Disclaimer: I do not own TaleSpin


Episode Five

The Shadow Minions


At the Cape Suzette Real Estate office, Matthew was sitting in a chair across the desk from an elderly sheep lady. He was in the process of buying a new home for himself and Chris. He was still uncertain about Kit, whether or not he'd want to come live with them, as he seems fond of and content with his current place of residence at Higher for Hire. Though he suspects it has a lot to do with Baloo and the bond that exists between them. But whatever the case, he and Chris needed a place to live in this world.

"Well, Mr. Cloudkicker," said the real estate lady, looking uncertain. "Most people who come in here are looking to buy a house or a place of business. But you're looking for a...uh, sweets shop to live in, store your aircraft in and that's close to the school. ...I don't think there is such a thing. Are these two separate units or one in the same?"

"C'mon lady, I thought I was clear on that," Matthew said patiently, though it was clear his patience was wearing thin. "I want a hangar with a live-in suite. A hangar on the ground floor and an upstairs suite. Basically a plane garage with a suite on top. What is there to be misunderstood about that?"

"I'm sorry," the real estate lady said, cupping a hand to her ear. "You want a hanger and a cake with sweets on top? I think the bakery down the street can help you with that."

Matthew groaned in exasperation. "No, lady, not a hanger and a cake with sweets, a HAN-GAR with an upstairs SUITE." he said, raising his voice slightly.

"I'm sorry? Something about a sweets shop? There's one just a block away," she said in her most helpful tone of voice, then she dug her finger into her ear to clear it of wax.

Annoyed, Matthew closed his eyes, praying for patience. Then he had an idea. He withdrew a notepad and pen from his jacket pocket, wrote: I want a hangar with an upstairs suite, tore the piece of paper off and gave it to the lady, who took it and adjusted her glasses.

"Oh...!" she said, comprehension dawning on her face as she read it, then she chuckled. "Well why didn't you say so?"

Matthew gave her an annoyed stare that silently read: "...Really? ...Seriously?" His right eye twitching.

"Yes, we have one about five blocks from the school. Would you like to see it?"

Matthew gave her a nod to mean 'Yes.'

"Alright, here's the address," the real estate lady said, scribbling the address down on a piece of paper and then handing it to Matthew. "Just go to that address and the owner will meet you there."

"Okay, thanks, lady." Matthew said as he took the paper and departed.

An hour later…

"AW C'MON!" Matthew cried to the heavens as he stood in his newly purchased hangar, standing in a space surrounded by mountains of junks that looks as though they were made by a few generations of hoarders who never threw anything away. He sighed. "...I'm gonna need a bulldozer…"

Matthew began cleaning up the hangar, first bagging up all the junks into a thousand garbage bags and throwing as many of them that would fit in the cargo hold of the McQueen, when it could hold no more, Matthew closed the loading bay doors and got into the cockpit. He took off, he flew over a junkyard, the city dump, turned the nose of the plane upward and opened the loading bay doors and all the garbage bags fell out, landing on top of all the other junks. He did this ten times in a row, going back and forth between the hangar and the junkyard before the hangar was junk-free.

With all the junk gone, Matthew found an imperial staircase, he climbed up the stairs onto an half-landing and then turned to the right and climbed the second flight of stairs onto the top floor. The first thing he saw was a nice wooden rail that went from one wall to the opposite wall. And looking down over the rail, he saw the McQueen sitting below him, facing the big double doors leading outside.

Matthew turned around and saw that he was in the kitchen that had a bar with a built-in sink in the center of it. The bar has four stools to sit on. Behind the bar was a stove, oven and some cupboards to store snack food and dishes. And there was a refrigerator that stood off to the side of the bar against the wall.

The kitchen had an archway that opened up into the living room. Matthew was amazed at how nice and clean the living room was with nice, comfortable white carpet. He took off his boots and stepped onto the carpet. It felt good to his feet, as there were some thick paddings under the carpet.

He walked around the living room, there was a really nice matching set of sofa and armchairs, all facing the TV-size radio. He turned on the radio, just in time to hear the start of a song.

We'll meet again.

Don't know where, don't know when…

But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day.

Keep smiling through

Just like you always do

'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

So will you please say hello

To the folks that I know

Tell them I won't be long

They'll be happy to know

That as you saw me go

I was singing this song

As the song was playing, Matthew was looking around, checking out the two bedrooms, the bathroom and the master bedroom with a master bathroom and closet.

Again, he was amazed at how nice and clean everything was. It was as though a world-class hoarder and a world-class clean-freak were living here before. Now he had a lot of questions, like how did such a couple ever got along?

