haven't seen you around before." I said to him. "Are you from another Wonderbeast Tribe?"
"Me? Oh, no." the guy said to me. "Well, not anymore."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It's not important. Anyway, it's just been me and Dave all by ourselves." The guy then took out a soda can. "By the way, thanks for watching my buddy." He then shook the can before feeding it to Dave, the baby not spilling a single drop.
"Um, what are you doing?" Aurico asked as we were all confused by this.
"Don't worry, he's fine." The guy said as he took out another can and repeated his actions. "He just needed his formula."
"How exactly is that soda formula?" Brook asked as the new guy made us even more confused.
"Brook makes a good point." Uncle Donnie said to the guy. "According to my scanners, that soda is approximately 200 years old. I'm pretty sure it's gone stale."
"Don't worry. We've both had it before." The guy said as he kept feeding the larva soda. "It's fine."
"Okay." Uncle Donnie said, unsure by this as much as the rest of us.
"So… He's your grub baby?" Kipo questioned as the guy got to a fifth can.
"Dave? Oh, no. We go way back." He casually replied before tossing Dave over to Kipo, causing her to drop the bike as she barely managed to catch the larva. "We look out for each other." He then began digging around in his backpack.
"Look out for each other?" Gordy asked as this didn't really clear up how the relations between the guy and the Wonderbeast baby worked.
"Wow! Is that a Death Stalker tail?" the guy said as he looked toward Wolf. "I have never actually seen one of those. Can I touch it?"
"Be my guest." Wolf said after she spun her staff around and brought the stinger to his face, giving him a threat if he tried to steal it.
"On second thought," the guy said as he began to back up. "I'm-I'm good."
"Wait a minute." Kipo said, raising a brow at the guy. "How can you go way back when he's just a…" Kipo stopped mid-sentence as the baby suddenly encased itself in a cocoon, making the group and I exchange looks of confusion as we watched it hatch and we were all surprised to find the baby had turned into a toddler. Kipo gasped as she dropped the little Wonderbeast.
"What the hell?" Aurico said in shock.
"I did not see that one coming!" Kipo said as the new guy helped Dave to his feet.
"Sit tight. There's more." He said as the toddler walked a few feet away.
After he did, he then fell forward onto the ground with his body turning into a cocoon. Then he emerged in some kind of juvenile form.
"What is that?" Kipo asked as we were all surprised by this.
"Yeah, I'm with her." Aurico said, still shocked by what was going on. "What the hell is happening?"
"Well, by the looks of it," I said as I trying to make sense of this, "it appears as though Dave is going through some kind of metamorphosis."
"Yeah, his body is going through some changes." The new guy answered. "It's completely natural."
"Hey!" The insect-type Wonderbeast said kicking away his cocoon. "Quit talking about me in front of strangers!"
"Raging hormones." He told us, sounding like a parent with experience.
"Oh. So he's in some sort of teenager stage." I said, understanding what was going on.
"Why are you embarrassing me?" Dave's then skin suddenly peeled off, grossing the group and I out.
"That was disgusting." Uncle Donnie cringed as Kipo and I nodded rapidly in agreement.
"Ugh! Nasty!" Gordy said as most of the group groaned out in disgust, Wolf not really giving much care and Kylo puking to the side of the road with her kwami holding her hair. Even the kwamis were grossed out by this.
Though I did get to see what he fully looked like. As a larva, he was transparent in a green cocoon. After he became a toddler, he was light blue with a green face and stomach, four arms, two legs, and two antennae. In his teenage form, he had a slim insectoid figure, his legs and arms extended a bit in length, and these pink spots that kind of looked like acne. With what he became now became more of a normal insectoid body with pink replacing most of the blue (the only blue left being spots along the back), and the pink spots becoming accents that resembled facial hair. He was now four times his size from his larva stage.
"Woo-hoo!" The now-adult bug said as he got out of his old skin. "I'm out of my awkwa stage! It doesn't do me any favors." I noticed Kipo was staring at him all weirded out and I elbowed her to stop. "Hey! My arms are real short!" He wiggled his left arms as they were only developed halfway before glaring at Wolf with his pink eyes. "Did someone mess with my cocoon? Was it you? You give off the vibe."
"I can make the other arms match the stub if you want." The little warrior said to him, pointing her weapon at the bug.
"Hey!" The newcomer spoke up, trying to ease the tensions. "We're all fellow travelers here!"
"Stand down, Wolf." I said to her, stopping the fight before it began. "We can't afford another fight." A moment after, the new guy spoke up.
"Alright. I'm Benson and you already met Dave." He said, motioning to the Wonderbeast.
"Charmed." Dave said as he pulled off a leftover piece of his cocoon, his antennae popping out.
"It's nice to meet you both." I said as I began introducing the group, motioning to each member. "I'm Axel. This is Nooroo. You've already met Wolf here. And this is Kipo."
"Travelers?" Kipo said to Benson and Dave with surprise. "So you're from the surface too? Another human I've met on top. Mind blown." Benson and Dave exchanged a brief look with one another.
"Kipo, don't say anything more." Wolf said, putting a hand out in front of Kipo in defense. "He's a Wonderbeast and he's a friend of a Wonderbeast."
"Yeah, and they're also in the Mod Frogs territory, just like us." I said to her. "Just because a Wonderbeast is involved, doesn't mean it's entirely bad."
"Are you from one of those… hole cities?" Benson asked, no doubt talking to Kipo before speaking to his Wonderbeast friend. "Dave, what are they called?"
"Burrows." The bug answered before speaking to Kipo. "You a Burrow girl?"
"I am from a Burrow!" Kipo said to them.
"What did I just say?" She said as she facepalmed herself.
"Let it go, Wolf." I said to her, not really seeing anything wrong here.
"You're lost and need to get home." Benson said to Kipo, walking over to us.
"How did you know?" Kipo asked, surprised by this.
"Wild guess, I don't know." He answered.
"Wow, you're good." Kipo said to him, impressed. "Yeah, that's right. Wolf, Axel, and the others are helping me. We need to get over a mountain of skyscrapers."
"Sure. Just tell complete strangers everything!" Wolf yelled out in frustration. "You're seeing this, right?"
"Yes, and I'm telling you that it's fine." I said to her.
"You mean Skyscraper Ridge?" Dave said before he chuckled. "Oh! It's a good thing you found us." Mandu then got over to the bug and growled at him, making Dave chuckle nervously as he then sat on a slab of concrete and create some distance between him and the piglet. "He-heh. Nice piggy."
"Uh, 3?" Aurico said to me, making sure that Benson and Dave didn't hear him. "You see Mandu growling too, right? If she doesn't like them…"
"Mandu hasn't been around other Wonderbeasts or other humans like we have." I told him. "I'm sure she's just being protective."
"You know, Dave's right. Nobody gets over Skyscrapers Ridge." Benson said to us, sounding proud. "Not without experienced guides. We've been over the ridge… What is it, Dave? Ten times now?"
"More like twelve." The bug answered.
"Tell you what? We'll take you over the ridge in exchange for, uh… I don't know, Dave what should we do it for?"
