Disclaimer: I do not own TaleSpin or any of the other Disney Afternoon shows. If I did, this story would be animated and on my YouTube channel!


Episode Eleven
Gummi Glen


Kit was lost in the labyrinth of hallways at McDuck Manor. Opening doors along the halls, he only found a dozen bedrooms, a few bathrooms, a library and a study. But still no exit.

"I gave my brother and his friend the slip inside a huge house I know nothing about, so I can be alone for just a minute, only to get lost in these halls! What was I thinking?" Kit said, scolding himself. "How big is this place?" he said to himself, trying a few more doors. "How am I supposed to get out of here? This is like my first week in the Iron Vulture… " He opened a door, revealing a storage room. "Where am I?!" he cried up to the ceiling.

Kit jumped as a sudden voice reached him from somewhere along the hall.,

"Live online, it's Dewey Dew-Night's Dewey Dew-bites digital online contents! With the Dew Crew houseband, Dew That Thang! Hi, I'm your host, Dewey Dew Duck and welcome to another live stream of Dewey Dew-Night!" Kit was confused as he looked around for the source of the voice. "And tonight, I'll…. I'll… Okay look, guys, I've started this live stream, hoping something will come to me, because I've got nothing. I've been grounded since the last streaming, and... I'm still grounded, but that's beside the point…" then he said in a staged whisper: "Don't tell Uncle Scrooge I'm recording!"

As Dewey talked, Kit followed the sound of his voice to a door. He reached for the doorknob as Dewey was still talking and opened it to reveal a duck kid, wearing the exact same clothes that Chris was wearing today. He was talking to a camera from behind a desk with a lime green background.

"AH! Chris, how many times have I told you, knock before barging—wait a second, you're not Chris..." Dewey said, looking at Kit with suspicion as he paused the recording with a remote, pausing the live stream in the process. "Who are you?"

"Uh… I'm Kit, Kit—" Kit said, looking nervous, as if he was seriously considering running away from Dewey, as he thought Dewey sounded a bit insane.

"Cloudkicker? As in the long-lost brother of Chris'? THE Kit Cloudkicker?" Dewey said excitedly. Suddenly, he was by Kit's side, grabbing his arm. "You have got to come on my show as a guest. People are dying to know more about you! I know I am, so whaddya say?"

"I...uh…" Kit said uncertainty, but Dewey pulled him onto the set, seemed like he wasn't taking no for an answer. He forced Kit into the guest seat before retaking his place in the host's seat and with a click of the remote, the camera resumed recording, thus restarting the live stream.

"And….we're back with a surprise guest, who literally just came out of nowhere and barged in on me—Kit Cloudkicker!" Dewey said, gesturing to Kit with both hands. "As you know, the speedster Matthew and my friend, Chris have spent the best part of their lives looking for him, and now, here he sits! So, Kit, would you like to tell the world and your soon-to-be adoring fans, where you been and what you been up to?"

"Uh, what're you doing, and who are you talking to?" Kit asked nervously, looking around and seeing that the room had no real audience.

Dewey laughed a nervous laugh. "Oh, I've no idea that Chris' brother was such a kidder, heh-heh-heh." He lean over the desk and grabbed Kit's collar and pulled him forward so that the two of them were face-to-face. "You're killing my show. Just answer my questions and follow my lead." he whispered. "SO!" he said loudly, throwing Kit back into his seat. "Tell us, where have you been and what's you been up to?"

"Okay, look," Kit said, starting to get irritated with this pushy attitude of Dewey's, getting up from the chair. "If you're not going to help me find a way out of this place, I'll find my own way out and you can get back to… whatever crazy thing you were doing."

"Crazy—? You've never heard of live streaming?" Dewey asked, sounding surprised.

"No, what's that?" Kit asked.

"Oh, boy…" Dewey said, nervously running a hand through his hair. "Uh… I dunno how to tell you this, but, uh… you're kinda being watched by a large number of people right now…"

"...WHAT?!" Kit gasped, looking all around, but as he saw nobody else in the room, he got a little annoyed. "Are you crazy, there's nobody else here! I'm outta here."

"No-no-no!" Dewey said very fast, grabbing Kit's arm. "You're right, there's nobody else in here, but, you see that?" he pointed to the video camera that stood in front of the set, it was connected to Dewey's laptop and on screen, was Kit and Dewey on the set. "People with a computer, tablet or phone are watching this through that camera, so you kinda have an invisible audience…."

Kit froze, and then he gulped. "H-how many people are watching?"

"Eh, just a few hundreds, give or take a few." Dewey said, shrugging.

"How are hundreds of people watching this right now?" Kit asked, watching himself on the screen of the laptop and noticing how nervous he looked, he put on a brave grin.

"It's just how live streaming works," Dewey said. "I open a live stream video, get on camera and boom! People are watching me on various devices."

"Just like that? Wow, that sounds really neat!" Kit said in awe, he had so many questions, it was overwhelming, but he didn't want to make himself sound stupid, so he refrained from asking a million questions. "So what do I have to do?"

"Just sit there and talk to me, answer my questions and, uh…" Dewey said, noticing that Kit was still looking in awe at the camera and laptop. He snapped his fingers in Kit's ear to get his attention. "Hey, look at me, not at the camera."

Kit turned his face towards Dewey, but his eyes kept drifting to the side towards the camera and laptop.

