As Matthew sat inside his bedroom, he couldn't help but feel guilty that he let his alter ego take over. Mad Dog had killed Dolan, and then didn't seem to care, but now Matthew was back and he did care. Still, he was happy that his mother was free.
Now it was the time to take action. Matthew quickly departed from his room and hurried to the radio room. "Time for the spy to do his job," he smirked, turning the keys to match his code.
In Cape Suzette, at a safe house deep in the woods, Agent Thursday was busy talking to Princess Lotta. The young princess was willing to answer all his questions, just then, an officer came running in.
"We got another message from Matthew!" he smiled. The agent and princess both turned their heads and smiled.
"When does he think he can hand over Karnage?" Thursday asked, grabbing the message from the officer.
"Did he say anything about if Karnage is still looking for me?" Lotta asked getting out of her seat.
After looking over the decoded message, Thursday was disappointed. What he read crushed his dreams of taking Karnage down.
"Well?" Lotta asked. "What did he say?"
Detective Thursday looked at her, crumpled the message and threw it the trash. "He said: Unable to get Karnage to drop any new plans on me. No sign so far of child recruitment, but will keep in touch. Karnage still wants the royals, will contact you with more." He quoted the whole message from top to bottom.
Lotta looked out the window of the safe house. I hope that Matthew can help us. she thought to herself with a sigh.
Meanwhile, at Louie's place...
"Good grief, Baloo-why haven't told Kit and Molly about Rebecca having your baby?" Louie asked handing Baloo an ice cold beer. Baloo looked down at his drink.
"That's the trouble, Louie-I not not sure when I should tell them."
Louie had never seen Baloo so stressed out, but then, not many people could handle the stress of raising three kids.
"Louie? Can you do me a favor?" Baloo asked, as sweat ran down his back. He gave Louie the biggest, desperate smile he could muster.
"Sure thing cuz-you name it!" he replied, giving Baloo a slap on the back.
But sitting next to Baloo was Will. Baloo and Louie had no idea it was him, and the pirate listened in on their little talk. But there was another who was listening in as well-one of Shere Khan's oldest friends/business partners.
In the penthouse suite high atop the Khan Industries building, Shere Khan was tending to his garden with care. There were three things he loved most of all: Money, power and his garden. Now the old tiger took up gardening when his late wife of twenty years passed on.
As he carefully clipped off some dead leafs from some of his fly traps. The elevator door to his his suite slid open with a loud ding. Khan's yes-man hurried over to him, but he didn't bother to look up from his garden. He said only one word, "Speak."
His yes-man's teeth where chattering, his body began to shiver and sweat ran down his back. "Sir, I'm sorry, but we couldn't stop him coming up here," he said fearfully.
Khan stopped what he was doing. He slowly removed his gloves and raised his brow with interest. "Who could you not stop?" he asked, but there walking out of the elevator was a sharp dressed tiger Khan knew all too well.
With a smile, Shere Khan greeted his old friend. "Here you are with NO appointment, not even a phone call," he said, the other tiger only shrugged. "You charm your way past my guards, waltz into my suite unannounced-"
"As usual-eh, old friend?" the other tiger laughed, shaking hands with Khan.
"Yes," Khan nodded. "And I am, as usual, most honored." There was a brief silence before Shere Khan took his seat. "So, Daryl-what brings you to Cape Suzette?"
Daryl took his seat. It was nice that Khan was still into black cotton chairs, so it wouldn't ruin his suit. "I have a favor to ask." he said. Shere Khan knew knew Daryl as one to ask a favor of him, but what ever he needed, it must be very important. "I need you to tell me about a local pilot named Baloo..."
Meanwhile at Pirate Island, Karnage was watching his men work hard. He was eager to return to Cape Suzette to find the royals, but he had-and I mean-had no idea where they were hiding. It would be very hard to sneak back through the channel past the cliff guns again. But being a feared captain of the skies made Karnage feel he could pull it off. Just then...
