ALICE SPRINGS, CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
Charlie, Louis, and the Wild Kratts finally arrived in a town of Alice Springs and soon went up to a bar.
"The Old Alice Inn." Charlie said. "Come on, Louis, I'll buy you a beer and we'll catch the end of the Knicks game."
In the bar, a woman which is the bartender turns to them as they placed their bags down.
"2 beers. Big beers." Charlie said desperate to quench his thirst.
"5 Dr. Peppers." Martin said.
The bartender smiled and turns away to grabs some glasses.
"Hey, look here. I'm gonna call Mr. Smith, you know, let him know there's been a.. slight delay." Louis said.
"Slight delay?" Charlie inquired.
"Yeah." Louis said as the bartender turns to them. "But we're working on it, all right? Give me his number."
Charlie feels around himself and brought out the number as the bartender brought them their drinks.
"Hey, uh, where's your phone?" Louis asked.
"Around in the dunnies." The bartender said.
"You guys have a Denny's?" Louis said mishearing her.
"No, the dunny." The bartender said. "The bog trough? The long drop? The thunder box?"
"You know what?" Louis said. "Um... I'm just gonna look for it by the bathroom. All right?" He then walks off.
"Uh, please forgive him, it's their first time in Australia." Martin said.
The bartender smiled and heads off.
Charlie then gulps down his drink as well as the Wild Kratts quenching their thirst.
"Now, there's a Yank that can drink." An elderly Australian accent said.
Charlie then turns to an mid-aged man with a white beard with wide eyes.
"Any Yank that can drink is all right with me." He said and went up to them. "G'day. My name is Blue." He then patted Charlie on his shoulder.
"Charlie." Charlie introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you, Chaza." Blue said.
"Charlie." Charlie repeated.
"That's what I said, Chaza." Blue said.
Meanwhile, Louis was working on the phone dialing the number.
"We're only 2 hours late." Louis said. "He should be a reasonable and understanding man."
He finishes dialing and waited for a few moments.
"What?" An Australian accent said.
"Uh, Mr. Smith?" Louis said. "Uh. Yeah, you might not know me, but-"
"Where are you bludgers?" Mr. Smith demanded.
At a white section of desert, Mr. Smith had black hair, brown eyes, and was not in a please mood.
"I'm out here in the back of Bullamakanka up to me ears in heat stroke-"
"-waiting for you 2 Yanks." Mr. Smith said. "Where's me package?"
"Uh... It's been.. temporarily misplaced." Louis explained as best he could.
"I don't reckon you respect me very much." Smith said coldly. "First you steal my package and now you're on the phone-"
"-razzling me about it."
"We didn't steal your package. I swear!" Louis said. "Look, we're gonna get it back!"
"You'd be a banger short of a barbie-"
"-if you didn't, when I find you!" Smith warned. "You better get ready to-"
"-cough it up otherwise, I'll chop you into snags and feed you to the crocs." Smith threaten.
"Mr. Smith?" Louis tried to reason.
"Have a nice day." Smith said.
Smith hangs up and saw his phone reading, "OLD ALICE INN".
"One of me favorites." He said.
He then walks off.
Louis placed the phone down knowing they were in serious trouble now.
He then grabs a phonebook and looks through it.
"A kangaroo. A kangaroo. Kangaroo..." Louis looks through the book and found a wildlife foundation. "Wildlife foundation."
He rips the page out and folds it, and heads back over with the others.
"Oh, Louis, this is Blue." Charlie introduced him to Blue. "Blue, this is Louis."
"Hey, Blue." Louis greeted.
"What'd Mr. Smith say?" Charlie asked.
"He was nice." Louis bluffed. "He was nice. Uh, he said everything was cool."
"Really?" Charlie said stunned.
"He did?" Chris frowned.
"He did said we should do our best to get the package back." Louis said.
"Ah, right. The package." Charlie said.
"Ah, the package!" Blue yelled.
Charlie turns to him as he drank his shot.
"Uh, Charlie?" Louis said. "Order me another drink. I got a plan."
He then walks off as they watched him leave.
Later, Louis got to the wildlife foundation and knocks on the door as a closed sign was hanging.
"This just isn't my day." Louis said.
He then went over to a water trough by a camel pen, and turns a nozzle as water pours out of a pipe and washed his face.
"You mind leaving a little for the camels?" Said a woman with blue eyes, blonde hair, and hat on and holding a cage.
Louis turns the nozzle off and turns to her.
"You're American." Louis said.
"And you're drinking water that comes from a stagnant pond." The woman retorted.
"I'm from Brooklyn." Louis said. "I've had a lot worse. My name is Louis."