"So," Dewey said, deciding to ignore Kit's drifting eyes. "First question, where have you been all these years? You were one tough cookie to track down. Even our highly advanced trackers couldn't find you! How did you managed to slip beneath the radar?"

"Um…I don't know, I mean…" Kit paused to think. "I.. I guess it was because I was a drifter for a few years, moving from hangar town to hangar town. I grew up in Freeport and I've been in all of its surrounding towns. And then, I ended up in Cape Suzette."

"Wow, Cape Suzette and Freeport are very far from each other, even by planes!" Dewey exclaimed. "You must've done a lot of traveling to get that far!"

"Yeah…" Kit muttered, deciding not to tell Dewey that his days as an air pirate played a big role in how he got to Cape Suzette.

"You know, my brothers and I tried to visit Cape Suzette once, I even got the houseboat started and everything! But we were thwarted by our Uncle Donald. So, tell us about your life in Cape Suzette, what do you do there?"

"Well, I do most of the things any kid would do; I go to school, I hang out with friends and I work as a navigator for Miss Cu—" Kit broke off as a sudden overwhelming emotion overtook him. He whimpered a little, tears running down his cheek, "Miss Cu….Miss Cu…." He tried to swallow his emotion and keep on talking, but he couldn't get rid of the large emotional lump in throat.

"Hey, are you alright?" Dewey asked, sounding concerned as he stopped the camera remotely.

"I'm sorry!" Kit cried, dashing out of his seat to the door, he grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. "Let me out!"

Dewey walked around his desk and over to Kit, placing his hands on Kit's shoulder. "Hey, man, what's wrong?"

"I'm fine!" Kit snapped, tears flying from his eyes. "I just want to get out of this room!"

"C'mon, man, you are not fine," Dewey said firmly, taking Kit's arm and leading him to a sofa on the opposite side of the room and made him sit down. He then sat down beside him and patted him on the back. "If I triggered some bad memories, I am so sorry. Do you wanna talk about it? It might make you feel better to get it off your chest."

Kit looked away, sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Not really…"

"That's okay," Dewey said gently. "If you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine. I'm saying it might make you feel better if you do. Why don't you try it?"

"Look, why do you care?" Kit asked in his tough guy act.

"You're Chris' brother and he's my friend. I just feel like I owe it to my friend to help his brother out."

Kit's wall came crashing down, he let out a sob and threw himself onto Dewey, crying into his shoulder. Dewey, clearly startled, patted Kit very awkwardly on the back.

"I want my world back!" Kit sobbed. "I want Miss Cunningham, Molly, Wildcat and all of my friends back!"

"Wait, what?" Dewey said, pushing Kit at arm's length. "What about our world? What happened to our world?!"

"GONE!" Kit screamed in anguish "They're all gone! The Shadow-thingies overtook it!"

Dewey gasped, looking devastated. "Oh no… oh no, oh no! This can't be happening!" He dashed over to his laptop and searched the map of space for their home world. "Please let the moon still be there, please let the moon still be there!" On screen, there was no earth and no moon. "No…!" he said in a devastated hushed voice. "No! Mom, no…" he bowed his head in grief, his forehead touching the screen.

Then, in a fit of sudden grief-stricken rage, Dewey picked up his laptop and slammed it down onto the floor, smashing it to bits before putting his head down on the desk with his arms around his head, shaking with sobs.

"Why?! WHY?! We only just had her back for a year and now she's gone again!" Dewey screamed, picking up his camera and throwing it across the room, where it smashed against the opposite wall. He then slumped down on his chair, his head bowed. "I knew that moon mission was a bad idea!"

Even in his own state of grief, Kit still felt compelled to comfort Dewey. He walked over to him and hugged him. The two boys were now hugging each other and crying into each other's shoulders.

There was a click as the door came unlocked, the door opened and there stood Scrooge, looking sterned.

"What in blazes is going on in here?" he demanded. "What's all this racket?!" he gasped as he spotted the smashed laptop and the smashed camera. "What happened here? I—Dewey, Kit?" it was then that he spotted the boys in an embrace and crying onto each other, and his stern face melted like ice cream. He walked over to them and hugged them both. "What's wrong, lads?"

"Oh, Uncle Scrooge!" Dewey cried, burying face in Scrooge's chest. "It's terrible! Our world is gone… and so is my Mom!"

Scrooge was stunned, looking devastated. "Della? Gone? No... no, not again..."

Kit pulled himself out of the embrace and backed out of the room, intending to give Dewey and his uncle privacy to grieve.

Out in the hall, Kit began to run, turned a corner and ran right into Chris.

"Oof!" Chris grunted as Kit bumped into him, he started to fall backwards, but he quickly wrapped his arms around Kit's torso to keep them both from falling down. "Whoa! Kit, don't go disappearing on me like that! You had me worried!"

"Sorry… I just wanted to be alone… I tried to go home, but I got lost in this labyrinth you call a house!" Kit said exasperatedly. "C'mon, let's go home. Where's the way out?"

"What's that?" Huey asked, he and Louie were both there with Chris. "Is that Dewey crying?" he sounded concerned as he and Louie followed the sound of Dewey crying to the room Kit had just left.

Chris started to follow them, but Kit pulled him back.

"C'mon, I want to go home...please…" Kit said pleadingly. "Where's the front door?"