"Now then, let me see…" Matthew said, pulling out his iPhone from his pocket and scrolling down his task list. "Acquire a home, check!" he said, pressing the screen with his thumb and that item on the list was crossed out as well as check-marked. "Acquire a job… still working on that. Enroll Chris into school... I still need to do that. Hide the phones…ehh, check!" he said rather reluctantly, turning off his phone.

Matthew went over to the sofa and took one of the cushions, unzipped its' cover and placed both his and Chris' iPhones inside it. He then zipped it back up and placed it back down on the sofa.

"Now, where did I put Chris' school records...?"

Later, at Cape Suzette Elementary…

Matthew sat in the hallway outside the principal's office, humming We'll Meet Again to himself, while reading the newspaper.

"Oh man, I've missed these old songs…." he said with a feeling of nostalgia as he finishes the song.

"Mr. Cloudkicker," said the school secretary in a kind voice. "Mr. Pomeroy will see you now."

"Mr. Pomeroy? Wasn't he the English teacher?" Matthew asked, remembering Mr. Pomeroy from his own days as a schoolboy.

"Oh my, yes, yes he was, years ago, but now he is the principal." the secretary said.

Remembering how strict and no-nonsense Pomeroy had been, Matthew muttered; "A worthy choice of principal." as he stood up.

"I am glad you approve, Windward." Mr. Pomeroy said from the doorway of his office. Matthew cringed at the sound of his surname of birth "I had thought Kit Cloudkicker looked familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, until now. Now I see it, he's your son." he said, glaring up at Matthew with pride. "That would explain why he is such an excellent student. Come inside, we have much to discuss."

Matthew followed Mr. Pomeroy into his office and sat down in the chair in front of Mr. Pomeroy's desk. Mr. Pomeroy walked around his desk and sat down in his chair behind the desk.

"So…" Mr. Pomeroy said, locking his fingers together over his desk. "You changed your name from Windward to Cloudkicker, did you?"

"Yes sir," Matthew said, looking down at his knees, feeling intimidated by his old English teacher, now principal. "What tipped you off?

"Windward, please, a good teacher never forgets their students' youthful beginnings." Mr. Pomeroy said, waving a hand. "Now, why did you change your name?"

Matthew frowned. "I disowned my family after a series of events, after which I had my name legally changed to my son's stage name, which is Cloudkicker."

Mr. Pomeroy looks as though he wanted to ask for details, but seems to decide that this was none of his business, so he changed the subject,

"Now, I trust you would want to hear how Kit is doing in school." Mr. Pomeroy said, picking up Kit's file from his desktop and opening it.

"Yes, I would love to hear how he is doing." Matthew said, looking relieved at the change of subject..

"Well, his grades are nothing to be ashamed of," Mr. Pomeroy said, flipping through Kit's grades. "He does reasonably well in school. At first, he was struggling with spelling and history, but he's improving. Getting better all the time."

"That's good," Matthew said, feeling proud of his son.

"He behaves very well for someone of his… uh, background." Mr. Pomeroy said. "And he get along splendidly with the other students. He even tries to help those who are struggling with self-confidence, like Oscar Vandersnoot and try his best to include them in his little club."

"Background?"

"He was brought up on the streets, kids of that background don't normally behave so well like Kit." Mr. Pomeroy explained. "Which brings me to my questions for you."

Matthew gulped, knowing he was about to be interrogated, questioned about his lack of involvement in Kit's life and why Kit was living with Baloo and not him. He braced himself for the interrogation.

"What were the circumstances in which you were absent from Kit's life up until now?" Mr. Pomeroy asked. "Why did he live his life as an orphaned street kid?"

Matthew scowled, as if he was forced to think of something that infuriates him. He spoke in a low and deadly voice: "During the war, I was away in combat when my wife had our sons. She died in childbirth. And then, members of my own family decided that they could not take care of twin boys, so they kept Chris and casted Kit off to the orphanage, all because Chris' eyes were prettier! Kit grew up in the orphanage, escaped and then lived out in the streets until he met Baloo. And he and Rebecca has been taking care of him since." At this point, Matthew was shaking with fury. He stood up and went over to the door. "Excuse me, I need to go punch something, I'll be right back…"

Mr. Pomeroy said nothing, he just sat there in stunned silence while he digested what Matthew had just told him. "Wh-what?" he said, coming back to his senses after Matthew had left the office.

