While everyone was asleep and the lights were out inside the ComVee, I gathered up a few things and put them in my backpack, when a voice said. "You know you're gonna get in trouble for this, right?"

I turned to see Debbie standing by the door.

"Well, I don't have a choice." I said. "I'm not gonna sit here and let Scar take what's left of the Pride Lands. If we wait for Jomo to come back now, it'll be too late."

"Fine. Go find this so-called Lion King for all I care." Debbie said, making way for me to get to the door. "But if those hyenas catch you, don't come crying to me."

Knowing there was no time to argue, I just rolled my eyes and said. "Come on, Dar. Let's go."

Darwin and I hadn't gone far when Debbie called out. "Hey!"

But as I turned to her, she just said. "Be careful."

I gave her a nod, then we pressed on.

"Do you really think she'll keep this a secret?" asked Darwin.

"As long as Debbie doesn't tell," I assured. "There should be no worries."

Suddenly, Darwin felt the ground crumble under his feet, followed by a voice that said. "Hey, hey, hey. Move your feet, honey!"

Darwin stepped back and saw that it was a lady meerkat. With her was the one we met earlier today.

"You again?"

"Oh, I see you already met Uncle Max." said the lady meerkat.

"I still say you're nuts being out here." frowned Uncle Max.

"I know, I know. But what choice do we have?" I said. "Scar needs to be stopped. And the only one who can do that is Simba, the real Lion King. Can you help us find him?"

Uncle Max let out a big...

"HA! You are beyond nuts if you think..."

"We'd be happy to help." said the lady meerkat, who covered Uncle Max's mouth. "Right, Max?"

Once she removed her hand from his mouth, Uncle Max sighed reluctantly. "All right, all right. We'll take you where you want to go. But once we get there, your two are on your own."

"Oh, we'll manage." said Darwin as he and I followed the meerkats, unaware that three certain hyenas were watching us.

Upon arriving at the gorge, where the two meerkats led us, Darwin looked around.

"So I suppose this was when the scene of the crime took place, huh?" he asked.

"You better believe it, Chimpy." said Uncle Max as we stopped in front of a huge gully.

"Did he really climb all the way up there?" I asked.

"Yep," said Uncle Max. "And now that we've taken you this far...we're getting outta here before we become midnight snacks."

As Uncle Max started to dig through the ground, the lady meerkat said. "And if you see Timon, tell him his Ma misses him."

As the two meerkats disappeared through the hole Uncle Max dug, Darwin and I stared at the gully some more.

"Well, we came this far." I said. "Might as well keep going."

"Uh, you know what?" said Darwin. "I just realized I'm not a big fan of climbing. So I guess I'll head back and..."

But as he turned around, Darwin could see Shenzi, Banzai and Ed walking towards us.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you?" Shenzi asked with a sneer.

Upon seeing the hyenas, Darwin chuckled nervously. "On second thought..."

He let out a screech as he and I climbed up the wall.

But when we got to the top, we saw that there was a sheer drop on the other side.

"We're gonna have to jump for it!" I said.

"Do we have any other..."

Before Darwin could finish, I pushed him off the cliff, then tumbled after him while the hyenas chased after us all the way down to a patch of thorns, which Darwin and I crawled through.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Banzai when he saw that they were running towards the patch.

He managed to stop just above the thorns, but as Banzai sighed with relief, Shenzi and Ed bumped into him.

Having been propelled into the thorn patch, Banzai howled in pain as Shenzi and Ed laughed.

As Banzai climbed out of there, Shenzi noticed me and Darwin running from the far side of the patch into the desert.

"Hey, there they go! There they go!"

"So go get 'em!" said Banzai, who was busy removing his thorns.

"There ain't no way I'm going in there." said Shenzi as she looked down at the patch. "What, you want me to come out looking like you...Cactus Butt?"

Banzai spit some of the thorns into Ed's nose, then said. "But we gotta finish the job."

"Well, they's as good as dead out there anyway." Shenzi said as she watched me and Darwin running farther away. "And if they come back, we'll kill 'em."

"Yeah! You hear that?!" Banzai called out. "If you ever come back, we'll kill ya!"

Despite hearing what he said, that wasn't going to stop me from finding Simba as Darwin and I kept going into the night...