Princess Fantasy D X-2
A/N: I have never been inspired enough to write stories about any fanart before, until I saw the work of deviantart artist Skirtzzz, specifically her Final Fantasy Disney Dressphere series. With her blessing, this will be the first of a series of final scene rewrites, using the powers of the dresspheres to possibly change the script, or failing that, make the scene worthy of a Final Fantasy series. Replicating the feel for such an incredible franchise will be a challenge, but I swear I'll do my best!
If you haven't seen any of the movies or their endings, this could be a little spoilerific, but if you have or don't mind, hang on for the ride!
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
The Wildwoman of Wisdom
The steel brig of the steamship was dark, dank, and none too welcoming, and the only light present was from between the steel grate that kept them all in. Rusty chains swung from the ceiling, and hisses came from the steel pipes that lined the walls behind numerous boxes and barrels that were lashed to the wall.
But right now, all Jane Porter, her father, Archimedes Q. Porter, and the captain and crew of the steamship could do was listen in despair to the commotion above deck. Jane's heart wrenched with remorse when she heard Tarzan's agonized yell of outright betrayal.
"Come on, come on! Daylight's fading!" That remorse quickly changed to abject fury when she heard the poisonous words of their ex-companion, the hunter John Clayton, drift down to them from above. His whole purpose of this trip was to find the gorilla band, hunt them down, and sell them to God-knows-who for God-knows-what. Jane almost broke down in frustration at the thought of being so helpless to stop him, especially for Tarzan's family's sake.
"Crowe? Crowe! Where are you, for the Queen's sake; we've got cages to load!" Clayton sounded incredibly frustrated.
"huff… sorry guv'ner, just… pant… bringing along some trinkets I found while… wheeze… wandering through the jungle yesterday!" a rather ragged voice spoke up. "Rather nice ones too… glad you took so long… me and the boys had a cracking good time in there…"
"You're just lucky you dolts didn't run into me on your little gander!" Clayton snapped. "Just throw that junk into the brig and get over here before I throw you overboard! And get him in there already! Hurry up!"
"Alrigh', alrigh', no need to get your knickers in a twist…" A dragging sound echoed through the brig as something was dragged along the deck. The grating overhead was hauled open and a steel ladder lowered to the floor below, but before anyone could make a move for it, someone was kicked down.
A familiar shape in a navy coat, white shirt, black trousers, and suspenders tumbled down the ladder, limbs banging painfully against the rungs. Somehow, Tarzan managed to twist in mid-air to land without breaking anything, but before he could recover and leap for the ladder, a bulging burlap sack, tied at the neck, was kicked down to land painfully on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
"Oh, sorry about that, monkey boy!" the same voice called down, sounding less ragged and more mocking. "We'll be back with company soon, so just take care of that till I get back, 'kay?" With a cackle, the ladder was hauled up and the grate firmly shut.
Tarzan shoved the sack off him in a rage, tore off his black shoes, bounded off the wall, and latched onto the grate, yanking and grunting in desperation. But despite his best efforts, the grate did not budge an inch. The clanking of chain that reached his ears, followed by the splash of a cage-laden skiff landing in the ocean, was almost too painful to hear.
Jane didn't know whether it was adrenaline, rage, or his primitive upbringing that was responsible, but Tarzan had been battering away at the brig's walls and ceiling for 20 minutes straight with nothing at all to show for it. His coat and waistcoat had long since been discarded, his socks were all but tatters, and his shirt was coming apart at the seams. Jane could see the wildman in him growing more and more frenzied with every passing moment.
"Tarzan, it's no use! Don't!" she cried, worried that he would literally break himself apart in his efforts to escape.
The wildman stumbled to a halt in the middle of the floor, looking around in near-bestial panic, as if he was already in a cage. Jane moved to approach him, but he spun towards her with a growl, causing her to jump back in fright. She saw, for a brief moment, the animalistic terror and fury in his eyes before it was replaced with more human-like despair and frustration. "Clayton…" he growled.
"Yes, Clayton," Jane spat his name out bitterly. "Clayton betrayed us all." She knelt down before him. "I'm so sorry, Tarzan… if we hadn't come here on this ridiculous excursion…"
"No, I did this," replied Tarzan, clenching his fists. "I betrayed my family. Kerchak was right." He slumped to the floor. "I never belonged with them." Jane could only bite her lip, not knowing just what to say to that.
"Oh, those magnificent creatures, shivering in cages," muttered Professor Porter, getting to his feet and glaring up at the deck. He pounded the metal wall with one fist and muttered bitterly, "What is this world coming to – whoa!"
