Disclaimer: I do not own TaleSpin or anything of the Disney Afternoon.
Episode Thirteen
Olympus Coliseum
It was a few months after Baloo and Kit moved into their new hangar. Their hangar was just like Matthew and Chris', with a suite above the hangar area where the new Sea Duck was parked. The living room of their suite was divided into half office, half living room, as Kit insisted he wanted an office. He spent all the remaining amount of money he had left on his gift card to buy a fancy desk, just like the one Rebecca had, so that he could style his office after hers. He even got a huge green bulletin board to hang on the wall behind the desk.
Kit walked into the upstairs' suite above the hangar area. Baloo was currently in the hangar below, washing and polishing the new Sea Duck. Kit approached his new office, looking through a few pieces of mail.
"Bill, bill, bill…" he said dully, dropping into his chair behind his desk. He slit open a bill and looked at it and saw that it was a two hundred dollar water bill."WHAT?!" he yelped. "Two hundred dollars?! How did we ...? Oh yeah, all of those showers and plane-washing we've been doing this month ..."
Baloo came into the suite, singing to himself and dancing. "Hey, Kit, the Sea Duck's as clean as a whistle now!"
Kit slumped down in his seat behind his desk. "I know…"
"Hey, what's the matter with you, Lil Britches?" Baloo asked, looking concerned. For an answer, Kit held out the water bill. Baloo took it and looked at it, cringing at the price of this bill. "Eeeh…"
"Eeeh is right, Papa Bear." Kit said gloomily. "How are we gonna pay for this?"
"How much do you got on yer…?" Baloo asked, swirling his finger around, referring to Kit's gift card.
"My gift card? Just twelve cents." Kit said with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh, can't we just ask yer Dad fer a…?"
"No, Baloo!" Kit snapped, startling Baloo. "...Just...no. My Dad's already done a lot for us, I don't feel right about asking him for money with no way of paying him back."
"But he's yer Dad, he's supposed to take care of things like this fer ya." said Baloo, sounding like a guy looking for a quick and easy fix for a problem he didn't want to deal with.
"I know," Kit said, sounding like he was choosing his next words carefully. "but I want us to be able to pull our own weight and do things ourselves without relying too much on other people. I don't want to put our problems on other people, not even Dad. How about we find work around here?"
"Work?!" Baloo gasped in horror. "Kit, I just got through waxing the Sea Duck and you want me to find MORE work?"
"Well yeah… preferably work that pays." Kit said. "Washing the Sea Duck doesn't pay."
Kit then went over to the closet and took out a unicycle and a bag of balls.
"What are you doing, Lil Britches?" Baloo asked, bemused.
"I'm going to go out and earn a little money." Kit said, going out the door. "Just like I did before I met the Air Pirates..."
Kit went to the D-Star Mall and set up his little show just outside the door. He took off his cap and set it on the ground as a money tin. Then he started juggling balls while flawlessly riding the unicycle.
A few lady shoppers, a hen and a cow, stopped on the way to their car to watch him. And while they seemed impressed, they did not look overly wowed. So Kit decided to step it up a notch. He jumped into the air, off the unicycle, flipped over in midair and landed upside down back on the unicycle, pedaling with his hands and juggling with his feet.
The ladies cheered and clapped and then reached into their purse while walking over to him. They each took out a twenty dollar bill and dropped them into his cap before walking away.
"Wow," Kit said to himself while continuing his upside down juggle on the unicycle. "I was expecting a dollar's worth of changes at the most, and they gave me forty dollars! If I keep this up, I might be able to make enough money to pay the water bill!"
Kit held his four juggling balls between his feet as he rode up and down across the front of the mall as his arms were getting tired of balancing the unicycle in one spot.
Every now and then, people going in and out of the mall would pause and drop a dollar, sometimes five dollar bills into his cap.
After an hour of this, Kit was exhausted, he tried to do a cartwheel jump off the unicycle, but he found that he couldn't, his arms were too stiff.
"Hey! What the—whoa!" he cried as he ran into a rose bush and fell off the unicycle and now his upper body was inside the bush with his legs kicking outside the bush. "Ow…"
Just then, Chris and his friends, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Max and Gosalyn came out of the mall, laughing and joking.
"Alright, Chris," Huey said. "You owe me ten bucks. Seriously, you forgetting your wallet is becoming a problem, man."
"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Chris said. "I just left the house in a hurry and—what's that?" he said, noticing Kit's rear end and legs sticking out of a rose bush. "Is that Kit?" he then hurried over to the bush. "Kit, is that you? What are you doing in there?" he then grabbed Kit's ankles and pulled him out.
Kit emerged from the rose bush, wincing, both arms were up in the same position they were in when he was pedaling the unicycle with his hands.
"Oh hi, Chris… I was just trying to make a few bucks…" Kit then looked up at his arms and tried to put them down, but he couldn't. "Ow… my aching arms…"
"Just what were you doing anyway?" Gosalyn asked, looking concerned as she walked over to Kit, grabbed one of his arms and pushed down, causing Kit to scream in pain. Startled, she backed away. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
Kit's face was screwed up with pain, and although he fought it, tears found their way down his cheeks anyway.
"Ow-ow-ow! Oh gosh, it hurts!" Kit whimpered.
"Oh gosh, you need a healing spell." Huey said in concern.