"The Death Stalker Tail."
"Yeah, the Death Stalker Tail."
"Not a chance." Wolf said before she and Aurico pulled Kipo and I over to her. "They're trying to hustle us."
"Wolf, would you knock it off?" I said to her, having enough of her accusations. "Look, I get that you don't trust Wonderbeasts, but that doesn't mean we can't accept a little help, right?"
"Actually, cuz," Aurico said as he stood beside Wolf. "I'm with Wolf. Something doesn't feel right about these two, even if one is a Tribe member."
"Same here." Lobbo said, floating beside Aurico. "I hardly believe these guys can help.
"Well, the others think they're okay. Right, guys?" I said before I then watched as Brandon, Gordy, Brook, Riku, Hotaru, Nabu, Musa, Pollen, Bruun, Steel, and Wayzz went over to stand beside Wolf and Aurico. "Guys? Bran? Brook? Riku? Taru? Nabu? Muse? Gordy? You don't trust them."
"Sorry, dude." Gordy said. "Nothing personal. Just not getting much of a good vibe from them right now."
"Well, I for one do believe we can trust them." Kylo said as she, Stella, Sora, Thora, Stella, Aisha, Caldwell, Bloom, Forss, Plagg, and Breez came over to stand with me and Kipo.
"Benson is a member of the Tribe." Stella said, making a good point. "And Tribe members always help each other out."
"And they seem nice too." Thora said, agreeing with her.
"Benson did manage to scare off the Mod Frogs." Caldwell added.
"What about you, Mandu?" Kipo asked before the pig walked over to the others and sat down beside them.
"What do you think, Uncle Donnie?" I asked the robotic elder of the group.
"Well, I am skeptical about these two…" Uncle Donnie said before he walked over to me and those who agreed to trust Benson and Dave. "I say we should trust them."
"Seriously?" Aurico said as he and the other half of the group were shocked by this. "We barely know these guys!"
"I know that, but with the situation we are in, we are going to have to take all the help we can get." Uncle Donnie said to them. "It will only be until we get across the ridge, okay?"
It took a moment of those guys to think it over before they all exchanged some looks and Aurico spoke for them.
"Fine." He said before he and Wolf went over to Benson and Dave and glared at them. "Okay, you guys can come, but you do this as a favor for one Tribe member to another, not in exchange for Wolf's staff."
"Seriously? Come on, man." Dave spoke out in complaint.
"Hey, it's the only deal we got for you. And once we're over the ridge, you too are gone." Aurico said. "And don't try to pull a fast one on us, otherwise…" Wolf then pointed her staff at them. "Got it?"
"Yeah, we got it." Benson said as he and Dave gave them nervous smiles.
"Looks like it's settled then." Uncle Donnie said before walking along. "Okay, let's go find us a place to camp for the night."
With that, I then grabbed the bike and started carrying it as we all followed Uncle Donnie. As we did, I saw Aurico and Wolf look back at me and glared at me with daggers. Though I was a little spooked by this, seeing Kipo smile at me calmed my nerves as I returned the smile. That night, we camped at what Uncle Donnie said called a mattress store, well what was left of it anyway. There were some mattresses in there, so we all had a good sleep.
The next morning, I was sleeping soundly on a mattress until…
"Aaaaahh! Stalky!" Wolf screamed out, waking me and just about everybody up.
"What? What's happened?" Stella said, a little groggy from waking up.
"Who? What? Where?" Aurico said, shooting up awake.
"Wolf, what's going on?" I asked, seeing the little warrior being all frantic.
"Stalky's gone!" Wolf answered as she kept searching around.
"Stalky?" I said, not really getting what she meant.
"Uh, huh?" Kipo groaned, waking up from the shouting. "Didn't you say shouting was bad? Ringing the dinner bell?" After that little slur, she went back to sleep. When we heard some groaning, those of us who were awake looked to see Uncle Donnie walking over to us, using his staff to support himself.
"Uncle Donnie!" I said as Aurico and I went over and helped him to the mattress. "Uncle Donnie, what happened?"
"Well, it seems Aurico and Wolf had the right idea not to trust them." Uncle Donnie said as he explained. "After you all went to sleep, I caught them trying to sneak away with our rations. I tried to stop them, but they sprayed me with that soda of theirs and short-circuited my motor controls."
"Wait, are you saying…" I said as I couldn't believe what he saying.
"Yes. Benson and Dave robbed us of all our food and water." He said as we were all shocked by this. "They even stole the stinger and took off on the bike."
"They got our bike too?" Wolf yelled out in shock.
"See? I told you we couldn't trust them!" Aurico said, pointing a finger at me.
"I just don't understand how these two con-artists got past my trap—Whoa-aah!" Wolf said before she suddenly got snared up and was met by a can of Benson and Dave's soda, followed by another can which left her soaked in a chain of soda sprays.
"Uh…" I tried to figure what to say as I was both impressed by the trap and shocked that Wolf fell for it.
"Not. A. Word." Wolf said, not happy about this.
"When I get my claws on those two, I'm gonna tear them limb from limb!" Aurico said to himself in anger.
"Kipo, wake up!" I said as I shook the Burrow girl a little.
"Oh, five more minutes, Dad." Kipo groaned as she turned over in her sleep.
"Aurico? Get. Me. Down." Wolf sternly said before Aurico got to cutting her down from the trap.
After we found some more bikes (Uncle Donnie and Hotaru finding a two-seater and Wolf, Kipo, and Mandu taking one with training wheels), we all got to a hill and looked for the two thieves.
"I knew it was too good to be true." Aurico said before he spoke to me. "If you had listened to me, those guys wouldn't have robbed us!"
"I know. That was a mistake on my behalf." I said to him.
"They seemed nice and they were so helpful. Ugh! I can't believe I fell for it!" Kipo said as we saw those two down below, going down a street with all our stuff with them. "If you want, Wolf, you say you told me sooooo!" We all rode the bikes and sped down the hill, managing to catch up with them.
"Benson! Dave!" I yelled out, getting the attention of the duo. "Give us back our stuff, you thieves!"
"Oh, hey, guys!" Benson said, looking quite nervous. "Look, it was nothing personal. It's a Death Stalker."
"And you should've guarded it and the food better!" Dave added.
"Stealing from a fellow Tribe?" I said to them. "Do you have any shame?"
"Here. You can have them back." Benson said, giving us back our stuff.
That ended up becoming a mistake as Wolf was now attacking them with her staff, making Kipo take over controlling their bike. As the scorpion stinger was about to make its mark on Benson, Dave came over and blocked it.
"Look, we can really help you get over Skyscraper Ridge!" The bug said, now holding onto the scorpion tail. "We weren't lying! And this time, we'll do it all for…" Before he could even finish, the little warrior tried to shake him off her staff, not really wanting to hear what the Wonderbeast had to say.
"Hey, guys! Are you seeing this?" Kipo exclaimed as we all turned to look at her. "I'm totally riding a bike!" Suddenly, a tongue wrapped around her body and pulled her back.
"Kipo!" I said as she was pulled away and we saw Jamack was on our tail.
