As the bears were forced aboard, Rebecca demanded to know, "Just what exactly are you planning on doing with us, now that you have us?"
Jack smiled and said, "You'll find out in due time."
Suddenly they heard an approaching. Looking out the door they saw a sedan speeding towards the docks, a wailing police car right behind.
"The police!" Jack growled. "Shut the door!"
Tossing Molly rather carelessly aside, Nigel turned and pulled the door shut with a clank.
Jack handed his tommygun to the large thug, telling him, "Watch them closely." With that he shoved Rebecca to fall alongside her daughter. "Mr. Baloo," he said, turning to the grey bear, "the cockpit, if you please."
He gestured. Baloo glared at him, but the muzzle of Sparky's gun made him reconsider and he walked into the cockpit where he was untied. At Jack's direction he started the engines up. Jack, grinning, slid into the co-pilot's seat.
Outside, Detective Thrusday's sedan, with Wildcat and Kit riding shotgun and Ernie and the gang crammed into the backseat, careened wildly towards the docks. They could see the Sea Duck's propeller's revving up, sputtering and spewing sparks, before finally turning over and spinning powerfully.
"They're getting away!" cried Kit as he watched the yellow plane beginning to pull away the docks. The two cars slid to a halt alongside the ruins of Higher For Hire, and everyone piled out. Officers Gertalin and Malarky got out of the other car, and aimed their revolvers at the retreating plane.
"No!" cried Thursday. "You might hit the fuel tanks!"
The two officers grunted but didn't fire.
"Now what do we do...?" Ernie wondered aloud.
"We follow them!" Kit declared, even as the Sea Duck lifted off from the surface of the water and took to the air. "We can't let him get away!"
"How?" asked Humphrey the hippo.
Thursday snapped his fingers. "I got it!" So saying, he turned and ran back to the cars. "Well don't just stand there, come on!" he yelled.
Less than ten minutes later, the police department's harbor patrol plane was airborne and zooming along towards the canyon that marked Cape Suzette's sole entrance to the open ocean, into which the Sea Duck had already disappeared. Aboard were Kit, Wildcat, Detective Thursday and the kids.
"Can we catch 'em?" Kit asked worriedly, peering over the pilot's shoulder.
"Provided this thing goes fast enough!" the pilot said.
"And if we can get 'im before he hits international waters," added Thursday.
"What?" Kit said, turning.
Thursday looked solemn. "That's right, kid," he said. "Once that plane hits open ocean our jurisdiction ends. We won't legally be able to chase after Case anymore."
Kit gripped the back of the pilot's seat a bit tighter, praying silently that they caught up to the Sea Duck in time. The police plane flew nimbly through the narrow canyon before shooting out the other side, and there was nothing but open ocean as far as they could sea, except for...
"There, at twelve o'clock!" cried the pilot, pointing.
Kit squinted. It was the Sea Duck! They were still within reach! And what's more, the police plane was gaining rapidly. Kit was suddenly thankful Wildcat hadn't given the engines any proper tuneups in a while.
"I don't like this," Thursday said. "Once he notices we're gainin' on 'im, who knows what he'll do to the hostages...?"
"Well, why don't we surprise him?" the pilot suggested. "I could use those cloud banks as cover and get over 'im before he even noticed what was goin' on."
"Do it!" Kit and Thursday said together.
The plane flew higher and into the clouds. Kit left the cockpit and went to the window, where he, Ernie and the other kids all peered out the window. At first there was nothing but puffy white clouds obscuring everything, then, occasionally, they caught fleeting glimpses of the Sea Duck about twenty feet below.
"Everybody hang on," the pilot said. "I'm gonna try an' see if I can force 'im into a water landing!"
He dipped the stick forwards, sending the plane into a slow descent.
In the Sea Duck, Baloo grudgingly flew the plane along. He occasionally glared at Jack, who was reclining comfortably in the seat beside him, smug in the presence of the gun-toting Sparky who hovered threateningly over Baloo the entire time. Every so often the rabbit would annoy the bear by randomly pushing buttons on the control panel, sneering, "What does this one do, huh? How 'bout this one?"
