straw was when Kit babysat Molly the weekend before, he had arrived early with Baloo so that they wouldn’t be late, thought Baloo shocked him by not arguing that much going to the Cunningham apartment, but after the adults left Molly started to talk about Shade, and kept telling Kit over, and over, on how Shade had tricked Coldhands many times before getting her back home safe and sound. That night Kit tossed and turned in his sleep, he was having a nightmare that he couldn’t seem to wake up from.

********

Kit’s nightmare

********

Kit woke up and headed down stairs where he found Mrs. Cunningham already at her desk. “Miss Cunningham you’re here early.” Kit stated, as he walked down and looked at his watch making sure he wasn’t late for school. There was no response from Rebecca as she kept paying attention to paperwork. “Uh Miss Cunningham.” Kit looked at Rebecca and then shrugged as he walked past her and got some toast. As he walked out he found Baloo walking into the office from the dock. “Morning Pa-pa bear.” there came no response from Baloo as he walked past and looked at Rebecca.

“Hey Becky got that cargo loaded and ready to go.”

“Alright, just come back as soon as you drop it off.” As Baloo smiled at Rebecca he turned to leave when the radio keyed up.

“Well folks welcome to the Ghost network, all Ghost all the time, last night during the pirate attack are hero the Ghost not only fought off the pirates that landed on the ground but took out the planes that where launched to bring him down, after that he not only that he was able to bring down the dreaded Iron Vulture once and for all.” the announcer said, as kit looked at the Radio not able to believe the long string of things that he heard, just then the door swung open and the room was filled with flash bulbs going off as Shade walked into the office.

“Hey kid.” Shade said, as he walked past Kit and up to Rebecca. “Hey mom what’s up.”

“Mom!?” Kit was completely shocked as he looked at Shade, then at Rebecca.

“Yeah she is my mom, remember a few days ago when she adopted me.”

“SHE WHAT!?” Kit was stunned as he looked at the three.

“Adopted him, man Kit what’s gotten into you?” Baloo asked, as he looked at Kit. “The next thing you’ll tell me is that you forgot that me and Becky are married.” Kit’s jaw almost hit the floor as he looked at Baloo and Rebecca.

“That’s great Pa-pa bear.” with that Kit found him self being given a funny look from the others, Baloo then gritted his teeth and walked up to Kit grabbing his arm hard.

“Now listen, how many times have I told you to stop calling me that!” Baloo yelled, squeezing Kit’s arm hard, causing the young cub to wince in pain, and grab at Baloo’s hand.

“I’m sorry, please Baloo… your hurting me.” Kit looked up at Baloo with tears in his eyes, he then found him self pushed to the ground by the grown bear.

“Maybe you’ll remember this time.” Baloo said, as he walked back to Rebecca who leaned up against him.

“I thought you where smart Kit I guess I was wrong, one more mistake like that, and you’ll be fired. Is that understood?” Rebecca asked, as she looked at Kit sniffling on the floor.

“Y-yes ma-am.” Kit looked down at the floor unsure of what had happened to his life, what happened to his home, what happened to two most important people in his life. He then saw two boots stop just in front of him. As he looked up he found him self looking up at Shade smirking at him. Shade leaned down and looked Kit in the eyes.

“I’ve taken your home, I’ve taken your family.” Shade moved close to Kit’s ear and whispered in a cruel voice. “In short Cloudkicker, you’ve been replaced, so pack your things and go back to the streets where your belong.” those words hurt Kit more then anything, as Kit lowered his face and let a tear run down his face.

*************

As Kit sat up his breathing labored as tears started to stream down his face, he looked around the room for a few seconds and looked over at Baloo still asleep in his bed. As he looked at Baloo, fear started to fill his head as he got up and slowly walked over to Baloo still asleep. “P-pa-pa bear?” Kit said so soft that he could hardly hear it him self, as he rubbed his arm that Baloo had grabbed him in his dream wincing as he remembered how much pain Baloo’s dream self delivered. As Kit swallowed his fear and put a hand on Baloo’s shoulder he said louder. “Pa-pa bear?” the big bear shifted slightly, and slowly opened his eyes to Kit.

