Simba had a knack for detecting evil masterminds who wanted to take over the world. He was just special – and very clever – that way. Sometimes people would doubt his intelligence, but in reality, he was actually very smart. Smarter than most, that was for sure.

"So this is what we have to do," said Simba, as he and Haiba strode in the direction of the trail of paw prints that Shocker had left. "We find Shocker, beat him, and then save Nala. There we go. The world is saved, and I just might be able to get a good night's sleep."

"So why do you think this Shocker guy wants to kill us?" Haiba asked. "We've never even seen him before. How can someone like that just suddenly want to kill the first three cubs he sees?"

"I'm not sure," Simba replied. "But it has to mean something. Think about it. The guy's a psycho. A very big psycho. One of those psychos that just won't listen to you – right?"

Haiba nodded. "Right. But that still doesn't explain much. I mean, he really seems to have it out for us – but we've never done anything to him. Unless he's some kind of time-travelling maniac who we're going to do something to in the future, so to stop us he went back in time to murder us before we could do something to him."

Simba was scratching his head, looking seriously confused. "That's a little… complicated, don't you think?" he said.

"Maybe we have met him before – but we got out memories erased. Either that or we did something very nasty to him while sleepwalking."

"I don't sleepwalk," Haiba told him. "Come to think of it, I don't sleep that much, really. Just an occasional thing."

"You have to sleep, Haiba," Simba said. "Otherwise you get so tired that you just… fall down and die."

Haiba grinned. "Maybe I'm just special," he said, sounding like he was half-joking, half-serious. "In a very weird kind of way." They walked in silence for a few moments. "So when you say 'beat Shocker', what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Uh… Well, I'll make up that bit as I go along," Simba replied. "You know – like I always do. But it's worked every time so far, so I doubt there'll be any problem."

"Not unless Shocker's planning on that," Haiba countered. "He wants a fight, Simba. You know he does. He's going to try and use all of those powers of his to kill us. And he'll probably want to make it painful, too."

Simba nodded. "Yeah. I know that you know that I know – you know? But this is the only chance we have at saving Nala. What else are we going to do? Ask my dad for help?"

"You could," Haiba replied, his tone showing that he wasn't joking at all. He saw the look Simba was giving him, and then raised his eyebrows. "I'm serious, Simba," he insisted. "We could tell your parents. At least then we'd outnumber him a lot more. Wouldn't that be more helpful?"

Simba scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, right. If we told my parents then my dad would probably argue that 'it's too dangerous for me to go,' or something like that. They just don't trust me – as I'm sure you know."

"Yeah." Haiba nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess so." Haiba indeed knew that Simba's parents didn't trust him. They often looked down on their son as an immature, selfish, mischievous cub. Sure, the latter part was true – but he was far from immature and selfish. He may get himself into dangerous situation a lot of the time, but he always knew what he was doing.

Mostly.

"Look, we're going to beat Shocker by attacking him with his weakness," Simba explained. "The trouble is, I don't know what his weakness is."

"Water," Haiba replied, almost instantly. "Stick him in water and he'll 'electro-frazzle' himself to death. Hey, that word is kinda catching on…"

"If that's true," said Simba, shooting a look up at the sky, droplets of rain falling onto his face, "then how come he hasn't electro-frazzled himself already? It's raining."

"Maybe it's not strong enough," Haiba mused. "Maybe you need a large amount of water – like a river. We should have pushed him into the water hole when we had the chance."

Simba shook his head. "I – I don't think that's right," he said. "He touched the water earlier. When we fought. He made the whole water go all sparkly and stuff. He was going to kill me by throwing me into it."

"Great," Haiba said flatly. "So now we've got to deal with an invincible cub with the power of a god." He then quickly added, "You don't think it actually was gods who gave him his power, do you?"

Simba gave Haiba a funny look. "No way!" he exclaimed. "That's just silly. Do you think gods would give an evil cub like him crazy lightning powers? This was just a weird accident. A stupid, weird accident that we have to take care of now."