"Quit it!" Baloo snarled, slapping Jack's hand away as he had five years before. He suddenly got Sparkly's tommygun shoved in his face. Although scared at first, he soon mustered his courage, realizing there was no way these idiots would be dumb enough to kill him. Using this to his advantage, he said, "Look, Case, you want me to fly this thing, right?"
"Uh-huh," Jack replied, indifferently.
"Well, why don't you let me do my job without annoyin' me?" Baloo said. "And tell your big stupid goon to back off, too! I might just lose my nerve and send us spirallin' down into Davy Jones' locker."
Jack frowned, but nodded to Sparky who lowered the gun. Baloo relaxed a little.
"Where're we goin' anyway?" he finally asked. "And don't gimme any of that 'hush-hush' crap, neither!"
The rabbit smirked. "Thembria, as before."
"Thembria?! What for--oh wait a minute, I get it..." Baloo trailed off, glaring at Jack.
"Get what?"
"You wanna take me and Becky and frame us for some kinda crime over there and get us stuck in Bedevilled Island Prison, right?"
Jack clapped. "On the button!"
"You're a bit late for that!" Baloo snapped.
"Oh, I know all about your time spent there, and how you helped Professor Crackpotkin try to destroy Thembria's gruel reserves," Jack said. He jabbed a finger into Baloo's arm. "Colonel Slammer has quite a big reward for your capture. You can consider Rebecca a....bonus."
Baloo would've punched him right then and there, goon or no goon, but they were all suddenly jostled by a reverberating thump that shook the entire plane. Baloo gripped the stick tightly, while Jack was pitched forwards, Sparky grabbing the back of the pilot's seat.
"They're usin' artillery on us!" cried Nigel from in back, where he was guarding the tied-up Rebecca and Molly.
"Don't be stupid, moron!" Sparky said. "We're too far from the cliff guns."
"Quiet!" Jack commanded. "Listen!"
Everyone did so. Baloo was the first to hear it, a muffled noise coming from above them. Plane engines. He, Jack and Sparky turned and looked out the right-hand side of the cockpit and upwards to see a slim plane that said Cape Suzette PD on the side of it; the side door was open and Detective Thursday, holding onto hid fedora, was yelling through a megaphone.
"This is the Cape Suzette Police Department!" he bellowed. "Turn your craft around and fly back with us to the city, or we're gonna force you down!"
"He means it," Baloo said, hoping the threat of the intimidating Thursday would make Jack back down. No such luck.
"Lose them!" Jack said.
"What?!" cried Baloo.
"I said lose them!" snarled Jack, and leaned over, grabbing the wheel himself and pulling it back. Everyone aboard cried out as the Sea Duck suddenly climbed.
"No, that's up!" Baloo yelled.
In the police plane Thursday watched wide-eyed as the yellow seaplane flew up towards them. "Hang onto somethin'!" he cried.
The collision cracked the windshield of the Sea Duck's cockpit and crumpled the roof, and sent the police plane spiralling out of control. The pilot struggled to regain control but couldn't, and smacked his head against the window, knocking himself out. Kit slid into the cockpit as the plane dipped down and started for the ocean. Seeing they were about to crash he had a moment of panic before remembering Throgmorton's flight school. Unable to unbuckle the unconscious pilot quickly enough, Kit simply sat in his lap and grabbed the wheel, and, grunting, pulled back on the stick, pulling the small plane out of its deadly dive moments before it struck the water!
Once they had climbed to a safe altitude again, Kit breathed a sigh of relief. Thursday, pantng, clapped a hand on his shoulder. "That was pretty impressive, kiddo!" he said.
"Yeah, way to go, Kit!" cheered Ernie and the kids.
"I'll take over over, Thursday said, getting into the co-pilot's seat and switching the controls over. As Kit looked worriedly at the pilot, the detective said, "He'll be all right, don't worry. But we're not outta the woods yet. Case is gettin' closer to international waters and unless we can catch 'im before then..."
Kit wasn't paying attention anymore. Instead he went to the door, which was still open, and looked out. The Sea Duck flew along nearby, maybe ten feet below. The other boys watched him a bit worriedly. "Kit, what're you doin'?" asked Ernie.
Suddenly seeming to intuit was Kit was thinking, Skip cried, "No, Kit, don't!"
