Chapter 30- at the airport

Later

The storm was, by now, close to Rio and the growls of thunder could be heard in the distance. People in the city were preparing for the storm by rushing for their homes and were packing valuable things away. In the jungle, animals also rushed to their homes or for their shelters and birds called their chicks home. However, several certain groups were on the run and had no intentions of preparing for the incoming storm and the poachers weren't the only ones. In the alley where Frank and the others had been, several black and white cars and brightly coloured vans with bright red and blue lights flashing from their roofs pulled up. As soon as they did that, a band of police and some other humans, among them Tulio, Linda, Fernando, Francisco, Luca, Audrey, Brandon and Joanna immediately exited the cars to investigate the areas. The police vans had brought in a pack of sniffer dogs trained to help out in crime investigations by using their sense of smell to, for example, sniff out suspicious things like illegal drugs. Then as soon as the dogs were out of the vans, their owners sent them to sniff the area while the humans searched for evidence visually.

"According to some eyewitnesses, the suspects have driven those stolen vans to here and have parked them for something," said the chief of the police named Chief Antonio as he looked around the messy area filled with piles of trash, "But I think they have disappeared..."

His underlings and their dogs continued to search the area with Tulio and the others helping. As they did that, Linda was in a state of panic.

"I only hope that my big brave boy Blu hasn't been caught along with his lovely mate Jewel and their three beautiful chicks," the red-haired American-born woman cried.

"S-s-same here with my b-b-buddy M-M-M-Milo, B-B-Brandon's macaws Aurora and S-S-S-Sirius and J-J-J-Joanna's b-b-bat Ahsoka," said Audrey as she looked behind some of the trash piles, "B-b-boy this alley's sure a m-m-m-mess..." she grunted as a sticky piece of gum got stuck to the sole of her foot.

"Alleys usually are, Audrey, unfortunately," said Fernando.

"They're just like the alleys back in my home country of London," said Brandon. He then began to worry for Sirius, Aurora and the other invaluable animals including Blu and his family, Ahsoka and Milo. "I sure hope those seven blue macaws, that Spix macaw family and both of those flying foxes hadn't been smuggled..."

"I sure hope not," Joanna said nearby after looking into a bin, "Especially my foster bat and friend Ahsoka. She still cannot fly."

"Can the sniffer dogs find anything, Chief Antonio?" asked Tulio as he searched more piles of rubbish with Francisco. He was keeping his cool but he, too, was clearly stressed and was desperate to find Blu and his family and the nine invaluable animals and was hoping, like Linda, Brandon, Audrey and Joanna, that they were not too late.

"Just give our canine assistants a little more time, Tulio," Chief Antonio replied as the dogs continued to do their work. Tulio gazed at the canine members of the police force and breathed out a sigh. As the dogs continued their work, Fernando took a few steps back and felt his left foot land onto something feeling like a twig. Immediately, the young lad and former smuggler kid looked down and to his surprise, he saw a dash of light blue. Immediately, he knelt down and picked up the twig to examine it closely. When he recognised the 'twig', he called, "Tulio, I've found a feather!"

Immediately, Tulio, together with Linda, Francisco, Audrey, Joanna and Brandon, ran over to him. As they approached him, Fernando showed them the twig, indeed a feather.

"Is th-th-th-that from one of th-th-th-the Spix macaws?" asked Audrey, "It's d-d-d-definitely not fr-fr-from Milo as h-h-his feathers are a FAR d-d-d-darker bl-bl-blue."

"It could be either from Aurora or Jewel," said Linda. Then Tulio took the feather from Fernando's hand and tasted it. As he did that, Brandon looked down and saw more feathers scattered about the piles and puddles of trash. Some more of them were blue but a few of them were other colours as well such as black. To his surprise, he also saw some very thin filaments scattered among the feathers and the trash. Some of them were orange coloured.

"There's hair also scattered around here," he said. Joanna and Audrey came in as Brandon scooped up some of the hairs to examine them closer. "Are they dog hairs or something?"

Joanna examined the orange thin filaments closely with a frown.

