very, very angry with me for the delay.”

“Is this the only prototype?”

“Yes, but the master blueprints are locked up safe in Mr. Khan’s safe. I can always make another one.”

“First, we have to deal with this one, Buzz. Can you figure out how to turn it off?”

While Buzz opened a panel in the body of the machine, Kit fiddled with the knob that said ‘weather setting’. On the rectangular screen, these choices popped up: showers, rain, snow, hail, blizzard, breezy, hurricane, monsoon. As he turned it, Kit marveled at the change in the weather emanating from that small tube. “This would be great for getting a day off from school whenever you wanted.”

“Oh, no!” Buzz’s voice echoed inside of the machine. “The pirates have broken the trans-conductor subducer.”

“What does that mean?” Kit said, peeking into the machine’s innards over Buzz’s shoulder.

Buzz pulled his head out from inside the machine. “Nothing good. Once it runs out of steam, it will implode.”

“Implode?” Kit squeaked. “We learned about that in science class. Doesn’t that mean that it will collapse on itself like a black hole, sucking everything into it?”

“Not exactly, Kit,” Buzz reassured calmly. “It will merely suck air into itself, and, consequently, the Iron Vulture. Eventually, it will explode, causing a really big mess.”

Wryly, Kit remarked, “That’s a relief. Can you fix it before it does that?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Kit flipped the dial to ‘breezy’. “Gee, whiz!” he gasped sardonically, watching with satisfaction as the snow production slowed down, then stopped altogether. The skies cleared, and the snowy city of Cape Suzette once again became visible. “I wonder what could have happened to Karnage’s blizzard? You really shouldn’t let kids play with stuff like this.”

Iron Vulture’s Hangar

“Ollie-ollie oxygen free!” Don Karnage called in a sing-song voice. “We just want to talk to you, Bahloo.”

“Yeah, right, Karnage-ee,” Baloo panted under his breath. “You lie like a rug.” He was finally at the door that opened onto the beam. He tentatively crawled out onto it. The steel rafter stretched horizontally across the very tip-top of the hangar and was about five feet wide, plenty wide to traverse, but still... Baloo looked down and whimpered. His vision blurred for a second, then cleared. Don Karnage and Rebecca were as tiny as ants. The CT-37s appeared to be the size of Kit’s models. “Man, this is completely an’ totally nuts! But if I don’t do this, Becky’s a solid goner.” Taking a deep breath, gathering up his courage, he crept to the middle of the beam, pushing the coils of rope before him. “I’m definitely askin’ for a raise after this is over.”

“Come out, come out where ever you are, Bahloo.” Karnage’s tone, which up until now had been playful, turned threatening. “Right this very second! Or the bossy business lady will taste my sword.” He plucked a hair from Rebecca’s head and cut it in two with his sword to prove that his blade was sharp. “I am not splitting hairs, and I don’t mean the little hippy-hoppy, furry kind.”

“Don’t do it, Baloo!” Rebecca shouted. “Hey! Watch where you’re sticking that thing, Don Garbage!”

“You are not in the position to give out the orders. I am in charge here, remember that, bait.” He pressed the sword into her skin, causing her to cry out with fright. Backing up towards the wall, dragging Rebecca with him, he punched the bomb bay door release with his elbow. Accompanied by an ear-splitting, pulsing alarm, two large doors swung open in the floor, allowing them a glimpse of the swirling blue ocean below. Karnage was so intent on capturing Baloo that he didn’t notice that it was no longer snowing. “It will be so easy to dispose of your lifeless body after I have kill-ed it, Re-beck-ka! Yours and Bahloo’s. One little push and bye-bye, so long.”

Rebecca gave a horrified gasp. “You’re a barbarian!”

“Thank you.” Karnage took it as a compliment. “I try very, very hard to be.”

Baloo unscrewed a nut from the rafter and flung it across the hold where it pinged off something. Don Karnage spun around towards the noise. “Ah-ha! I hear you, Bahloo,” he said in a triumphant sing-song voice.

Baloo threw another nut, this time in the opposite direction.

Karnage spun around, a trifle confused. The confusion only fueled his anger. “Argh! No more ring-around-the-rosy games! Since Bahloo is too much the scared chicken to rescue you, Ree-beck-ka, I will just have to keell you. Just as well. I was going to keell you later or sooner. Any last words, Ree-beck-ka? But cut it short!” Karnage chuckled at his own ironic joke. “Get it? Cut it short?”

“That pun was bad,” Baloo groaned, “even for Karny. Time ta drop in on the party.”