"Name's Jessie." She shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you." Louis said.
"Wanna give me a hand?" Jessie asked grabbing cage.
"Uh, okay." Louis shrugged grabbing it.
He then looks in the cage and saw inside were a pair of bilbies.
"Not offense, but these are the ugliest rabbits I've ever seen." Louis said.
"They're called bilbies." Jessie said. "They're almost extinct."
Once widespread throughout Australia, Greater Bilbies were brought into decline in the 20th Century due to human conflict, and confrontation and competition from Red Foxes and rabbits. The Lesser Bilby sadly fell victim to extinction in the 1950's.
"In fact, it's up to these guys to repopulate the entire Devil's Marbles area." Jessie said.
"Somebody's gonna be having fun tonight!" Louis teased.
They then chuckled.
"That's the plan." Jessie said.
"Looks like you'll need a couple more bilbies, though." Louis said.
"Well, if the foundation I worked for had more money..." Jessie said.
"You mean the wildlife foundation?" Louis said gesturing to the building.
"Mm-hmm." Jessie nodded.
"You work here?" Louis said.
"Yeah." Jessie replied.
"Oh, thank you, Lord! This is great." Louis said. "Look, I need some help. Say, I put my lucky jacket on the back of a dead kangaroo who came to life and hopped off with all my money."
"You do need help." Jessie said think it was a joke.
"No, no, no, I'm for real." Louis honestly said. "Can you help me?"
"Do you have idea where he is?" Jessie asked.
"No." Louis said as Jackie Legs could be anywhere within 50 miles by now.
"Well, it seems to me you need an airplane." Jessie said. "You need a tranquilizer gun..."
"Huh?" Louis stared.
"You need a list." Jessie said.
Meanwhile in the Outback, Jackie Legs hops a bit and then sniffs the air, and sniffs turning to the pockets.
He turns to the left pocket, and reaches his snout in it and pulls out with a Twizzler, and he held it out in his mouth and eyes it. And follows it as it turns side to side, and is held up again.
Jackie then grabs the Twizzler and pulls it and he chews it, and eats the rest of it as he liked the taste. He turns to the pockets and then hops off.
Back in the Old Alice Inn, Charlie, the Wild Kratts and a crowd cheered Blue as he drinks another shot after having several.
"Come on, come on, come on!" They cheered.
"He's got it!" A man said.
Blue finished and placed the cup down as they cheered. And Louis soon returned.
"Charlie! Charlie!" Louis said.
Charlie turns to him as Louis made a head gesture.
"Come here, man." Louis said. "Come here!"
"Give me one sec, guys." Charlie said and heads over to Louis as well as the Wild Kratts. "You gotta see this guy drink! He's unbelievable!"
"What's up, Louis?" Martin asked.
"Hey, I figured out how to catch that kangaroo." Louis said.
He then brought out a gun as the Wild Kratts gasped.
"Louis!" Aviva said thinking the worse.
"First we hit it with a car and now you want to blow its head off?" Charlie said in disbelief.
Louis then placed the gun down. "No." He said and brought a dart. "This is a tranquilizer dart. It works in 3 stages. Stage 1: Temporary blindness. Stage 2: Partial paralysis. And stage 3: Complete shutdown of all motor skills. Totally humane."
"Sound humane." Charlie said with a slight sarcasm.
"I said it was temporary." Louis remarked. "Look, I walked to this wildlife office and this American girl that work there and she is..." He then scats a bit.
"Epileptic?" Charlie said.
"Her name is Jessie." Louis explained. "I told her the story and I even showed her a picture of the kangaroo."
Charlie then placed a hand on his shoulder. "You told her the kangaroo has $50,000?"
Louis placed a hand on his arm. "I told her the kangaroo has $4,000 and our passports. Hmm?"
"Not bad." Charlie said.
"She told me the best way to find a kangaroo is by air." Louis added bringing out a note.
"What's that?" Charlie asked.
"A number to a bush plane that we can hire." Louis said showing a number on the note.
"I like it." Charlie smiled.
"Let's go call." Louis said and laughed.
They head off as the crowd cheers as they head back to the phone. "Come on, come on, come on!" The crowd cheered Blue.
"If I didn't know you any better, I'd say this is a honey of a plan." Charlie said.
"Dang skippy." Louis said and works the phone.
Then Blue appeared.
"Excuse me, mates." Blue said. "Gotta point Percy at the porcelain."
Then suddenly, Blue topples and hits the floor with a thud.
"Gee, almost made it." Charlie said.
Louis shrugged and finishes the number and waits.
"Pilot's personal number." Louis said.
They remained silent as they waited.