"More like bat hairs," said she, "Those must be off of Ahsoka. She has a vibrant shade of ginger fur."

"Yes, this feather is from Brandon's macaw Aurora," Tulio's voice pulled the three the lead ornithologist's way. He had finished identifying the feather as he went on. "Aurora has definitely been here."

"I think so have the other Spix macaws including Blu and his family," said Linda as she came in with several more blue feathers, some of them blue and a shade of it between the lighter cerulean and maya and darker navy. Tulio took these from Linda's hand and tasted them as well. After he did this, a frown formed on his face. "Yes, these feathers are from blue and also from the other male Spix macaw and Aurora's intended mate."

Linda flinched while Audrey, Brandon and Joanna looked on.

"Then that means Blu and the others have DEFINITELY been here," said Francisco but then a look of dread formed on Tulio's face and he gave the group such a look that one would think that he had just seen a monster. Linda and the others gazed at the lead ornithologist's face as the colour melted away from his face such that it went pale and deduced the reason for this, a reason they did NOT like, especially Linda. During this, Francisco saw some dashes of white out the corner of his eye on the floor. Immediately, he turned his gaze to the white dashes and initially assumed them to be just pieces of white paper but then he saw that they were also feathers. Right away, he walked over to these feathers and picked up two of them. They were long and based on their asymmetric shape; they appeared to be flight feathers from a wing.

"Tulio, there are white feathers scattered here too," he said. Tulio and the others turned to him and also took in the long white objects. Brandon immediately recognised the source of the feathers.

"Those are swan feathers," he said, "The swans back in England are often of the white species."

When Audrey shot Brandon a confused look, Joanna noted to her.

"You can get black swans as well," she said.

"R-r-r-really?" asked Audrey with intrigue, "I-I-I thought all swans had white feathers."

"I'll show you some black swan species later," said Joanna.

Then some of the sniffer dogs released confirmatory barks and their owners shouted to Chief Antonio. One policeman also spotted some tyre marks in the concrete, evidence that two vehicles had been present. Furthermore, black feathers were also present and Tulio, Linda, Francisco and Francisco identified them as being from crows and ravens, having seen Charon with Jack and Jill.

"It's clear that the suspects have been here," said the Chief, "Along with the two stolen vans. However, they seemed to have left before we arrived."

Then Tulio felt realisation hit him.

"I believe they may be on their way to the airport by now," said he, "And they will be VERY eager in leaving Rio with Aurora and the others, possibly including Blu and his family. We MUST chase down those bandits before they take off from the runway," he turned to Chief Antonio, "Get us to the airport RIGHT AWAY, Chief."

"Okay dokey, no problem," said the Chief and with that, he called together his underlings and commanded them to return the dogs to their vans and to prepare to drive off to the airport. The sniffer dog owners did so and did just that. As they did this, Tulio commanded everyone else to return to the police cars right away and they did. As soon as everyone was back in the police vehicles, they drove off to the same destination the smugglers were headed. The drivers turned on the red and blue lights and the sirens to let any other road user know that the squad was in an emergency rush and to make way. As he rode in Chief Antonio's car with Linda and Fernando, Tulio began to phone his group of bird catchers who had kitted themselves with net guns and cages to drive to the airport and immediately, that gbroup, among them Alejandra Florason (the same person who visited Audrey and Milo in Australia), carried out the commands, got into their vehicles and headed off to the airport as well.

