"All right, now, the cloning process is fairly simple," Tama explained as she led Shocker and the Interceptor into a clearing. "Since I'm an incredibly magical cub, all I have to do is picture the three of them, concentrate my powers and zap out three identical clones!"
"But they'll be evil?" Shocker asked, narrowing his eyes. The plan couldn't work without giving the clones an evil edge. They had to be more than just bad—they had to be murderous.
"Don't worry about it," Tama replied. "I'll make them bad. You know, I was once evil myself. I know how to manipulate others into becoming evil, too." She let out an evil little chuckle.
"Have you ever considered the possibility there's still some maliciousness left inside of you?" Shocker questioned, raising his eyebrows. He had to admit, Tama was giving off a very strange evil aura…
"Of course I do," Tama said simply, "but I just choose to lock it away deep inside of me. I'm trying my best to be an upstanding citizen of the jungle."
"Good luck with that," the Interceptor mumbled, thinking that she had completely lost her mind. This cub was crazy!
"I must admit, I find your personality quite… interesting," Shocker told her. "You could always join me, Tama—and together we could rule the world."
"Not interested, Shock-O," replied Tama, sitting calmly on the ground and closing her eyes.
"My name is Shocker," he said through gritted teeth.
"Shh!" Tama shushed him, her eyes remaining shut. "I need to meditate. Concentrating on the power is going to be the tricky part. From then on, it should be pretty straightforward. You'd better stand back, by the way."
Shocker nodded at the Interceptor, and they both stepped backwards, watching Tama as she attempted to concentrate her powers.
After a few seconds, nothing happened, and Shocker began to wonder whether this was just a trick she was playing on them.
But then, the grass in front of Tama began to glow a very faint green. Not particularly noticeable, but it was definitely there.
Shocker smiled. At least something was being done.
The grass was glowing an even brighter green now; whatever she was doing, it seemed to be working.
Shocker and the Interceptor grinned evilly at each other as a strong breeze began to pick up, blowing the grass frantically back and forth.
Boom! A sudden explosion of green light enveloped Tama, and most of the clearing along with it. Silence fell upon the area.
Eventually, the light died away. Tama was on her paws, grinning with pride at her accomplishment.
Stood before her were three perfect, exact clones of Simba, Nala and Haiba. They stared straight ahead, unmoving. The effect was rather disturbing.
"Excellent!" Shocker exclaimed, striding right up to Tama's side and examining the clones. "They're perfect! They look just like the type of murderous, insane soldiers that I need to recruit to my cause!"
"Why aren't they moving?" asked the Interceptor, stepping forwards.
"Birth trance," Tama explained. "They're not thinking anything at the moment. You need to speak to them so they'll wake up."
"Do they still have their… memories?" Shocker asked, looking at Tama.
Tama nodded. "They'll be exactly like Simba, Nala and Haiba—well, up to a certain point, at least. They won't even realise they're clones. Except… they'll just have a bit of a mean streak, that's all."
Shocker grinned. "Perfect. To defeat the enemy, you must b ecome the enemy. I said this was a brilliant plan, didn't I?" he asked the Interceptor.
The Interceptor just frowned. "Hey, you know very well that this was my plan, and—"
"I don't need any more of your excuses," Shocker interrupted. "Now, we need to activate these clones. I want them sent into the Pride Lands as soon as possible! Immediately, in fact."
"Then just speak to them," said Tama.
Shocker stepped towards the clones, maintaining eye contact with the clone of Simba. He was stood in the middle of the three, ever the leader. "Hello, there."
The three clones blinked, awakening from their frozen state.
"Who are you?" the Simba clone asked, as if he had never been asleep. He sounded just like Simba. This was perfect!
"My name is Shocker, Simba," he replied. "And from now on, you're going to be taking orders from me."
"Who says so?" the clone Nala cut in.
"I say so," Shocker told them sternly. "Now, if you'll listen to me, I'll—"
"Get out of my way, loser," Clone Simba snapped, pushing past Shocker and motioning for his friends to follow. "Come on, guys. Let's get out of here."
Clone Nala and Haiba nodded, marching after him.
Furious, Shocker stared after them. "Hey, wait! You're supposed to listen to me!" he screamed, as they walked off into the distance. He glared at Tama. "What's going on? You said they'd be evil!"
"They are evil," Tama said. "I didn't say I'd make them ob edient. That's not what you asked for. They wouldn't even be clones, then—they'd be slaves!"
"Well, maybe that would have been b etter!" Shocker roared at the top of his voice. He pointed a claw at the Interceptor.
"This is all your fault—coming up with stupid ideas all the time!"
The Interceptor looked offended. "Me? But a minute ago you said it was your idea—"
"Don't play word games with me!" Shocker ranted.
"Don't worry yourself," Tama said. "It's obvious that they're going to try and get back home. They'll discover the real Simba,
Nala and Haiba. Then they'll try to kill them. No clone can ever like their real life counterpart. It doesn't work that way."
Shocker growled. "You'd better be right."
"Don't worry. I'm right," Tama assured him, before backing away cautiously. "Well, I'd just… better be going…"
Tama knew what she had to do. She was going to go home, find Tojo, and then warn Simba, Nala and Haiba about the impending danger. That maniac wasn't going to get away with this freaky plan of his…
"Oh, of course," agreed Shocker, following after her. "But I can't let you go without erasing your memory first."
"Huh?" Tama turned around, eyes wide with shock.
"You heard me." Shocker held out his forepaws, and sent an electrical bolt zapping right towards Tama's forehead.
She stumbled around, giggling, eyes spiralling madly. "Wow, the colours are pretty around here…" she said, before collapsing to the ground in a laughing heap.
"That takes care of her," said Shocker, satisfied, before retreating away from the area. "Come, Interceptor. Let us watch as the clones wage war against each other. This will go down in history as a great day."
"What are we going to call it, the Clone Wars?" the Interceptor suggested jokingly.
Shocker turned around, an evil glint in his eyes. "Precisely."
"Mom? Dad? Are you still alive?"
Mufasa and Sarabi jerked their heads in the direction of their son. "Yes, Simba," they said in unison. "We are functioning — I mean, alive."
Simba stared at them curiously. He had to admit, he was rather stunned by how suddenly they had reappeared in the Pride Lands. He went to sleep one night, and woke up the next morning finding them stood at the edge of Pride Rock.
Oddly enough, they seemed to have been stuck in the same spot for days now… However, he didn't sound too convinced by their reply. Something was definitely up. "Okay, then." He turned around, strolling away from his odd parents and over to Nala and Haiba. "I wish they'd just say they want to enslave the pride or something. I can't get any kind of decent answer from them."
"Maybe that's for the best," Haiba said with a shrug. "We'll know when the time comes if something's wrong or not."
"How could something not be wrong?" Nala questioned through narrowed eyes.
"They could have bumped their heads and suffered irreparable damage?" Haiba suggested.
"I seriously doubt that," Nala said. She sighed. "So, what are we doing today, Simba?"
"The same thing we do every day, Nala," Simba said. "Try to save the kingdom."
"But there's no bad guys around," Nala pointed out. "The kingdom's been practically empty since that business with Shocker." She shuddered, remembering his desperate attempts to try and form a relationship with her. Yuck.
"Then we'll just go and find something to do," Simba said, strolling down Pride Rock. "Come on—it's not like we have to sit around and stay bored all day. Let's go face off against some bad guys!"
Little did the three of them know that they would soon be up against some very familiar faces...
Themselves.