Chris frowned in anger at Kit's pain; he gathered all of his brother's things and marched him from the mall with his hand on Kit's back where it hurts the least to make him walk, ignoring the protests of his friends, leaving them behind as he marched Kit back to the hangar.
"DAD!" Chris yelled as they reached their hangar.
"Oh no, Chris, please don't tell Dad," Kit begged him. "Really, it's no big deal…"
"NO BIG DEAL?!" Chris exclaimed angrily. "Look at you! You're trying to earn money from street performing, you can't put your arms down and you're in pain, and you say it's no big deal?! Kit, it IS a big deal! You shouldn't be doing this! Baloo's the one who's supposed to provide for you, not the other way around! When Dad hears about this... DAD!" he yelled again.
"Chris, please, stop… I…." Kit started to say, but he ended up crying out in pain..
The hangar door lifted up and there stood Matthew, wearing a gray jumpsuit, looking concerned.
"What's all the racket about, Chris?" Matthew asked.
"Dad, Kit was outside the mall, riding a unicycle and juggling for money." Chris said. "And his arms got so stiff that he can't put them down!"
Matthew frowned as he walked over and got down on one knee in front of Kit. "Why were you performing at the mall?"
"We... we needed the money…" Kit said in a low voice, looking down at his feet. " To-to pay the bills."
Matthew's frown deepened. "Kit, you shouldn't be worried about the bills, that's the adult's job. And in any case, why didn't you come to me? I would've given you money if you needed it that bad."
"I...I just wanted us to provide for ourselves, pull our own weight, you know." Kit said in an even lower voice. "You've already done so much for us, I don't feel comfortable asking you for more…"
"Kit, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not doing enough for you!" Matthew said, dismayed that his son felt this way. "And anyway, what's Baloo doing to pull his weight?"
"He's... He's…." Kit tried to speak, but he was at a loss for words.
Matthew stood up, looking livid as he marched over to Kit and Baloo's hangar. "BALOO!" he yelled. "GET YOUR FAT TAIL SECTION OUT HERE NOW!"
The door slid up and Baloo came out, looking confused. "What's going on, Matt? What's with the hot water?" he asked, trying to think what could he have possibly done to make Matthew this angry.
"Baloo, what are you doing to provide for Kit?" Matthew said in a low and deadly voice.
"Uh…" Baloo began, but Matthew cut him off.
"Nothing! That's what, nothing! You know what are you doing to Kit?" Matthew said, gesturing to Kit. "You're making him think he has to go out and make money for the both of you!"
"Easy, Matt…" Baloo said, holding his hands up in a defensive gesture. "I didn't tell him to do that… I knew that was what he set out to do, but I didn't ask him to do it."
"But you did nothing to stop him, you just let him go out and earn some cash while you sat around and did nothing!"
At that, Baloo started to get angry. "Hey, back off, man! I'm trying, I am looking for work. But I haven't found any clothes lines."
"That's no excu—wait, what?" Matthew said, looking confused. "What do you need a clothes line for? You got a dryer…"
"No, no, no. They told me to apply online, so I was gonna hang my application on a line, but I can't one anywhere." Baloo explained.
"Oh, no, no, Baloo, that's—" Matthew paused to bite his tongue to prevent himself from laughing uproariously. He then cleared his throat. "...That's not what applying online means."
"Then what does it means, man?" Baloo asked impatiently.
Matthew sighed. "It's a long story, I'll help you with that. But first things first, I gotta heal Kit."
Baloo looked over at Kit. "What's wrong, Li'l Britches, why are yer arms up like that?"
Kit looked down in embarrassment. "I… kinda did a handstand on my unicycle for too long and my arms got stiff…."
Matthew summoned his D-blade, pointed it at Kit and said: "Cura!" A pair of golden bells crossed each other, ringing over Kit's head and what looked like green rain fell on him. And as the bells disappeared, Kit was startled as the pain was instantly gone and he found that he was able to put his arms down again.
"Wow… that's amazing! How did you do that?" Kit asked in amazement as he examined his arms.
"It's one of the basic spells that all D-blade wielders are required to learn," Matthew said. "To perform it, I need my D-blade."
"Wow, maybe I should be a Dedi," Kit said, rotating his arm."What's the payroll for Dedis?"
"Well, due to your age, you can be a Student Dedis, and it's mostly scouting missions." Chris said. "And Student Dedis get five hundred dollars per mission. Adult Dedis get a thousand dollars per mission."
"Wow, a payroll like that would definitely help pay off all the bills!" Kit said excitedly. "Where do I sign up?"
Matthew and Chris looked at each other, before Matthew said: "It's not that simple, Kit. Before you can get into the Dedi Academy, you have to pass Philoctetes' examinations to even apply for entrance exam to get into the academy. If you can't pass, you won't get in."
"I'm going to enlist!" Kit said with a determined grin.
"...Why am I feeling a sudden sense of deja vu…?" Matthew groaned with his face in his hand.
"Because I said the exact same thing." Chris said simply, patting his Dad's arm.
The next day, Kit was standing next to Cavin and Cubbi in the world famous Coliseum that looked like something straight out of ancient Greek, all three boys were wearing a white tank top with a pair of light blue gym shorts. They stood silently, waiting for their examiner.