Quickly, he knotted the ropes together. Then, he secured the middle section to the beam. One end was wrapped several times around his waist.

“Hurry it up to the point! Get on with the last requesting-thing there. I haven’t got all night!” Karnage demanded of Rebecca. “Or rather, you don’t have all night!”

“Well, here goes everythin’.” Baloo shoved the remaining, loose coil over the edge of the rafter. It unraveled until it dangled a mere two feet above Karnage’s head. Using that rope to hang onto and a safety rope around his waist, Baloo descended hand over hand as quickly and quietly as he could.

As he did so, Rebecca recited her last requests. Her eyes flitted from the sharp blade close to her neck to the ocean below as she choked out in a trembling tone, “Baloo, if you can hear me, I want you to take good care of Molly. Make sure she does her homework, doesn’t eat too much junk food, and brushes her teeth every night. And,” Rebecca sobbed, tears flowing freely down her cheeks, “tell her that I love her very, very much.”

Baloo released his grasp on the rope and twisted around to murmur quietly into her ear, “Tell her yourself, Becky.”

At the sound of his voice, Rebecca looked up, feelings of relief and amazement flooding her being. “Baloo!” She beamed through her tears. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was safe now. She wanted to latch onto Baloo’s hands that were reaching for her and be pulled to safety, but Karnage had her arms pinioned to her sides.

“BAH-LOO!” Karnage snarled. All of the world’s hatred was infused into those two syllables.

With one deft slice, Karnage severed the rope that connected Baloo to the rafter. The big bear plummeted towards the open bomb bay doors, yelling, “Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh!”

“Baloo!” Rebecca jabbed Karnage in the stomach with her elbow, causing him to release her with a wheeze of pain. In one desperate move, she slid on her stomach, lunging for Baloo, and caught his hands just before he disappeared into the ocean far below.

“Hee-hee,” the pirate gloated, watching Rebecca’s struggle to haul Baloo up. His bulk was almost too much for her to handle. It was drawing her over the edge. “Thees is my lucky-duck day! I take over Cape Suzette plus I get to keell two annoying birds with one small stone, proving that nasty not-niceness pays off.”

“Don’t leggo, Beckers!” the big bear whimpered, casting a frightened glance over his shoulder at oblivion. “I don’t wanna be fish food!”

“I’ll never let go, Baloo!” Rebecca cried vehemently. The bearess gritted her teeth, dug in her feet, and yanked with all her might on Baloo’s hands, but his fingers were slipping from her grasp.

“The suspense! It is but wonderful!” Karnage interjected with a gleeful giggle. He paced around the bears, heartlessly reveling in their struggle to stay alive. “Either you fall to your deaths in the depths, or I will slash you to bits with my sword. Which will it be?”

“You forgot option number three, Don Garbage!” came Kit’s voice across the cargo hold. He lobbed his open airfoil at Karnage’s head. It whizzed across the room like a boomerang.

Too late, Karnage reacted. The airfoil bonked him squarely on the forehead. The air pirate slunk, unconscious, to the floor.

Baloo was astounded by the turn of events. “Kit! What’re you doin’ here?”

“Saving you. I thought you could use some help.” Kit reached down and grabbed onto Baloo’s shirt. Together, he and Rebecca hauled the pilot into the cargo hold. They leaned against each other, dazed and exhausted for a short moment.

“You sure thought right, Kid. Where’s Buzz?”

“Left him with Charley.”

“Who’s Charley?” Rebecca cried.

“Tell ya later, Miz Cunningham.” Kit scooped up his airfoil, then hit the bomb bay door button again, causing the doors to swing shut.

“Thanks, guys.” Baloo gathered them both in a hug, which they held for a while.

“C’mon, crew, we gotta skedaddle back ta Buzz before Karny...”

They spun around only to find Karnage standing in their way, a scowl etched on his face. A murderous scowl. In his right hand was his saber. His left hand held a pistol. “Before I do what?” He spit on Baloo’s cheek with the ‘T’ in ‘what’. “Finish the train of thought, future victim.”

“B...b...b...before ya wake up,” Baloo concluded lamely.

“You were going to scamper away like the little chipmunks without saying toodle-loo? I am truly hurt, Bahloo!”

Baloo gulped, pushing Rebecca and Kit behind him protectively. He distrusted the nice, sleek tone in Karnage’s voice even more than his usual insolent snarl

“That will never do. After all, we’ve been such close bon amis over the years. I think our...friendship...deserves a better ending than