His words were cut off as the whole ship suddenly listed to the the side, causing everyone to take a tumble towards the wall he just hit. When everything seemed to calm down, the Professor looked up in amazement, before looking at his arms. "Oh, by Jove, don't know my own strength…" he chuckled in bewilderment.
A moment later, a massive thump was heard from above deck, and the steamship tilted back the other way as it balanced out, tipping them back towards the other wall. Jane bumped violently against Tarzan's chest, before the breath was forced out of her lungs as the sack thrown in by the crewmember thudded against her chest, its contents… clacking?
"What was that?" she breathed, staring up at the deck.
Above them, the sounds of men yelling, shouting and screaming rang out from above them, followed by something none of them expected to hear: an elephant's trumpet. A moment later, the grate buckled and shattered apart as the massive bulk of said pachyderm crashed its way through.
Professor Porter dazedly sat up, unaware of the 5-ton-elephant foot hanging over his head. "Why, that sounded just like an elephant!"
"Tantor!" exclaimed Tarzan at the sight of his red-skinned elephant friend. The massive beast gave another trumpet and offered him its trunk.
Jane watched as Tarzan was hauled out of the brig by his friend, before a clatter made her turn around. The sack that had crashed into her had ripped open and spilled its contents over the metal floor, a number of strange, angular, artifact fragments that looked to be crafted out of metal and wood with odd glyphs written on them in black pigment.
One in particular caught Jane's eye: an oblong piece of metal-bordered wood that seemed less shattered and more deliberately crafted. As Jane picked it up to look at more closely, Tarzan called down from the deck, "Jane, Tantor will help get you all out. I'm going to save my family!"
"Tarzan, wait! You can't take on all of them by yourself!" Jane shouted back, but Tarzan was already gone from her view, and a moment later, a splash showed exactly where he went.
"Tarzan! Come back!" The worried Jane leapt to her feet and ran for the opening, where her father was being lifted out by Tantor's long trunk. As she ran, her thoughts suffused of catching up to Tarzan to offer whatever help she could spare, she didn't notice a ray of sunlight shining through the hatch reflect off the shiny black pigment… and shine right into her eyes.
Unbeknownst to Jane, and wouldn't be found out until several months later, the artifact the swabbie had found on his jungle jaunt and had found her way into her possession had its origins in the lost jungle city of Opar. Crowe had unwittingly stumbled across a lookout post that hadn't been used in over a hundred years, and had just scooped up all the baubles he could find. But the one that Jane was holding now was not just any ordinary bauble.
Opar's culture, although supposedly mirroring its ancestral civilization of Atlantis, was aimed towards developing qualities in their men and women that they prized: strength in men, and beauty in women. Unfortunately, the practices they used to achieve this included excessive inbreeding, selective culling of offspring, and cross-breeding with the jungle animals.
The latter practice, in fact, was exactly what the tablet Jane was holding now was used for. In order to entice said animals to lie with their women, the Opar high priestesses used their resources to develop a spell that would enable their people to temporarily take on the qualities of said animals, including the ability to speak their language. Said spell was embedded via their arcane language into small artifacts, which could be activated by reflecting the light off of said artifact and into the user's eyes, all while thinking of the reason one wished to use this power.
But while the people of Opar had done it with the express purpose of making their forebears strong, giving them the ability to communicate and the limited strength to survive the ordeal they had in mind, Jane Porter had called upon the spell with the desire to protect the one she cared for and the ones that he cared for… leading to an effect that no-one had seen since the very first ruler of Opar had used the spell for the first time in history.
As Professor Porter was lifted out of the brig by Tantor's trunk, where the rest of the crew was waiting, a sudden eruption of light and color emanating from the depths of the ship practically startled the both of them out of their wits. The Professor clung desperately to the elephant's trunk as the elephant in question reared up in shock, nearly deafening him with its trumpeting.
"Thunderation!" Archimedes exclaimed, staring at the lightshow coming from beneath him. "What in the Queen's name was that?!"
His answer came a moment later, when the lights somehow traced out a circle overlaying the hatch, inlaid with an archaic language the Professor had never seen before. A moment later, a yellowish blur suddenly leapt out of the brig, through the circle, and landed somewhat ungainly on the deck. When Archimedes turned to look at it, his eyes nearly fell out of his head with disbelief.
"J… J… Ja… Jan… Janey?!" he spluttered, nearly choking on his moustache.
Looking back at him, surprise written all over her own face, was his own daughter, her hair loose and blowing in the sea wind, but now dressed in an outfit he couldn't even imagine being designed. It was somewhat similar to the puffy yellow dress she – admittedly unwisely – wore the first time she entered the jungle, but at the same time worlds apart.