"Oh, crap! It's the Mod Frogs!" Aurico said as we kept on riding.
"Hang on! I got her!" Benson yelled out, riding over to her aid with Dave hopping over to him. Doing what he could, Benson began to unwrap the tongue, but due to how sticky it was, he wasn't having much luck.
"I got this!" I said before I rode over to being beside Jamack's tongue. Once I did, I used my metalbending to turn my hand into a claw and clamped it on the tongue. After unclamping it, I watched as Jamack lost his hold on Kipo as he winced from the pain. Canceling my powers, I then grabbed Kipo and got her on the bike with me. But Jamack decided to grab Benson instead.
"Benson!" I said as I watched Benson get pulled back by Jamack with Dave going to do an attempt to save him. "Wolf, the tongue! Use your staff on the Mod Frog's tongue!"
"Yeah! Get him!" Dave said as Wolf Jumped from her bike and over him and Benson.
But, to my shock, it wasn't the tongue she was going for. Instead, she used her staff on the dragonfly, knocking it out and disabled the Mod Frogs mode of transportation. As she used the tongue to get herself back on the bike, Kipo and I looked at each other as neither of us could believe that she did that and left Benson and Dave captured.
"Wolf, what are you doing?!" I said to the little warrior as she rode her bike.
"If she wants to find her home, she needs to come with us." Wolf said back to me. I looked back and saw the frogs were continuing to chase us on foot, more specifically they were jumping after us.
"Hey, we have to go back for them!" Kipo cried out.
"No, we don't!" Aurico said to her as we rode up a hill. "We have to get you as far away from those frogs as possible!"
I looked back at Kipo and saw the way she was looking back. Her expression told it all. She was conflicted with herself. She wanted to help those two, but, at the same time, she wanted to get home. I knew that was it because that was the same feeling I had. I wanted to help Benson and Dave, but I also wanted to keep Kipo safe. With this, Kipo then looked to me. For what we were going to do, I gave her a look that showed I would have her make the call. After a brief moment, she sighed and nodded to me, telling me to keep going. Despite our own conscious no doubt chewing us out, we followed the rest of the group up the hill. Quickly enough after getting on top, Wolf quickly got off her bike as we all stopped around her.
"You might wanna hang onto something." Wolf said, holding her staff in both hands.
"What? Why?" Aurico asked before Wolf then slammed the hilt of her staff right into the ground. After she did, the whole hill began to shake.
Seeing this, I then looked to the ground and saw it had these strange lines on. Seeing the pattern they made, I then realized what she meant.
"Whoa! What's happening?" Hikari said, surprised by this.
"The hill is moving." Kipo said, just as surprised as Hikari. "Guys, the hill is moving!"
"That's because it's not a hill!" I said to her as the long neck of a Mega Turtle appeared, emerging from the turtle shell we were on. "It's a Mega Turtle!"
"Ah-ha! So long, frogs!" Aurico shouted in pride as the Mega Turtle started moving, the Mega Mutant shaking the ground with each step it took.
Thanks to this, we managed to escape the Mod Frogs. But, in order to do this, we had to leave Benson and Dave as their prisoners. Looking down at them as they were both held by Jamack's tongue, all I could feel was regret for doing this to them, even after they tried to help.
"Sorry, Benson." Kipo said as I turned to see her looking back with the same look I had, no doubt feeling regret for leaving them behind.
A while after as the Mega Turtle kept moving, Aurico and Wolf went over to a large branch stuck onto the back of its shell, looking to see if the frogs were still following us.
"How's it looking?" I asked as Kipo and I went over to join them.
"Well, I can honestly say I think we lost them." Aurico answered me.
"For now." Wolf added. "But the frogs are never done. They'll never stop looking for us."
"Why do they want people so bad?" Kipo inquired.
"Because of Scarlemagne." Aurico answered, turning to face us. "You see, when the Beast War started, Scarlemagne put up a special reward for any Wonderbeast who brings him any humans running around on the surface. The Wonderbeast Packs aim for that reward. They get in good with him, they are set for life. That's why there's hardly any of humans left up here."
"He's not wrong." I chimed in. "Up until we met Benson, we thought Wolf was the only human up here that didn't have the protection of the Tribe or even the Order. There used to be more like her. Heck, they were even more Tribes in Las Vistas. After the Beast War started, we ended up losing contact with the other Tribes. We tried looking for them, but only came across ones that were in ruins. I even fear that our own Tribe might be the only one left. Basically, there were other humans. But, one by one, they were gone and only left a small group of us."
"What happened to them?" Kipo asked.
"Haven't the slightest idea." I answered her. "It's most likely they were captured by Scarlemagne and who knows what he's doing to them."
"That's why we should stick together." Kipo said, stating a fact. "That's why we should be helping Benson and Dave."
"Kipo's right." I said, knowing she made a point. "Scarlemagne is after any human that's on the surface, including Benson. And, seeing how Dave is, that bug might not last long if we don't get him away from those frogs. He's obviously not with any pack and you know what Wonderbeast Packs do to outsiders. If we can just…"
"No." Aurico said, shocking me.
"What?" I couldn't believe what my cousin said.
"3, I don't like what happened any more than you do, but we have to keep moving."
"So you're just gonna abandon those two just like that?"
"It's not like we have much of a choice."
"Wolf," Kipo spoke out in anger, the little warrior avoid eye contact with her, "how could you do that? How could you just leave them behind?"
"Kipo!" Wolf said as she turned to face the Burrow girl. "Do you know how valuable you are? You could lead them to a whole city full of humans! Just be thankful that we got away!"
"Thank you." The burrow girl bitterly said, looking away.
"Wolf, we may have gotten away, but the frogs now have Benson and Dave to take our place as their prisoners." I said to her, letting my anger be shown. "I told you to hit that frog in the tongue. I could've taken care of dragonfly just as easily as you. We all could've gotten out of there together!"
"You don't understand, Axel." Wolf coldly said to me. "This isn't your Tribe. We can't risk our necks for everyone."
"I know that, but that doesn't mean we can't help those in need." I said to her.
"He's right." Kipo said. "Sure, they kind of robbed us, but they also risked their lives to help us. Isn't that enough to help them too?"
"You haven't lived up here, Kipo." Wolf said to her, trying to make the Burrow girl understand where she was coming from. "You don't know what it's like."
"Yeah, you have no idea what it's like to be born and raised in this world." Aurico said, doing the same as Wolf.
"You're right. I don't know this place like you do." Kipo said to them before she made a counter-argument. "But what I do know is that it's amazing. Just today, I've seen enough wonders to make up a whole lifetime." She then turned to look at Wolf. "But I've also seen people being so terrible to each other."
"We need to eat." Wolf said as she stood up before going back up the shell.
After she did, Kipo then picked up Mandu and petted her as Aurico sat down on the branch with a sigh.
"Rico?" I asked him.
"Hmm?" He hummed as he gave me his attention.
"Did you really want to leave Benson and Dave back there?" I said to him, speaking an honest question.