Mr. Pomeroy stood up and faced the window behind his chair and looked out onto the school lawn where he saw Matthew storming up to a tree and stopping in front of it. Then Matthew suddenly let out a bellow like an angry bear and punched the tree so hard that all the nuts in the tree came raining down upon him. Matthew stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, the knuckle of his fist still touching the tree, his anger fading into grief. Then he fell to his knees and cried, his face buried in his other hand, obviously grieving for his wife and for himself being unable to be the father Kit deserved and for Kit having to grow up the way he did. The sound and the sight of Matthew grieving like that affected Mr. Pomeroy deeply, it was a sound like a wounded animal. And that was when Mr. Pomeroy quickly pulled down his blinds, covering his window.

Half an hour later. Matthew returned to Mr. Pomeroy's office, accompanied by the school nurse, his right hand covered in bandages. The nurse, a middle aged goose lady was patting Matthew on the back sympathetically.

"There, there, Mr. Cloudkicker, it'll be alright." she said gently, helping him into a chair..

"Thank you, Mrs. Bates. I think I'm okay now." Matthew said with a sad little smile. He then turned back to Mr. Pomeroy. "Sorry about that. I'm still not over... you know…."

Mr. Pomeroy bowed his head. "Yes, I understand. No apologies are necessary. So, am I to understand that Kit has a twin brother?"

"Yes, his name is Chris." Matthew sniffed, before blowing his nose on his handkerchief. "He's been with me the whole time I was looking for Kit. As you might understand, I could not focus all my attention on finding Kit while I had Chris' needs to tend to, especially the first few years."

"Yes, that is understandably difficult," Mr. Pomeroy agreed, "And with one son missing and the other requiring all of your attention, I'm guessing you didn't have much time to properly grieve."

Matthew confirmed it with a shake of his head.

"So back to business," Mr. Pomeroy said, his tone becoming businesslike. "You want to enroll your son, Chris into our school, is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct," Matthew said.

"What kind of education has Chris had prior?" Mr. Pomeroy asked.

"Homeschooled, mostly. He had a few teachers here and there, but it was mostly me." Matthew said.

"Well then, I look forward to seeing the results of your teaching." Mr. Pomeroy said. "Is he a good student?"

Matthew blinked and then grinned. "Of course he is, he's MY son, after all." he said with pride.

"That's what I'm afraid of…" Mr. Pomeroy muttered.

"Hey! What's that mean?" Matthew said with mocked indignation.

"Bright student as you were, you had a habit of getting bored and your boresome led you into trouble." Mr. Pomeroy said.

"Not my fault your assignments were too easy…" Matthew muttered, his arms crossed.

"And instead of sitting quietly, waiting for the rest of the class to finish, you amused yourself with paper airplanes and throwing them. As if that weren't bad enough, I had to give you detention for shooting spitballs at all the girls…"

Matthew squirmed with embarrassment at that reminder, "Well, I… that was before I liked girls…." he muttered weakly.

"Hmph! Well I hope you taught your son better manners than the ones you displayed at his age." Mr. Pomeroy said, giving Matthew a stern look..

"Oh compared to me at that age, my boy is a saint!" Matthew said while making a mental note to warn Chris against shooting spitball or throwing paper airplanes in class.

"Well, we shall see," Mr. Pomeroy said, handing Matthew a folder with Chris' schedule and locker combination inside. "He starts Monday. As Kit is his brother, Kit should have no problem being his guide for the first few days. Good day to you, Mr. Cloudkicker." And with that, he bowed Matthew out of his office and Matthew took his leave.

Meanwhile, at the park...

"Alright, alright, Chris, I'll nominate you for membership." Kit said, finally giving in to his brother's begging and pleadings to be in Kit's club so he could meet all of Kit's friends. It was in the afternoon, school had been let out and Chris was there outside the school waiting for him. "But to be in the Jungle Aces, you must be able to tell us the story of at least one of your adventures."

"YAY!" Chris said, joyfully punching the air. Then he held his chin thoughtfully. "I think I can tell 'em about that time Dad and I… no, can't talk about that one, it's classified… Maybe that time we… no, can't talk about that one either… Oh gosh, this is so frustrating, so many great adventures, so few I can tell."

"...you just had one yesterday…" Kit reminded him, looking a little annoyed that Chris didn't think of it yet. "Remember the freezing cold, the soldiers who nearly shot you? The great escape? That's an adventure."

"Yeah, but I used…" Chris looked around, checking that no one was listening before whispering; "...the you-know-what, I can't talk about that."

"So then leave that part out." Kit said simply.

"But they'll want to know how I escaped." Chris pointed out.