Then suddenly a phone was heard ringing near them, and they all turn to Blue as it sounded like it was coming from him. And Charlie went over to his unconscious body and feels his pockets as they got nervous, and then Charlie brought his ringing phone in the pocket of his shirt as he was the pilot in question and answered.
"Louis?" Charlie answered it.
"Uh-huh." Louis nervously replied.
"Do you have a backup plan?" Charlie asked.
"Uh-huh." Louis shook his head.
"Any ideas?" Koki asked.
Over an hour later, they were in a bushplane as Blue was flying as Wild Kratts followed in their rocket.
"I sure hope the 2 pots of coffee and the Red Bull we have him were enough!" Charlie said.
"At least we gave him a 2-liter Mountain Dew to be sure." Koki said.
"Hey, man!" Charlie said to Blue. "How're you doing up there?"
"Never better, mate!" Blue replied. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason." Louis said. "It's just you were passed out an hour ago."
"That's just me morning ritual, mate." Blue said.
They continued flying over the Australian landscape.
"I couldn't help but notice that this is the Flying Dingo IV." Charlie said. "What happened to the I, II, and III?"
Blue then laughed and then pushed the stick as the plane was in a dive as Charlie and Louis screamed.
Halfway around the world back in his mansion in New York, Sal held a tape-recorder in his hand.
"Now use the word in a sentence."
"Amorphous: Having no define form." Sal said. "Shapeless, as in: "After Joey Clams got whacked, his head was amorphous"."
Frankie then appeared.
"That was excellent. Now let's move to the next level."
"I think you should take this." Frankie said holding a phone.
Sal grabs the phone and answered it.
"Hello." Sal said as Waffles stood by. "I'm aggrieved to hear that, Mr. Smith."
Frankie turns to one of his goons.
"Of course we had a deal." Sal said calmly. "Please, advise me if this situation changes."
He then hangs up.
"Those 7 mammalucco didn't show." Sal said handing the phone to Frankie. "Our friend feels they pocketed the 50 G's."
"Maybe they figured it out." Frankie said.
"My stepson couldn't figure out a cheese sandwich if they spotted him the pumpernickel and the provolone." Sal said.
"So, what do you want to do?" Frankie asked.
"You possess a valid passport." Sal said.
Waffles whined as Frankie remained silent.
Back in Australia, they were still looking for Kangaroo Jack.
"I can't see anything from up here." Louis said. "Hey, do you think you can take us down a little lower?"
"Hang on to your knickers, we're going in!" Blue said.
He then puts the plane in a dive as Wild Kratts' rocket followed.
"A little lower!" Charlie said. "A little lower!"
They were soon flying above the ground.
"Look out for that-" Charlie cried.
"Tree!" He and Louis finished in unison.
Blue quickly pulls up as they dodged the tree and soon leveled out.
"Could you please not do that again?" Charlie said. "Thank you!"
"Now this is a way to see the Australian Outback." Martin said.
They continued flying over the river.
"Hey, Charlie! Look to the left!" Louis said and patting his shoulder. "Kangaroos!"
Below, they saw several Red Kangaroos.
"They're kangaroos, all right!" Charlie said. "A lot of kangaroos!"
"An entire mob of kangaroos." Chris said.
"None with a red jacket, though." Charlie said not seeing Jackie. "You think he could be someplace else?"
"He has to be here somewhere." Aviva said.
"Wait!" Louis said noticing something. "Look, look, it's Jackie Legs!"
"There he is!" Charlie yelled.
Straight ahead of them was Jackie Legs.
"That's him, that's him!" Charlie said.
"Kangaroo Jack, straight ahead!" Chris said.
"I knew this would work!" Louis said as Jackie hops off.
"Blue, bring us around!" Charlie said.
"Yeah, right!" Blue replied.
They begin to loop around as Charlie laughed.
"Get me there, Blue!" Louis said cocking the gun getting ready.
The plane and rocket begin to fly over the grassland as birds flew off from trees, and the mob of Red Kangaroos hopped as they followed.
"Now get up right on his tail and stay with him no matter what!" Charlie said they closed in.
The plane and rocket begin to close in as Jackie Legs looked back, and Martin aims a tranquilizer gun at him.
In the plane, Louis begins to take aim.
"Hey! Say hello to my little friend!" Louis said in a Scarface tone.
Louis laughed as he soon had Jackie Legs in his sights.
"Whoo! I got you now, Jackie Legs!" Louis said now locked onto him.
Jackie Legs looked back as he kept hopping.
"I'm gonna get you now." Louis said.
Jackie legs continues hopping.
"On my count, 3... 2..." Martin counted.