The yellow blouse she wore was now shoulderless, merely covering her torso together with a purple neckerchief and white collar, but scandalously exposing the curve of her cleavage with a hollow circle cut around her sternum. Her arms were covered with yellow sleeves that reached the top of her biceps, and went all the way to the prim white gloves she now wore. Perhaps more revealing was her lace-hemmed skirt, which now exposed her stomach as it rode low on her hips. Fastened on her right, it gracefully exposed her right leg while trailing down to the floor on her left, both displaying the odd script-like pattern embroidered along its length, and revealing her knee-length travelling boots. But most astonishing of all was the weapon she now carried: an angular, wooden, metal-plated contraption, scripted in black ink along its sides and its protrusions wrapped in yellow fabric.
"Oh my word," murmured Jane, obviously disoriented by the experience. "What just happened? All I saw was a flash of light and… Daddy?" She caught sight of her father's gobsmacked expression. "What are you looking at me like that for? What… why is it suddenly so drafty?"
Swinging from Tantor's trunk, Archimedes could only manage a point at her outfit. When Jane looked down, her face went scarlet and she let out three squeaks, one at her skirt, one at the hole in her blouse, and one at the object she was carrying. "Wha-where'd this come from? How'd I come up wearing th-this? I… I look like some kind of… of… !"
As she fumbled with the device in her self-induced tizzy, her mind scrabbling to understand, her finger accidentally tightened on what felt like a trigger. Instantly, the artifact's front end flared with violet and gold light, a large ring inlaid with more archaic symbols materializing in mid-air. A moment later, another ring of purplish energy pulsed out of the first one, to hit the side of the stunned elephant and meld into its body.
"Aaaah! I've been cursed! I've been cursed!" Tantor yelled, almost dropping the Professor in his own panic. "Terk, save me! Save me from this evil spell this woman put on me! What did you do to me?" He almost broke down sobbing at that last word, as a gorilla that had somehow gotten onto the boat chattered at him agitatedly.
"What I did? I don't even know how I got…" Jane's equally-hysterical tirade slowly trailed off when she realized that she had just understood an elephant. She stared at the beast in disbelief. "Di… did you just speak?"
Both elephant and gorilla stopped and stared right back at her. Tantor spoke up, his voice sounding rather shaky. "How… how did…" He put the Professor down and stepped forward slowly. "You… you can speak elephant? I thought only Tarzan could speak elephant!"
The gorilla said something, but to her it just sounded like more hoots and screeches. "I don't know how she can speak elephant, Terk; maybe Tarzan taught her?" Tantor replied.
"I'm not speaking elephant, I'm speaking normally!" Jane said surprisedly. She turned to her father, but he was staring at her just as astonishedly as the elephant.
"J… Jane, how are you making such convincing elephant noises? It… it almost seems like you understand it!"
"What are you talking about, Daddy? I'm talking just like I always am!"
This time, the Professor blinked at her words. "Well, now you are, but a moment ago, you sounded just like that elephant over there! …did you understand what it said?"
Jane nodded slowly, before turning back to the two animals who now looked completely confused at the turn of events. She looked between all of them a few times, before her gaze drifted down to the gun in her hand – and did a double take when she realized the script on it was now as clear to her as English.
"Primal Heart – the link between man and beast. With a thought to know, learn their traits, and be granted their might," she read, before it dawned on her. Somehow, this device had given her the ability to speak the language of whatever animal she aimed at. It could be the reason she could now understand the elephant, but not the gorilla… unless… a thought to know…
With the desire to learn firmly fixed in her mind, she aimed the gun at the other gorilla. Instantly, it balked and tried to back away, screeching, but another ring of energy struck it dead-on. Almost instantly, its cries turned into legible words, spoken in a hysterical, boyish, but distinctly female tone, "Hey, I didn't agree to get blasted, lady! Ya hear me? I don't care what magic you got in that thing, I'm not doin' it! Got it? I'm not doin' it!"
Despite her confusion, Jane couldn't help but smile at the gorilla's histrionics. "I believe it's a bit late for that," she said calmly.
The gorilla kept her shrieking up until Tantor swatted her on the back with his trunk. "Terk, I thought I was supposed to be the dramatic one," he commented.
Professor Porter ambled over, looking at the strange device. "Fascinating… I've never seen this script before in all my studies of African civilizations; it must have come from a society not seen for centuries! I wonder if Tarzan would know about it?"
The mention of Tarzan instantly jolted Jane back to the situation. "Tarzan! We have to go save him!" Quickly, she rushed up to Tantor, grabbing onto his trunk. "Tantor, we don't have time to joke around! Tarzan needs us!"
"Oh! Oh, right!" Instantly, Tantor hoisted both Jane and Terk onto his back. "Hang on tight, Miss Jane!" With a trumpet that just served as a battle cry, the pachyderm charged for the edge of the ship.
