suspended between floors. Flicking out his claws, he threatened the pirates, “You will help me overthrow your leader, or I’ll snap your worthless necks like twigs.”

“That’s what we’re tryin’ ta do, Khanny, uh, the overthrowin’ part.” Baloo lifted his eyepatch and smiled sheepishly.

Shere Khan actually cracked a smile. It was a smile of relief. Here were allies. His claws retracted as he took a good look at the four bears. “Ah, Baloo. Fancy meeting you here. And, Ms. Cunningham, you’ve never looked lovelier.”

Rebecca scowled at the pert insinuation and shifted the heavy bag containing her wedding dress to the other shoulder.

“Mrs. von Bruinwald,” Baloo corrected, proudly surveying his ‘pirate’ bride. “Me an’ Becky, we got married this mornin’.”

“Congratulations,” Khan purred in amusement, examining their strange wedding apparel. “A pirate-themed wedding. How...quaint.”

“If that’s what you call it,” Rebecca muttered sullenly.

“Now that you’re here, Khanny, ya might as well join in on the fun, especially since it is your buildin’.”

Khan clenched his fists. “Mmm...yes. It will be again.”

“Huddle up, gang. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of Karny?” Baloo shot a swift glance at Rebecca, who was about to open her mouth. “Besides throttlin’ him.”

“A very effective method,” Khan said, causing Rebecca to nod and smile.

“I’ve got an idea, Daddy,” Molly chirped.

Baloo winked at Kit, saying silently, Let’s humor her. Baloo patted her on the head. “All right, Muffin. Whatcha got?”

“Well...Kit’s good at imitating people. He can sound like anybody, even like Captain Galactica on Danger Woman. What if he pretended to be Karnage and told the pirates to leave? Then we could capture Karnage and lock him up in jail forever and ever and the world would be saved.”

Baloo and Kit exchanged impressed glances. “That ain’t too bad, Molly.”

“For really?” Molly squealed in delight.

“For really.” Baloo rubbed the back of his neck. “The only problem is how to do it.”

“The master sound system is in my office,” Shere Khan said. “From there, you can relay your message throughout the building.”

“But Karnage is in your office,” Kit reminded him.

“Then, we’ll just have to get Karnage out of the office,” Rebecca said. “Baloo and I can do that. We have to deliver his lunch anyway.” She pointed to the plate of now-cold food in Baloo’s hands.

Khan nodded and pushed the ‘up’ button. “Agreed. Once you lure Don Karnage out of my office, the children and I will carry out the second half of the plan.”

Shere Khan, Kit, and Molly stepped out of the elevator, into Khan’s living quarters.

After the elevator doors shut, the cubs shared a nervous look. Molly reached for Kit’s hand. Even though they would never admit it, they were intimidated by the forbidding Shere Khan. And the room that they were in was something else. They’d only seen such elaborate furnishings in magazines and movies. It was so clean that it seemed more like a museum than a home. They didn’t know if they were allowed to sit down on the plush sofa.

“Over here, children. We can watch for the opportune moment to act,” Khan murmured. He opened the elaborately carved door overlooking his office a crack. His robust frame tensed, ready to spring, when he caught sight of Karnage. A low growl rumbled in his throat.

The cubs also put their eyes to the crack, waiting breathlessly.

Khan’s Office

When the elevator doors opened one floor down, Baloo and Rebecca stepped out.

“Get out of here!” Don Karnage screamed.

Rebecca reflexively clutched Baloo’s arm. Seeing no one, she whispered, “Where is he?” She craned her neck to see over the piles of loot that filled the room.

“Man, this is the biggest mess I’ve ever seen,” Baloo murmured, “an’ I know messes.”

They carefully picked their way through mounds of jewelry, cash, antiques, gold bars, and toys. Finally, they reached the far side of the room. The pirate captain was sitting behind the desk on the throne-like chair, talking to the Français ambassador on the telephone. Or rather, he was screaming into the phone.

“No, no, no, no, no, you frustrating fracas-type person! I am the dread pirate Don Karnage that has taken over Khan Industries. I am the most powerful, most wonderful man in the world, not ‘qui de parle’!...I can’t understand you! Why do not you speak the English proper like me?...I’ll parlez-vous you!” He severed the phone cord with his sword before throwing the receiver across the room where it hit a Venus flytrap in the head.

“He’s in a good mood,” Rebecca whispered sarcastically.

“When ain’t he?” Baloo whispered back.