"Okay, okay," Chris said, turning to the opposite direction. "It's this way." he said as he led Kit down the wall. "But you're going to tell me what happened to make Dewey cry."

"I… kinda told him our world was taken by darkness and he somehow found out that the moon that his Mom was on is also gone," Kit said, starting to cry himself.. "So he just lost his Mom…"

"Oh my gosh!" Chris gasped, looking shocked. "Kit, I have to be there for my friends, I'll help you out of the house, and then I'm going to go and comfort my friends."

"Okay, I understand…" Kit said quietly, trying to hold himself together. He followed Chris through the house and before he knew it, they were at the front door.

"Here you go." Chris said, opening the front door for Kit. "I'll see you at home later, tell Dad I may be a little late tonight." And then he walked back through the house and disappeared around the corner.

Kit left McDuck Manor and went over to the park, sat under a large oak tree and wept. As he cried into his drawn-up knees, he whimpered the names of all his friends, starting with Rebecca, Molly, Wildcat, Louie and his fellow Jungle Aces members, ending with a cry of: "I WANT MY WORLD BACK!"

As Kit leaned back against the large tree, suddenly a secret door in the tree opened up and Kit cried out as he fell through the hole and slid down a wooden slide that twisted and turned and did one loop-de-loop before he came out into a medieval-style wooden kitchen, crashing into a cupboard, hitting his head and blacking out.

When Kit awoke, he was lying on his back, covered in the contents of the cupboard, which was mostly food. And as he opened his eyes, he saw an obese blue teenage bear with a indigo nose, aqua muzzle, red cap with an orange feather on top and brown clothing standing over him, looking down on him with concern.

"Ohh, my head…" Kit moaned, reaching up to rub his head.

"Hey, you alright?" the teenage bear asked in a soft-spoken voice, offering Kit a hand and pulling him up out of the wreckage.

"Y-yeah, I think so…" Kit said, he glanced back at the mess he made. "Um, sorry about the mess..."

"It's okay, though I can't say Gruffi will be happy about this..." the teenage bear said, holding out a hand for Kit to shake. "I'm Tummi."

Looking Tummi up and down, Kit thought the name fitted him, but thought it would be rude to say so, so he just shook Tummi's hand.

"I'm Kit, Kit Cloudkicker."

Tummi smiled. "So you're Chris' brother… nice to finally meet ya."

"Tummi dear, are you alright?" said a voice, and a chubby orange she-bear with red hair, wearing an aqua dress and a white apron walked into the kitchen, looking anxious. "I heard a crash, and—oh, Tummi! What a mess!" she gasped, looking around at the food that covered the floor around the broken cupboard.

"It wasn't me, Grammi, honest." Tummi said timidly.

"Well, don't tell me the goblins did it…" Grammi muttered.

"Um...actually... it was me." Kit spoke up. "I fell down the slide and crash into your cupboard. Sorry."

"Oh my! Are you alright, dear?" Grammi asked, going into full concerned mother mode, going over to Kit and removing his cap to examine his head for any bumps and knots. "Where does it hurt, dear?"

Kit was startled by how fussy Grammi was over him, as she combed her fingers through his hair in search of any bumps that might be on his head.

Finally, he gently pushed her away and took back his cap. "I appreciate the concern, really." he said kindly. "But I'm fine… I'm okay."

"Well if you're sure, why don't you help me with lunch, seeing as you already got the food out." Grammi said, gesturing to the food that had spilled out of the cupboard all over the floor. Thankfully, most of the food was in containers, jars and bags, so there wasn't a lot of food wasted..

"I'll help too, Grammi." Tummi offered eagerly, raising his hand.

"Uh, no, thank you, Tummi, but uh…" Grammi turned to Kit. "Pardon me, dear, but what's your name?"

"Kit, ma'am." Kit replied politely. "Kit Cloudkicker."

Grammi turned back to Tummi. "Thank you, Tummi, but Kit and I got it covered. Why don't you go find Cubbi and see what he's up to?"

Looking rejected, Tummi said. "Okay, Grammi..." and he left the kitchen with his head bowed.

As Tummi left the kitchen, Grammi turned to find that Kit was already cleaning up, picking up jars and containers of food.

"I'm surprised these jars didn't break when they hit the floor." Kit said, holding up a jar and staring at it in awe.

"Yeah," Grammi said. "Master Mickey was so kind to use his magic on those to make them unbreakable. He has done so much for us and we're really happy to be living in a world where we no longer have to live in hiding."

'"Wow, that's really neat!" Kit said as he picked up more jars and containers and setting them on the kitchen table. "Why were you in hiding?"

"People coveted our technology, magic and Gummiberry Juice," Grammi said sadly. "People would do anything to get their hands on them, they were even willing to hold some Gummi Bears hostage, torture them or even threaten their lives for those things. So the ancient Gummis went into hiding and we've been in hiding ever since, until Master Mickey offered us a new home where we didn't have to hide anymore. We accepted and he transported Gummi Glen, this place, here. We've been here for centuries now."

"Wow, that must've been hard, to be living in hiding." Kit said. "And you've been here for centuries? How is it that Tummi still look young and you don't look a day older than thirty-nine?"

"Oh my!" Grammi said, blushing out of feeling flattered. "You're so sweet, Kit," she said, patting Kit's cheek lovingly. "Well, there's a powerful spell on the D-Star that keeps its occupants from aging. Our aging process is halted as long as we're inside the D-Star. One could stay young and live forever in here."