"I say… I say! Wait for me!" As Tantor thundered past, the Professor leapt and just caught hold of his tail. "Captain, I leave this to you! Take care of the ship until we get baaaaaaack!" His words aimed at the steamship's crew trailed off in a yell as they left the side of the boat and plunged into the ocean.
As Tantor began to swim for the shore, plucking the damp Professor from his tail and putting him on his back, Terk glanced at Jane, who was now poring over her weapon. "So lady, ya sure ya can figure out that little doohickey in time to help Tarzan?"
"I can figure it out," Jane said, closely examining the now-comprehensible script within the floating ring. "I've always been a quick study."
The sun was setting over the horizon as a blur rushed through the trees. Shirt, suspenders and trousers were scattered across the jungle floor as Tarzan swung, slid and leapt his way through the jungle canopy, all his attention focused on one goal: stopping Clayton and protecting his family. As he threw himself through the wilderness that was his home, many of the animals, woken from their slumber by his actions, rose to stare after him and wonder what was going on.
As such, they did not notice the purple rings and glowing blue balls of light that struck one creature of every species mere moments later, until Tantor stormed past them carrying Terk and two humans on his back. The female was standing on his back, waving a strange weapon and calling out in their own languages. "The gorillas are threatened by men! Invaders come to capture them! Tarzan seeks to stop him! Please aid him! Help save his family!"
The beasts did not know how the female was speaking their languages, but to abandon Tarzan, a figure that all jungle inhabitants knew and at least respected, if not outright liked, in his time of need would be galling to them. One by one, every creature that Tarzan had passed, elephants, rhinos, hippos and baboons, rose from slumber and lumbered after them.
As the pack caught up with Tantor, trampling saplings and plants under their feet, Tarzan spared a look back to see the veritafiable army following him. He only spared a nod before looking back at the flares now glowing through the trees.
Tarzan's signature yell echoed through the trees as he swung into the clearing, the stampede bursting into view a moment later. The stunned Clayton, only moments from shooting the netted Kerchak, got a faceful of bare feet and was knocked off his own, sprawling a good distance away.
With a yell of "CHAAARGE!" from the Professor, mayhem ensued as the animals rampaged among the pirates, scattering them in all directions. The men tried to bring their whips, pikes and firearms to bear, but the beasts did not give them the opportunity. Between swinging trunks, stomping hooves, and thrashing heads bearing massive horns, teeth and tusks, the three species of pachyderm sent the men desperately running for cover.
As Terk chased the screaming men into their own cages, Jane, balancing perfectly on Tantor's back with inhuman dexterity, aimed the Primal Heart at more targets. Balls of gold energy erupted from the ring to knock weapons from hands or blow enemies flat on their backs. Jane whipped back and forth, eyes searching the battleground and routing as many pirates as she could, but try as she might, she couldn't find Clayton, who had seemingly disappeared after Tarzan had struck him.
Amidst all the melee, watching Tarzan cut the nets apart, Jane's ears pricked up as she thought shc heard Clayton barking orders. When she spun towards the sound, the hunter was nowhere to be seen, but what she did see were two men hauling a cage away towards the shore, with a gorilla locked inside that she remembered as being exceptionally close to Tarzan.
Narrowing her eyes in determination, she leapt off Tantor, grasped a nearby vine, and swung towards them just as Tarzan had shown her all those days ago. In mid-swing, she aimed at them with her weapon and snapped, "Kingdom Clobber!" A glittering cloud of dust blew out of the muzzle to form the shape of a gorilla beating its chest, moments before she swung right through it. The man in front barely had time to react before an impact enhanced to the level of a raging primate flattened him, knocking the cage over.
Jane released the vine to land neatly on her feet, right in front of the other burly sailor now meandering for her. As he got closer, his eyes fell on the weapon he was carrying, before narrowing in suspicion. "Hey, that looks like the trinket I found in the jungle!" he said in a voice Jane remembered as Crowe's. "That's my stuff; hand it over now!" Meaty fists raised, he picked up the pace, before a snarling from behind Jane froze him in his tracks.
Jane did a quick glance behind her to find the troop of baboons that had given her so much trouble on her first real jungle foray now growling in the trees at the man. "Really now?" she said smugly, turning back to Crowe, who was now trembling fearfully. "I think they might disagree." The knowledge of the baboon language still fresh in her mind, the lady let out what sounded like an apelike shriek to the swabbie, but which translated perfectly to the baboons as a sharp, "Get him!"