They then watched as an old, short and fat satyr entered the Coliseum, wearing a baseball cap with holes for his horns and a green sports jacket over a white T-shirt with a golden symbol of Zeus imprinted on his shirt. To complete this coachy look, he also wore a silver whistle dangling from his neck.
"Are you Philoctetes?" Kit asked.
"Call me Phil," the satyr said, eyeing Kit up and down critically. "Let me guess, you're Chris' long-lost brother, right?"
"Yeah," Kit said, looking annoyed as he was getting tired of being referred to as Chris' long-lost brother.
"Hmm... light and speedy, ideal for dodging attacks and acrobatic maneuvers." Phil said thoughtfully, walking around Kit, looking him up and down. "You're skinny for your species, as is the case with your Dad and brother, so it must be genetic. Good for squeezing through narrow spaces, though." he then took Kit's wrist and forced him to make a muscle and felt the muscle in Kit's arm. Phil whistled. "Oh wow, kid, you may not look it, but you're strong for your age! Okay, I'll let you in, You might go far. Only time and tests will tell."
Kit was proud of his muscles and he was amazed at Phil's analysis of his body.
Phil then turned to Cavin and Cubbi and groaned. "You two again? Well you're determined, stubborn and persistent... I like that."
Cavin puffed out his chest proudly. "We told you, Phil, we're not giving up until we become Dedi Knights!"
"Yeah, Phil! We're going to keep on trying, even if it takes another thousand years!" Cubbi declared.
Phil groaned. "That's what I'm afraid of… Well, you know the rules, empty your pockets."
"Aww, I always hope he'd forget telling us that…" Cubbi muttered as he and Cavin took out their bottle of Gummiberry juice and surrendered them.
"As I've told you two a million times, you can't be a true Dedi Knight if you rely too much on Gummiberry juice." Phil said, taking the two bottles of Gummiberry juice and placing them inside the cooler that sat on the bench. "Now get out onto the field."
Kit, Cavin and Cubbi were then put through various physical challenges, starting with a four hundred metres dash. Phil blew his whistle to signal them to start running. Halfway through the four hundred metres dash, Cubbi ran out of breath, slowing down until he finally fell upon his belly, panting. And although Cavin completed the challenge, Kit beat him over the finish line.
Phil checked off Cubbi from his clipboard as he gave out halfway through, and then he recorded Kit and Cavin's time.
"Are you alright, Cubbi?" Cavin asked in concern as he helped the little pink bear to his feet, who still was panting out of breath.
"Yeah…. I'll be fine." Cubbi panted, wiping sweat from his face. "But I hate doing all of this running!"
"If the four hundred metres dash is too much for you, then you ain't got what it takes to be a Dedi Knight." Phil said bluntly. "Now come along, you three. Onto the next challenge." he led the way with Cavin glaring after him, feeling that Phil was too blunt with Cubbi. Kit was a bit more forgiving, understanding that Phil was just doing his job and only selecting the best, which motivated him to do his best.
Nevertheless, it was a little sad to see Cubbi disheartened by Phil's words. Cavin tried to cheer him up with words of encouragement.
"C'mon, Cubbi, you can do it! Show him what you're made of." Cavin said, "You are Sir Cubbi, you were the Crimson Avenger! Are you really gonna let a silly old goat stand in the way of your dreams?"
A look of newfound determination came over Cubbi's face as he stood tall and proud. "NO! I'll do it!"
"And I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that…" Phil grumbled, his face glowing red, "Now come on! We don't got all day, you know." He led them to the next challenge, which was the running long jump. "Alright, now I want you to run and jump as far as you can."
"This would be easier with Gummiberry juice…" Cubbi muttered.
"Well, a true Dedi Knight doesn't rely on Gummiberry juice for every little problem!" Phil said. "They rely on brains and brawn, and of course, a little bit of speed also helps. You first, kid." he said, gesturing to Kit.
Kit went and stood before a patch of dirt. He got down on all fours, with his rear end up high, waiting for the signal to take off. Phil blew his whistle and Kit took off running at high speed. As he got near the line, he jumped right over it and flew across the patch of dirt, landing on his feet a good distance from the line.
Phil blew his whistle again. "FREEZE!"
Kit froze on the spot, doing his best to steady his balance after such a long jump. Phil took a measuring tape and measured the distance from the starting line to the back of Kit's heels. He whistled in amazement.
"Wow, ten feet!" Phil said, sounding impressed. "Not bad, kid, not bad at all. Alright, Cavin, it's your turn."
"Okay," Cavin said, taking his position, and when Phil blew his whistle, Cavin took off running before he jumped over a good distance beyond the line, and when he landed, Phil blew his whistle again and ran over to measure Cavin's long jump.
"A small improvement from your last long jump, your new record is eight feet!" Phil said, sounding only slightly impressed. He wrote down Cavin's new record on his clipboard. "Alright, ya little pink pipsqueak," Phil said, gesturing to Cubbi. "Your turn."
Kit and Cavin glared at Phil for calling Cubbi a pipsqueak, while Cubbi, looking momentarily upset, took his position, determined to prove his worth.
At Phil's whistle, Cubbi took off running, jumping over the line and landing a few feet away. Once again, Phil blew his whistle and ran forward to measure Cubbi's jump.
Phil did a double take, looking surprised as he examined the measuring tape. "Seven feet… that's impressive for someone your size, kid. That's a new record for you as well."