"But, if Chris and his friends have been here since they were seven, how are they older now?" Kit asked, looking confused.

"Your age is only halted for as long as you're inside the D-Star," Grammi explained. "If you keep your stay at the D-Star short and go out on missions and other world adventures, your aging will continue from where it left off when you leave the D-Star."

"So if Chris' been in and out of this place for five years, that means…" Kit said, smiling mischievously. "That means that Chris is actually few months younger than me now, maybe even half a year younger!"

"Yes, dear, that sounds about right." Grammi agreed.

Kit smiled to himself as he continued to pick up jars and containers. Once done, he looked for broken shelves in the pantry, he picked up a piece of broken lumber that was part of the shelf.

"I'm so sorry about this. I didn't mean to destroy your pantry… I wish I could fix this for you."

"Don't worry about it, dear." Grammi said, smiling fondly at Kit while placing a hand on his shoulder. "Gruffi really needed to fix that door you fell through for a while now, so it's not your fault. Would you like to stay for lunch?"

"Uh, no thanks, I-I don't want to be a bother…"

"Nonsense, you're not a bother," Grammi said, smiling. "It would be my pleasure to have you here for lunch."

"O-okay, if you insist…" Kit said.

"I'll need time to fix lunch, so why don't I take you to meet Cubbi, I'm sure he'd like to meet the brother of Chris."

"Sure, I'd like to meet another one of Chris' friends. Where is he?" Kit asked.

The door to the kitchen swung open and there stood a small and slender pink bear cub with a peach muzzle, red nose, indigo beret with a red feather on it, red and yellow shirt with a gray collar.

"I'm right here," the pink bear said. He was carrying a red costume with a matching hat on top. "Grammi, could you wash these for me?" he said, walking over to Grammi and holding the costume out to her.

"Of course, Cubbi dear," Grammi said, taking the costume into her arms. "But, I thought you were done with the Crimson Avenger."

"I am, but Chris wants it for some reason, so I'm giving it to him." Cubbi said, shrugging. "Good thing it's elastic, so it can fit any sizes, or it'd be too small for him."

"Well, that's nice of you, Cubbi dear." Grammi said, smiling. "But why does he want this?"

"I don't know, he only said he had a feeling he might need it later." Cubbi said, shrugging. "I don't really care either way. I haven't wore these in years."

Kit stared at Cubbi, finding it odd that the line "I haven't wore these in years" was coming from the mouth of a small kid. He could not imagine what it was like to be a kid for centuries.

"Okay, Cubbi, I'll wash them," Grammi said. "But in the meantime, why don't you give Kit a tour around Gummi Glen and introduce him to everyone?"

"Okay, c'mon Kit!" Cubbi said, grabbing Kit's hand and pulling him from the kitchen.

Out in the hall, Cubbi led Kit to a door at the opposite end of the hall. "C'mon, this way!"

Cubbi opened the door to reveal a tunnel with a series of wooden tracks and there in front of them was an eagle-headed cart.

"Wow, what is this place?" Kit asked, looking around at all the twists, loops and turns the tracks had.

"This is the Quick Tunnel," Cubbi said, getting into the eagle headed cart. "C'mon, get in."

Kit got in and Cubbi buckled them both in. After that, he pulled the lever and the cart shot forward. Kit yelled and whooped as they went through the tunnel in spiral loops, sharp turns and twists.

"Whoa! That was fun!" Kit exclaimed joyfully as the cart came to a halt at the end of the tunnel. "I can't wait to ride that again."

"Don't worry, you'll get another ride," Cubbi said as he and Kit got out of the cart. "We'll have to ride it back to the glen."

Cubbi then led Kit from the tunnel to another hallway with a dozen doors on either side. He then opened a door to reveal a brown teenage bear wearing an aqua blue shirt with yellow sleeves and collar. The teenage boy was wielding a bamboo sword, fighting a bunch of scarecrows.

"Hey, Cavin!" Cubbi yelled. "Come and meet Chris' brother, Kit."

Cavin stopped and turned to look at them, he then smiled and walked over to them. "So, the long-lost brother finally showed himself."

"I wasn't lost, exactly…" Kit said, looking a little sheepish, rubbing the back of his head. "I've just been purposely hard to find…"

Cavin frowned. "Why would you be purposely hard to find?"

"It was partly for survival and partly trying to remain free," Kit said, shrugging. "Growing up in an orphanage makes you feel trapped and the opposite of free."

"Sounds pretty much like us." Cavin said. "We had to move or hide to live without trouble because of bad people. But even if we were safe, we have felt trapped because we couldn't go out freely, fearing for our safety."

"So," Kit said, gesturing to the scarecrows. "What are you training for?"

"I'm training to become a Dedi Knight," Cavin declared, striking a swordsman pose with his bamboo sword.

"Shouldn't be too hard. I mean, my brother is a Dedi student." Kit said, but Cavin shook his head.

"Chris is very gifted to become a Dedi student under Master Mickey," Cavin said. "Becoming a Dedi student under Master Mickey is more complicated than that. There are difficult trials and tests you have to pass to even get into Dedi Academy."

"Yeah," Cubbi said. "They only take the very best!"

"We haven't been able get in yet, and we've been here for years!" said Cavin. "But Master Mickey always tell us to keep trying and someday, we'll be Dedi Knights!"