The troop howled and swarmed the man, who let out a howl of his own as he desperately raced away from the primates. Now on the opposite end of the attack, Jane let out a small smile, which changed to a giggle as a familiar baby baboon dropped onto her shoulder, wearing a shoe on its head and holding a familiar yellow parasol.
"Hi!" he squeaked before giving her a kiss on her cheek.
"Hello, you little rascal!" Jane chuckled before tapping her parasol. "Could I have that back, please?"
"Okay! I'm done with it it now! It was a fun toy!" the baboon chattered, dropping the parasol before scampering after his troop. Jane laughed, before a voice reached her ears.
The gorilla – Jane remembered Tarzan calling her Kala – was waving one arm weakly through the bars, crying, "Help… help me please…" in a scared tone.
Jane quickly ran over to her. "Don't worry, dear, I'm going to have you out of this in a second," she said, causing Kala to gasp softly at her speaking their language. After a few tugs showed that the cages were too strong for gorilla strength, Jane decided to try something stronger. "Kala, crouch down and don't move. This could get ugly."
The first downed man groaned groggily as he rose up, to see the yellow-clad woman back up a few paces, before aiming her weapon. As he pulled out a crowbar and tried to approach her from behind, she said, "Pachyderm Crush!" in a sharp tone and pulled the trigger. Another cloud of glittering mist blew out of the gun's muzzle and formed the shape of a rearing silver elephant, before she stomped through it, planted one foot on a corner bar, gripped the cage door with her free hand like an elephant's trunk, and with a shout of exertion that sounded like the beast's trumpeting call, sharply tore the door clean off its rails and threw it aside.
The dumbfounded bilge-rat stared at the flying cage door right up to the point where it came down and flattened him again.
Jane let out an exhausted breath from the effort, before reaching an arm in and helping the gorilla out of the cage. As both females let out a sigh of relief, a gunshot split the air like a thunderclap, causing them to look around in shock.
Tarzan crouched beneath a pair of torn nets, clutching a bleeding shoulder as a pair of freed gorillas scampered away in fright. A short distance away from him, Clayton was loading a pair of fresh cartridges and snapping his hunting rifle closed. A short distance away from him, the massive Kerchak saw the incident, and all at once he went ballistic, galloping for the hunter on all four knuckles with a terrifying roar.
Things slowed down for Jane at that moment. She saw Clayton turning towards the monstrous gorilla, saw his eyes widen in panic, saw him raising the gun dead-center, felt her own arms rise in response…
Clayton felt a sudden jolt knock his aim just a tick off to one side, causing the two bullets to blow through the gorilla's right shoulder instead of its heart, but the pain was still enough to cause the gorilla leader to collapse to the ground in a heap. The hunter whirled around to see Jane aiming some strange device at him that presumably knocked his aim off, and he dug in his ammo bag for more bullets, but an anguished yell from Tarzan brought him back around to see the wildman charging straight for him.
Quickly, Clayton pulled out a handful of bullets, dextrously reloaded his rifle, and fired a shot that stopped Tarzan in his tracks. More bullets split the earth and wood beneath him as Tarzan was chased up into the trees by the gunfire. Clayton laughed at his prey's actions. "Hiding, are we?" he yelled after him.
"Iron Horn!" another yell caught his attention, and he turned again, this time to see Jane running through a dissolving cloud of mist and ram into him literally like a charging rhinoceros. Clayton was knocked clear back into the trees as Jane advanced on him, the Primal Heart aimed directly at his face.
"Enough is enough, Clayton!" she shouted. "Surrender now and I won't think of leaving you with more than a hole in you!"
Clayton groaned, thankful at least that he landed in enough foliage to prevent any broken ribs, "Oh, my dear Janey," he chuckled, stepping out of the bushes and raising one arm, "You should know better than to play around with something that could get you hurt!" With that last word, a bullwhip was suddenly pulled out from behind his back and snapped around Jane's ankle, and a sudden tug sent her sprawling on her back.
With a practiced air, Clayton kicked her weapon away and bound her securely with the whiplash. "Now what did I tell you?"
"Clayton…" Jane looked mad enough to spit fire. "You rotten-"
"Quiet!" Clayton barked, smashing her across the jaw with his rifle. "I'll deal with you later!" He slung his gun across his back, before starting to rappel up the tree with a vine, shouting into the trees. "I could use a challenge, jungle boy, because after I get rid of you, rounding up your little ape family will be all too easy!"
Jane struggled with her bonds for a moment before her father caught sight of her. "Oh my word! Jane!" Sliding down Tantor's trunk, his old fingers fumbled with the knots for a moment, before the elephant helpfully brought over a discarded spear to use. Accepting it, Archimedes wasted no time in cutting his daughter free.
Rubbing her wrist, Jane quickly retrieved her weapon. "Clayton's gone after Tarzan up in the treetops! I have to help him!"