"Uhm, excuse me, Mr. Phil," Kit said. "Hope you don't mind me asking, but what's my brother, Chris' record?"
"Why do you want to know?" Phil asked with a raised eyebrow..
"Just...you know… since he's already in the academy, I want to know how far there is still to go to reach his level." Kit said.
"Well, let's see…" Phil said, flipping back through his papers on the clipboard. "His score on the long jump is eight feet. Same as Cavin."
"Seriously?" Kit said, sounding a bit disappointed. "And here I thought I had room left to catch up to him on…. Not even in the academy yet, and I already surpassed him in the long jump."
"Hate to break it to ya, kid," Phil said. "But these are old records from a couple of years ago, and Chris has done a lot of growing since then. Since he now has longer legs and had his fair share of battles, he could very well match or even surpass your record."
Kit grinned with a confident smirk. "I welcome the challenge!"
"Alright, kids, come on," Phil said, taking out his Gummiphone. "We got a long way to go." he brought up the song, I'll Make a Man Out of You from his song list and then had the song play over the speakers within the coliseum.
It was the song that Kit, Cavin and Cubbi had to listen to as they each went through the various challenges, such as running through tires, triple jump, high jump and pole vaulting. The song was still playing as they moved on to the throwing events, such as horse shoes, shot put, discus, hammer and javelin. Kit was performing really well in all of these events, with Cavin being a close second and Cubbi performed well in the triple jump but failed the high jump, because he crashed into the bar instead of soaring over it. He passed some of the throw events, but performed very poorly when came to the javelin, as the javelin landed just two feet from where he stood, so he failed the javelin throw.
"Alright, now for your next challenge," Phil said, standing next to the three boys in front of rows and rows of high hedges that formed a giant maze. "You have to get the golden cup at the center of this maze. Whoever gets it first, wins." He put his whistle near his mouth. "Ready! Get set!" he gave a short blast of his whistle and the three boys ran into the maze.
The boys went their own separate ways within the maze. For a while, it felt like they were all running in circles, until Kit and Cavin ran into each other with a loud "Oof!" and fell to the ground. From the ground, they looked up and saw the cup in the distance. They stared at it for a moment, before they scrambled to get up while pushing each other back down. Soon they were racing each other to the cup, running side-by-side. They were almost there and then—
"GOT IT!" Cubbi cried, jumping up from nowhere, snatching up the cup and taking off with it. "I win!" he cried happily.
"What the— that little sneak!" Cavin said as he and Kit stared after Cubbi, both watching him run off with the cup. "He totally stole that win!" he laughed.
Kit laughed too. "Well, he's been trying so hard to catch up to us, so let's let him have this one."
As Kit and Cavin came out of the maze to find Phil and Cubbi waiting for them, Cubbi was jumping up and down in celebration with the cup held over his head.
"Alright, Cubbi wins." Phil said. "Now onto the next challenge!"
The next challenge opened onto a high cliff with Phil and the kids on top of it, next to a big tall tree with a long rope hanging on a branch. On the side of the opposite cliff, hung a damsel dummy.
"When rescuing a damsel, handle with care!" Phil yelled as Kit jumped at the rope, swinging from cliff to the next cliff, grabbing the dummy and pulling it close to himself. He made a U-turn and returned to the cliff, landing on the clifftop next to Phil, holding the dummy in his arms.
"Great job, kid, you pass!" Phil shouted joyfully. "Now, you next, Cavin!"
Cavin ran at the rope and swung to the other cliff and grabbed the other dummy, but because he did not pull the damsel dummy closer to him, the dummy smashed into a tree and Cavin was left holding nothing but its' arm.
"What the—?!" Cavin gasped. "AAHH!" he yelled as he lost control of his swing and got tangled up in the rope, ending up hanging upside down from the rope.
"Ooh…" Phil groaned, palming his face. "Sorry, that amount of damage to the damsel is an automatic fail."
Phil took a long hooked stick and extended it out towards Cavin, hooked the rope and pulled him back to the cliff and he held him on while Kit untangled and untied Cavin from the rope and he fell to the ground.
"Cubbi, you're up." Phil said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the edge of the cliff.
"Ya-hoo!" Cubbi cried happily, jumping at the rope and swinging off to the next damsel dummy. It was a controlled swing, he swung around to get behind the dummy, wrapping his legs and one arm around it and then swung back to cliff. Halfway back to the cliff, he lost his grip on the dummy "NO!" he cried, as the dummy fell into the rushing river below, breaking apart against the rocks.
"Sorry, kid, but that's an automatic fail." Phil said, he then sighed sadly. "That's strike three for you, Cubbi, you're out. Try again next year."
Cubbi immediately teared up. "NO!" he cried in anguish. "I worked so hard for over nine hundred years for this! I never grew up in all the time I've been here! No matter how much I train, I'll never be big enough to jump over that bar, or strong enough throw that stupid javelin, or big and strong enough to rescue that damsel! I'm always gonna be just a stupid little pipsqueak!"
"Aw, c'mon kid, I didn't train ya to think like that…" Phil said, sounding stunned by Cubbi's outburst.
With angry tears running down his face, Cubbi ran to Phil's cooler, took back his Gummiberry juice from within the cooler and pulled the cork out.
"What the— Cubbi!" Phil cried.
"Just leave me alone…" Cubbi sobbed, he then gulped down some juice and took off, bouncing away from them and out of sight.
