Blood curling screams stuffed the dawn sky as Clover sprinted across the shadow shrouded jungle beneath, her feet flying towards that chorus of catastrophe as it grew ever more into one terrible entity that blared in her ears if it were the only sound on earth until she finally came across what she was searching for. A clearing swarming with shrieking lemurs dashing this way and that while fossa cackled in sadistic mirth on their heels including one that snatched up a wailing Dorothy right smack in front of Clover. Who burst forth from the surrounding brush in a leaping kick and rammed her foot into the predator's cheek. Which smacked Dorothy out of their powerful jaws with a short shriek while her would be butcher fell to the jungle floor like a sack of stones.
With her enemy now laying in an unconscious heap, Clover then rushed to Dorothy. Who lay in a daze on the ground. At which Clover hoisted the other woman onto her shoulders and, swift as lightning, leapt right at the nearest tree and bounded off it's thick trunk, then shoot straight for it's neighbor's. Which she bounded off of as well, then the first again, then the second once more, then leapt onto one of the first's thick branches. Where she gently released a now very much awake but still stunned Dorothy onto the sturdy perch.
Clover then looked back down to the ground and was taken aback by what she found. By then, every other lemur had fled the scene while every fossa remained, with mouths agape and jungle eyes wide all around as they all stared back at her not with hunger nor homicidal rage but stunned dismay, with one incredulously saying to their neighbor,
"Clover here!?"
"This early!?" Said neighbor replied in kind.
"Too dark for hawk to fly!"
"Did fossa get wrong day!?"
This collective confusion extended to Clover and Dorothy as well but, as the fossa continued to converse among themselves, the former shoved aside her own befuddlement with a stern furrow of her brow, leapt off her branch and back down onto the ground. Where she landed on her feet before the baffled crowd, with no one having time to even blink before Clover punched one fossa in the nose, then gave another a brisk kick in the throat. Which snapped the others out of their stunned states and furrowed their brows into scorching scowls and one by one, the now enraged assailants leapt for their foe's throat with jaws and claws ready to tear her apart. To which Clover met them all with a lightning round of powerful punches and kicks accompanied by determined hi yaws and kiyaws as she sent one foe after another flying across the clearing and into the surrounding jungle, slammed them to the ground and into rock solid tree trunks and knocked the wind from each and every one of their lungs until she stopped and took one ragged breath after another amid the would be assassins as they laid all around her in a battered stupor.
"Wow! That was...thank ya, Clover!" Dorothy called down in sincere awe of her savior.
Who looked up at her rescuee as she replied automatically, "Just doing my...", until she got to the final part of her once familiar phrase. One she would still be saying on a regular basics if she hadn't...
"Clover?" Dorothy inquired, confused when the other woman suddenly trailed off and averted her gaze.
"Huh?" Clover replied in kind as she swiftly looked to her once more, snapped back to the present.
"You alright, hon? Are ya hurt?" Dorothy pressed on in gentle concern.
"What!? N-No! I mean, yes! No, I mean...I'm fine! I just...!" Clover struggled to frantically assure her, then stopped when she heard faint screaming in the distance.
"Are you su…?"
"I said I'm fine! Now go before this lot wakes up!" Clover demanded as she pointed to the surrounding treetops, then spread out her arms to the incapacitated fossa laying at her feet.
This took Dorothy aback and she tentatively asked, "I-If you're..."
"Go!" Clover snapped. To which Dorothy leapt with a startled start to the branch of a neighboring tree, then another and another after that, swiftly across the canopy and out of Clover's sight.
Once she was, Clover then bolted from the scene herself and raced through the jungle once more until she came across another clearing swarming with more fossa. Who were all clustered together as they slowly stalked around what Clover knew to be lemurs from the perky predator's gleeful giggles but just as she was about to reveal herself, she heard a pair of all too familiar screams that caused every fossa to turn towards them a split second before something struck the cluster of carnivores like a big bulky lightning bolt. Sent a wave of them flying every which way and that as it sliced through the pack like a shark against the tide and streamed out onto the other side before coming to a skidding stop. That's when Clover saw that Becca was hanging off the back of the bulky battering ram that looked like two chairs stacked on top of each other into a makeshift cage of sorts with Abner housed within, his brown arm poking out through it's bars.
"What the fuck!?" Clover incredulously exclaimed. At which every lemur and fossa still standing turned to her in shock.