"Captain!" Will shouted, jumping over his fellow crew members and their work. Karnage turned to his third-in-command.
"What is it?" he spat, turning back to watch his men work themselves to death.
Will cleared his throat and straightened up. "I just found out that Baloo's wife is with child." Karnage didn't turn around, but his ear twitched a bit.
"Did my ears hear you good?" the captain asked. Oh, he did hear Will, and now he was smiling. "Yes, I did hear you say that."
Karnage looked down at his crew and shouted, "Mad Dog! Your tail up here!"
Mad Dog dropped what he was doing and hurried to see what his captain wanted. When he reached his captain, sweat was running down his back. "You...wanted to see me, Captain?" he panted. Karnage nodded, his teeth was visible in a dark smile.
"Mad Dog, I want you to take Dumptruck and Gibber to Cape Suzette, go to Higher for Hire, talk to Baloo's wife and..." he paused and pulled out his sword. "And gain her trust as Matthew."
Matthew could already tell that his captain was evolving a plan to find the royals, but, would it involve putting Rebecca in danger? He hoped not.
"Then you will lie and say that Dumptruck and Gibber have turned against me, and make her think that they are trying to help you stop me. She is the key of finding the royals for me, and when you learn where they are-report it to me."
This might turn out to be my chance to stop Karnage. Matthew thought to himself with a smile. The young weasel hurried off to inform Dumptruck and Gibber about their captain's plan, and they took it pretty well. In fact, Dumptruck and Gibber were glad to know they would be getting off of Pirate Island. They just hoped that getting into Cape Suzette would be the easy part.
Later that day, the cliff gunners were doing nothing but standing around. There had been no sign of any pirates near by, but they still kept a sharp look out. As a lone guard looked through his spy-glass, he spotted three planes coming toward them, then, the Iron Vulture came out from behind some clouds.
"The Iron Vulture is COMING!" the guard shouted, and just like clock work the cliff gunners readied themselves for battle.
As Dumptruck, Mad Dog, and Gibber drew closer to the cliffs, they got ready for Karnage to start firing the Vulture's cannons. From the cliffs, the gunners saw the massive air ship start firing at the three smaller planes. "Why are they being shot at?" one gunner asked.
"I don't know," another one said. "Could be Karnage has finally gone off his nut."
As the gunners talked among themselves, Detective Thursday quickly informed them that Matthew Dogsdon had notified him about Karnage's secret plan to implant Dumptruck and Gibber as spies for him. Then the gunners opened fire at the Iron Vulture, deliberately missing the smaller planes. Thursday picked up the radio and tried to make contact with Matthew.
"Matthew, this is Detective Thursday, do you read me?" Thursday heard nothing but static, so he tried again. "This is Detective Thursday, please picked up!"
But the only thing that came through the radio's receiver was static.
But then he heard a voice, a very distant-sounding voice, fighting its way through the crackling noise. "Nice of you Thursday to welcome us. Hope we didn't come in at a bad time.
Detective Thursday welcomed the characteristic cynicism in Matthew's voice. He switched his radio over to the Cape Suzette Police Department. "Echo One, this is Detective Thursday," he reported, his voice suddenly rising in pitch. "The rat has returned to the hole."
Within minutes, Matthew, Dumptruck and Gibber landed outside the Police station. While Matthew was put inside a interrogation room, Dumptruck and Gibber were locked up in a nice warm jail cell.
"Well, this is a fine pot of fish," Dumptruck sighed, pacing around the cell. Gibber looked around the cell, it was bigger then their room on board the Vulture, a little warmer, but still just as dirty. But at least the beds weren't like rock.
"Better keep yourself quiet, Dumptruck," Gibber warned, giving the Great Dane a friendly smile. "or the guards might beat you."