"Man, these tracks go on for a while," Haiba noticed, staring down at the paw prints in the ground. "From what I saw, the guy could jump, like, a mile into the air. What's the point in walking when you have powers like that?"

"You're forgetting – he wants us to find him, remember?" Simba said. "This is his way of showing us where he is. This is gonna be tricky if we don't find out what his weakness is. Maybe you have to tap him on the cheek or something." He shrugged. "I don't know."

"Do you think he would have done something to Nala?" Haiba asked. "You know, he might have hurt her to… anger us, or something like that."

Simba didn't want to think about anything like that. If Shocker hurt Nala, then he would never forgive himself. This was his fault. He'd gotten Nala into this mess, so he was going to get her out of it.

But if Nala had been hurt, then Shocker was going to be in for quite a shock.

"So where are you taking me now?" Nala asked, as Shocker pushed her forwards.

The two of them were stood in the middle of a plain green field, which was in between two rivers.

"Stop right there," Shocker ordered, pushing Nala violently to the ground, causing her to cry out in surprise. "Now stay… or I'm going to break your neck," he threatened. If he had to do that, then he would do that. Without a second thought, too.

"Why are you so mean?" Nala asked, staring up at him angrily. "You can't take it out on other people just because someone you love died."

"Yes, I can!" Shocker snapped angrily, his eyes glowing red. His whole outline crackled with powerful electricity. He was like a storm waiting to happen – and a very deadly storm, at that. "None of you deserve the happiness that I do! You are all nothing! You deserve to be hurt! You deserve to be punished! You deserve to die!"

Furious, Shocker shot out his paw. A blue bolt of lightning fired from it, striking a tree in the distance, burning it to a cinder. "That's what I'll do to you if you keep insulting me," he warned Nala. "So the wise move would be to keep your mouth shut."

Nala had to admit that Shocker was absolutely terrifying. Really. Every time he spoke, she could feel a chill in her bones.

Her blood ran cold. He was a menacing cub – no, creature. The raw power and evil inside of him scared her to death.

But still, she wasn't exactly going to start crying and whimpering, begging Shocker for mercy. "Why us?" she summed up the courage to ask.

"Why not?" retorted Shocker with a shrug. "Don't look so shocked. It could have been anyone, you know. None of you mean anything to me. I will destroy you all. The whole world will do as I say – and if they don't, then you could say that the consequences will be…" An evil grin spread across his face, his eyes glowing crimson red again. "Very shocking indeed."

"I'm shaking."

Shocker whipped around to find Simba staring at him. "No, really," he said, taking a step towards Shocker. "I'm scared. You should be proud of yourself. That's what my dad used to say to me when I was a baby, and I'd done something good. 'Simba, you should be very proud of yourself.'"

Shocker was enraged already. "I have no time for your babbling, Simba," he spat, his voice becoming very deep and demonic. "I see you've arrived for our little party," he said in his normal tone.

Simba was a little freaked out. What is wrong with this guy? he wondered, before focusing on the present problem. "I'm not going to let you hurt Nala," he told Shocker firmly. "Just let her go. This is between you and me."

"And me," said Haiba, joining Simba by his side.

"All of us," Nala added, standing on Simba's other side. "If you want a fight, then you've got a fight."

Shocker shrugged, and smiled. "If you insist," he said, before immediately outstretching his fore paws. Arcs of lightning shot out, hitting both Nala and Haiba in the chest. They gasped at the burning impact.

But Shocker chuckled, enjoying the pain they were experiencing. He lifted up his paws, in turn levitating Nala and Haiba from the ground. With a flick of his paws, he sent the two of them into the two rivers on either side of him.

Splash!

Simba was horrified to find the two of them lying facedown in the water. "What have you done?" he cried, his eyes wide.

"Only a small fraction of what I'm about to do to you," replied Shocker. He shot out his paw, sending an electrical bolt right towards him.