"Um…" Kit said, frowning at the row of scarecrows Cavin had been beating up with the bamboo sword. "I'm not sure attacking a defenseless scarecrow that can't fight back is the best way to train to become a Dedi, or any kind of swordsman for that matter."

"Why'd you say that?" asked Cavin, sounding like he was dreading the knowledge that he wasted too much time with this same training routine he'd done for years.

"I've...had some sword training in the past," Kit said, deciding not to tell them who trained him in swordsmanship. "All attacking an inanimate object does for you is build up your upper body strength, but not your skills."

"You wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Cavin said, sounding a little frustrated, holding his sword to Kit in a challenging manner.

"What?! No, I..." Kit said, feeling that there had been some kind of misunderstanding. "I-I mean, I don't have a sword and we don't have to—WAH!" he cried out as another bamboo sword was tossed to him by Cubbi.

"There's no going back now, Cloudkicker." Cavin said, his eyes narrowed. "You and I are going to dance."

"But I don't want to—AAHH!" Kit cried as Cavin rushed in on him and jumped up into the air before swinging his sword down on Kit. Kit quickly brought his sword up to protect himself and Cavin's sword clashed with his. "Stop it, I don't want to fight you!"

"Too late, we're fighting." Cavin said coldly, pressing down hard on his sword to add pressure against Kit's sword, causing the bear cub to strain under the effort of pushing Cavin's sword back.

"Alright, fine!" Kit snapped as he gave Cavin's blade an almighty shove with his own, ducked around him and shoved Cavin in the back with the palm of his hand.

Cavin stumbled but managed to regain his balance, whirled around and charged at Kit again. Kit guarded against Cavin's blade with his own and then quickly circled around Cavin and shoved him in the back again, causing Cavin to fall face-first to the ground and his sword to fly out of his hand. Cavin got back up, only to find the tip of Kit's blade inches from his nose.

Cavin bowed his head in surrender. "I give up, you win."

Kit lowered his blade with a smile and offered Cavin his hand, which Cavin grasped. Kit pulled Cavin to his feet.

"That was… not terrible," Kit said, not wanting to offend Cavin. "You had a lot of power behind your blade that would have broke through a less experienced swordsman's guard, but you need more experience and practice, but with a real sparring partner, not just these scarecrows, they'll do nothing for you at this point."

"Thanks, but where did you learn to fight like that?" Cavin asked.

Kit had a momentary flashback of himself with Don Karnage, Karnage teaching him how to hold a sword, pose with it and fight and defend with it. His flashback self didn't have the baseball cap he wore nowadays, instead he wore the red pirate scarf around his neck. Karnage was enjoying teaching Kit, as it gave him the chance to show off his greatness, whereas Kit was just putting up with it in order to learn more self-defense.

Kit shook his head vigorously, ending the flashback. "Um, I had some lessons and uh…. a capable teacher…" he said, avoiding the word "good", not wanting to put the "good" label on Karnage in any way, shape or form.

"Great, maybe you can teach me and Cubbi," Cavin said eagerly. "We need better sword techniques in order to pass the Dedi Academy entrance exam."

Cubbi got very excited at the idea. "Yeah! Please teach us, Kit! We just gotta be Dedi Knights! We've tried so hard for so long to get in, but we always failed because the enemy replicas always beat us!"

Kit could hear the frustration in little Cubbi's voice and could not help but sympathize his and Cavin's dilemma.

"Well, I guess I could show you a few moves, but I need to see what level you guys are on first," Kit offered, holding up the wooden sword and going into a stance with it. "Alright, Cubbi, you come at me with everything you got!"

Cubbi let out a yell and charged at Kit, who deflected Cubbi's blade with his own and then sidestepped around him and pushed him in the back with foot, causing the small pink bear to fall onto his face!

"Hey, what gives?!" Cubbi said angrily, getting slowly to his feet, rubbing his bruised face. "I did what you said!"

"You really shouldn't charge so blindly at your opponent," Kit said seriously. "You leave yourself wide open. Now try again, and this time let us attack in slow motion, so I can teach you between moves."

Cubbi and Kit clashed swords in slow motion, Cubbi dabbed his sword towards Kit twice and twice, Kit blocked it with a downward swing.

"Good! Now bring it up and down and around... Defend and attack, just keep switching between the two." Kit said. "Very good. Now repeat fast!"

Cubbi and Kit repeated their previous actions with their full speed, ending with an echoing clash of the swords, ending in a draw.

"Good!" Kit said with a smile. "That was a lot better."

Cubbi drew back his sword and looked at it in wonder. "Oh...I get it now...I've been doing it wrong for years and now I know better! Thanks, Kit!"

"No problem, kiddo." Kit said kindly, rubbing the top of Cubbi's head, pushing his blue hat down to his eyes. Kit then turned to Cavin and lifted his sword, challenging him. "Now, let's see what you can do."

"Oh, you're gonna see what I can do alright…" Cavin said with a confident smirk.

The two preteen bear cubs stared down each other, before each of them let out a warcry and charged at each other.

The two bamboo swords clashed, and the two young fighters strained as they pushed hard against each other's sword. Finally, Cavin pulled out of the power struggle and tried to trip Kit by going for his leg, but Kit blocked the attack and tried to disarm Cavin by going for his wrist. However, Cavin saw it coming and pulled his wrist out of the way so Kit's sword clashed with his sword instead.