At the airport

Frank and his group arrived at the airport after some difficulty of driving through the traffic in the city. The smugglers were finally glad to be at the airport and the moment they pulled up the vans, both the humans and the pets immediately disembarked and set to their tasks. Frank went to the hangar to bring out a plane built for carrying loads, a Sky Van, while Peter, Marv, Vera, Jack, Jill and all the pets lead by Vecna, Dooku, Lysandre and Brutus and also Sunspot, Katrina and Charon immediately went round to the pack of the vans to unload the caged animals from the cargo holds to load into the cargo hold of the Sky Van. Among the caged animals, Sirius, Aurora, Milo, Ahsoka, Orion, Zephyr, Brisa, Samara, Celeste, Blu and his family, Rafael and Eva and their 25 toucan kids, Alabaster and Poppy, Pedro with the still-unconscious Nico and also Luiz looked on. Aurora, Sirius and Milo were on the verge of having an anxiety attack as this process was igniting a return of bad memories of their being smuggled out of Rio as chicks. Aurora sat with her back to the bars of the cage, hyperventilation taking her over and twitchiness making her feet jerk and shift as though they wanted to flee and carry the rest of her with them and the rest of her body began to shake. Aurora put her wing on her chest and continued to shake hyperventilate, flashbacks of herself and Sirius gazing from their cage at other distressed animals appearing in her mind along with a white form as it cackled at them. Milo and Sirius were also in a state of panic and the pair was clearly on edge. They, too, were hyperventilating and shaky and tormented by a flood of bad memories and Zephyr, who was in the same cage as them, tried to calm them. Samara saw the three as the panic attack continued to engulf them in a whirlwind of immense terror.

"I can see those three have DEFINITELY been through all this before," she told the others as they also looked on at the trio as they continued to have their attacks. Zephyr continued to try and to calm them down.

"Breathe you three," he said.

"I... I c-c-can't..." Aurora replied in a squeaky voice as she continued to hyperventilate. She then trembled violently as she watched Peter, Marv, Vera and a VERY reluctant Jack and Jill continue to empty the vans of caged animals, the dogs, cats, ravens and crows and Vecna helping them. While they did that, a cuboid-shaped plane drove out of the hangar and towards them, Frank in the cockpit. Aurora, Sirius and Milo felt their anxiety attack's fires increase more when they saw this while Zephyr and the others including Blu and his family looked on. Pedro with a still-unconscious Nico, Rafael and his big family, Alabaster and Poppy and Luiz also looked on from their cages.

"It's not surprising," Alabaster said with understanding, "Any animal that has survived and escaped poaching is bound to suffer severe trauma from it."

"That kind of reaction was commonplace among most of the members that had been through the horrible process back in our mixed-species tribe," Orion said, "Some of Celeste's clan members were DEATHLY afraid of poachers."

Celeste said nothing and continued looking on as Aurora, Sirius and Milo then began to have a meltdown.

"You three, COME ON!" cried Jewel as she continued to hold Carla, Bia and Tiago and trying to snap them out of their anxiety attack, "You're STRONGER THAN THIS!"

Blu, Samara, Ahsoka, Orion, Zephyr, Brisa and Celeste also cried out to the panicking three encouraging remarks but then suddenly, some of the dogs, cats and corvids came in and yelled at them to shut up. Then what came next was a VERY mean thing. One of the cats, Ria the American shorthair, gazed at the panicking Aurora, Milo and Sirius. Rather than taking pity, a nasty smirk crept into her muzzle.

"Hey, guys look, those three are havin' a panic attack," she crooned mockingly, pulling the attention of some of the others including Blofeld, Otis, Celosia, Sombra, Noire and also Sunspot, Katrina and Charon to the anxiety-crazed trio. Nearby, Vecna also came in, having seen the three have their panic attack. Then to the UTMOST disgust of Blu and the others including Alabaster, Poppy, Rafael, Eva, Luiz and even the toucan kids, the group began to pick on the poor Aurora, Milo and Sirius. Zephyr immediately took up a defensive pose in front of the frightened Sirius and Milo.

"Whassup, you three?" asked Blofeld, "Impendin' trip sendin' ya over the edge?"

"It's always natural to be nervous," said Ria, "'Specially if your destination is unknown."

"Hey, POACHERS' MUD-PETS," screeched Samara, "YOU LEAVE THOSE THREE ALONE!"

"If we were OUT here right NOW; WE'RE GONNA CLAW AN' BITE YA REAL GOOD!" put in Zephyr and with that, he flared the claws of his talons to enforce his threat. The others also yelled at Blofeld, Ria and the others to stop rubbing in the panic of the three but to their UTMOST frustration, their protests fell on deaf ears and they continued to bully Aurora, Sirius and Milo. Then Vecna seized the opportunity to take pleasure in the three macaws' meltdowns. After all, stressed and suffering parrots were one of his VERY favourite things. As Vecna approached the three panicking macaws and began to intimidate them, Pedro continued to cradle Nico.