Simba rolled out of the way, dodging it. Another one was sent flying his way, but Simba thought fast, jumping over it and landing at the edge of the river Nala was in.

He jumped into it, quickly swimming towards Nala. He had to save her. If she drowned, then he would never forgive himself.

Shocker smiled, striding over to the edge of the river. He extended his claws, all of them crackling with electrical energy.

"Fools," he muttered, before going to dip his claw in the water.

That was when Haiba attacked, sending Shocker tumbling to the ground. "I don't think so," he said, smiling down at the villainous cub. "You're not electro-frazzling anyone with your powers today!"

Shocker only smiled in response. "We'll see," he said, before placing his claws on Haiba's shoulder, instantly giving him an electrical shock.

Haiba jumped away, landing awkwardly on his side. "Ow!" he cried, sucking air in through his teeth. That hurt more than he would have liked it to.

Shocker got to his paws, his eyes glowing red again. "End of the line, fool…"

Haiba's eyes glowed red in response.

Shocker raised a paw to deliver the killing blow, when someone grabbed it, twisting the paw around.

"Naughty, naughty," Simba tutted, shaking his head. "You wouldn't want to do that, Shocker. Haiba's a nice guy."

Simba pushed Shocker to the ground. "Now why don't you do this the easy way and give yourself up? It'll save me the trouble. Please. Just say yes."

"No!" Shocker snarled, getting to his paws and backing away. His whole body seemed more electrified than ever before.

"You think I'm going to give in to a cub like – like you? I would never surrender! Never! I'm never going to stop until all of you die! Until all of you b urn in the fires of—"

Unfortunately for Shocker, he wasn't looking where he was going, and ended up falling into the river behind him.

The sound of Shocker being electrocuted was unmistakable. His cries of agony made Simba, Nala and Haiba want to close their eyes.

But they kept them open, as if being forced to. They couldn't look away. Like they were hypnotised.

It wasn't long before Shocker's cried died out, and all that was left was his smoking dead body.

Simba wiped his forehead with a paw. "Phew," he exclaimed in relief. "That was a close one, huh?"

"Part of me feels sorry for him," Nala said, staring at Shocker's corpse with a hint of sympathy. "Think about it. If all of those horrible things hadn't happened to him, then he wouldn't have become like this."

"We can't control what happens and what doesn't," Haiba said, putting a paw on Nala's shoulder. "If you could, then… then that would make you a monster."

There was a moment of silence before Nala said, softly, "I know." More silence. "I know…"

Simba cleared his throat. "I think we'd better go," he said. "You know – before your mom starts worrying, and then she tells my mom, and then she starts worrying. It's not pretty."

Nala nodded. "Yeah," she said, and then turned, walking past her two friends and away from the area.

Simba and Haiba looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed after Nala.

They didn't look back at Shocker's body.

Not once.

When Shocker came back to life, he was just as surprised as anyone else would be.

He gasped loudly, screaming in both horror and agony. His claws thrashed around all over the place, and even when they dug into the ground at the river's edge, he still shook frantically. His eyes were wide with horror. "Darkness… darkness. It was just darkness…"

His breathing became loud and heavy, unable to comprehend what he had seen upon dying. Nothing.

There was nothing.

But as time passed, his breathing returned to its normal pace, and Shocker managed to calm himself – or, as calm as someone like him could be. "It was…" Shocker was trying hard not to explode with anger. "It was him."

He emerged from the water, his body still smoking. "Simba." He spat the name with disgust. "He did it. He killed me. And now my life means nothing. None of it means anything. It's all pointless."

He frowned, simmering with rage. "And now I'm going to kill him. He's going to go into the darkness – very, very soon."

Shocker gritted his teeth. "Next time."

And with that, he walked away. Away from the Pride Lands. Away from his murderer. But he knew one thing. Shocker knew one thing that was very, very certain.

When he returned, Simba was going to be in for the shock of his life.