"No. No, I didn't." He answered. "After seeing Benson risk himself back there instead of running away, I wanted to help him too. As much as I don't agree with what she did, Wolf is right. Kipo's too valuable to the Mod frogs and possibly any other Wonderbeast Pack on the surface. We need to get her back home as soon as possible." He then stood up and started his way back up the shell. It was with that I decided to follow him.
"What would happen if we came across someone in that situation again? Would you do the same thing you did to Benson and Dave?"
"Only if I have to."
"Yeah? But what would your father say about that?"
"3…"
"What would he say about you abandoning someone when they need your help the most?" Aurico sighed before turning to me and spoke his answer.
"He would tell me to not run away. That no matter the costs to you, you should always help those you can save."
"Exactly. That's something every last Fire Dragon that came before us had followed, one of the great mottos we stand by."
"Cuz, I get you want to help them because Benson tried to save Kipo, but there's too much at stake. The longer she stays up here, the more chances there are of putting the people of her burrow in danger."
"I know, but that shouldn't mean we should run away when things get tough. Our ancestors didn't do that, did they?" Our attention was then dragged away as we looked to see Wolf being chased by a swarm of Dubstep Bees. "Nooroo, mind giving Wolf a hand there?"
"Will do." Nooroo said, flying off to help the little warrior now that he had permission to fly a good distance from me.
"Better help her too, Lobbo." Aurico said to his kwami.
"Fine. Whatever you say." Lobbo said before joining his fellow kwami.
"And you're right." Aurico said to me. "They didn't run away from a fight."
"Exactly. And we shouldn't either." I said to him.
"Mandu, help them out." Kipo said as she walked over to me as the piglet went over, grab the hive, and ran off with it.
"I'm going back for them." I said, surprising Aurico.
"What?" He said as he no doubt couldn't believe his ears.
"I'm gonna go back and rescue Benson and Dave from the Mod Frogs. You guys keep on going and make sure Kipo gets back home."
"3, are you out of your mind? You can't take on the Mod Frogs by yourself! For God's sake, you don't even know how to use your Miraculous!"
"Doesn't mean I can't try. I know it's risky, but I can't just stand idly by while there are people out there who need my help."
"3…"
"You know what? I've decided!" Kipo said to me with a look of determination. "You're not gonna be alone. I'm coming with and we're going back for Benson and Dave!"
"Kipo, you can't come!" I said to her. "What about your Burrow?"
"I know what I'm risking," Kipo said to me, "but I can't sit here while I can still be able to help people. Up here, you have to do what you have to do, and this is what we have to do. And, no matter what we do, we do it together."
On cue, Mandu and Nooroo came back to us, the piglet all covered in stings but no less was smiling and wiggling her tail happily. Looking at Kipo smile at me, I was surprised by all of this, that she was willing to help even at the risk of her own life.
"She's right." Uncle Donnie said as he and most of our group came over to us, Hotaru helping him over and all of them showing they honestly wanted to help. "And it won't be just the two of you. We're going with you."
"Wait, really?" I said as I was surprised by them offering their help.
"Yeah. If it's Kipo coming with you, then so are we." Brook said to me, Steel nodding in agreement. "It's our job to keep her safe. Plus, you're gonna need all the help you can get if you're gonna get Benson and Dave out."
"We're not gonna let one of our own fight alone." Gordy added, Bruun floating beside him with his arms crossed.
"We're a team after all. That means we got each other's backs." Caldwell told me, Breez bowing in agreement. With all of this, I couldn't help but smile in gratitude.
"Thanks, guys." I said before we all looked toward Aurico along with Wolf and Lobbo who were beside him, the three of them looking at us in surprise.
"Rico, Wolf, you're coming too." Kipo spoke out to them, walking to the front. "You might not think it, but we need to help Benson and Dave."
I watched as Aurico then looked over to Wolf and Lobbo, nodded to them before looking back us with a smile.
"Okay, we're in." Aurico said as Wolf and Lobbo looked to us.
"And we won't take no for—wait, what?" Kipo said as we were all surprised by this.
"Well, your choice won the vote by a landslide, so we have no choice." Lobbo said as the three walked over to us.
"That and, as much as I hate to say this, you're right." Aurico said to her. "We can't leave those two behind, even if they did try to steal from us."
"Those two aren't worth my spit." Wolf said, keeping that stoic expression on her face. "But up here, we should stick together." The mood she set changed instantly as she was hugged by Kipo and Mandu while both Aurico and I chuckled at the sight.
"You do care even if you can't admit it." Kipo sighed in content as I felt the Mega Turtle stop. "That's Lesson 1 of people."
"You're hugging me. Don't." Wolf said but Kipo kept hugging.
"Deal with it." Kipo sighed before Aurico cleared his throat, causing Kipo to break the hug.
"Okay, since we're gonna do this," Aurico said as we all looked to him, "anyone got a plan on how we're gonna save those two?"
"I got one." I said as I already had a plan that could work.
"What do you have in mind?" Wolf asked me.
"It's gonna be crazy, but it just might work." I said before explaining the details of what we needed to do.
After getting everything ready for this plan, we split off from each other, with 3 taking Sora, Riku, Gordy, Aisha, Stella, Musa, Caldwell, Kylo, Brook, Thora, and Mandu while the rest of us went off to find the Mod Frogs. Luckily, we managed to find them going through the streets. Wolf managed to stop them by scaring their dragonfly into pulling over with just a show of her staff.
"Hey, boys." I said as we stood in front of them. "Heard you've been looking for us."
"Oh, yeah." Jamack said as he straightened his tie. "The boss is gonna be happy when we show her what we found."
"The Burrow girl." The red-eyed frog said as he and the big fella got up and look at us.
"Look, we aren't here to fight." I said to them as we put our hands up. "We're here to make a deal."
"A deal, huh?" Jamack questioned me.
"Yeah. How about this?" I told him. "You let our friends go, you can have all of us instead. Seems like a good trade, right? A human and a regular Wonderbeast for a Burrow girl, a human, and a couple of Tribe members along with a Tribe elder."
"That does sound better." Jamack said as he thought it over. "Fine, it's a deal, but we'll only let you go after the boss checks you out. Need to make sure you're the real deal. Paris, Quad, get their weapons and put them in the back." After that, the Mod Frogs took all our weapons from us before tying us up and stuffing us in the back of their car. They even had Lobbo and the other kwamis trapped in a cage.
"Well, there goes our last hope of rescue." Benson bitterly said as we all looked to see him and Dave tied in the back.
"Next time, we pick smarter humans rob." The bug said.
"Nice to see you guys too." I sarcastically said to them, not liking the disrespect here.
"Hold on a minute." The red-eyed frog said. "Wasn't there more of them?"
"Maybe? Honestly, I don't really care right now." Jamack said before he closed the door. "We got the Burrow girl. That's all that matters."
"Hey, wait." Benson whispered to us. "Where is the rest of your crew?"
"They're on their way." I whispered back at them. "Just trust us on this." After that, the frogs got in the front seats and the dragonfly started to pull it forward.
After about an hour, we found ourselves at a large pond filled with lily pads. This had to be the Mod Frogs hideout.