"What?! Janey, you can't!" exclaimed the Professor. "It's Tarzan's home turf up there; he can handle himself!"
"But he's also wounded, and Clayton's going to stop at nothing until he kills him!" Jane answered, aiming her weapon up into the trees, "and there certainly is something I can do to help!" When the Professor tried to argue, she pointed to the limp form of Kerchak. "You need to do something to save him, or he's not going to make it through the night!"
"How… how am I supposed to save him? All my equipment, my supplies are back on the boat!"
"Then get him to the beach and retrieve them from the ship! I don't know, Daddy, just do something!" Turning to Tantor, she shouted to him, "Tantor, get Kerchak to the beach and get my father on the boat! It's the only way to save him!" With that, she shouted, "Kingdom Clobber!" once again, and dove through the ape-shaped cloud to start leaping up the trees towards the canopy like the ape she was imitating.
Archimedes could only blink up at his headstrong daughter before Tantor lifted him onto his back once again. "Sorry, mister. Alright, you heard the woman, guys, get him to the shore!" Nodding, two more elephants picked up the wounded Kerchak, hoisted him onto a hippo's back, before the odd procession started lumbering towards the beach.
Jane hooked her legs around a branch before swinging herself upright and continuing her procession upwards. Needing both hands free and her legs a decent amount of movement, she had tied the trailing section of her skirt around her waist and secured the Primal Heart into a fashioned pocket at her side, able to be retrieved at a moment's notice. Not having the prehensile feet of an ape, but the strength and agility of one, she had managed to make her way up into the treetops easily enough.
When the sound of struggling reached her ears, she flipped onto a branch to assess the situation, in time to see Clayton's rifle fall from the treetops and lodge into a tangle of branches a short distance from where she was. Looking up, she could see the forms of Tarzan and Clayton struggling on top of a wide branch. However, the shadows caused by the branches meant she couldn't see who was who.
But before she could do anything to figure it out, one figure kicked the other off the branch, to send him bouncing off bough after bough until he landed right next to her on the same bough. Jane gasped when what available moonlight revealed his identity as Clayton. He turned around towards that gasp to see her staring at him, and he blinked in surprise, wondering how she had managed to escape.
Jane's eyes only momentarily flickered to the rifle and back, but that was enough for Clayton to realize what was there, and for his eyes to betray that he knew. Reflexively, she lunged for the gun, but his meaty hand closed over her wrist, and with a snarl, callously hurled her back and clear off the branch.
Jane still felt the gorilla's instincts and kicked her right leg out involuntarily, which luckily caught on a nearby vine and stopped her descent. Feeling her enhanced muscles strain with the tension, she managed to twist her body like an acrobat, grab hold of the vine with one arm and pull her gun with the other. Clayton almost had his hands on his rifle, when a bolt of gold light dislodged it and sent it flipping end over end into the air…
…where the dexterous feet of Tarzan snatched it and flipped it into his hands. The jungle man landed neatly on the bough as well, aiming the gun straight into Clayton's face.
Clayton stared in shock at the gun muzzle pointing at him, before his face curled into a smug smile. "Go ahead, shoot me," he said simply, the dare hanging in the air.
Jane adjusted her grip, untangled her foot and scaled the vine to see the sudden indecision on Tarzan's face, as he started to wonder whether revenge for what he did to Kerchak would be right. Clayton chuckled.
"Be a man," he added with a smirk. Jane sucked in a breath; even she could tell what Clayton was trying to do: daring Tarzan to prove him right and cause him to make a fatal mistake.
"Tarzan, no!" she shouted. Tarzan's expression froze, but didn't take his eyes off Clayton. "Killing him will not prove anything! Clayton wants you to be a man like him: boorish, greedy and ambitious, willing to throw away everything to get what he wants! Don't be that man; don't throw away your morals for revenge!"
"Oh, hush now, Jane," sneered Clayton, "You know as well as I do what this boy really wants: an identity! You know what you are now, Tarzan, a man, so show me who you are: a wild man, or a real man?"
That last statement made Tarzan's face contort in fury and he shoved the gun under Clayton's chin, cutting off anything else he had to say. But to Jane's horror, the next words out of Tarzan's mouth were, "You're right, Clayton. I am a man."
A gunshot split the silence. Clayton flinched and Jane screamed… and then they both stared.
The gun hadn't made the gunshot – Tarzan had. Defiance glowing in his eyes, Tarzan raised Clayton's gun over his head as he finished his statement.
"But not a man like you!"
With one mighty blow, he swung the gun down and shattered it against the branch, the pieces falling out of sight to the floor below. Clayton grasped for the fragments but it was too late.