"Yeah... good point." Kit said, he thought for a moment and then he shrugged. "Just replace the part of you using the Heart with something else, like maybe you let out a rebel yell that caused an avalanche to fall on top of your executioners. Yeah, that'd be great!"

"But won't that be lying?" Chris said, who did not like lying if he could help it.

"At this point, it's the only story that you can even mention to me," Kit pointed out. "Are there really any stories you have that aren't top secret?"

Chris thought long and hard, finally he answered truthfully; "No... not really."

"Then use that story and replace the Heart with an avalanche." Kit said. "Trust me, they won't know anything that happens there. We don't get any news from Thembria, it's really up to them to believe it, but they can't really verify anything from any sources outside of Thembria."

"O-okay, Kit, if you say so," Chris said, digging his toe nervously into the ground, looking unconvinced that lying was really the best way to go.

"Look, Chris, I don't want you to have to lie either," Kit said, putting an comforting arm around Chris' shoulders. "But it is true that you went to Thembria and that you were almost executed. But if you have to keep the Heart a secret, you'll have to lie a little bit. I know, I've had to keep a lot of secrets myself."

Looking a bit sad, Chris said; "I hope a day will come when we can spill all our secrets to each other…"

"Me too, Chris, me too." Kit said as he led Chris to a junkyard, and led him to a little clubhouse that looks as though it was put together with the planks and pieces of lumber that can be found amongst the surrounding junks. The door to the club was actually a car door. "Stay right here, when we're ready for you, I'll call you."

"Okay, Kit…" Chris said as Kit entered the clubhouse. As he stood there waiting to be called inside, he reharshed his Thembrian adventure in his head. Now that he thought of it, Kit was right; the avalanche would be a great substitute for the Heart.

Inside the clubhouse, the Jungle Aces were chatting or roughhousing before the meeting starts, Kit and Ernie stood a little apart from the others and Kit was whispering into Ernie's ear.

"Okay everybody, time to start the meeting." Ernie said over the hubbub.

Then the boys broke into their club's anthem:

"Pick them up! Knock them down! Hit them hard and make them frown! Over sea! In the sky!

Jungle Aces flying high! FLYYYY ACES!"

"Okay, guys, okay!" Ernie retook his position behind the podium, banging a small wooden mallet upon it and silent fell. "The Jungle Aces' Secret Midnight Club will now come to order. New business; Who wants to present a friend of his for membership?"

Kit kicked an old car seat off the stage and pulled back the curtain, revealing a car door. Cranking the window down, he called; "Come on in, Chris!"

Chris climbed in through the window and looked around. When he saw that there were only five boys in the clubhouse, he became a bit more relaxed. He had been expecting at least a dozen of them.

"Hi guys," Chris said, approaching the podium and giving a small wave. "My name is Chris Cloudkicker, I'm the twin brother of Kit Cloudkicker and I'd like to join your club."

The Jungle Aces looked over at Kit.

"You never told us anything about having a brother." Ernie said, speaking for the club.

"I've only just met him recently." Kit said truthfully. "For reasons unknown to me, I was separated from him and my Dad shortly after I was born. It took them years, but they finally found me."

"Well I'm sure he had lots of adventures if he spent all this time looking for ya." said the hippo boy.

"Yeah!" echoes the rabbit boy.

"TELL US! TELL US! TELL US!" they all chanted together.

"Okay, okay," Chris chuckles, waving for order. "I'll tell you about my most recent adventure." He then took on a dramatic pose and voice as he began his tale. "There I was, in icy cold Thembria with Baloo, we went out into the streets, where we met Colonel Spigot, who was bossing these men around, making them build an ice statue. He bumped into me and then he shoved me into the ice statue, knocking it over and it fell and broke!"

The boys let out cries of outrage at that.

"Wait, wait… It gets worse!" Chris continued his tale, and the boys listened in hushed silent. "When the ice statue broke, he put all the blame on ME and had ME thrown in prison along with Baloo!"

The boys' cries of outrage got louder this time.

"But wait...it gets even worse!" Once again, the boys listened in hushed silent, gazing at Chris in awe. "He sentenced me to DEATH! And led me to the firing squad!"

The boys all gasped in horror, their hands over their mouths.

"How did you get out of THAT?!" Ernie demanded with awed respect in his voice.

"I just took a deep breath," Chris said, demonstrating the action by inhaling very deeply. "And let out the loudest rebel yell I could muster. My yell caused a huge avalanche and all of my would-be executioners were covered in thick layers of snow and ice. That's when I made my escape, freed Baloo and together, we flew out of Thembria! ...And that's my adventure."