"Clover heaaah!" One fossa declared in kind before howling in horror as Becca and Abner slammed into her. At which her remaining brethren screamed in simultaneous terror before scattering as the couple proceeded to chase after them, cackling madly as they weaved wildly this way and that in their ecstatic pursuit of ramming down each and every one of their enemies. Who yelped and yowled at the top of their lungs as they scrambled to escape. As they leapt, weaved and dodged, stumbled, slammed and rammed through their fallen and flying brethren and sprinted past their would be prey without a second glance. All while said prey watched it all unfold in stunned silence until every last fossa, both battered and unscathed, had bolted from the scene, with only their ever dimming howling remaining as Clover snapped out of her own stunned state and marched out of the shadows towards Abner and Becca. Who whooped and walloped, cheered and sneered on the fossa's heels, blissfully unaware of the queen or the rescued lemurs (none too quietly) discussing her arrival until she was right behind the gleeful couple and demanded to know,
"What the fuck was that!?"
At which the pair almost leapt out of their skins as they whipped around to face her, letting out sharp yelps as they did. Then, once they saw who was glaring at them, their startled expressions swiftly turned galled (with Clover seeing Abner's through the bars of his battering ram). "Where did yo…!? Do ya mind!? Celebrating our real victory over the fossa here!" Becca said snappishly, his paws flying from her sides to her hips to one stretched out towards where her foes had fled as she did.
"I can see that! What I wanna know is what the fuck were you two thinking!?" Clover snapped.
Which confused Becca and Abner to say the least. "What do ya mean?" The latter asked.
"I mean is that you're in a fucking wheelchair and yet, you're galavanting around fighting fossa!? Seriously!?" Clover critically explained with exasperation drenching her words, spreading out her arms towards said chair as she did.
"Yes and as you just saw, he's seriously fucking awesome at it!" Becca praised with an indignant edge lacing her words as she laid her arm around the top chair housing her husband. At which Clover scathingly replied,
"Seriously fucking lucky you're both still alive after that hair brained stunt is more like it!"
"Hair brained!? Stunt!?" Becca incredulously, irately exclaimed.
"Yes, stunt!That could have gotten you both killedif any of the fossa had fought back!"
"We could have taken them! We could have taken them all" Becca rancorously retorted as she came toe to toe with Clover. Whose feral gaze refused to yield to the other woman's twin infernos as she snapped back,
"They could have taken the top off your stupid contraption and snatched up Abner in seconds!"
"The chairs are tied together, you stupid bitch! Look!" At which Becca tried to wrap her fingers around the ropes that bound together the chairs making up Abner's battering ram, only managing to get a pitching grasp on the tight binds before she began to tug at them, with Abner swiftly following her lead from where he sat. But despite all the pair's genuine pulling and straining, neither were able to budge either of their ropes and after a few more moments of trying (accompanied by more moaning and groaning, huffing and puffing, etc.) Becca stopped and pointed a sharp finger at the persistent binds as she snapped at Clover, "Ya see!?"
"But can they withstand a dozen fossa clawing and biting at them all at once!? Or keep your contraption in one piece if it's slammed to the ground at fifty miles an hour!? Or would it have all broken to pieces and Abner had been slammedto the ground!? What would he have done then, huh!? Run away!? Oh wait, that's right, he can't!" Clover's retort grew ever more sardonic as she spoke, with her lips curling into a satisfied smirk as horrified realization steadily crept up on Becca.
"He...h-he's got a spear and I do too! We would have used them to fight the bastards together!" She desperately defended as she grabbed a spear from the back of the battering ram and held it out to Clover, unable to hide the dread drenching her words from the queen. Who said with a sneer,
"And you really think that would have been enough?"
"It sure as hell would have been our all!" Abner passionately proclaimed. At which all turned to him in shock and were all ears as he went on to say, "And if I died, I'd rather I died fighting stead of sitting round like a useless sitting duck that can't do nothing for nobody! But you wouldn't know nothing bout that, would ya miss 'look at me! I don't need nothing from nobody and anybody who does ain't worth a damn!' Well, we don'tneed you! We got ourselves and Dr. S and we're gonna be here for him cause he's been here for us more then you ever have! So lay off my wife, you selfish, no right to talk about our safety shank!", his words turning witheringly sarcastic before switching back to sincerely scorching scorn as he rolled himself in between Becca and Clover. Who parted ways without protest, too stunned to do otherwise, with Clover's wide meadow eyes locked with Abner's blistering blues all the while.
"Abner..." Becca uttered in gentle concern and just like that, Abner's demeanor softened as he turned to her and as the pair silently stared at each other for a moment or two, as caring campfire eyes held tender blue, Clover noticed something she hadn't before. That she could no longer hear any horrified screaming or heinous howling or any of the other catastrophic clamor that had awoken her that miserable morning. Only the chirping of birds being carried on the cool dawn breeze. That was until…
"Clover! Clover, are you there!?"
...Maurice's frantic screaming sliced through them a split second before the advisor burst onto the scene and came to a screeching stop upon seeing her. "Clover!" He cried out in joyous relief and sprinted towards his friend.