"Oh, Nico, my bud, I'm so sorry," the cardinal said tearfully but then the canary moved and opened his eyes.

"What happened?" said Nico in a low voice.

"NICO!" cried Pedro with relief, "I'm GLAD you're ALRIGHT AN' ALIVE!"

Then Nico's wings went to his head to feel for his signature bottle cap hat but to his dismay, he felt nothing. Immediately, the enraged canary sprung to his feet.

"C'mon, le's get POP DESE CAGES OPEN like SODA CANS, BE OUTA 'ERE AN' GIVE THOSE PESKY POACHERS' PETS A PIECE OF OUR MINDS!" he demanded, determined to tear out some poachers' pets' fur and feathers.

"Are you CRAZY, Nico!?" Alabaster snapped, "You're lucky Vecna didn't kill ya when he struck you unconscious with that massive wing when you rushed to protect me and you tossed your cap into his face."

"Yeah, he could have snapped your NECK or something from the force of the blow and the impact you had with the wall," put in Poppy.

"Vecna, STOP IT! CAN'T YA SEE YA MAKIN' THINGS WORSE FOR THOSE THREE MACAWS, please STOP IT!" cried Ahsoka's voice. Immediately Pedro, Alabaster, Poppy and the now-conscious and currently hatless Nico turned and to their horror and disgust, they saw Vecna severely bother the melting-down Aurora, Sirius and Milo, deliberately ignoring Ahsoka's cries that he stop and some of the cat, dog and corvid underlings, among them Brutus, Lysandre, Dooku, Sunspot, Katrina and Charon, the latter three also disgusted, looking on. Some of the cats, dogs, crows and ravens including Dooku and Otis goaded Vecna on into taking his torment up a gear and the swan gladly did.

Aurora, Sirius and Milo continued to have their SEVERE panic attack, now veering into the realm of shedding tears of terror and the utterances of frightened whimpers as Vecna continued to torment them by releasing NASTY hisses and declaring his hopes to them that they meet a HORRIBLE end. Zephyr who was not one BIT intimidated by the massive swan, began to enter aggressive mode but Vecna took no notice of him.

"Why are ya three panickin'?" the evil swan continued in mock comfort, "Don't ya wanna look forward to bein' a taxidermy decoration...?" his voice then morphed into a demonic snarl of mockery, "Like when you did when you were CHICKS!?"

Aurora, Sirius and Milo refused to answer and continued to break down. They curled up into balls on the floors of their cages, put their wings onto their heads and let loose distressed cries to Vecna's UTMOST pleasure and he released a demonic, maniacal cackle, Zephyr looking on with PURE wrath.

"I'm gonna TIE A KNOT in ya MANGY SNAKE-NECK when I GET OUTA THIS PIECE OF JUNK, OVERGROWN SLIME QUAIL!" the male Spix macaw screeched.

"I'm afraid ya outa luck in doin' that, Spix gem slug," Vecna replied before he turned his wicked one-eyed glare at the quivering Aurora, "An' by the way, is that macaw slug ya girlfriend?" Zephyr gazed at the anxious Aurora as she continued to quiver in a ball on the floor of her cage as Vecna continued, an evil idea entering his evil head, "Then I don't mind entertainin' HER in front of YOU, Romeo."

Then with Zephyr and the others apart from Milo and Sirius looking on, the swan approached Aurora's cage and slowly began to slither his snake-like head and neck towards her. He was going to do one of his NASTIEST methods of torture to her: a jumpscare. He did this by slowly sneaking his head and neck through the bars of the cage of a SEVERELY distressed parrot and when they looked up at him frightfully, he would lash at them and screeched LOUDLY at them at point-blank range with his beak open wide like a snake and his single eye inflated to add to the terror. Countless parrots have been severely traumatised by this wicked trick, and Sunspot, Charon and Katrina, despite having been poachers' pets for a short time, had seen this several times before and it had left them in UTMOST tears of guilt and distress, the looks of terror in those poor victims' faces etched in their minds likely for life. Furthermore, this wicked trick had resulted in the end of a few of the parrot victims and the trio remembered a frail elderly blue-winged macaw being one of those unfortunate creatures. But seeing Vecna attempt to perform that trick again, this time on a SEVERELY distressed macaw that had been through the process of poaching before and lived right NOW was finally the last leaf and Sunspot began to step out of line for the first time.