"I'm telling you, they smell awful." The red-eyed frog said, stepping out while covering his nose as me and the others were thrown out by the larger frog (who I found out to be a girl).
"Humans have no sense of hygiene." She said, covering her nose too.
"No, that's just the stench of how stinking rich were gonna be." Jamack chuckled as he stepped out of the car. Looking forward, I saw that there was a whole crowd of Mod Frogs looking down at us from large pieces of stone. Jamack then raised his voice so everybody could hear him. "Because we have a Burrow girl!" Kipo was then brought over in front of him, the sight of her making the other frogs gasp. "That's right! You ever wanted to see one in person? Now's your chance!" Me, my fellow Tribe members, and Wolf were then rolled over to Kipo with the cage holding the kwamis being held by the red-eyed frog. "We… have a Burrow girl." Kipo chuckled nervously before she spoke out.
"Whoever said I'm from a Burrow?" She said as she tried to act like a surface girl, not doing much of a good job. "I hunt… Mega Bunnies. Hmm! I've been on the surface my whole life. Just…surviving." She said the last two words while acting all tough.
"Kipo…" I begged, knowing that there was no point in faking anything.
"Just don't." Wolf finished me, making Jamack hum in thought as he no doubt wasn't buying what Kipo was saying.
"Huh. Yeah, it's obvious. She's a Burrow girl." He then turned to Benson and Dave. "But… I rather have proof. If you two can confirm it, you'll both go free."
"Why are you asking them for?" I said to him. "Won't the word of a Tribe member be enough proof for ya?"
"Actually, no." Jamack said to me. "You've already lied to me before and I won't be fooled again, Tribe boy." He then looked to Benson and Dave. "So boys, is that or is that not a Burrow girl?"
The duo exchanged a look with each other before Benson spoke out.
"Who? Kipo?" he said. "My girl here is the baddest Mega Bunny ever."
"Yeah. She's a legend!" Dave added, showing they were both playing along with what Kipo was saying and making the Burrow girl smile at them.
"Really, guys?" I said to them as they no doubt made things worse.
"Apology accepted." Benson said as the two smiled back at us.
"Does it look like we're apologizing?" Wolf said to them in annoyance.
"We weren't gonna lie." Gordy said to them. "He's not gonna buy we're Mega Mutant hunters." Hearing a buzzing sound, we all looked and saw the crowd of Mod Frogs gathered around with looks of surprise.
"Boss!" Jamack said as the crowd moved aside as another Mod Frog being carried by two Wonderbeast Flies and one hold a notepad started coming over to us. Seeing the stern look on her face, it was obvious that was the Mod Frog boss. "You're back! I have…"
"So this is her?" The frog said as she ignored Jamack, going right past him with a fly pushing him aside.
"A gift for you." He sadly said, but his boss didn't really seem to care as she was more focused on Kipo.
Using the flies as stairs, she got towards our level, holding out her hand and getting a pair of glasses in return. She then leaned forward and began to inspecting Kipo.
"Hmm." She hummed as she held Kipo's face and turned her cheek over. "Skin untouched by the sun." She held out her hand and one of the flies gave her a pencil which she used to open Kipo's mouth. "Not a single tooth missing. This girl is from a Burrow." She then looked to me and was surprised. "Huh." She then got up to my face. "A white Fire Dragon." With this, I then gave her a glare as I growled, baring my Fire Dragon fangs.
"We also found these with them." the big frog said to her boss who stood up, the goon holding up Hotaru, Hikari, Nabu, and Uncle Donnie's weapons.
"Hmm. Weapons from the Wonderbeast Tribe." The boss frog said after she went over and examined one of Hikari's nunchucks. She then gave the nunchuck back before she walked back to stand in front of us, smiling proudly as she looked down on us. "Well done, Jamack. Scarlemagne will pay handsomely for them."
"Wait, what now?" Dave said as I looked to see him and Benson were shocked to hear that very name. "Did she just say who I think she just said?"
"The very same." I said to them, now wishing the rest of our plan would get here. It was then that the ground started shaking, surprising everybody. But that surprise turned into a grin as I knew that would be part of our plan coming in. A moment of that, the boss frog started sniffing the air.
"Wait a minute." She said after getting a whiff. "What's that smell?"
"Oh that?" Kipo said as me and the rest of the group (excluding Uncle Donnie for not having much of a face) got some smugs cocky. Even Wolf had that smile. "It's what we've been telling you all along."
"Yeah, we're Mega Mutant hunters." Gordy added. "And, right before Jamack grabbed us…"
"We found a nest of Mega Bunny babies." Hikari finished.
"Speaking of, their fur is so soft." Musa said as she tossed over a small clump of Mega Bunny fur right in front of the frog, making her gasp before we all looked to see the Mega Bunny mom overhead.
"Jamack!" the boss frog said in anger, frightening the rest of the Mod Frogs.
"That's the signal!" Wolf said as she looked around. "Where's the backup?"
"Guys, now!" I said before 3 and the rest of our group popped out of the water, Mandu going over and biting the large frog's leg which caused her to drop the weapons as she yelped from the pain.
"Surprise!" Brook said with a cocky smile as he and 3 came in with 3 using Wolf's staff on the large frog and Brook kicking the red-eyed frog in the face, knocking them both down.
"Holy crap! I nearly lost my breath there." 3 said as he gasped for air.
"Yeah, never doing that again." Caldwell said before 3 tossed the staff over to Wolf.
"Wolf, catch!" 3 said to her as she caught it, Wolf then using it to cut herself and the rest of us of the ropes. After that, Aisha, Hikari, Hotaru, and Uncle Donnie then grabbed their weapons and got ready to fight.
"Ugh! Finally!" Lobbo groaned out as he and the other kwamis escaped the cage. "You know how uncomfortable it is in there?"
"Sorry it took so long." 3 said to Lobbo. "At least the plan's working."
"You could escape this entire time?" Wolf said, sounding surprised by this.
"Yeah, they're spirits." 3 said to her. "Nothing much can hold them. They only stayed trapped in there to make things more convincing." He then turned his head up and got a look of shock. "Incoming!"
We all then moved out of the way as we all saw the Mega Bunny plant a paw right at the lily pad we were at. After resurfacing, we all got onto a lily pad which Uncle Donnie had gotten for us.
"Hurry! Get on!" Uncle Donnie said as he along with Benson and Dave (who were now free from their ropes) helped me and the others onto the lily pad.
"We gotta move or we'll be bunny chow!" Wolf said as we watched the Mega Bunny attack the frogs.
"Paddle, guys! Paddle!" I said as we all got to paddling away.
"You enraged a hundred-foot tall momma beast on purpose?" Dave said with surprise. "What was your plan after that?"
"Yeah, didn't think that far ahead." 3 said to him. "I'm kind of new at this kind of planning."
"New at this?" Benson with surprise before he gave him a smile. "Eh, you know what? We would've done the same." Benson then started panicking. "Look out!" we all ducked our heads, just in time to dodge a swing from a nailed baseball bat.
"Human scum!" Jamack cried out as he came flying in on a dragonfly from earlier. "You played me!" He made a u-turn for another attack. "I'm impressed, but also mad as hell!"