"Let them try," Dumptruck scoffed. He had reason to fear the guards, because if Mad Dog could make the police believe that they were turning against Karnage, then, by God's good will they would be out of here. The sound of a metal door banging against the wall got the two pirates attention. They turned to see Baloo walk in with Mad Dog at his side.
Baloo had been told by Matthew about the plan, as well as the police, but he still felt uncomfortable about his plan. "Alright, you two will be staying with Mad Dog at Higher for Hire. My wife, Rebecca will be your new boss," he said, but then gave them a warning. "But if any one of you steps out of line and my family gets hurt, I'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish."
Dumptruck and Gibber knew that Baloo had been in the army and fought in the great war, so it would be wise to not make Baloo angry. After all, he had almost killed their captain—if not for Kit stopping him, not out of mercy, but to keep his father from becoming a killer.
That night, Dumptruck, Mad Dog and Gibber were marched into the Bruinwald's family dining room. The three pirates sat around a well tidy table, a wonderful meal was set before them and in the kitchen, they heard Rebecca arguing with Baloo.
"Why should we let Matthew's two crew members join Higher for Hire?" she asked. Baloo never liked to have these talks with her, but it was something that all families went through. He slowly placed a kiss on his wife's forehead and smiled.
"Because I think if Dumptruck and Gibber are shown kindness, then, they too might change, just like Matthew," Baloo said, but Rebecca didn't seem to understand the whole thing.
So, she tried to bring up some past advents to help him remember how bad they were. "Baloo, do you remember that Kit was held captive more than once?" she asked, putting pressure on Baloo, but he was waiting for this. "Honey, I know that they have been known to do bad things, but Matthew gave me his word that he would keep an eye on them."
Now Rebecca trusted Matthew, but still was a little nervous with him once being one of Karnage's crew. Sure he had helped Kit recover after the awful beatings Karnage gave him. And he did save Jenna's life. So maybe it was wise to take his word. After all, Matthew had informed Baloo about the captain's plan to use him and the others as spies to find the royals. Taking a deep breath she looked her husband in the eye.
"Alright, Baloo." she shrugged. "I will let them work for us."
As the Bruinwald family ate supper with Matthew and his crew, they all couldn't help but smile at the awkwardness that supper had. The pirates were once enemies to Baloo's family, but now they where being treated like family. Molly seemed to be smiling at Dumptruck who didn't know if he should smile back or just eat his supper.
Rebecca seemed to show some kind of connection with Gibber, but he just sat there with his mouth so stuffed with food that he couldn't talk.
Kit and Baloo were bonding with Matthew again, after all they had been through, the three of them were glad to be away from Karnage.
It was strange for Dumptruck and Gibber to be shown such kindness from the Bruinwald's, even after all the terrible things they did. The supper went by and soon all the food was gone. After the table was clean, Rebecca had Baloo lead the pirates down to the office where they would be sleeping. The bedroom at the office was the same one Baloo and Kit shared when they first started working for Higher for Hire. There were only two beds, so Matthew volunteered to sleep on the army cot Baloo set up.
When the Matthew and his friends were set up Baloo turned to leave. "Hold it, Baloo," Dumptruck said, stopping him in his place. Baloo turned to face him.
"Yes, Dumptruck?" he asked with a gentle smile.
Dumptruck looked the bear in the eyes and said, "Thank you for being nice to use. I don't ever remember someone showing us kindness like you and your family has."
"You are welcome," Baloo said, as he turned and walked out of the bedroom.
Soon, Dumptruck and Gibber fell fast asleep, but Matthew stayed awake to pray. He got down on his knees and looked out the window and began to pray. "Dear God, let this day mark the beginning of Dumptruck and Gibber's first day of freedom from Karnage. Give us the rest we need and let your hold spirit work in their hearts. Leads with a strong but gentle hand and give me the courage to bring Karnage to justice. Forgive us of the sins we have done and let your will be done, as it is in heaven as it will be done on earth. Amen." After the pray, Matthew crawled back into his cot and drifted off to sleep.