"Maurice!?" Clover incredulously exclaimed, then sprinted herself and when Maurice was within reach, swiftly scooped him up in her arms and pulled him into a tenderly tight hug that was readily returned.
"Thank the gods you're alright!" Maurice proclaimed, then pulled away from Clover to anxiously look her over as he asked, "Are you hurt!?"
"I'm fine! Are you!? What are you doing here!? I told you to stay in the plane!" Clover gave her vexed reply as she released Maurice back onto his feet.
"I know! I know! But-but I couldn't! Not with King Julien and Rob out there! I had to go look for them! I had to!" Maurice explained frantically as thoughts of his friends sleeping out in an open clearing, where any fossa could so easily find them, flashed through his mind.
"You...soft hearted dumbass! You could have...agh!" Clover's scorn ended in an exasperated scream as she yanked her friend into another hug. Which, after a stunned second, he tenderly returned.
"Maurice! Clover!"
King Julien's ecstatic screaming suddenly sounded and with a hopeful start, Clover and Maurice turned to see their friend racing towards them.
"King Julien!" The pair cried out in joyous relief, with Julien kneeling and enveloping them both into a tenderly tight embrace before either could blink while blubbering out a string of gibberish too garbled together to decipher.
"Maurice!? Clover!? Oh thank Frank you guys are okay!" Rob expressed his own relief as he raced onto the scene and came to stand beside the cuddling companions.
"Thank Frank you guys are okay!" Maurice replied in kind to him and Julien. Who blubbered on as he tenderly rubbed his face against Maurice and Clover's cheeks. At which his friends each freed an arm to pull him in ever closer and the three of them stayed like that until…
"Ah hmm."
...Becca curtly interrupted. Which earned her swift glares from the huddled trio and Rob, with her own unwaning as she went on to explain, "This is touching and all but there's something that ain't right here. Abner talking about Dr. S gots me thinking. We's been all over everywhere this morning but didn't see high or tail of Dr. S anywhere! Have any of you?"
To which hers and Abner's crowd of rescued lemurs confirmed that none of them had seen a trace of the snake doctor either.
"Uh...no?" Julien tentatively parroted their statements as he shook his head likewise.
"I know I haven't." Maurice said with more confidence as well as confusion.
"Neither have I. He said he'd be back before dawn. What gives, Nurse Phantom? You know what's taking him so long?" Clover said to everyone, then herself with thoughtful recollection, then gave her irked inquiry of the nurse as she pulled away from Maurice and Julien but before he could, Becca gave her own response.
"Whoa, whoa, wait! Back up! Ya'll are saying that Dr. S left us in the middle of the night, when me and Abner and everybody else training with him had never, ever really defended ourselves against the fossa for real til today, without knowing if we could, with only her to protect to us if we couldn't!?" She inquired with ever escalating ire, pointing a sharp thumb over at Clover as she did. Which not only boiled the lemur queen's blood but Julien, Maurice and Rob's as well, with the latter being the one who critically countered,
"Yes! Cause he had to go out to get food and he knows that Clover is more then capable of protecting everyone on her own!"
"Bullshit! Me and Abner were the ones busting our tails protecting everyone! All she's done is have the nerve to be angry at us for it!"
"I'm angry because you fat headed twats could have gotten yourselves killed!" Clover snapped.
"Cause I'm in a wheelchair, right!?" Abner snapped back. At which all eyes turned to him and the blaze was stomped out of Clover's gaze as he went on to say, "Cause of his hair brained stuntsthat he never would have thought of if it weren't for you!? You and your two faced fossa you married for his super awesome army of mountain lemurs who are all so much stronger and better then us pathetic weaklingsyou couldn't get away from fast enough!", with teeth and bitterness ever more bared with each scathing syllable as he glared at Clover and Julien with eyes like twin oceans yearning to drag the pair down through their unforgiving depths, daring either lemur to utter a word of protest after his own tongue stopped spewing it's searing venom, with only his ragged breathing stuffing the smothering silence that followed until...
"Help! Help! Dear gods, help!"
...Pancho's panicked shrieking shattered it.
"Pancho!?" Someone incredulously exclaimed and all turned towards his cry in time to see the felon himself sprinting onto the scene, flailing his arms through the air while shouting,
"They got him! They got Horst!"
A dire declaration that brought Julien's heart to a dead stop until Pancho halted before him, grabbed his shoulders and shook them violently as he demanded to know, "Where is he!? Where's Dr. S!?"
"I-I don't know! He's not in the kingdom anywhere!" Julien frantically explained.
"What!?" Pancho incredulously, irately exclaimed as he brought them almost nose to nose, with Julien not even wincing at his blaring bark, too frozen in fear by the felon's blazing gaze boring into his hammering heart.