“Wh (*yawn*) what’s up li’l britches.” Just hearing Baloo call him by his nickname brought a smile to Kit’s face. “Kit what is it?” Baloo asked, as he sat up looking at how Kit held his arm. “Did you hurt your self.” As Baloo started to look at Kit’s arm finding nothing wrong he looked at Kit’s face confused by what was going on.

“Pa-pa bear.” Kit said, getting Baloo to look at him and smile slightly.

“Kit what’s going on? If this is supposed to be some kind of joke I don’t get it.” The next thing Baloo knew was Kit wrapped his arms around Baloo’s neck who wrapped his arms around Kit not really knowing what was wrong, but as he felt a tear hit his shoulder, he only figured that Kit had a terrible dream and needed to be comforted. “It’s O.K. Li’l britches ol’ Pa-pa bear is here.” minutes passed the two stopped hugging and Baloo smiled at Kit. “Now ya want to tell me what this is all about.” Baloo smiled at Kit and the young cub nodded as he sat on Baloo’s lap.

The next morning Kit came bounding down the steps smiling as he reached the floor, but his smile soon vanished as he saw Rebecca sitting at her desk, and his nightmare from the night before haunted his memory. “G-good morning Miss Cunningham.” Rebecca looked up at Kit, she had never heard Kit sound this nervous around her before, even when she scolded him.

“Morning Kit, ready for school?”

“Y-yes ma-am.” Kit walked into the kitchen and came out a few minutes later looking at her still slightly nervous.

“Have a nice day.” Rebecca said, as she watched Kit grab his books and leave the office. Moments later Baloo came down the stairs looking at Rebecca, holding his hat in his hands.

“Becky I think we need to talk about something.” Baloo said, as he sat down and placed his hat on Rebecca’s desk. “Becky have you heard anything about those custody papers?” Rebecca smiled at Baloo and reached into her lower drawer and pulled out form and set it on the desk.

“We got it today, we are now Kit’s legal guardians.” Rebecca said, with a big smile on her face. Baloo smiled and then put his hand on the document and smiled at Rebecca.

“That’s great… uh Becky, there is something else I want to ask you now.” Baloo thought for a few moments and then opened his mouth. “Want to go shopping today?” This wasn’t what Baloo wanted to say, but it was the only thing that came out. Rebecca gave Baloo a funny look and then smiled as she looked at the schedule for the day.

“Well the first shipment for the day isn’t due to arrive until 3 this afternoon, so sure if you want to.” Baloo found him self stuck as he looked at Rebecca and then nodded. When Kit came back that afternoon he found the office empty, except for a few bags sitting behind Rebecca’s desk. As well as a new plant on her desk. The planet was small round, with a bright pink flowers covering it, each one with white streaks across them, looking as if they where heading right into the center of the flower. “Wow, that looks neat.” As Kit started to examine the new planet, that he had never seen before, until he reached to lift up one of the flowers up. “OW!” something came flying out from under the flower and stuck Kit in the cheek, as he reached up and pulled out a needle he looked at the planet and backed away from it, not wanting to get stuck again.

An hour later Kit was walking around the streets up the city looking around, trying to find something, it was while doing this that he failed to notice that he had wandered into the center of the street, only to get woken up when a horn from an oncoming truck blared near him, As he turned and looked at the truck he was stuck like a deer hit with headlights, he could almost feel the truck hitting him when he was quickly tackled with so much force that he was knocked out of the street and into an ally. As Kit shook his head from the impact he looked up from the ground and saw Shade dressed up as the Ghost holding out a hand to him.

“Are you alright?” Shade asked, as he looked at Kit who instead of taking his hand jumped tackled Shade to the ground, who countered by kicking Kit off of him and them jumping to his feet. “Alright, is there a reason you just tried to tackle me?” Kit didn’t say anything he just looked up at Shade and started to fight, but as he through fist, Shade dodged the blows. But as he did this he looked into Kit’s eyes and could see that they where slightly glazed over with what looked like a milky substance. “Kit listen to me, stop fighting me for a minute, we need to talk, I need to know about a plant.” Shade let his guard down slightly and Kit landed a blow across Shade’s left cheek,