"Cubbi!" Cavin cried after him, then he sighed and turned to glare at Phil. "Nice going…"
"Look, kid, it ain't my fault." Phil said defensively. "I'm under strict instructions to test you all to see if you're worthy of the entrance exam! I'm not allowed to be biased or show favoritism. It's always three strikes and you're out." Cavin continues to glare at him. "Look kid, you want him to end up like Gusto?"
Sorrow filled Cavin's face and he bowed his head. "No..."
"What happened to Gusto?" Kit asked in concern.
"Back when we were LESS strict in our Dedi selections, Gusto, inexperienced as he was, was assigned to a mission and he got captured and taken to Drekmore castle." Phil said. "After that, I was told to impose a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule."
"Gusto was never a fighter, he was an artist, a creative genius." Cavin said, trying hard not to cry. "He was on a mission to find something. Cubbi and I stowed away on his ship, but the ship broke down and we landed in Drekmore, the worst world anyone could be on. And when we were surrounded by ogres, he told us to take the ship while he distracted them, he led them away from us so we could escape and we saw the ogres capturing him and Arty."
Kit gasped. "So that's why you and Cubbi are trying so hard to become Dedis and never giving up on it… You guys feel guilty for him getting captured and you want to help save him!"
"That's a big part of it, yes." Cavin confirmed, sniffing and wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "But we also wanna help save other worlds too."
"No wonder Cubbi got so upset when he failed," Kit said with sympathy in his voice. "After so many years of trying and failing to get into the Dedi Academy… Yeah, if I thought getting into the academy was the only way to save my friends and I kept failing to pass some difficult challenges to get in, I'd be upset too."
"C'mon, you two, you've got one challenge left. So let's hop to it." Phil said, clapping his hands and leading the way to the next challenge. Phil led them to the edge of what looked like a football field, and on the other end of the field was another damsel dummy tied to a post. "Now, all you have to do is get through this field and rescue the damsel."
Kit and Cavin both looked at the field, one thing that struck them was how non-threatening this field appeared. It was an empty field, free of any visible obstacles, nothing in their way to the damsel.
"Kit, you first. On your mark, get set, GO!"
Kit took off running into field, heading straight for the damsel dummy. Suddenly, the ground ahead of him splitted open, the gap widened more and more every second. Kit knew he didn't have time to stop and evade the huge widening gap in the ground, so instead, he ran harder and faster, jumping over the gap and kept on running.
By instinct, he jumped up as he was still running and it was a good thing he did, because he felt a rush of air as he narrowly avoided stepping into the bear traps hidden in the grass. He jumped from right to left, avoiding more bear traps, as they snapped at his ankles as he passed them.
Suddenly, four walls rose up from the ground, boxing Kit in. He had to jump from wall to wall to escape the confined space.
The ground splitted open once again, this time revealing a pool of lava. Kit gritted his teeth as he made a running long jump, jumping high over the lava. He then quickly pulled out his airfoil and set it under his feet in midair, causing him to glide the rest of the way over the lava, and when he landed, he kept on running, leaving his airfoil behind on the ground.
Back at the start line, Phil and Cavin were both watching Kit in awe.
"WHOA!" Phil exclaimed in amazement when Kit glided over the lava on his airfoil. "Quick on his feet, and quick-thinking! This one will go far as a Dedi!"
Kit was almost there, just a few more yards and...
The space between Kit and the damsel dummy opened up to create a narrow walkway with a pit of very sharp spikes on each side, and to make matters worse, two pendulum blades were swinging, crossing each other midway the narrow path. This more than anything forced Kit to slide to a stop.
Kit walked slowly down the narrow pathway. "Easy, Cloudkicker, easy…" he said to himself. "One wrong move, and…" he gulped, looking down into the pit of spikes. "you're Kit-kebob."
Kit got closer to the swinging blades, he waited for the right time, then he lept ahead beyond the first blade. Then he cringed as he felt the swish of the blades swinging much too close to his back. He quickly felt his back and rear end to make sure everything was still there.
He let out a breath of relief. "Phew! That was too close for comfort!"
There was one blade left to get pass before he reached the damsel dummy. He waited for the blade to swing by before curling himself into a ball and quickly rolling across the ground past the final blade, before he jumped at the damsel dummy, grabbing it into his arms as Phil blew his whistle.
"Way ta go, kid! That was great!" he cheered. "You passed!" All the traps throughout the field deactivated. Then he took out a pair of cards and handed them to Kit as he rejoined them, having walked across the field to them. "Here, your entrance exam pass. You need it to get into the exam's location, so don't lose it. The other one is your free Power Counsel pass. If you're not sure what your powers are, go to the Power Counselors and they'll help you find it."
"Thank you, sir," Kit said, accepting the cards. He then took out his Gummiphone, flipped it open, put the cards in it and then snap it shut. "Huh, of all things, I never thought I'd use a phone as a clip. Bye, guys! Good luck, Cavin."
Cavin smiled weakly as Kit left.
Kit followed the address on the card to a set of gates made of red lasers, beyond which sat a house on a hilltop. He noticed a console on the side of the gate with a screen and a single button.
He pressed the button and a security agent appeared on screen.
"You have an appointment?" the security agent asked.
"Uhm, yes," Kit said, holding up his card. "I was sent here by—" he stopped speaking as a tiny woman with black hair and big round glasses appeared on screen, beating the security agent away.