"So do you mean you're hopping mad?" Sora jokingly said, making me and our fellow Tribe members groan at the one-liner he made a Wolf took care of the frog by spinning her staff and knocking him out of the air and into the water.
"Really, Sora?" 3 said to him, no doubt thinking Sora picked the wrong time to make a joke like the rest of us. "Making a pun at a time like this?"
"What? I can't make a joke in the middle of the craziest thing ever?" Sora said in defense. "It's how I cope."
"Just keep paddling, cuz." 3 said to him, not really in the mood for any of his jokes.
"Hang on!" Dave said, stopping us. "I speak a little dragonfly." He then whistled out and got the dragonfly Jamack was riding down to us. He managed to talk to the dragonfly in his own language and the dragonfly nodded. "Alright, hop on!"
"My man!" Benson said happily as he, Dave, Kipo, and Mandu got on board the dragonfly.
"At least we won't have to carry you all." I said before me and my fellow fliers took off with Brook riding with Thora, Gordy with Kylo, 3 using his metalbending to pick up Sora, Riku, Caldwell, and Aisha, me using my own powers to carry Nabu, Musa, and Stella, and Uncle Donnie turning his staff into a rocket and taking Hikari and Hotaru with him. Wolf was about to get on when the dragonfly stopped her.
"What do you mean 'not her'?" Dave asked, confused by this.
"Oh, boy." 3 said before I looked and saw a familiar bump on the dragonfly's head. "That's the same dragonfly from before, the one Wolf used her staff on."
"Uh, guys?" Brook said, pointing over to the Mega Bunny as she shook off all the frogs off her and began heading toward us.
"Dave, tell that dragonfly Wolf won't attack him if he helps us escape." I said to him before Dave then got to telling that dragonfly in his language. After he did, the dragonfly then answered.
"He says he'll do it!" Dave yelled out with Kipo grabbing onto Wolf's cape just in time to get her on and we all flew off. Unfortunately for us, the mega bunny was not done with them and it kept chasing us.
"Ah, crap." 3 said as he looked back.
"What?" I asked him, afraid of what he was gonna say.
"We got company! And he's got wings!" My cuz told me before I looked and saw Jamack right behind us in the car with flies tied next to the tires, making it fly.
"Burrow girl!" I heard him yell out as he headed straight for us.
"Crap! We're too out in the open like this!" I said.
"There's only one way to shake them!" Wolf said and looked at the two thieves. "Time to put your money where your mouth is, bug boy." We all looked over to the right and knew what the answer was.
"Skyscraper Ridge." Benson and Dave both said with Benson reaching into his backpack.
"King of pop?" Benson asked.
"No, old school hip-hop." Dave answered.
"Wait! I got the perfect song." Benson then pulled out a mixtape before getting out what looked like a Walkman and then putting the tape into it. When he played it, the music it had was a little weird in my opinion.
"Not exactly my cup of tea, but not half bad." 3 said as he shrugged.
"See? This right here is why you need experienced guides, okay?" Benson said as we all made a turn and headed straight for Skyscraper Ridge, the Mega Bunny and the Mod Frog hot on our tail.
When we were getting closer, Benson and Dave started arguing over whether we needed to go east or west. While they were arguing, I looked back and saw the car getting closer. It would've hit the dragonfly by the tail if 3 didn't fly back and gave it a hard kick, jumping back into the air to fly while also pushing it back.
"Guys, we got no time to argue! Just fly straight through!" 3 yelled out and that's what we did, going through the entire ridge of piled up skyscrapers.
With all the maneuvers we did, we were basically spinning our way through signs and all that kinds of crazy crap with Jamack still on our tail and the Mega Bunny crashing through anything that got in its way.
"Burrow girl!" Jamack called out as we tried to shake him off with Benson telling us where to go.
"Go left! Go right! Okay, go right again! Okay, go up!" Benson said as we flew in those directions. "Yeah, yeah! Go up! Go up! Right, go left!" I looked back and was shocked to find that frog still right behind us as I thought we lost him with all those sharp turns.
"Seriously? How the hell is that frog still on tail!?" I said as we couldn't be able to shake Jamack.
"This guy is as relentless, even for a Wonderbeast!" 3 said before we heard some glass break and looked back to see Jamack on the car's hood.
"Incoming!" I yelled out as we dodged Jamack's tongue as the frog shot it at us.
After dodging for a while, Jamack managed to snag himself on a metal pole and used it to shoot right back at us.
"Okay, that's it! Rico, take Sora, Riku, Caldwell, and Aisha!" 3 said with a glare as he tossed those three to me. After I quickly caught them, I watched as he flew right at Jamack, sending the two straight back to the car.
From there, I watched as the fight started between them. That frog tried to hold him down, but 3 managed to get free of his grip by giving him the old Conversation Stopper (meaning giving a kick right in the lily pads, if you catch my drift) and then kicked him off. As he was getting back up, he put away his wings as he was making sure he didn't hit them on anything in case he needed to fly. That frog managed to get himself back up as the two got into a fistfight, 3 kicking Jamack's ass.
"STAY! AWAY! FROM! MY! FRIEND!" my cuz said with each of the last five punches he gave Jamack before he pinned the frog down. At that point, the frog tried to kick 3 off the car, but 3 managed to grab on and pull himself back up. When he stood up, Jamack tried to use his tongue on him, but 3 managed to dodge and catch his tongue. I knew he had a smug by the way he told that little one-liner of his. "What's the matter? Fire Dragon got your tongue?" By then, he then flew off and began dragging the frog. But this didn't last long as the frog used his tongue to launch himself at 3, hitting my cuz with that bat from before and crashing them back to the hood. The frog had him pinned as I looked and saw 3's right wing was bleeding, no doubt what the bat hit to make him crash.
"Ah! My wing!" I winced from the pain as Jamack held me down, using one foot to steer and holding up that nail-covered bat for a swing.
"Can't fly away this time!" Jamack said, glaring down at me. "We're close it, aren't we? The Burrow girl's home, right?"
"I'm not telling you anything!" I said to him, not willing to surrender Kipo or her people to Scarlemagne. "I'll take the Burrow location to my grave!"
"Okay, I'll sweeten the offer." Jamack said to me. "You all go free and your people never learn it was you who betrayed the Burrow." As he said that, I looked over and saw the Mega Bunny was getting closer to the car. It was then that I got an idea. "So do we have deal?" Nooroo got in front, ready to fight Jamack before I spoke to him.
"Nooroo, stand down." I said while I glared at Jamack.
"Axel?" the kwami asked me as he turned to me in shock.
After a moment, he saw I was serious and backed off as I put my hand out and Jamack got off me, the frog smiling as he pulled me up and shook my hand. As the Mega Bunny was overhead, I then gained a smirk as I decided to use my super strength and started crushing his hand, surprising him.
"Ow! Hey! You got a strong grip!" He said with a nervous chuckle as he tried to break the shake, but I wasn't gonna let him go. "Hey, you can let go of me now. Let go. I said, let go. Let go!" As he struggled, I used my metalbending to hand Nooroo some Mega Bunny fur I had, showing my kwami what I was doing.