Tarzan turned to where Jane was still hanging from the vine and nodded calmly to her. Jane returned a smile and let out a breath of relief, but gasped when she saw Clayton suddenly yank out a machete and take a slash at Tarzan. The loss of his crew, his way out, and now the only way he could feasibly regain them seemed to have sent him off the deep end.
Tarzan had made it to a vine but Clayton immediately severed it, sending him plummeting lower into the canopy. Jane didn't know what drove her to do it, but she let out a simian screech and leapt at Clayton, the Kingdom Clobber attack she had been saving now released onto the hunter, slamming him square in the ribs and knocking both of them off the branch.
The two of them plummeted through the vines, both doing their level best to keep their opponent's weapons away from themselves. However, despite Clayton's injuries, with her gorilla attributes now vanished due to her using up her attack, Jane was on the losing end of the fight as she stared into the maddened eyes of John Clayton, whose blade was swinging dangerously close to her flesh.
Suddenly, their fall abruptly came to an end as a vine suddenly snagged Clayton's knife arm, the sudden stop tearing both their grips loose. Jane somersaulted uncontrollably through the vines, her fall only stopping when her limbs got entangled as well. Gasping from the pain, she looked up to see Clayton struggling to reach Tarzan, who was swinging down towards her.
As he started to pull her free, managing to get a handhold and free his arm, Clayton dropped towards them, chopping away at the vines in an attempt to dislodge the both of them. One lucky chop almost cut her down if not for Tarzan catching hold of her, wincing at the damage to his arm. She watched Clayton draw closer and closer, baring his teeth in a grin or a snarl. "You think I'm just going to let a pay day like this just swing away from me?' he shouted furiously. 'Africa was made for me!"
His ranting suddenly gave Jane an idea. Quickly, she outlined it to Tarzan, who nodded. As he clambered away through the vines, she muttered, "Feral Frenzy," and darted into the shadows of the trees like the baboon she was emulating.
Clayton bared his teeth at seeing Tarzan scramble out of his reach, and he violently clawed his way after him, tearing through vines when they obstructed his path as he went lower and lower into the foliage. It was by sheer dumb luck that he didn't cut himself down as he slowly but surely caught up.
Finally he got close enough to see his quarry trying to untangle himself from where he had carelessly got himself stuck. Eyes widened in victory met eyes widened in fear. "Well now, I guess you were wrong about being a man," he said gleefully. "After all, only an animal would be stupid enough to get stuck!" With triumph so close, he swung his machete forward…
… only for Tarzan to somehow slip out of the way and let the blade bite into a nearby tree trunk. Swiftly, the jungle man lashed out with a kick and knocked the blade from his grip, sending it hurtling to the understory below. "But only a man like you would be greedy enough to be tricked!" he countered, before swinging away, vines trailing from his body like a cloak. Clayton made to go after him, reaching out for a handhold, only to find that Tarzan's vine-y cloak had concealed the fact that he had dropped below the foliage line of the jungle canopy, where the other vine tips, branches, trunks and other hand-holds were completely out of his reach, leaving him dangling from one particularly long vine in thin air.
And in his haste to catch up with Tarzan, he had not seen the trap until it was way too late.
As he looked around frantically, a rustling made him look up, to find Jane sitting calmly on a branch aiming the Primal Heart not at him, but at the mass of vines out of reach over his head. "You know what they say about weaknesses, Mr. Hunter. Give someone enough vine, and eventually he'll hang himself," she said, before snapping out her last command.
"Deforester!"
The resulting ball of green light shot up into the canopy and exploded in a ball of glowing script. Every vine, branch and bough within a 5 foot radius was vaporized, sending a substantial mass of severed plant matter plunging to the jungle floor, a screaming Clayton falling directly beneath them. There was a loud crack as the hunter landed directly on a thick root spine-first, right before the falling vegetation all but buried him with a crash.
Tarzan landed on the bough next to Jane, and the two of them stared down at the mass of verdure lying on the ground, the head of a clearly-unconscious John Clayton just poking out from under it all. Jane let out a breath to rest her head on his shoulder, completely drained by the ordeal. With a breath, she squeezed her weapon, only wanting to rest.
The Primal Heart responded, disappearing in a shower of sparkles that spread out into a script-covered circle of light around them. Jane and Tarzan looked around in surprise as the circle shimmered, folded in around itself to wrap around Jane, before vanishing into thin air, leaving Jane back in her old blouse and skirt and the familiar wooden card in her hand.
It was with a lot of trepidation that the tree-swinging couple meandered back to the shore on the back of a rhino, a trussed-up, unconscious, and utterly disabled Clayton slung behind them. Tarzan in particular was of a particularly heavy heart, the regret of never apologizing to his leader for what he had done.