There was total and stunned silence in the club, and the boys erupted into cheers, applause and whooping.

"That was some adventure!" Ernie said, patting Chris on the back. Then he turned to the club members. "All in favor of admitting Chris Cloudkicker into our club, say aye!"

"AYE!" cried all the boys and since it was the majority, Ernie saw no need to instruct them to say nay if they oppose.

"That's the majority, Chris is officially our newest member!" Ernie announced. "Welcome to the club, Ace!" he said to Chris, then he placed a helmet made from a cooking pot gently on Chris' head.

Chris was very happy indeed, he was accepted! It felt so good to be included. He leapt into the air with a loud cry of "YA-HOO!"

"Now come up here one by one and introduce yourselves to our newest member!" Ernie instructed the Jungle Aces.

Kit came first, shaking Chris' hand. "Welcome to the Jungle Aces, brother." he said before pulling Chris into a brotherly embrace.

"Thanks Kit," Chris said, hugging Kit back..

They broke apart, Kit gave Chris a salute before moving aside for the next boy in line to come up and welcome Chris.

The cheetah boy came up and shook Chris' hand. "Hi, I'm Ernie, the club's moderator. If you have any problems within the club, let me know, and I will personally take care of it."

"Okay, thanks!" Chris said, "Nice to meet you, Ernie."

Ernie gave him a salute before moving aside for the next person in line.

The hippo boy stepped forward and shook Chris' hand. "Hi, I'm Oliver! Nice to meet you. I hope you'll enjoy our club!"

"I'm sure I will, thanks Oliver." Chris said with a smile. Oliver gave him a salute and then stepped aside.

Next came the rabbit boy. He shook Chris' hand and said: "Hi, I'm Toby, nice to meet ya, Chris!"

Chris chuckles; "Likewise."

Toby saluted him and then hopped away. And finally, the vulture boy stepped forward and shook Chris' hand with a feathery hand.

"I'm Charles," the vulture boy said. "Man, that was some quick thinking on your part. You showed them Thembrians who's boss!"

"Well I don't mind telling ya; it was deathly terrifying." Chris admitted sheepishly.

"Eh," Charles shrugged. "Don't worry about it, even the bravest guy gets scared sometime."

After the introductions were over, they had a brief meeting, discussing topics related to the club, and then they went outside and played shootout, which was mostly boys jumping out at each other, pointing their fingers at each other and making gun noises.

Chris, who was used to laser tag and Nerf guns, found the game extremely dull, it was boring and not at all exciting without being able to fire a series of foam darts at each other, but he pretended to have fun and enjoy himself

At sunset, they ended their game and said their goodbyes before departing to their respective homes.

Kit and Chris walked side by side, heading to the harbor, where Higher for Hire was located.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" Kit said.

"Yeah, great fun…" Chris said unenthusiastically.

This unenthusiasm did not go unnoticed by Kit, who stopped. "What? But I thought you were having a great time."

Chris gave a deep sigh, clearly disappointed himself for not being able to hide his true feelings from Kit.

"Okay, I'm not gonna lie to you, Kit, but that shooting game we played was capital B boring!" Chris said. "I mean, what's a shooting game without any toy guns to play with?"

"Chris, most of those kids are poor!" Kit said sternly, as though he thought Chris was being insensitive to poor people. "They can't afford toy guns, they can barely buy the clothes they wear, why else do you think we built our clubhouse and hang out in the junkyard?"

These words hit Chris like a ton of bricks, he wished he'd said something different.

"I-I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way, I didn't know!" Chris cried, clearly upset with himself now.

"Yeah, whatever." Kit said, who was clearly unhappy with Chris at the moment, and he walked on, leaving Chris behind.

Looking indignant now, Chris ran past Kit and stopped Kit by placing his hands on Kit's shoulder.

"No, Kit, I'm not having this!" Chris said just as sternly as Kit had been with him a moment ago. "I will NOT be made to feel punished for being honest with you! You asked me a question, I gave you an honest answer, and then you got mad! I said I was sorry, I didn't know they were poor!"

If Chris thought this would soften Kit up and make him see the error of his way, he was sorely mistaken. Kit remained stubborn as he shoved past Chris, bumping shoulders and walking on.

Chris was shocked by this, he stood frozen for a moment before he sniffed as tears begin to make their appearance. He felt like he lost his brother all over again, after so many years of looking for him. He fell to his knees and cried on the pavement.