"Jamack, right?" I said to him as Nooroo stealthily went behind the frog and place the fur clump on him. "I'd say you need to go do some soul searching."
"Huh? What?" he said as he grabbed and looked to the Mega Bunny fur in his hand. When he looked back at me, I rushed at him and gave him a solid punch, sending him to the Mega Bunny who caught him in her mouth.
"So long, frog face!" I said to him before the car crashed into something and sent me flying. Because my wing was wounded, I couldn't fly and I couldn't find a way to soften my landing. I thought I was gonna crash somewhere until…
"Got ya!" Kipo said as I looked to see her holding me by the arm, catching me before pulling up to the dragonfly. "You okay?"
"I'm a little scratch up, but yeah." I told her as I sat behind her, patting her on the shoulder while laughing away. "Thanks for the save."
"No problem!" Kipo said to me before Aurico and the others pulled up to us.
"3!" Aurico said to me with a look of awe.
"Oh, darling!" Kylo said to me with relief. "Thank goodness you're alright!"
"Whoo-hoo! That was cold!" Dave said to me in praise. "Respect, man!"
"Yeah, cuz!" Gordy said to me, complimenting my actions. "That was badass!"
"And stressful." Nooroo said to me as he sat on my shoulder. "I almost believed you were going to take that deal there."
"As if I would betray my friends." I said to him as we finally got out of Skyscraper Ridge.
"Don't wrinkle the suit!" I heard Jamack cry out as I looked to see him being taken away by the Mega Bunny, the Mega Mutant giving up and going home as she lost sight of us.
"Looks like it's gonna be a while before we see him again." I said, knowing it will be a while before Jamack gets back to chasing us.
"Hey, guys! Look!" Brook said as we all looked forward and gazed in awe at the sight.
Upon reaching the other side of the ridge, we all saw, right before us, the barrier of the Burrow.
"There it is." I said as we finally reach Kipo's Burrow. "The Great Clover! We made it!"
After finding a good place to land, Kipo, Wolf, Benson, Dave, and I dismounted the dragonfly as we finally made it to our destination.
"Thank you." I said to the dragonfly before he then flew off. It was within that moment, Dave froze and I watch in surprise as he then went through another metamorphosis, quadrupling in size with the pink of his body turning purple, gaining orange pincers, a blue-tipped orange horn, a pair of wings, and a muscular body. His stubby arms then became whole arms as they bulge with muscle.
"What the…?" Brook said as I looked and saw he and the others were just as surprised as I was by this.
"Look at that." I said as I looked back at Dave. "Guess he has a stage where he can be able to defend himself."
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Aurico said with shock.
"Yeah, that probably would've been helpful like, five minutes ago." Benson added in disbelief.
"Anyone need a jar opened? I got you covered." Dave proudly said, ignoring what the two said.
"Hold up." Uncle Donnie said as he got out the medical kit and walked over to me. "Let's get you patched up first." Within a few minutes, he managed to wrap my injured wing in a bandage. "There. Don't use your wings for a few weeks and you'll be fine."
"Thanks, Uncle Donnie." I said to him as I tucked my wings before looking to Kipo, the two of us smiling at each other. "Well, we're here."
"Yeah. Home, sweet home." Kipo said to me as we followed her. "Just so you know, no in one in my Burrow has ever seen a Wonderbeast before. Besides a giant worm. And they've never met any Tribe members before either." Kipo then picked up Mandu. "But they'll get used to you pretty quick."
"Wait a minute." Benson said to Kipo, causing us to stop. "You're inviting us down there?"
"Yeah. Don't you wanna come?" Kipo said to Benson and Dave. "You'll always have a warm meal, you don't have to sleep with one eye open."
"Sign us up!" Dave answered, liking the sound of that.
"Buh-bye, surface! I won't miss you!" Benson added and we all walked off, but then Wolf stopped for some reason.
"Everybody's still probably cleaning up from the attack." Kipo said as she and the others kept walking. "Wait 'til I tell my father of all the Wonderbeasts we saw!"
"Guys, hold up." I said as I made the group stop as I went over to speak to Wolf. "You coming, Wolf?"
"I owed you a favor and promised to get Kipo home." She said to me. "Never promised to be her roommate."
"And I'm guessing you haven't changed your mind about joining the Tribe, huh?" I questioned.
"I told you before. I'm not living with any Wonderbeasts." She told me. "So now are we even?"
"Yeah. Thanks, Wolf." I said to her as we shook hands. After we broke it, she then started walking away. "You sure don't wanna check it out? It might be cool down there."
"No. I'm a lone wolf." The young warrior kept on walking, not even looking back
"Okay. Take care, Wolf." With that, I then turned to face the others and walked over to them. "Alright, let's get down to the Burrow."
"Is Wolf seriously just gonna leave like that?" Kipo asked me as we all then followed her to the entrance to her Burrow.
"I don't think she's ready to be around so many people yet, let alone those who live with Wonderbeasts." I told her. When I saw Kipo look down in despair, I put a hand on her shoulder and gave a reassuring smile as she looked up at me. "Just give her time. I'm sure she'll come around eventually." Right then, she returned the smile, feeling better with the hope that Wolf might come to being around others than being alone.
"Thank you, Axel." She said to me. "Really. I don't know what I would've done without you."
"No problem, Kipo." I said to her. "What are friends for?"
"Yeah. Friends." At that moment, we both looked with wide eyes and saw that I still had a hand on her shoulder. I removed it from the Burrow girl and we looked away from each other, my cheeks feeling hot and Kipo with a small smile and her cheeks looking red for some reason. There was a moment of silence before Kipo spoke again. "So… you sure you can't stay a little longer?"
"I'll check it out after I talk with your father. After that, I'm afraid we'll have to part ways. I still have a home on the surface along with a family that I can't abandon."
"Oh, right." Kipo then regained that depressed look.
"But I'll come back to visit whenever I can. No doubt Uncle Donnie will be coming around to see if anyone would like to join the Tribe."
"Well, I hope you don't take too much. Don't want the Burrow being only me and my dad." We both had a laugh at her joke before Aurico spoke to her.
"Are we at the Burrow yet?" he asked with Brook beside him, both having looks of anticipation. "It's pretty close, right?"
"Yeah. Almost home." She told him, pointing forward. "Should be right through here."
"Yes! Come on, Brook!" Aurico exclaimed as he and Brook ran off ahead.
"Burrow babes, here we come!" Brook cheered out in excitement as they went through the bushes, escaping our sight.
"Guys, slow down!" I told them as we all then ran after them. "You can't rush in there! They've never met Tribe members, remember?"
When we finally caught up to them, I saw the two just standing there. The way they were just standing still gave me the sense that something was wrong.
"Rico? Brook?" I said as I walked over to the two. "What's wrong?" I looked and saw they both had looks of horror. Looking in their direction, I gasped in shock as I saw why they were so still.
The rest of the group came over and I knew their hearts dropped by what we were all seeing, especially for Kipo. What we all saw, right in front of us, was a massive pit, having large pillars of stone which showed that this was no doubt Kipo's Burrow.