"Wow, you're better than I thought!" Kit said, grinning as they went into another power struggle with the swords.

Cavin smiled as he strained against Kit's sword. "Thanks, so are you."

The fight went on for a few more minutes, with each fighter striking and also blocking their opponent, all the while Cubbi cheered for Cavin. Finally, Cavin put a lot of power behind his assault on Kit's sword, breaking it in half!

"Looks like I win." Cavin said, pointing the tip of his blade at Kit's nose, stepping into a coils of rope in the process.

Noticing this, Kit grinned. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

"Huh?" Cavin said, just as Kit stepped around him, grabbed the end of the rope and pulled, causing the coil to tighten around Cavin's ankle, causing him to fall and hit the floor, his sword flying out of his hand. As he freed himself from the rope and was just about to get up, when he found the tip of his own blade pointing right at him, behind the sword was Kit, smiling down at him.

"Looks like the table turned on you." Kit said, grinning.

"Hey, no fair!" Cavin complained. "I had you!"

"All is fair in love and war," Kit said, putting way the sword and offering Cavin a hand. "But yeah, that was really close, you almost had me there."

"Well, just as long as you admit it…" Cavin said grudgingly, as he took Kit's hand and was pulled to his feet. "Hey, you were a pirate at one point, were you?"

"What? Uh…. wh-what makes you say that?" Kit asked nervously.

"The way you hold the sword, the way you wield it and the way you swept a victory right out from under me," Cavin said. "Those are the style of a pirate. So I'm guessing you were one, to be taught by this "capable teacher" of yours."

"Uh…" Kit said, who was starting to sweat. "My teacher was..."

"Hey, relax, Kit." Cavin said, placing his hands on Kit's shoulders. "Even if you were a pirate, you're not a pirate now, or at least, you're not a bad guy pirate."

"H-how can you be sure of that?" Kit asked in surprise, he was expecting to be kicked right out of Gummi Glen for his past association with the Air Pirates.

"Simple, there's some kind of spell or force on this Star that banishes all evil, so if you had evil intentions, you'd be blown right outta here." Cavin revealed.

"Well, I wasn't a pirate because I wanted to be one," Kit said, wanting to make himself clear. "I joined the pirates because I wanted food, shelter, adventures and most of all, planes."

"Relax, no one's judging you... Wait, what?" Cavin said, looking puzzled. "Planes? Pirates had planes? I thought they mostly have big ships and boats."

"Not the Air Pirates," Kit said with grin. "They have this big flying fortress that houses all of their planes."

"Like a big flying aircraft carrier?" Cavin asked.

Kit thought for a moment and then said. "Yeah… I guess you could say that."

"Now that I gotta see!" Cavin said with an excited grin.

"What's it like being a pirate?" Cubbi asked. "Is it really all fun and treasure hunting?"

Oh, boy… Kit thought in dismay. This kid is in for a rude awakening if that's his idea of pirates...

Fortunately for Kit, he didn't have to spoil the moment by educating Cubbi on the dangers of pirates, because Grammi turned up with a picnic basket hanging from her arm.

"Cubbi, Cavin, lunch!" she called, walking into their training area and setting the basket down on the floor. "I've made you all sandwiches." she said, opening the basket and handing out the sandwiches.

"Oh boy! I'm starving!" Cubbi said happily, snatching his sandwich and taking a big bite out of it. "Thanks, Grammi!"

"Yeah, thanks, Grammi." Cavin said, accepting his sandwich a little more gracefully and taking smaller bite out of it than Cubbi in a show of politeness.

"You're welcome, sweethearts." Grammi said, smiling. She then turned to Kit. "Kit dear, I didn't know what you liked, but I made you Chris' favorite sandwich—peanut butter and strawberry jelly. It may not be YOUR favorite, but I hope you like it just the same."

"That sounds good! Thanks, Grammi." Kit said, accepting his sandwich and taking a bit of it. "Hm! This is good! But I prefer grape jelly."

Grammi smiled. "Alright, dear, I'll remember that next time." she then took out her own sandwich and began to eat with the boys. When they were finished, she stood up. "Alright, dears, today is berry-picking day, and I'll need you two to come and help me pick the berries." she said to Cubbi and Cavin, then she turned to Kit. "You can help too, Kit dear."

"Aw, do I have to?" Cavin whined, not wanting to use the Quick tunnel.

"Yes, Cavin," Grammi said firmly. "You're a Gummi Bear, and Gummi Bears—"

"...pick Gummiberries," Cavin finished for her. "I know, I know,,, I just wish it didn't involve that evil car."

"Come on, you two, those Gummiberries aren't going to pick themselves," Grammi said. "and Master Mickey has already ordered a batch of Gummiberry Juice so he can turn it into Gummiberry Beans. You can come help too, Kit dear."

"Huh? Oh okay, I'd be glad to help out." Kit said, smiling, following Grammi to the Quick car, followed by Cubbi and Cavin, Cavin bringing up the rear, clearly not keen on getting in the Quick car. Kit couldn't see why as they got in the car and shot forward down the tunnel. Kit screamed with thrilling joy, while Cavin screamed in fear.

"For heaven's sake, Cavin," Grammi scolded him as they reached their destination and were getting out of the car. "You should be used to the car after hundreds of years of living here."