"Go check the electric fence out back," she said, then she put her face right up close to the camera, so Kit got an unwanted view of her nostrils.
All Kit could do was to restrain himself from making a face that mirrored his disgust at the sight of her nostrils, his face and eyebrows twitching with the effort, trying to keep a pleasant smile on his face.
"What is it? Who are you? What do you want?" the woman said, sounding like an interrogator.
Having never seen a human before, Kit could not help but stare at her, wondering to himself what exactly was she.
"Stop staring, it's creeping me out!" the woman snapped. "Now, I'll say it again; who are you?"
"I'm..." Kit started to say, but the woman interrupted him.
"My gosh! YES, the last Cloudkicker is finally here!" she said excitedly. "Come in, dahling. Come, come."
And just like that, the laser gates opened up to admit him and Kit walked through as he started to climb the hill up to the house.
As Kit reached the top of the hill and approached the front door, the door opened and there stood the short human woman that Kit saw on the screen by the gates. Despite her short structure, Kit could not help but feel intimidated by her. She was just an inch shorter than him, but he was under the impression that she was inwardly a giant that towered over him.
"Ah, yes. Yes, yes, I've been wondering when I'd be seeing you, Kit Cloudkicker."
"H-how did you know my name?" Kit asked
"Oh, come now, dahling. You look like Chris and yet, you're not Chris. So therefore, you're Chris' brother. And he talks of you quite often." she said in pride of her own intelligence. "It's that simple. This is not rocket science... Now come, follow me."
Kit followed her into the house. They stood in what appeared to be the entrance hall, at the end of which was a door that led into the main house. On the wall next to the door was a set of security consoles. A hand scanner, a keypad, an eye scanner and a microphone.
"In case you've been sleeping out under a rock, my name is Edna Mode, costume designer for heroes and the Power Counselor for the Dedis. You see, most people who come here are completely unaware of the power they hold inside. It is my job to help you discover yours, so you can learn how to eventually bring it out."
"Will I have powers like Dad and Chris?" Kit asked, looking at his hands in awe at the thought that he might held some hidden powers yet to discover.
"No, while powers of individuals can be similar, they're not quite the same." Edna said. "No two people have the exact same power, and those who might have a similar power to yours, might require more or less mental capacity to bring it out. Hold on, dahling, we'll talk more inside." she said as she reached her security console. She typed in her password on the keypad with her cigarette stick, scanned her hand, she then lowered her glasses to have her eyes scanned and then spoke into the microphone. "Ed-na Mode."
Kit yelped in fear as a ray gun popped suddenly out of the ceiling and aimed at him!
"...And guest." Edna added, causing the ray gun to retreat back into the ceiling and the door in front of them to open.
It was then that Kit noticed as they walked into the house, that Edna held herself up high and she walked very rigidly, as if she saw herself as the most important thing in the universe.
They walked to the center of the living room before Edna turned to Kit and grabbed his wrist, forcing his hand palm up.
"First things first, we must establish whether or not you're a D-blade wielder." she said, raising her other hand with her index finger pointing out. "Now hold still, dahling, this will not hurt a bit."
She brought her finger down onto the palm of Kit's hand and Kit gasped as her finger seemed to have sank right through a vortex on his palm. It felt really strange as she swirled her finger around the hole on his palm, it felt really hot and cold at the same time. Then she gasped, her eyes widened and she withdrew her finger from Kit's hand as the vortex in his hand vanished.
"Y-you are the legendary Dual Wielder!" she gasped in awe.
"Dual...wielder?" Kit said slowly, stretching his head. "You mean I get TWO D-blades?!"
"Yes, dahling. Now go ahead and summon your D-blades." Edna said.
There was a pause and then Kit asked: "How?"
"What?"
"How do I summon my D-blades?" Kit repeated. "I was under the impression that the D-blades are something that's given to you once you become a Dedi."
"Oh no, dahling, no, no…" Edna said, shaking her head. "D-blades are something you are born with, they lay dormant within your Heart core. Not something you're rewarded with."
"But how do I summon them?" Kit asked.
Edna sighed. "Fine, I'll help you summon them, but pay attention to how it feels. You'll need to learn to recreate that feeling in order to summon them at will." she then stretched out her hand towards Kit and said in a commanding voice: "D-blades of Kit Cloudkicker, reveal yourselves!"
Kit felt his hands and forearms tingling with a mixture of hot and cold feeling, it was like a cold burning feeling. His hand glowed hot before two flashlight-like devices appeared in his hands. He stared in awe at the two devices in his hands. Then he pressed the buttons on the devices with his thumbs and gasped as two glowing green pole-like blades extended up out of the hilt.
"Wow, but how am I gonna recreate this hot and cold feeling I got when you called out my D-blades?" Kit asked, while staring at his blades in awe.
"That," said Edna. "Is something you have to learn on your own. Your brother so rarely dismisses his D-blade, because he worries that he would not be able to recreate that feeling fast enough, so he just put his away under his clothes. Which is inadvisable, as it could lead to being discovered."
"Yeah, that was how I found his, in his clothes when I was gathering the laundry." Kit said. "So, how do I dismiss these?" he asked, holding up his two D-blades."
"Just focus on the desire for them to disappear, and they will." Edna said.
