Emerging Compassions
Chapter 17: Defending Ourselves
(Cindy's POV)
Right at that moment, we heard some rustling in the foliage, though it was somewhat distant from us.
"J-J-J-Jimmy, what's that n-n-noise?" Carl stammered nervously, pointing a shaking finger where the noise was coming from.
"I have no idea!" he cautioned, "But be warned, and watch out for its claws, fangs, spikes, or horns, if it has any!"
The source of the sound came ever closer to us, cautiously approaching us foot by foot.
While Carl and Sheen were shaking with fear, Libby and I took up tai-kwon-do poses and prepared to attack. That was when the creature emerged from the shadows.
"Calm down, guys! He's completely harmless!" Jimmy reassured us, "It's only a ring-tailed lemur!"
All 4 of us then relaxed, seeing that this creature was perfectly harmless.
Then we heard some more rustling in the foliage, but it didn't sound friendly. The noise became louder and faster the closer it got to us, making the lemur dart back into the jungle. "Yipes!" I squealed, tightly embracing Jimmy who immediately returned the favor, "I hope it's not a tiger!"
"I hope not, too, Cindy!" he exclaimed fearfully, his teeth faintly chattering.
The sound approached us faster and faster until the creature that made it lept into view. It was none other than a ferocious Malaysian tiger!
With that, Jimmy commanded Goddard, "Goddard, prepare for attack mode!" He barked and his ion-blaster popped out of his back hatch, armed and ready to fire at the appropriate command from his master. Right then, the tiger let out an ear-splitting roar that seemed to shake the very ground we were standing on. Carl and Sheen ran and hid behind the rocket to try to evade the ferocious beast. Then the tiger leaned backward and prepared to pounce on us at any given moment. "That does it!" Jimmy muttered, then ordered, "Goddard, hit him with an ion blast!"
Goddard barked and did just that. The blast hit it and seemed to physically paralyze it from head to toe, then it tipped over to its side and fell unconscious.
Carl and Sheen emerged from behind the rocket and soon rejoined us, breathing a sigh of relief. Then Carl, the ever-concerned animal-lover, asked, "The tiger's not hurt, is he?"
"Not at all, Carl! The ion blast he received will keep him knocked out for 5 to 6 hours," Jimmy calmly exclaimed, getting his hypno-ray out of his hypercube. Then he commanded, aiming it at the tiger after activating it, "You will NEVER again hunt or harm any humans!"
Then, suddenly, some war-like rants faintly came upon our ears, though they got closer every second, in some language we couldn't understand. Once again, Sheen and Carl just stood there shaking while Libby and I took up tai-kwon-do poses to try to defend ourselves.
Right then, for some weird reason, Sheen started doing this bizzarre dance, probably based off of some lame UltraLord episode he'd seen, no doubt...
Jimmy just rolled his eyes and told him, "Sheen, I don't really think that this dance is gonna keep these natives from attacking us."
"Can so! I saw this dance on UltraLord episode 325: Attack of the Barbaric Cyborgs! Watch!" Sheen sharply informed him, and continued his weird dance for several more minutes.
Carl just slapped his forehead and shook his head, muttering, "We're doomed..."
Then Libby walked over to him and scolded, "Sheen, this is useless! Now cut it out before we get attacked or somethin'!"
"My queen is chagrined? What must I do to please you?" he pleaded with her.
"Just stop doin' that weird dance already!" she snapped, then looked over towards the jungle and saw several sets of piercing, evil-looking eyes that seemed to staring right through her and the rest of us, then yelped, "YIKES! Let's get outta here!"
"Guys, relax! I have it handled!" Jimmy consoled us, then told Goddard, "Go get some water and splash it on the tiger, and hurry!"
He barked and went to get some, then soon returned to us and sprayed the tiger with it.
Jimmy then gulped and exclaimed, "I hope the hypnosis worked on him!"
The tiger woke up abruptly, but as Jimmy had hoped, began to stretch and clean itself instead of attacking us. "Whew, what a relief!" Carl breathed, wiping his brow.
Right at that moment, the natives emerged from the shadows and prepared their weapons for attack. By then, we'd named the tiger Sheer-Khan. I'd chosen the name myself. Jimmy grabbed his hypno-ray and zapped him again, saying, "I command you to always stand guard and protect us from the native tribes until we leave Indonesia!" Then he embedded a special tablet into a piece of meat and tossed it to him, instructing him, "Here, have a snack!"
He immediately began chowing down on it, then a strange look in his eyes seemed to tell us that he suddenly understood everything that was said, and faced the natives with a fierce look on his face. He then let out a deafening roar that scared the wits out of the natives, who let out cries of fear and left us alone.
Suddenly, he spoke words we could understand and said, "That takes care of them!"
We just stood there, speechless, astounded that this tiger just SPOKE to us! Then I asked Jimmy, "What did you feed this tiger, Sheer-Khan?"
"Just a slab of meat, is all."
"I mean besides that!" I argued.
"I gave Sheer-Khan a capsule that gave him the ability to speak and understand us," he calmly replied.
"Yay! Now we have a tiger on our side!" Carl cheered.
"'Sheer-Khan'... I like that name," he informed us.
"So it shall be," I said confidently.
That was when we set up our camping gear and got settled in. Sheer-Khan laid a short distance away to guard the camp against invaders. Boy, would we need his assistance in the coming weeks...!