Kit looked back at Cavin in amazement, and again he could not imagine what it would be like to be a kid for hundreds of years, never able to age.

"Sorry, Grammi," Cavin said faintly. "But I'll never get used to this evil car."

"I thought it was fun!" Kit said happily. "I'd ride this car anytime, it's actually better than my Dad's driving."

"Funny, Chris said the same thing!" Cubbi said, getting out of the car.

"Well, we are twins…" Kit pointed out.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're not your own person." Cubbi said, shrugging. "Everyone is different, even twins."

"Yeah, you're right." Kit said as they climbed up the upward slope to a cave opening and walked through it to the outside air. And there in front of them was a big greenhouse full of rows and rows of berry bushes. Kit had never seen so many different colors of berries before in his life!

Outside the greenhouse was a slender light brown bear with a tan muzzle and brown nose. He wore a green hat and a yellow shirt. He also wore a grumpy expression as he packed up his toolbox.

"Hey, Gruffi!" Cubbi greeted the grumpy-looking bear. "You fixed the sprinklers?"

"Yeah, the bushes should be getting their water now." Gruffi said proudly, he looked up and noticed Kit. "And who's this?"

"This is Kit Cloudkicker, Chris' brother." Cubbi said. "Kit, this is Gruffi,"

"Nice to meet you, Gruffi," Kit said, holding out a hand to Gruffi for a handshake.

Instead of taking the handshake, Gruffi huffed and turned his back on Kit. "Hmpt, and what is he doing here?"

"You behave, Gruffi Gummi," Grammi growled. "This polite young man has agreed to help us with the berry-picking."

"Berry-picking is the job of the Gummi Bears, he is not a Gummi." Gruffi said firmly. "I had Mickey to recast the spell on the doorway that only lets Gummi Bears in."

Grammi ignored this and beckoned Kit forward. "Come on in, Kit dear, after you."

"No, no, after you." Kit said, walking past her and giving her a polite bow.

"Oh my, what a polite young man!" Grammi said, patting Kit's cheek before walking into the greenhouse.

"Hmpt! Why don't you just pick up every stranger in the streets and give them a full tour to Gummi Glen and full access to our Gummiberry bushes?" Gruffi asked sarcastically.

"Maybe I will, Gruffi Gummi," Grammi snapped."There's an Evil Banishment spell on this Star, anyone with malice or evil intentions is instantly expelled from the Star and sent someplace else. There's no reason to distrust anyone here!"

"You don't know that. For all you know, the spell could be faulty and prone fail." Gruffi argued. "Never place too much reliance on anything."

"Does that includes you, Gruffi?" Grammi said slyly.

"Ha-ha, very funny…" Gruffi growled, unamused.

"Come along, kids, those berries aren't going to pick themselves, you know." Grammi said, beckoning them to follow her into the greenhouse.

Cubbi, Cavin and Kit followed after Grammi, each carrying an empty berry basket, with Kit bringing up the rear. When he stepped over the threshold with no resistance, Gruffi's jaw dropped.

"Hey! How are you—?" Gruffi began, but he was cut off by Grammi.

"For heaven's sake, Gruffi, leave the boy alone and let him pick the berries with us!"

"Fine, fine," Gruffi said grumpily, picking up a berry basket himself. "But I'll join you to keep an eye on him."

Each of them picked their own berrybush, set their baskets down and began picking the berries. After a few minutes of picking the berries and dropping them in his basket, Kit became curious about each of the different color berries and wondered if they tasted differently from the others. But he didn't want to sneak a couple into his mouth, as Gruffi sat a row behind him, watching his every move as he picked the berries.

"Um, Grammi?" Kit said, raising his hand.

"Yes, Kit dear?"

"M-may I... try a few berries? I wanna know what they taste like."

Grammi smiled warmly, evidently pleased that Kit had thought to ask her first. "Of course you can, but only a few, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." Kit said, he then turned back to his bush, picked up a red berry and popped it into his mouth. He chewed with a thoughtful expression. "Hmm, tastes like strawberry." He tried the purple berry. "Hmm, grape!" He picked a blue berry. "Mm! Oh wow, the blue berry tastes… like blueberries…" he sampled the green berry next. "Hmm… green apple?" he next picked an orange berry and looked at it anxiously. "Please don't be carrot, please don't be carrot…" he pleaded as he brought the berry to his mouth. As he chewed it up, his eyes popped open in surprise. "No way… orange berries tastes like oranges?!"

"What's the matter, don't like oranges?" Gruffi said from behind him.

"N-no! I love oranges, I just didn't expect that taste in a berry." Kit explained as he picked up the yellow berry and ate it. "Mmm, pineapple, yummy!"

"Good, you've had your snack, now get back to picking berries!" Gruffi griped at him.

"Gruffi Gummi, leave the child alone and pay attention to what you're doing!" Grammi yelled at him from her own bush. "You're picking the leaves off the bushes instead of the berries, you know."

"What?!" Gruffi yelped in shock. He looked down into his basket and saw that he had more leaves in his basket than berries. He smacked himself over the head. "Of all the idiotic…" he grumbled to himself as he returned to picking berries, this time paying more attention to what he was doing.

After a few hours of picking Gummiberries, they now had five whole baskets of berries.

"Alright, everyone, that's enough berries for today." Grammi said as she called the halt to the berry-picking. "Time to pack 'em up."