"Okay…" Kit said, then he stared at the two blades intensely, focusing on the wish for them to be gone and to his surprise, they vanished in a flash of light. "Wow, I did it!"
"Now, try calling them back." Edna said.
Kit stared at his hands, trying to remember the cold burning feeling, as well as the tingling feeling he felt when Edna forced the D-blades to appear, but nothing happened.
"Don't worry if you can't get them to reappear, dahling" Edna said. "It takes a while for a person to learn how to summon their weapon. Now, if you just hold still…." she said, reaching over to Kit's head.
"OW!" Kit cried as Edna plucked a lock of hair from his scalp."What was that for?!"
"It's for a DNA analysis, dahling, so I can study your genetic makeup. It also allows me to create a demo clone of you. A fully mastered version of you, so you can see what you're capable of after you discover your powers. Now come, follow me."
"Ya could've just asked me…." Kit complained, rubbing his head as he followed Edna.
She led him into the dining room, where there was a long table with a whole buffet on it.
"Help yourself to whatever you like, while I study your DNA." Edna said as she walked along the dining room and into the next room, closing the door behind her. "...and design you a super suit…" she added under her breath, looking inspired.
Kit picked up a plate and got himself a small scoop of everything. He then sat down at a table and began to eat.
After he finished eating, the door slid open and Edna stood there in the doorway.
"It is finished." she announced.
Kit and Edna walked through her studio where she created fashionable clothes and costumes for superheroes. They both sat down into a pair of chairs with a table between them bearing a tea tray.
"Cream and sugar?" Edna offered him a cup of tea, and he accepted.
"Thank you," Kit said, taking a sip.
Then their seats rotated around and faced the huge window, as the panel behind the window lifted up to reveal a small empty room.
"We'll start with your new super suit that I made for you," Edna said as a door on the left side of the room opened and a pair of mechanical arms moved across the ceiling into the room, holding a tiny green, camouflage-styled baby size onesie. "Your suit is similar to your brother's, except I made yours camouflage instead of blue. The suit is skin tight, yet reasonably comfortable for sensitive skin, or in your case, itchy fur. It's completely elastic, able to stretch to any size." she said as the mechanical arms stretched the suit from baby size to a full grown adult size that would fit Baloo. Suddenly, the room was filled with fire. "Able to withstand a temperature of over one thousand degrees!" she said with a look of glee in her eyes, the blaze reflecting in her glasses.
Kit sat there, leaning back in his chair with a look of horror on his face, then he glanced over at Edna with a look that clearly said: 'Are you crazy?!'
The fire in the room died down and Edna continued with her presentation.
"Completely bulletproof... "
Two pairs of machine guns came down from the ceiling and opened fire on the suit. After a moment of shooting, the guns retreated back up into the ceiling, leaving the suit completely undamaged, not a single bullet hole on it.
"As you are a cloudsurfer who skies on the clouds at high speed, I had to add a feature normally reserved for speedster heroes." Edna continued. "Your suit will be able to withstand an enormous friction without heating up or wearing out."
"Wow," Kit said in awe. "This will really come in handy!"
Edna smiled with pride, proud at being able to wow Kit. "Notice the emblem on the chest?"
Kit narrowed his eyes as he looked closely, and he saw that the emblem was a round blue globe inside an upside-down red triangle, and a silhouette of himself on his airfoil within the globe with puffs of clouds underneath the silhouette.
"Yeah." Kit said.
"That is also a button that activates the invisibility mode," Edna said as a mechanical hand came down from the ceiling and pressed on the emblem and the suit vanished. "Great for spy work and espionage. Great for sneaking around without being seen. And a great tool for combat, enabling you to retreat and allowing you to take a short break to recover stamina."
"Wow, I've never seen anything like this!" Kit said excitedly. "You've really outdone yourself!"
"Not yet, dahling, not yet. There are still a few things I have yet to mention..." Edna said as two missile rockets appeared in the display room, aiming at the suit. "...it's virtually indestructible."
Kit watched in awe as the missiles fired themselves at the suit, each of them exploding on contact with the suit. When the smoke cleared, there stood the suit, looking completely undamaged.
"And on the back.." Edna pressed a button and the suit turned around to display its' back. There was a round disc-shape slot on the upper back between the shoulder blades. "...is a slot for your air board. It holds your board in place with a magnet"
"Oh wow, you've thought of everything, haven't you?" Kit said in amazement.
"Now for the footwear…" Edna said, as the platform under their table and chairs moved, rolling across the room to the next window, wherein was a pair of green camouflage shoes. "Normally I equip super suits with boots, but with you, I had to go with a pair of shoes instead, as boots would hinder your ankles' flexibility on a cloudsurf board."
"Airfoil." Kit corrected her.
"Yes, yes… whatever." Edna said dismissively. "When you tap the heels together, the shoes will lock together and form its own airfoil." The shoes tapped its' own heels and locked together, an airfoil popped out from the bottom of the shoes. "This is in case you lose your airfoil. The shoes also have rocket boosters to provide you with thrust in case you are surfing without an aircraft."
"Wow, these shoes are amazing!" Kit cried with a face that resembled a child on Christmas morning.
"And finally, the headwear." Edna said, pressing a button on a remote control, causing the shoes to move on into the next chamber and a green aviator hat and greenish brown goggles took its' place. "That is more helmet than hat, as it will protect your head from almost anything."