Kit came to a halt when he heard Chris crying, he turned around and saw him, crying on the pavement. Remorse and sympathy in equal measure swelled up inside him. He sighed before approaching Chris slowly, feeling worse with every step. He only wanted to teach Chris a lesson, not make him cry! He felt terrible for making his brother cry.

Kit knelt down beside Chris, who was shaking with sobs. He put a hand on Chris' shoulder.

"Chris, please… don't cry… I'm...I'm sorry, I guess I went too far." Kit said in a gentle voice.

"I said I was sorry!" Chris sobbed. "But you didn't care! My apologies meant nothing to you!"

"Y-yeah…" Kit said in a shaky voice, feeling Chris' words stabbing him like knives. "I'm sorry, Chris, I didn't mean to make you upset… Look, I handled that wrong, please forgive me… I-I'm new at this whole brother thing."

Chris calmed down a little bit, enough to raise his head and look at Kit, tears still pouring from his blue eyes.

"Wh-what?"

Kit sighed as he sat down next to Chris. "I've never had a brother before—no, I've never known I have a brother before now," Kit corrected himself. "I don't know what to do with a brother, there's no manuals to brotherhood. How am I supposed to treat a brother?"

Sitting up, wiping his tears on his sleeves, Chris said. "Basically like a best friend who lives with you."

"But that's the thing, Chris," Kit said. "You appeared in my life too suddenly for me to think of you as a best friend. I don't know you all that well. I need time to adjust to all of this. You can't expect me to be the perfect brother the moment you'd find me. I've been having to make a lot of quick adjustments over the last few days and I still feel a bit overwhelmed by my Dad and brother suddenly showing up out of nowhere! It's a lot to take in and there's still a lot to adjust to."

Chris thought for a moment, thinking of how he'd feel if he were in Kit's shoes, which he found difficult to do, not knowing Kit's past other than what Kit told him so far.

"Y-yeah… I guess I can understand that." Chris said.

"And all those secrets of yours doesn't help." Kit added, frowning. "How do you expect me to connect with you when you can't tell me anything?"

"I...I'm sorry! That's not my fault!" Chris cried. "Dad and I both have orders to keep things classified and top secret."

"Living out on the streets taught me not to trust people with a lot of secrets," Kit went on. "You do realize how much I'm going against my own instincts by trusting you despite all the secrets, right? It doesn't make things easier for me."

Chris sniffed and started crying again. But this time, Kit hugged him and patted him on the head.

"Please don't cry, Chris…" Kit said gently. "I'm not trying to upset you, I'm just trying to get you to see things from my point of view. If I've gone with my instincts, I'd lose you in the streets, and trust me, there are plenty of places to hide. I can even hide in plain sight if I wanted to."

"Well then, why haven't you?" Chris asked. "If you can't trust me, then why are you still here?"

"I told you the day we met," Kit said patiently. "You and I look too similar to be anything other than family, we might've been brothers, or cousins at least! After all these years, I finally found surviving members of my family! I wasn't gonna let you go without first getting to know you. But in doing so, I had to overcome a lot of my distrust issues. I think being with Baloo helped with that a lot "

"Baloo is basically your trust therapist." Chris said, chuckling.

Kit couldn't help chuckling himself. "Yeah, I guess he is."

The two boys smiled at each other and then Kit offered Chris a hand and pulled him to his feet. They continued to walk towards Higher for Hire with their arms around each other's shoulders.

As they neared the building, Chris suddenly came to a halt.

"Chris, what—?" Kit began, who was forced to come to a halt along with Chris since they still had their arms draped around each other.

"I felt...a disturbance…" Chris said, looking deadly serious and looking around. "But no… they can't be here, too...!"

"What can't be here?" Kit asked, bewildered. But now that he stopped walking, Kit too could sense that something wasn't right about their surroundings. Something about it seems eerie, it gave Kit the creeps.

"Kit, get behind me." Chris said, stretching out his hand to the side. The D-blade flew out from under his sweatshirt and into his hand. The moment he grabbed it, the long blue laser blade shot up, at the same time, his sweatshirt was instantly replaced with a tan-colored Dedi gi. He held the D-blade in a baseball stance while allowing his senses to locate more of them, "There's more than one…. Dozens of them... "

"Should we run?" Kit asked, who now sensed a threatening presence nearby. He had noticed Chris' sudden change of clothes, but was more concerned about the unseen threats nearby to comment on it.

"Won't do any good, you can't run from shadows." Chris said, sounding focused as he readied his D-blade for combat. "It's sunset, that's their favorite time of day."