Kit, Cubbi, Cavin and Gruffi picked up their baskets, carried them out of the greenhouse and loaded them into the side compartments of the Quick car.

"There, all loaded up and ready to go." Gruffi said, slamming the lid of the compartment shut. Then he turned to Grammi. "Just don't go teaching this one to make Gummiberry juice like you did with the last one."

"At least Chris is a reliable juice maker who can take my place when I'm down and out." Grammi retorted.

"Yeah, and that's great and all, but one's enough." Gruffi said firmly.

Kit looked over at that them. "You taught Chris to make some juice? What kind of juice is this?"

"Never you mind, kid, that's top Gummi secret." Gruffi said gruffly.

Kit looked at Grammi, who nodded sadly. "I'm afraid he's right, sweetheart, the less you know about Gummiberry juice the better, unless you're a Gummi Bear or a Dedi."

This, of course, made Kit even more curious. But he did not beg to know, because he knew the importance of keeping a few secrets. Instead he smiled, and said: "Okay" and climbed into the Quick car and off they went, back to Gummi Glen. He then helped the Gummi Bears carry their berries in and he helped them sort the berries by color.

Finally finished with his task, he stood up from his seat. "I can't thank you guys enough" he said, smiling at all the Gummi Bears around him. "Earlier, I was really down, thinking about all the people I left behind when I came here. Letting me help you pick your berries helped me sort out my thoughts and feelings. Sure, I'll always miss them, but they would not want me to feel sad all the time." he finished with a sad smile.

"Oh you poor dear!" Grammi cried, dashing at Kit and hugging him and as she did so, Kit was suddenly overwhelmed by emotion and started to sob into her shoulder. She did not seem to mind, as she kept hugging Kit consolingly.

"I-I'm sorry," Kit sobbed. "I miss them... Miz Cunningham…. Molly….Wildcat... Louie….Ernie and the guys… Why couldn't we save them?!"

"Oh there, there, you poor child…" Grammi said, looking like she wanted to cry as she consoles Kit. "We know exactly what that's like. We had to leave people behind to come here too. There wasn't enough time to get everyone together….and we had to leave….without them…." she sniffed, starting to cry herself.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you down too!" Kit cried, pulling himself out of Grammi's hug and starting to run. But he was stopped by Gruffi placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, calm down, kid," he said in a gruff but gentle tone. "Come with me."

Gruffi then took Kit from the kitchen and walked him down the long halls of Gummi Glen, talking to him.

"Listen kid, I can't say I know how you feel, but I know what you're going through." Gruffi said, walking beside Kit with his arm around Kit's shoulders. "As Grammi said, we've had friends that we had to leave behind. Our world was in the process of being destroyed, Master Mickey tried to save our world, but he couldn't, it was too late. He offered to take us to safety and bring us here. And as Grammi said, we didn't have time to get everyone together to transport them here with us. It was either us or nobody at all." As Gruffi spoke, it was clear to Kit that the brown Gummi Bear was hurting as he told this story to him. "We're all that's left of our world. We had to take everyone and everything we could and get out of there… leaving a lot of good people behind…" Gruffi sniffed and wiped his nose on his forearm.

They stopped walking and Kit placed a hand on Gruffi's shoulder. "How do you get over that?"

"Who says we're over it, kid?" Gruffi said gruffly with tears in his eyes. "We're never over it, even after all these years! We never will be over it."

"I-I'm sorry, I mean... How do you go on after that?" Kit said, feeling more related to Gruffi now that he had opened up to him with this story.

"One day at a time, kid." Gruffi said simply. "We still think about them, we still miss them. But now we live everyday of our lives as a tribute to them, That's the advice I can give you: Honor your lost friends with your life. Allow them to live on in you, right here." Gruffi added, placing a hand on Kit's chest, over his heart.

Kit seemed overawed as he slowly placed his hands over his heart. He gave an emotional laugh before throwing himself unto Gruffi, hugging him tightly.

"Thanks, Gruffi!" he sobbed happily, now being comforted by the memory of his friends instead of being depressed by it..

"You're welcome, kid." Gruffi said with an emotional smile, patting Kit on the back.

When they broke apart, Kit was feeling much better. Gruffi then opened up one of their many exits and allowed Kit to climb through, out of Gummi Glen.

"Hey, Kit." Gruffi called out to him from within the hole Kit had just climbed out of. "You didn't hear it from me, but you're welcome here anytime." he said, doing his best not to sound too happy about it, but failing at it.

"Thanks, Gruffi," Kit said, walking away while waving back at Gruffi. "And thanks for that talk, it made me feel better."

Gruffi just grinned and waved before disappearing back into the glen.


Author's Note:

I'm so sorry for the long wait for the release of this episode. No, it wasn't writer's block, it wasn't lack of inspirations. In fact, I have ideas and concepts that will be in future episodes. But those who want something to blame for the delay, just to get the torches and pitchforks moving in the right direction... BLAME KINGDOM HEARTS III! I've spent hours on that addictive game! ...And you can blame me for putting the gaming over writing….DON'T KILL ME!

All jokes aside, stay tuned for the next episode!

If you remember Cavin from the Adventures of the Gummi Bears as a human twelve-year-old boy and are wondering what he's doing here as a Gummi Bear, don't worry, that was intentional and it will be explained in later episodes.

Special thanks to my editor, Cyclone Blaze for editing this episode for me.