But Kit had already made up his mind. He wasn't going to let this lunatic rabbit take away his family. He was tired of being trampled on by people who thought they could push him around just because they were bigger or meaner than him. So before any of the other boys could stop him, he unfurled his airfoil and leaped out of the plane.
This was the easy part. He'd done this hundreds of times when he was younger. His feet touched the foil and he surfed the airstream down towards the Sea Duck, landing hard on the roof with a grunt. He almost slid off, but managed to dig his fingers into one of the indentations caused by the crumpling of the rooftop. The airfoil however flew away, as did his baseball cap. He tried to grab it, but it slipped from his fingers and went fluttering away. He looked up to see the police plane still above them keeping pace with the Sea Duck.
Now came the hard part. Namely, getting inside. Hearing a loud clank, he looked over and saw the smaller goon, which wasn't saying much, Sparky, appear over the side of the plane. He glared at Kit as his fedora flew off, the hoisted himself up onto the top of the plane. Kit gulped. He was wrong. This was going to be the hard part.
He stood, shaky from the impact of his landing. Sparky came at him, swinging his massive arms. Kit ducked under them. If he'd learned anything from his years of going up against huge muscleheads like this, it's that while they were big and strong, they tended to be slow and clumsy. Sparky was shaping up to be no exception. The huge goon stumbled, then turned, and swung his fist, clocking Kit in the jaw.
And sometimes, Kit knew, they got lucky. He staggered back and fell down onto the nose of the plane, grabbing hold of the windshield frame. Through the cracked glass he saw the shocked faces of his Papa Bear and that rat of a rabbit, Jack Case. Then a foot slammed onto his fingers and he screamed in pain. Sparky laughed as he frounded his heel into the boy's fingers, threatening to break them...and his life-supporting hold on the plane.
But Baloo came to his Little Britches' rescue. While Jack was busy watching out the windshield he suddenly turned the stick to the right sharply. Inside, Rebecca and Molly cried out, as did Nigel who was flung hard against the wall with a loud bang. Outside, Kit almost flew off, but kept his hold, while Sparky, with a yelp, stumbled back and landed on his back. Kit climbed back up, but so did Sparky, and the huge goon took advantage of the boy's disorientation to seize him by the front of his sweater and fling him right off the roof!
Kit's life was saved by the plane wing, which he banged into, hard. Even as he was getting up, the wing shook from the impact of Sparky jumping down onto it. He glared at Kit, necktie fluttering. This fight wasn't over yet. Kit, his short hair whipping about in the wind, did his best to defend against the canine twice his size as the two grappled, Sparky seized Kit's throat and shoved his head towards the spinning propeller.
"End of the line, kid!" Sparky snarled.
This was it, Kit thought. Kill or be killed. Get his head chopped into paste and leave Papa Bear and the others at the mercy of guys with no qualms about murder....or do whatever it took to save them.
He chose the latter. Sparky was surprised at the sudden strength the boy found, and with a lunging motion Kit pushed the goon back, and off the wing. Sparky yelped, grabbed at Kit, missed and proceeded to go spinning off into the air with a short cry, disappearing from sight through the clouds.
Kit was struck speechless. He'd never killed anyone before. Not even in self-defense. He felt cold. And angry. Angry at himself, and angry at Jack Case for putting him in a situation where he'd been forced to take a life in order to defend himself. With renewed determination to put an end to whatever it was that lunatic rabbit was planning, the young bear mustered his courage and strength and climbed back on top of the plane, and began making his way towards the opposite side, where he knew Sparky had left the door hanging open.
Jack shifted uneasily in his seat. Although they heard a lot of thumping and bumping out there, it wasn't clear who was winning. However considering that Sparky was a massive musclebound mercenary and Cloudkicker a lanky teenaged schoolboy, it was a pretty one-sided fight no doubt. Still there was always the slight chance the kid could beat Sparky.
Sitting beside him, Baloo was also shifting uneasily. He was deeply worried about Kit. How had he even gotten on the Sea Duck? What was he even doing on that police plane in the first place? The father in him was simultaneously worried for Little Britches' safety, and angry that Kit had put himself into so much danger, especially when their enemies this time were so formiddable. Although they were basically just guys with guns, they weren't the perpetually incompetent buffoons like the ones in Karnage's crew. Jack was severely unhinged mentally and bent on revenge, and that made him dangerous.