Kit watched as a fire engulfed the hat and it remained undamaged and unburnt. Then the hat was subjected to a hail of machine gun fire, followed by a couple of missile strikes. Nothing seemed to damage it.
"As you can see, the hat embodies all the same protection as the suit itself." Edna said. "It also has a gyro stabilizing pad inside the hat to protect you from concussions by an outside force. The lenses of the goggles allow to zoom in on an area from afar, essentially acting as a pair of binoculars. They also have a Detective Mode, allowing you to see people through walls as blue skeletons. And a thermal reader for foot tracking, allowing you to see glowing footprints on the ground where people had walked within the previous two hours, meaning that if you ever get lost, you can follow your own footprints back to places you've been. It's also good for tracking someone."
Kit was speechless at this point, gazing at the hat and goggles with utter amazement.
"And that concludes the suit's presentation," Edna said, "So... Do you like it?"
"Do l like it? DO I LIKE IT?!" Kit exclaimed, barely able to contain his excitement. "I LOVE IT! When can I try it on?!"
"All in good time, but first, let's discuss about your powers." Edna said, and the platform beneath their table and chairs moved to another window, behind which was—
"Hey! That's me!" Kit said as his lookalike stared blankly back at him.
"No, dahling, this is a demo clone of you, made from your DNA." Edna said. "Through this demo, I was able to learn all of your powers and design your suit accordingly. But know this, just because you know what your powers are, doesn't mean you can use them right away. You'll first need to learn how to tap into them and then learn how to use them through training."
"Aw, jeepers…" Kit said, disappointed.
"Now…" Edna said. "A person normally has three powers; a common power, a special power and an elemental power. If you're a mage or a wizard, you'd have four powers; common, special, elemental and magic. All of these powers are from the Heart. Your personality traits and your characteristics play a huge role in what kind of powers you'll have. Example; if you're a shy person, your special power would likely be invisibility, forceshield or both."
"What's the common power? Is that a power everyone have?" asked Kit interestedly.
"Yes, or a power most people have, which is usually telekinesis." Edna said, gesturing to the demo clone behind the glass in front of them.
Kit watched as a table with a glass of water on top of it rose up from the floor, and his clone made a gesture with his hand, causing the glass to lift up off the table and then fly around the room.
"As for your special power… well, I had to come up with a name for it and I called it Master of the Cloud." Edna continued. "This power gives you complete control of all clouds in the sky. You're basically the Cloud King with this power. That ought to be your superhero name."
"The Cloud King? I dunno, I like my name of Cloudkicker better." Kit said, looking as though he didn't think much of Cloud King.
"Superhero rule number one; never use your real name or anything associated with your secret identity once you've become a hero!" Edna scolded him. "Now watch."
Kit watched as the room in which his demo clone was in began to fill with its' own artificial clouds, and how the clone posed in a stance and stretched his hand towards a cloud and began to make the clouds move according to the movement of his hand.
The clone made the cloud swirl around the room and then he summoned the clouds to him, hiding himself in the clouds as they wrapped around his body like a cotton candy blanket.
Then, the clouds took on the exact same color and texture as the clone and then splitted into a dozen more Kit clones. After that, the clones merged back into one big cloud leaving only one clone. And with a swirl of his fingers, the clone made the cloud take the form of an ice cream swirl and then he made the clouds form a star, a snowman and finally he spelled his name, KIT CLOUDKICKER with the cloud in a form of skywriting.
"And for a demonstration of your elemental power…" Edna said, gesturing to the demo clone with her cigarette. "Your elemental power is… Aerokinesis, which is the power over the wind."
A dozen enemy dummies appeared in the tank with the demo clone, and Kit watched in awe as the demo clone jumped up before landing on its feet in a martial arts stance and then threw a couple of punches in a few different directions towards the dummies from where he stood, a few yards away from the dummies. A powerful force of wind shot from the demo clone's fist and blew all the dummies away, causing them to fly at the walls and crashing into them, as if they were hit with a F-five tornado-force wind.
Once all the demonstrations were over, the panel lid down over the window, hiding the demo clone from view.
For a moment, Kit sat there with a stunned look on his face.
"I...I can make clones of myself with the clouds?!" Kit said in amazement, looking at his hands. "AND shoot wind outta' my hands?! Oh man, I can't wait til I learn how to do that, and all the other cool stuff I'd be able to do that this demo clone showed me!" he then turned to Edna. "Thank you for everything, Miss Edna."
"Oh please, call me E, dahling." Edna said, she then handed him a shopping bag that contained his new super suit. "Here you are, on the house."
"Really? Oh gosh, thank you!" Kit said, hugging Edna.
"You're welcome," Edna said, hugging him back before she led him back to the front door. "And even if you don't become a Dedi, you'd still look fabulous and be protected in that super suit anyway." she said as she gestured Kit out the door. "Goodbye." she said, walking away.
And before Kit could say a word, the front door slammed shut in front of him.
Author's Note:
A paragraph in episode eleven has been altered, instead of Dewey crying that he never knew his Mom, it has been changed to imply that Della Duck has been with them at the D-Star for a whole year before she disappeared again. The paragraph now reads:
"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!"
Hope you like this change. But to find out why she went back to the moon for a mission, stay tuned for more!
Special thanks my editor, Cyclone Blaze.