"WHAT are they?" Kit asked, and then he saw them! It was like watching dozens of black blotches filling up with air like balloons as the shadows on the ground all rose up off the ground and became physical monstrous beings with red, glowing eyes. He heard a series of whirling hummings and looked over his shoulder to see Chris swinging his D-blade around at these shadow creatures as they made a grab for them, but they dissolved into nothingness when the D-blade hits them

"No time, just stick close to me." Chris said, batting away at another shadow figure and then another. He then directed his hand at Kit, and suddenly Kit found himself being lifted off the ground by an invisible force and set up on the roof of a nearby building.

With Kit safely on top of a building, Chris could now focus all of his attention on the shadow creatures. He lept over them, striking them while doing a cartwheel in mid air, and landing on his feet, he swung at another. A dozen shadow beings vanished on the spot from that maneuver!

Using the Heart, Chris summoned some trash can lids to him and they flew around him, and whenever the shadow creatures attack, the flying trash can lids would deflect the attacks, shielding Chris from a group of them while he focuses on taking them out instead of switching back in forth from the offensive to the defensive.

"Whoa..." Kit said in awe as he leaned over the roof's edge to watch the flashing lights of Chris' D-blade as it made short work of those shadow things. Chris' swordsmanship seems to be more impressive to Kit than the likes of the Fox Bandit (a fox man dressed as Zorro, the TaleSpin version of him) They could not even touch Chris, not with all the trash can lids taking all the damages for him, and they were gone before their hands even reached him!

Chris' movements were beginning to slow down as he exhausted himself, the trash can lids fell to the ground with a series of echoing clang. The shadow creatures seized on this moment of weakness and with one swipe of its arm, a shadow creature sent Chris flying across the pavement. The moment he hit the ground, the D-blade flew out of his hand and slid across the pavement down an alley.

"CHRIS!" Kit screamed as Chris lay sprawled on the pavement, struggling to get up as the shadow creatures closed in around him. "Chris, get up!" and suddenly an idea came to him, he took out his airfoil and with a flick of his wrist, the airfoil spread out into its boomerang shape. He threw the airfoil at the shadow creature that was nearest to Chris and it hit the back of its head. It turned around and looked up at Kit. "YOU LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE, YOU CREEPS! ...uh-oh…" The shadow creatures glared up at him with glowing red, menacing eyes and they all turned and began moving towards him! They blended in on the outer walls of the building and quickly skimmed up to the roof where Kit was.

"Kit… no..." Chris moaned weakly, he struggled to get up, but the shadow creature that had hit him knocked the wind out of him. "Can't… get up..." he muttered as he reached into his gi. "Gotta have… a Gummiberry bean... " he extracted his little pill box that contains three maroon-colored beans. He opened it and took out a single bean and popped it into his mouth. He closed the box and put it back into his gi as he chewed up the bean and then swallowed it.

Chris jumped to his feet, feeling super strong! He raised his hand and the D-blade rose up off the ground and flew back into his hand from ten feet away, and then he recalled the trash can lids to once again act as his shields..

"Alright, Shadow Minions… NOW you're gonna get it!" Chris ran at the wall and then jumped at it. He bounced off that wall and then another, going up higher and higher until he was on the rooftop where Kit was surrounded by Shadow Minions!

The Shadow Minions were almost upon Kit when they vanished, having been slain by Chris' D-blade. Kit had his eyes shut tight and his arms over his head, but when nothing happened to him, he opened his eyes and saw Chris in combat, once again bouncing around and over the Shadow Minions' attacks while attacking them at the same time. Chris was once again surrounded by flying trash can lids to take the hits for him while he focuses on the attack.

The fight moved from rooftop to rooftop and finally back on the ground again. Kit was watching all of this from his own rooftop in awe of what he was seeing.

Finally, with one swipe of his D-blade, the last of Shadow Minions vanished and all was quiet…

Then Chris drew a symbol on the pavement with his D-blade that consists of three circles joined together in the shape of a mouse's head. As he drew the symbol, Chris was chanting something in a strange language: "Sphaera tutationis: hoc mundo a malo defendat!"

Once the symbol was complete, Chris raised the D-blade up with both hands, the blade pointing down at the ground.

"Shadow Minions of Magica De Spell! In the name of Grand Dedi Mickey, I banish you from ever taking shape in this world again!" Chris yelled as he stabbed the center of the three circle symbol he'd made in the pavement. The moment his blade struck the symbol, the blue laser blade sent a pulse wave that could be felt throughout the entire city of Cape Suzette! An invisible dome-like barrier now covers the city. "There, the Shadow Minions can't appear in this city again," Chris said, sounding tired and almost out of breath. His D-blade switched off as he fell to his knees.