In back, Nigel was recovering from the blow he'd taken from being flung against the wall, and he staggered a bit, tommygun in hand, and went to the door, which was still open.
"Sparky?" he called.
Suddenly a small figure swung in: Cloudkicker.
"What the--?!" cried Nigel in alarm, making both Jack and Baloo turn in their seats.
"Kit!" Molly cried jubiliantly.
Kit was panting, glowering, looking angrier than Baloo had ever seen him. He looked close to tears. Considering there was no sign of Sparky, Baloo had a pretty good idea that Kit had had to do something severe in order to save himself. They'd have to have a long talk when all this was over. If they even made it out alive.
And for a split second it looked like they weren't going to. Nigel raised the tommygun and fired. Kit however leapt to one side; the bullets came so close he felt them whizz past his ears. He ducked and did a somersault as the goon spun and kept firing, perforating the metal deck plates. Molly screamed and clung to Rebecca who was trying to think of something to do.
Kit's roll took him to the cockpit door, where, as he stood, he was suddenly clubbed over the head by the butt of Jack's revolver, and he fell to his knees.
"All right that's enough!" Jack roared, grabbing Kit by the collar of his sweater and hauling the dazed boy to his feet. He pushed the barrel of the gun against Kit's temple. "Enough! Now, we're almost in internation waters, and by tonight we'll be at Bedevilled Island with any luck. Now any more funny business, and I swear I'll--"
"You'll what, Jack?" Rebecca asked, cutting him off. "Murder an innocent boy? Just to get some petty revenge for a situation you got yourself in!"
For a moment Jack looked, and felt, uncertain. Deep down he doubted he had it in him to kill anyone, but part of him felt as though he'd come too far. He had only one goon to protect him now, and if anything happened to Nigel, he was finished. Even if he made good on his threat, the others would overpower him and probably throw him out. He was finally beginning to see what a bad idea all this was, and wishing he'd brought more goons.
"I..." he trailed off. His hand shook.
Baloo realized that now might be the only time to do anything to save himself, Kit and the others. Taking a deep breath, he turned the steering wheel hard to the right. Jack, still holding onto Kit, yelled and flew sideways crashing into the doorframe of the cockpit. He released the dazed Kit who fell facefirst on the floor. At the same time, Baloo put the Sea Duck on autopilot as fast as he could, got out of his seat, and tackled Jack with his full body weight, throwing him to the floor. The revolver flew out of his hand and went sliding across the floor.
Nigel managed to keep his balance and glowered, aiming the tommygun at both of them and preparing to fire, apparently fed up with the whole affair. Rebecca jumped up. Nigel spun towards her, blinking in surprise. Still tied up she flung herself at the massive goon and crashed into him.
"Mommy!" Molly yelled.
Rebecca felled sideways with a grunt, while Nigel fell backwards out the open door with a shrill scream that faded away rapidly.
"Molly," Rebecca said, "come and untie Mommy, hurry!"
It was fortunate Jack and his goons hadn't thought to tie Molly up at all. With her hands free she was able to begin undoing the ropes that bound her mother.
Meanwhile Jack and Baloo still struggled. Baloo being so much bigger meant the rabbit was hopelessly outclassed. Baloo hauled Jack to his feet, and punched him so hard he went spinning away and crashed to the floor alongside Rebecca and Molly. Baloo ignored him for now and stooped down to inspect Kit. He was alive, and conscious, just stunned. Baloo very gently shook him.
"Kit? Kit, are you all right?" he said.
"Y-Yeah," the teenaged bear cub replied, sitting up. "My head hurts, though."
Baloo hugged him tightly, then turned and glared at Jack who was sitting up, dizzy. He rose and stomped towards him, but he was beaten there by Rebecca who, untied, seized the rabbit by the lapels of his jacket and dragged him to his feet.
"You sleazy piece of filth!" she spat, shaking him. "How dare you burn down MY business, threaten MY daughter, and think you can get away with it?!"
She swung him around so he was half in, half out of the open door.
"I ought to drop you," she hissed. "Send you to join your two friends in swimming home!"