At which Clover, Maurice and Rob sprinted to separate them, with the former two shoving Pancho back while the latter yanked Julien out of his grasp as all three of the king's friends snapped,
"Get your damn paws off of him, you barmy bastard!"
"Get away from him, you son of a bitch!"
"What the fuck is wrong with you, man!?"
"Get your filthy paws off me!" Pancho snapped back as he yanked himself away from the piqued companions, then brushed himself off in disgust. "You don't want me asking our 'great and caring' king why Dr. S isn't here doing his damn job, fine! I'll ask you guys why Dr. S isn't here doing his damn job!?"
"Because he had to go out hunting and I don't know where or why he's taking so long!" Rob hostily explained as he and Clover stood before Julien while Maurice stayed at their friend's side, with the trio glaring daggers at Pancho while Julien looked to his subject in sorrow as realization crashed down upon him.
"Are you shitting me!?" Pancho screeched, then clenched his head and started pacing about as he went on in furious dismay, "I don't believe this! I don't fucking believe this! None of you knows where Dr. S is! Horst doesn't have the fucking time to go out looking for the bastard! The fossa...why!?" At that anguished cry, he stopped pacing and sharp pangs pulsed through everyone's hearts as he shouted to the sky, "Why does this keep happening!?", then clenched his head once more and shook it in kind until someone shattered the crowd's helpless silence with a befuddled,
"Hey, where's Clover?"
"Huh!?" Julien uttered likewise and looked around the clearing for his friend along with everyone else but neither he or anyone else saw a trace of her anywhere. Not then or when Julien continued in his search while briskly walking about, with paws cupped around his mouth as he ever more anxiously called out, "Clover? Clover!?"
"She must have gone after Horst herself!" Maurice declared in dismay.
"That bitch!"
"What!?" Julien, Maurice and Rob all incredulously, irately exclaimed at Pancho's brusque insult, with the former swiftly adding before either of his companions could, "Clover's gone off to save your friend and you're still calling her that!?"
"Yes! Cause that self-centered bitch only wants to save Horst so that she can be the big 'hero' and fix her fucked rap!" Pancho snapped.
"You really think that's what she's caring about right now!?"
"I know that's all that sha…!"
Pancho's scorching retort was cut short when Maurice's swift fist slammed into his stomach, wrenching out a gagging yelp from the felon's lungs (simultaneous with the crowd's sharp gasps) as his paws flew to the searing pain sent pulsing through his arching abdomen. Which was promptly replaced by muffled wailing hummed through tightly clamped lips as Pancho curled in on himself ever farther and fell to his knees and this miserable melody was surrounded by speechless silence, with even Maurice stunned by what he had done, until Becca's wide eyed gaze furrowed into a scorching scowl and she screeched, "You son of a bitch!", as she charged towards him with fist raised high, ready to strike.
Which instantly snapped Maurice out of his stunned state but before he could even put his paws up to shield himself, Julien and Rob bolted past him and swift as lighting, the duo grabbed Becca by her arms, dug their heels into the dirt and shoved with all their might against the livid lady lemur.
"Let go of me!" Becca shrieked as she furiously shoved back but Julien and Rob refused to heed to her demand, the pair determined to protect their companion from her wrath.
"She said let go, you bastards!" Abner snapped, as livid as his lover as he rushed to her and their foes, grabbed Rob's free arm, yanked it through the bars of his battering ram and slammed the nurse's head against them with all his might.
"Fuck!" Rob yowled upon impact.
"Get em, baby!"
"Let him go, Abner!"
Becca praised as Julien demanded, with the latter releasing the former to rush to his friend's aid, but just as Julien's fingers were a whisker away from Rob's free arm, Becca's swift fist collided with the king's jaw, sending him plummeting backwards to the jungle floor. Where he landed like a sack of stones, wrenching the wind from his lungs, knocking him into a breathless stupor.
"Julien!"
Rob and Maurice cried out in dismay and the former heaved in earnest against Abner's hold but the hate-filled hillbilly refused to heed to his foe. Even when Maurice thrust his arm into the enclosed part of the battering ram and furiously swung his claws within, Abner wildly swung his head out of their reach while his paws remained anchored in place. At which Becca belted out a blood curling screech as she clamped her free paw around Maurice's tail and yanked it with all her might, wrenching out a wail from her enemy that prompted Rob to pull her other arm ever harder. This heaved out a yowl from the lady lemur that spurred Abner into spinning his battering ram in faster and faster circles in an attempt to throw off their foes, turning their tumultuous tug of war into the likeness of a snake eating itself while caught in the gales of a roaring tropical storm. At which time Julien and Pancho sprung into the unfurling fray and Abner spun them all ever faster and their audience leapt and dodged out of their way as they plowed across the clearing, with the battle raging on long after it's final bystander fled the scene and soul baring war cries no longer drowned out terror stricken screaming.