Kit used the fire escape to get down from his place of safety on the roof. He rushed to Chris' side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Chris, are you okay?"

"Yea... " Chris panted. "Just gimme a minute, I'll be fine. Using the Heart to move faster than what I'm normally capable of, really takes a lot out of me."

"Was that what you were doing?" Kit said in awe. "Chris, that was awesome! You moved faster than the Fox Bandit and he moves pretty fast!:

"The Fox what?" Chris asked, looking confused as his French sky blue sweatshirt appeared back on his body, replacing his Dedi gi.

"The Fox Bandit, you haven't heard of him?" When Chris shook his head, Kit grinned. "Guess I know which movies to take ya to when we hit the theaters later. But for now, I gotta ask; WHAT WERE THOSE THINGS?!"

Chris groaned, knowing that this was the end of his secret-keeping with Kit. He was relieved though, but he still worries that he might spill more than he should.

"They're Shadow Minions. Shadows of everything, brought to life by an evil witch known as Magica De Spell."

"Who's Magica De Spell?" Kit asked.

"An evil sorceress who's trying to take over the world." Chris said simply.

"And what was that pulse wave I felt after you beat all those minions?"

"That was me invoking the Sphere of Protection over the city. I know I said world, but it really only protects just this city." Chris said, looking sheepish. "As long as the Sphere of Protection is up, no Shadow Minions can appear in the city. We're safe, for now."

Kit pulled Chris to his feet. "C'mon, let's get to Higher for Hire, I gotta see if Baloo and Miss Cunningham are alright!"

Both boys ran the rest of the way to the Higher for Hire. They ran around to the front of the building and they found Matthew and Baloo standing in front of building, looking out at the gap in the cliff.

"DAD!" Chris cried delightedly, running out towards Matthew.

Matthew turned around in time to catch Chris as he threw himself at him. "Chris, good! You're safe!" Matthew said, hugging his son. "Was that you casting the Sphere of Protection on the city?"

"Baloo!" Kit cried joyfully as he ran at Baloo and jumped into his arms, causing Matthew to feel a pang of sadness. "Did you see those Shadow Minions?"

"Yeah, but luckily fer us, Matt fought them with that green nightlight of his." Baloo said, sounding relieved to have Kit back in his arms as he hugged Kit to his chest. "I'm glad you're okay, Lil' Britches."

"Now that the boys are back, let's go back inside." Matthew said, carrying Chris into the building and Baloo followed, carrying Kit.

Once inside, Matthew put Chris down, closed the door and locked it, bolted it, placed a wooden beam across and for good measure, pushed a dresser against it..

"What were those things, Matthew?" Rebecca asked tearfully, who was seated behind her desk, hugging Molly, who was also crying.

"What's wrong with Molly?" Kit asked Baloo, looking over at her with concerns.

"Those shadow things grabbed her," Baloo said.

Kit gasped with horror. "WHAT?!"

"We tried to save her, but we all ended up gettin' captured, and then Matt jumped in and saved us all."

"I thought I was going to lose her!" sobbed Rebecca as she held Molly closer to her.

"Yeah, the Shadow Minions would've gotten us too if it weren't for my D-blade." Chris said. "The D-blade is the only thing that works against them. Without a D-blade, you're powerless against them." he explained, mostly for Kit's benefit, who was looking questioningly at him.

"With Chris' Sphere of Protection in place, we won't be seeing anymore of them so long as we remain within the city limits." Matthew said to the room at large. "I wanted to wait til Chris and me were settled in and for Kit to get to know us better before telling you guys anything about our, uh, backstory. But with the appearance of the Shadow Minions in this world, we owe you guys an explanation, since you witnessed us fighting them." Matthew walked over to the kitchen area and sat down at the table. "Gather 'round, everyone. I'm about to tell you a tale."


Author's Note:

I hope everyone is enjoying this, but I haven't gotten any reviews from the last few episodes, so I'm not getting any opinions or any comments. Please leave a review, it'll help me out as a writer.

Now, members of the Jungle Aces, I don't know if any of you TaleSpin fans noticed this, but half of the Jungle Aces are unnamed boys, we only know three of them by name; Kit, Ernie and Oscar. The last three, a hippo, a rabbit and a vulture were never named or I never heard anyone refer to them by name. So I decided to name them myself, and I picked Oliver, Toby and Charles. Hope everyone likes the names I picked.

Stay tuned for episode six! And don't worry, I got plenty of plans for episode six.