"Vecna, don't ya DARE..." Zephyr screeched and began to tackle the bars of the cage in a vian attempt to escape it and fly at the swan to rake his claws through his already-ragged and scarred white plumage, "IF you do as MUCH AS A 'BOO' TO THAT MACAW..."

Milo and Sirius slowly looked up and saw what Vecna was going to do and screamed Aurora's name in distress. However, the cats, dogs and corvids barked at them to shut up. However, as soon as Vecna was about to deliver the MASSIVE jumpscare to the severely panicking and terrorised Aurora with the cats, dogs and corvids looking on sadistically and waiting for the imminent jumpscare and Aurora's reaction as well as Blu and the others' protests that the swan stop and the threats he will face falling on deaf ears, Sunspot took action. The young Dalmatian surged forward towards the MASSIVE swan, reared up on his hind legs and purposely slammed his front paws onto the swan's side, stopping the swan short of giving Aurora a SEVERE fright to the surprise of Blu and the others including Zephyr, Milo and Sirius, but to the RAGE of the other poachers' pets, especially Brutus and Vecna.

"SUNSPOT!" cried this crowd. Vecna, ENRAGED, snapped his FURIOUS glare at Sunspot and was about to attack him but then Frank called the pets.

"Can you help get those caged animals into the plane please," called he, "We don't have time for messin' about."

Immediately Vecna abandoned the idea of attacking Sunspot.

"I'll take care of ya of THAT LATER, Dalmatian pup, now DO AS FRANK SAYS!" he snarled, screeching the final words and making Sunspot flinch and Katrina and Charon further back behind him jump. Then the swan turned round and began to see to the task.

"Seriously, Sunspot, you HAD to spoil the upcoming EXCITING moment," Brutus added.

"It was an accident," protested Sunspot but Brutus was not fooled and didn't buy the excuse.

"Let's just get this over with," the Doberman snapped.

"Yes, the sooner we're OUTA here, the better," put in Lysandre, "The storm ain't too far away now."

And with that, he and Brutus nodded to their cat and dog underlings and the four-footed city mammals scattered with the corvids to the unloaded caged animals. Sunspot gazed at Blu and the others as Milo, Sirius and Aurora continued to have their anxiety attack, Zephyr trying in vain to calm the two males that were caged with him, and left with Katrina and Charon. Luiz looked on.

"I 'ave a feelin' dose three are rebels..." the bulldog said hopefully but Rafael shushed at him to be quiet, making Luiz shut his drooling mouth. Luiz just slurped with his tongue and exhaled.

And so the loading of the plane with the caged animals began with the humans lifting each cage either one or two at a time and taking them into the flying vehicle with the hands and the cats and dogs using their front paws and the corvids, their talons. Marv struggled with the task due to the injuries Aurora had inflicted on him, including on his right hand where she had clamped her beak in rage for his and his group's treatment of her and the other animals, ESPECIALLY the chaining together. Despite this, he continued. As the caged animals continued to be loaded onto the Sky Van with Eva, Rafael and the toucan kids being carried there next, Jack, Jill, Sunspot, Katrina and Charon looked on and then turned to Aurora, Sirius, Milo, Blu, Jewel, Carla, Bia, Tiago, Zephyr, Brisa, Samara, Celeste, Ahsoka and Orion in their cages. Aurora, Sirius and Milo seemed to have calmed down but they were still VERY on edge, especially at the sight of the Sky Van and the caged animals being loaded into it. As chicks they had been loaded onto one of these after poachers successfully caught them and now they were to face it all over again, this time as adults. Ahsoka, who had managed to escape smuggling as a pup thanks in part to the intervention of Gabriel's group of blue-and-gold macaws who then gave her to Joanna to raise, was going to face smuggling for the first time in her life. That is, if something was not done. After gazing at the twelve blue macaws and two flying foxes, Jack and Jill went over to them while Sunspot, Katrina and Charon left to find the keys to the padlocks to the valuable animals' cages.