“Why do there have to be so many estupid foreigners in foreign countries?” He noticed Baloo and Rebecca standing in front of his desk. “Do either of you eediots speak-y the French?”

Baloo, looking at Rebecca with a gleam of fun in his eyes, said, “Uh, it’s all Greek to me.”

“I didn’t know French fries could talk,” Rebecca said stupidly in an affected bass voice. When she glanced sideways at Baloo, there was a gleam of fun in her eyes, too.

Karnage slapped a hand to his forehead. “Never mind. What are you morons standing there for? Can’t you see I’m busy?” He chose a gold crown from a pile of crowns and put it on his head, tipping it rakishly over one ear. He then admired himself in a hand mirror. “It’s so hard to be the richest man in the world. I have lots of planning and plotting and plotzing and so forth and so on.”

“We brought your lunch, Karn...uh, Captain Karnage, sir,” Baloo said gruffly, holding out the plate.

A pleased smile replaced Karnage’s scowl. “Ooo! What tantalizing tasties did you bring to please my beautiful palate?”

“Only what was on the list.” Baloo put the plate on the desk and backed away.

Seeing the sack Rebecca toted, he said, “And you brought a present. Even better. Dump it over there with the others.”

Rebecca clutched the sack more tightly. She had carried it this far; she wasn’t about to lose her beautiful dress now.

“What’s the present?” Karnage smacked his lips as he bit into the cheeseburger. “Hey, this is cold!” He touched all the food on the plate. “It’s all cold!” Angry, he hurled the plate into the jungle on the left side of the room where openmouthed Venus flytraps chomped hungrily on the food.

Baloo didn’t like the way things were going. He murmured into Rebecca’s ear, “Run.”

“Ones?” Karnage exclaimed as he slipped a ruby ring on his finger. His mind on money, he had mistaken 'run' for 'ones'. “I don’t need no stinkin’ one dollar bills. Why did you not steal me something good like one hundred dollar bills?”

That gave Baloo an idea. “If ya come down to the lobby, we’ll show ya hundreds of sacks of one hundred dollar bills, Captain.”

Rebecca nodded vehemently.

“Okay.” Karnage eyed them warily. “But this better not be a false lie.”

“Oh, it ain’t a false lie. It’s really for real.”

A greedy glint entered Karnage’s eye. “Let us go take a look-see at my sacks and sacks of money.”

Seeing Baloo, Rebecca, and Karnage leave the office, the cubs and Shere Khan got into the elevator and went down one floor.

“Wow!” Molly breathed, her eyes growing larger as she gazed at the piles of treasure. “Look at all this neat stuff, Kit!”

“A pirate’s paradise,” Kit murmured, frowning. “Don’t touch anything, Molly. We have to hurry. Karnage might be back any second.”

Shere Khan picked up an emerald necklace, looked at it disdainfully, and put it back on the pile.

Kit, with Molly in tow, stepped up to the scarred mahogany desk.

“To broadcast a message throughout the building, push this button,” Khan instructed.

“Good luck, Kit,” Molly said encouragingly.

Kit took a deep breath, pressed the button, and said in an accent eerily like Karnage’s, “Attention, my mangy minions! This is Don Karnage here, speaking to you in my voice. I will be saying this but once, so listen up with the ears! Drop everything, leave the building, and return to Pirate Island. I repeat, drop everything, leave the building, and return to Pirate Island.” He let out an inane laugh like Karnage’s. “That is all.”

In the Elevator

Don Karnage had a perplexed look on his face. “I did not say that, did I?”

“Ya must have, Karny,” Baloo chuckled nervously. “Sure sounded like ya.”

“Karny?” Karnage blinked, then his expression turned ferocious. “Only one bear is fool enough to call me Karny.” He ripped off Baloo’s eyepatch. “Bahloo!” He removed Rebecca’s disfiguring hat. “And the annoying business lady!”

“Nice going, Baloo,” Rebecca murmured sarcastically.

“I had a feeling that you would try to stop my latest glorious plan, so I have an even more glorious plan to get rid of you. Permanently!”

The elevator doors opened; Mad Dog and Dumptruck entered.

Karnage said, “Where do you eediots think you are going?”

“Back to Pirate Island like you told us, Captain,” Mad Dog said, sharing a confused look with his counterpart.

“Not anymore. You are coming with us.”

“Vhere are ve going?” Dumptruck asked.

Karnage shot a vicious look at Baloo and Rebecca as he pushed the button for the topmost

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