Therefore, he was suitably surprised to find the gorilla band leader leaning against a tree on the beach, right arm bound up in dozens of bloodstained clothes used as makeshift bandages, and although drowsy, was still conscious. Beside him, Kala was nuzzling against him lovingly while a number of anxious animals were looking on, Terk, Tantor and the entire band of gorillas among them, and a thoroughly exhausted Professor Porter packing up a black doctor's bag.
"Kerchak!" Tarzan exclaimed, jumping off the rhino to hurry to him. "You're okay!"
A tap from Professor Porter interrupted him. "Mostly, my dear boy. I did manage to stop the bleeding, but I couldn't fix it entirely. I'm afraid he can never use his arm again."
Tarzan's expression immediately turned dismayed. "But… but if he is hurt, how is he supposed to protect the gorillas? They need someone to protect them!" The Professor had no answer.
"Tarzan…" Kerchak's tired rumble caught his attention, and Tarzan immediately turned back to his leader.
"Kerchak," the jungle man lowered his head, "forgive me."
"No," the massive gorilla shook his head. "Forgive me, for not understanding… that you have always been… one of us." His gaze traveled to Professor Porter. "And for not seeing that… humans are not all monsters. I owe this one my life. But if I understand him correctly… I can no longer protect our family. Is that what he said?"
At Tarzan's sad nod, Kerchak let out a sorrowful sigh. "I see. Then that duty will fall to you."
That statement took Tarzan completely off guard. "What? But…"
"My years are catching up to me. It is time I stepped down as the band leader and took my place among the elders," said Kerchak solemnly. "Do not worry, I will still be here to help you, but I can no longer be a guardian, only an advisor." A giant hand was placed on the stunned man's shoulder. "Lead us well… my son."
It was only then that the tears finally came, as the moment that Tarzan had been wanting for all his life finally became reality: the acceptance and respect of his gorilla father. He rushed forward and hugged Kerchak, who returned it with his one arm while smiling softly, knowing his family would be in good hands. Kala wrapped both her arms around them, beaming like the dawning sun that her two favorite males had finally reconciled.
A moment later, Kerchak looked up at the staring Porters. "Now, regarding your other family, Tarzan, would you help me speak?"
The mustachioed Captain of the steamship puffed as he rowed back to shore, wishing that there were more men on his crew. If all of them weren't needed to watch over the caged pirates, he wouldn't be rowing the boat himself.
As he approached the shore, a loud gasp made him turn around, to see Miss Jane hugging Tarzan like she was trying to squeeze the life out of him. If he looked closely, the Captain could swear that all the animals on the beach were beaming.
When the rowboat finally beached itself, the Captain turned to Professor Porter, who was ushering the rhino carrying the immobilized John Clayton on its back towards him. "Professor Porter, are you and your daughter ready to leave?"
"Actually, Captain, there's been a change of plans," answered the Professor. "The only one you need to take back is Clayton; my daughter and I have decided to stay here."
The Captain couldn't believe his ears. "Are… are you sure? Live? In the jungle? Wh… what am I supposed to say to your sponsors?"
"Well, people get lost in the jungle all the time," shrugged the Professor, "and after all, who are we to stay in the way of true love?" He gestured behind him. "Just make sure that this chap gets the proper treatment when he gets back."
The Captain looked, and got the hint with a nod. "I see. Well, don't worry, Professor, the only place pirates and their co-conspirators go is gaol. And especially those that try and stage a mutiny on my ship!"
A few minutes later, the Captain was rowing back to the steamship, a still-unconscious hunter lying at his feet. As the morning sun shone over the beach, he couldn't help but smile when he watched the now-much-larger family disappear back into the jungle, a particular couple now locking lips on the back of one of the elephants.
It did not matter which world they came from; they were all one family.
The Captain wished them all the best as he prepared for a long journey back to England, now with some unexpected cargo he was all too willing to drop off.
Hey! I'm back! Exams are done, and this should hopefully go much quicker now! Emphasis on hopefully…
Once again, I hope this chapter passes muster. This was a lot harder to write than I thought! I might go through it again a few times if I feel it needs perking up. Still, six days from start to finish isn't too shabby…
Skirtzzz, thank you so much for waiting again! Once again, I'm so sorry I took so long, but I'm glad the term's over and I can get back to this project.
Find Jane's gun mage costume, created by the talented DeviantArtist Skirtzzz here (scrap all the spaces)!:
skirtzzz . deviantart dotcom / art / Gun - Mage - Jane - 293885405
Fave, Review and Critique please; I'd really like to know someone's reading this! But please, no flaming!
Next Chapter: Guardians and Greatswords