Jack's eyes bulged with terror. He'd never been more terrified before in his life than he was now being held out of this plane by this woman. "No!" he managed to squeal, even though he didn't actually expect any mercy. "Please, don't!"
Baloo was looking a little worried. The most he wanted to do was rough the guy up. Knocking the other two out to their deaths in the heat of the moment was one thing, but deliberately dropping someone out of a plane didn't sit well at all with him. He put a calming hand on Rebecca's shoulder, as he had the last time she held Jack like this, in Thembria.
"Becky," he said, "don't."
Rebecca turned and looked at him, then back at Jack who whimpered. "Oh stop it," she sneered. "I said I ought to. Not that I was going to. What kind of person do you think I am?"
With that she pulled Jack back inside and flung him against the far wall. He groaned and slid down into an unconscious heap.
Then, she turned and she hugged Baloo, tight, as he reached over and pulled the plane door shut and locked it. A moment later the two of them went to check on Kit who was sitting up and rubbing his head.
"You okay, Little Britches?" Baloo asked softly.
"Yeah, I think so," he replied. "I think I'm gonna have a goose-egg for a month, though."
"That was a darn stupid thing you did, jumpin' on top of the plane like that!" Baloo snapped. "You coulda been killed!"
After a second his voice softened and he said, "But I'm glad you're okay. You probably saved all of us from a stint in Bedevilled Island Maximum Prison. Which is where we ought drop him off first thing before we head home, seein' as how we're on the way there now, anyway." He jerked his thumb at Jack.
"Are you nuts?!" Kit said suddenly. "This whole thing started because he blamed you guys for him ending up there."
"Kit's right," Rebecca said with a sigh. "I don't want to have to go through this again." She hugged Molly close to herself. "We'll hand him over to Detective Thursday when we get back to Cape Suzette. Not to the Thembrians again."
An hour later the Sea Duck pulled up to the dock in front of what used to be Higher For Hire. Awaiting them were Thursday and his men, plus Wildcat, Ernie and the other kids. Baloo emerge first, holding a dazed Jack Case by the back of his suit. He thrust him at Thursday.
"I believe this is yours," he said with a chuckle.
"Jack Case, you're under arrest for arson, kidnapping, theft of a plane, and...well, that's really about it," Thursday said, shoving Jack into the waiting arms of Gertalin and Malarky, who quickly handcuffed him.
Gertalin cleared his throat loudly.
"Oh, right, and assaulting an officer of the law," Thursday added.
Jack sank in defeat. "Whatever," he mumbled. "Just take me away and lock me up. Any jail is better than Bedevilled Island again."
Thursday nodded and the two police officers escorted Jack to the waiting patrol car. Once he was secure in the backseat, Thursday turned back to Baloo as the rest of the gang emerged from the Sea Duck. He smiled at Kit.
"That was some quick thinkin' ya did back there, kiddo," he said.
"It was nothin'," Kit said shyly.
"Nonsense. Not only did you save Baloo and Miss Cunningham and her daughter, you saved us, too."
"Huh? How'd he do that?" asked Baloo.
"Oh," said Thursday, "when your plane hit ours were kind of flew out of control and our pilot got knocked out. Kit here is the one who took the controls and got us flyin' right. He's a hero."
Baloo smiled and patted Kit on the head. "Well, that settles it, Little Britches," he said. "First thing tomorrow, you're goin' back to Throgmorton's flyin' school and gettin' your pilot's license!"
"Aw, who cares about that stuff," Ernie said. He made fists and shadow-boxed. "Tell us how you beat up those two huge guys!"
Kit suddenly looked guilty. Baloo sighed and put an arm around his boy, steering him away from the crowd. As he did so, Molly smacked Ernie, who yelped.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
Away from everyone else, Baloo knelt down in front of Kit. "Now, I didn't see what happened up there, Little Britches, but...if what I think happened is what happened....you and I have got some talkin' to do."
Kit nodded, and hugged the big bear he had come to know as his father. It was going to take a lot of work to fix what had happened over the past day. Their home had been burned to ground, and Kit had done something he never would have otherwise, but together, they'd get through it, he knew, as a family. To say it aloud would've sounded cliched and prtentious, but it was true, and Kit was grateful that Baloo thought the same, so nothing need be said between the two, at least not tonight.
The End