"We're gonna bust you outa there," Jack said and put his hands to Milo, Zephyr and Sirius' cage while Jill put hers to Ahsoka's but before either of the twins could as much as place a finger onto the cages, a ginger cat, large black Doberman and chubby raven shot in and released a hiss, a snarl and a LOUD caw at them. Jack and Jill jumped back as Lysandre, Brutus and Dooku drove them away from the fourteen, the former also lashing a claw swipe at Jack and Jill releasing a short shriek. Then Vecna appeared with a MASSIVE hiss, lunged at Jack and clamped his beak HARD onto Jack's right forearm. Jack released a scream as the swan inflicted a nasty bite mark onto his forearm before releasing it. The young boy then seized his arm which was bitten and oozing some blood, his face contorted into a pained face while Jill trembled at the vicious swan as it continued to hiss viciously at her and her brother. As Vecna continued to do this, a pair of hands appeared and seized both the twin brother and sister by the T-shirts.

"What do you two think you were doing!?" demanded Frank as he then dragged the twins away.

"Oh, we... um..." Jack stammered.

"Nothing, sir," Jill replied.

"Just resume helping us get those dumb animals onto the plane will ya," Frank replied angrily and continued to pull the twins away from Blu and the others with Dooku, Vecna, Brutus and Lysandre following, the latter, the ginger tom, uttering a snigger at Zephyr, Milo and Sirius for yet another stymied escape opportunity. Jack and Jill gazed back at the Spix macaw family and Zephyr, Brisa, Samara, Celeste, Orion, Ahsoka, Sirius, Aurora and Milo as they gazed back at them with concerned looks. Samara was especially concerned, the first time she had ever been so with her most-detested creatures on the planet. However, she had come to terms that not all humans were nasty and she had grown to admire Jack and Jill's courage despite working for such a cruel group. Then Jack and Jill finally SNAPPED. Fed up with dealing with the cruelty of poaching and how the group treated their prisoners and also working with a group enlisting the help of such dangerous pets such as Vecna, both the brother and sister took action; Jack glared angrily at Frank, raised a foot and stomped as HARD as he could onto the lead poacher's leg. Frank released a shout of agony and spat a naughty word after it and released both Jack and Jill. As soon as they were released, the twins bolted like deer freed from a trap. Vecna then released a rabid screech and lunged at the twins but Jill angrily and defensively seized an empty cage and threw it at the swan. However, Vecna ducked, sending the cage flying over his head and clattering to the floor, and resumed his lunge at the twins, going straight at Jill. The young girl, all courage vaporised at such a vicious bird, released a scream as the swan latched his powerful beak onto her shirt. Jack then came in and swatted Vecna in the face to get him to release his sister's shirt. When this didn't work, he lunged at the swan himself and kicked him in the front to get him to release his sister. Though he hated doing something like this to animals, Jack did it out of self-defence and rage at the violent swan. After kicking Vecna away, making the swan release a pained squawk and release Jill's shirt, Jack launched into a sprint, followed by Jill. Frank looked on in anger as Peter, Marv and Vera came in, wondering what all the commotion was about. However, the leader told his grunts to resume the task.

"Forget about 'em, you three," he barked, "Get those animals loaded into that plane. Their loss, not ours."

Peter, Marv and Vera obeyed and resumed the task. Vecna, who rubbed his front from Jack's kick, also glared after the twins as they fled, Brutus, Lysandre and Dooku and some other cats, dogs and corvids coming in to check on him.

"Return to work, you lot before I ALSO GIVE YA A BITTEN LEG OR SOMETHING," the swan screeched. Immediately, his underlings did so and scattered like frightened fish from a shark or orca. However, not all the cats, dogs and ravens were obedient. From behind one of the vans, Charon, Sunspot and Katrina watched their owners flee and began to resume their rebellion plan, one of them clutching a ring of important pieces of metal...