"Kipo's Burrow…" Gordy said as we all looked at the hole.
"Oh, no." Caldwell added, feeling the same dread we all had.
"Kipo… I'm really sorry." Benson said, giving the Burrow girl his sympathy.
I went over and took her hand, wrapping it around hers to comfort her. She tightly gripped it as she was no doubt doing her best to hold back some tears in her eyes.
"Uncle Donnie, is there…?" Sora asked before Uncle Donnie went to use his staff to see if there was anyone still down there.
After a moment, the elder gave a sigh before he said "No. I'm detecting zero signs of human life down there. I don't think anyone is in this Burrow anymore."
"No, no, no! There's gotta be someone down there!" Kipo said before she let go of my hand and rushed down into the pit, skidding down before she began to push over every tall piece of rubble. The rest of us watched her do so from the distance, feeling bad for the poor girl.
"Damn, I knew this was too good to be true." Dave commented, earning a smack in the back of the head from Musa. "Ow!" With this, I then walked over to Kipo.
"Kipo?" I said to her, the girl ignoring me as she continued her search. "Kipo…" she kept ignoring me which is where I decided to make her listen. "Kipo!" I gently grabbed her arm, stopping her and getting her attention. "Kipo, I'm sorry. As much as I don't like what happened here and don't want to say this, but I don't think you're gonna find anyone."
"But there's got to be!" She protested.
"Kipo, look around." I said, showing her the present condition of her Burrow. "This place has been turned to rubble. No one's here."
That's when she gasped in shock and said "No one's here." With the repeat of those three words, I watched as she then ran off somewhere.
"Where are you going?" I asked as I then followed her before telling the group to do the same. "Guys, come on!"
"Are you sure you didn't live alone, Kipo?" Benson questioned. "I will not judge, okay?" I feel like we should follow them."
Following her, Kipo led us to a wall with some kind of device attached to it.
"A wall? Seriously?" Aurico said in exasperation. "You took us to a wall with some weird square thing sticking out of it?"
"Wait, Aurico, move aside." Uncle Donnie said with surprise and Aurico did so, the elder going over and looking at the weird device. "Is that… a keypad?"
"Yep, and I happen to know the code." Kipo said as she then pushed some of the buttons. After she did, we all watched as the wall moved upwards, revealing an empty secret room.
"What?" I said, both surprised and confused by this.
"Axel, you rule!" Kipo said to me with a smile before she then suddenly kissed me on the cheek, making my whole face burn up with heat.
"Whoa! Hey!" Aurico said as he and the others backed away, me looking down to see clouds of steam below me. "Watch the steam, 3!"
"Sorry!" I said to him as I realized that the steam came from me. While I did wonder why I produced steam, I pushed that aside as I remembered what she said to me. "Wait, I rule? What? Kipo, hold on." I then got to the subject of the mysterious room. "What is this?"
"Kipo, is that your Burrow's emergency bunker?" Uncle Donnie said with surprise.
"Yep! It's our bunker!" She said with a bright smile.
"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" I asked as I didn't really get this.
"You see, Axel, the emergency bunker is something that every Burrow haves." Uncle Donnie explained. "It's a place they use to hide in case they need shelter from something like a disaster."
"Yeah. Seeing it like this… this is a good sign." Kipo said, keeping her smile.
"How is this a good sign?" Gordy said, not really seeing the logic there as much as the rest of us. "The bunker's empty!"
"Exactly!" Kipo said, motioning to the empty bunker. "It's like Axel said! There's no one here, not even in the bunker! If no one is there, then that means they got away!" With that said, we all then understood why she was so happy. "My father, my friends! They got away somewhere!"
"Oh, that is wonderful to hear, darling." Kylo said to her as we felt relieved to hear Kipo's people were safe.
"So do you know where they went?" Caldwell asked her.
"No, I don't." She said with a look of despair before looking out into the distance. "But, if they're somewhere out there, I can find them."
"You mean we can find them." I said to her as me and my fellow members of my Tribe showed her we were ready to help her find her people. "I still need to have a talk with your father. And I promised that I would get you back home and I'm going to keep it."
"You're not gonna do this alone." Gordy added with a smile. "We'll be right there with you."
"You're going to need help." We all then turned to find Wolf standing there.
"Wolf?" I said as I was surprised to see her. "But I thought you said you were a lone wolf. Kipo's home. You've done your job and now we're even."
"We are even, but she's not home yet." Wolf replied. "My job is not over yet." Kipo smiled at what she said, a smile which Wolf returned.
"Glad to have you aboard, Wolf." I said as I gave her the same smile, glad to have the little warrior's help.
"We'll help you too, Kipo." Dave said as he flew right next to her. "We got your back."
"Totally! What should we do it for, Dave?" Benson said, getting a little ram to the leg from Mandu. "Ow, ow, ow! Okay, we'll do it for food!" Hearing this, Aurico glared and then stomped on his right foot. "Okay, okay! We'll do it for free!"
"That's what I thought." Aurico harshly said to him.
"Pig, you need to be pet. Come here." Dave said as he flew over to Mandu. "Let me give you some love." Instead of taking it, the piglet ran off and managed to knock Wolf off her staff, making Benson and Dave laugh. Benson quickly tried to help her up, but she smacked it away as she got herself up. Benson then put his arm over her shoulder as they walked over to us, the guy smiling as they did.
"Let go or lose the arm." Wolf said, threatening Benson.
"Yes, ma'am!" Benson said with a look of shock, quickly raising his arm in catching onto the demand.
"Looks like we got two new additions to the group." I said, smiling proudly at the sight.
"You want me to pet you, you want this love. Admit it." Dave happily said while petting Mandu, making him and Benson laugh.
"She likes you, Dave." Benson said as we all had a little laugh, but suddenly this moment was short-lived as we went silent by the sound of metal clanging.
"You hear that?" I asked as we listen to the sound, trying to figure out where it was coming from.
"Yeah, what is that?" Gordy asked as we looked around for the source.
"Sounds like somebody pounding metal." Aurico answered before Brook spoke up.
"Uh, guys?" Brook said with fear as he pointed upwards.
Looking above us, we all saw that the source of the sound was going from outside the pit. It was there we saw an ax with its blade being slightly clanged against some stone amongst the edge of the pit. The ax belonged to a Wonderbeast. It was a Wonderbeast Cat (basically a big cat on two legs) wearing a plaid shirt and a knit cap. I knew where this Wonderbeast came from and, with the way he was looking down at us, it meant we were in big trouble. It wasn't long until more Wonderbeast Cats dressed like him and wielding axes of their own appeared, forming a group that was glaring down at us.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." I said to myself as it seems we weren't catching much of a break today.
Author's Note: Hey, guys! Sorry it took me so long. Had a family matter to take care of. Well, now you get how there was a baby there. And don't worry, you'll get to know Benson and Dave more as the story progresses. As for those cats in lumberjack clothes, you'll get to know who they are soon. That's all I got for now. Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me how you think of it. See ya in the next chapter!