Then Kangaroo Jack banks a sharp turn to the left as Blue quickly turns the plane as the sudden jerk caused Louis to fire. The rocket made a sharp turn as well as causing Martin to fire.
"You hit him?" Charlie asked.
They looked back as the rocket joins them as they watched Jackie Legs hopping.
"I don't know." Louis said unsure. "He's still hopping."
"Maybe it takes a little time for it to take effect." Charlie said.
"Yeah, all right." Louis said turning to him.
But then Louis froze with a slightly nervous look.
"Charlie?" Louis said.
Martin looked ahead and then his eyes widen.
"Uh, guys?" Martin said nervously.
"What?" Chris said as he, Aviva and Jimmy looked ahead.
Charlie turned around and saw that Louis has struck something, but instead of Jackie Legs, he shot Blue as the dart on stuck on the back of his neck. And the same had happened with Koki who was flying the rocket.
Charlie lowered his flight goggles as well as the Wild Kratts.
"Oh, my God." Charlie said.
Jimmy then gasped.
"Uh-oh." Aviva said.
"Oh, no." Chris said.
"Uh, mates?" Blue said.
"Yes?" Charlie said.
"Got a bit of a wrinkle here." Blue said as his vision was blurring up as the dashboard was fuzzy to him. "The old optics are on the fritz."
"Uh, guys, I can't seem to see straight suddenly." Koki said as she was having the same effects.
"Stage 1: Temporary blindness." Louis said nervously.
Then suddenly both the plane and the rocket weren't flying straight as they held on.
"Was that the engine?!" Charlie asked.
"No." Blue said. "That was me. For some reason, I can't move me arms." As he lost the feeling in his arms as they limped.
"Guys, I can't-I can't hold the stick." Koki said having just lost the feeling in her arms.
"Stage 2: Partial paralysis!" Louis said panicking.
"Charlie, can you lean over here in take the stick?" Blue said. "I can still work the foot pedals."
"Oh, God!" Charlie said leaning over and grabs the stick.
"Take the stick firmly in hand and-" Blue said and then groaned doozing off.
Koki passed off as well as Jimmy quickly leans over grabbing the stick trying to keep the rocket steady.
"Blue!" Charlie said.
"Stage 3: Total shutdown of motor skills!" Louis cried.
The plane and rocket started to shallow dive.
"English, Blue, English!" Charlie said.
"Stage 4:..." Louis cried seeing a cliff ahead. "FIERY CRASH!"
They all looked ahead and screamed as well as Blue as Charlie and Jimmy turned the sticks as the plane and rocket banked left dodging the cliffs as they all screamed.
From a distance, Jackie Legs plainly watched as the plane and rocket flew by hearing the distant screaming from them as they descended.
Everyone continued screaming as the plane and rocket quickly descended, and then the plane hits the branches of a dead tree.
They continued soaring as they near the ground, and then they hit a ridge as the plane's landing gear broke. They kept screaming as the rocket's engine fails completely and the plane hits a chimney of an abandon building as the left wing broke off and they hit the ground hard.
From his ridge, Jackie Legs cringed from that.
He watches as a dust cloud was seen behind the hill.
Kangaroo Jack shrugged with a "Hm"-like groan and reaches into the left pocket with his snout and pulls out a Twizzler and eats it.
At the crash site, Charlie and Louis hopped out of the plane as well as Chris, Martin, Aviva and Jimmy getting out of the rocket.
"You okay?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah." Louis replied.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Good." Charlie said and removes his goggles. "'Cause I'm gonna beat you soft, Louis!"
"Like this is my fault?" Louis said.
"First rule of aviation: You never shoot the pilot!" Charlie said.
"Assume crash positions!" Blue exclaimed fully awake.
They all stared at him.
Louis removed his goggles. "Blue, we already crashed."
Blue then saw they were back on the ground.
"Oh, right." Blue said. "No worries, then."
Charlie and Louis turn to each other.
"No worries for you 2." Koki said also awake and got out of the rocket. "But definitely for Martin." She glared at him for shooting her.
"Uh-oh!" Martin panicked.
He then zipped off as Koki chased.
"Come back here!" Koki yelled.
Meanwhile, in the Old Alice Inn, a shadow looms at the entrance as a figure walks in.
"Can I help you?" The bartender asked.
"Think some friends of mine passed through here." The man said. "A couple of Yanks?"
"Friends?" The bartender said.
"Yeah." Smith said as 2 men were with him. "I promised the family back home I'd take care of them."
He then grins.
Author's Note:
I am truly sorry for the long delay, got caught in a lot of things.
But don't worry, this story is back in business.
And today marks 5 years of joining.