as though she was going through a spasm attack, as her mouth, eyes and nose were twitching like crazy, and her mouth spouted nonsense words that she could not complete.

Dumptruck and Mad Dog silently backed off, giving their captain a wide space.

Baloo gave her an odd look, and lowered the wrapper back into his pocket. “If I were you, Karny? I’d cut down on the candy. Looks like you’re starting to get a sugar rush.”

“CANDY!!!!!” Karnage exploded. “YOUR PRECIOUS EMERALDS ARE NOTHING MORE THAN CANDY!!!”

Baloo had never really been that much afraid of Karnage, or at least he had never shown it, but now he was genuinely scared. The way Karnage was acting, Baloo was frightened for his life, and especially considering how close the sword was.

“YOU MEAN,” Karnage continued. “I HAVE SPENT THE LAST WEEK GETTING KICKED AND THROWN ABOUT, USED AS A SEAT CUSHION, HAVING MY DIGNITY TAKEN FROM ME, NOT TO MENTION LOOSING MY MANHOOD… ALL, FOR NOTHING?!!!”

Baloo felt like sinking into his seat, his mind briefly wondering over some of Karnage’s words. ‘His manhood?’ he thought.

Karnage however was not finished, as she continued ranting and raving about all she had gone through, and that someone’s blood will spill for this outrage. Eventually her rage grew too much for the confides of the room, and she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

“Did he always have the bad temper, or did that come with the dress?” Baloo remarked, silently letting his breath out.

“You have no idea,” Mad Dog replied.

Baloo then remembered. “What did he mean by that he lost his manhood?” he asked.

Dumptruck shrugged. “Vhat? Haven’t you been looking at him the past few hours? You think he was wearing a fake buxom under his uniform?”

Baloo’s eyes widened. “What, you mean… that was all real?!” True, Baloo had been referring to Karnage as her and she, but only as a joke. He had never truly believed that what he had been seeing was true.

Dumptruck smirked. “Yah, sure as I’m standing here. Believe you me, no one was the more astounded than the cap’n when it happened.”

Baloo’s mind took a whirl. “But… how? How can he be… No one can just turn their gender like that!”

Dumptruck snorted. “They can if they have a … “

“Dumptruck!” Mad Dog sounded, silencing his comrade.

Baloo stayed quiet, but still cast short looks at the pirate, wondering how Karnage could ever change his entire form?

‘First things first though,’ he thought, and then began fidgeting behind his back.

At first, Dumptruck and Mad Dog took no notice, as they were too busy talking amongst themselves.

“I think I know now why the cap’n’ first wish didn’t work,” Mad Dog told Dumptruck.

“How’d you mean?”

“Well,” Mad Dog explained. “Recall that the cap’n… Hey!”

Mad Dog stopped talking, as he had seen the way Baloo kept shifting his hands behind the chair.

“Hey, Vhat you doing?!” Dumptruck demanded, grabbing Baloo’s chair and turning it around. Baloo had his hands closed tightly shut, so neither of them could see what he was holding.

“What are you up to?” Mad Dog also demanded, holding his gun close to Baloo’s nose.

“Nothing,” Baloo innocently said, still holding his hands clamped together.

“Why you fidgeting?” Mad Dog held his gun steady.

“Why do you think I am?” Baloo replied. “I mean, I don’t have any reason to be escaping now, do I?”

Dumptruck grabbed Baloo’s collar. “What is it?! A knife, some sort of nifty device to cut your ropes?”

“Maybe,” Baloo said uninterested. “Or I could just be picking at my fingernails? Haven’t really given them a good clean in quite a while to be truthful.”

Mad Dog seized Baloo’s hands, trying to check them, but the ropes were too thick and tightly tied for him to see anything. “Hold my gun,” Mad Dog told Dumptruck, handing him the weapon and started to loosen the knots.

Baloo kept his eyeballs up, whistling innocently, as Mad Dog removed the ropes and started to unclamp his hands.

“I don’t see nothing,” Mad Dog said. “What’s… “ He didn’t get to finish, as Baloo suddenly grasped onto him, and stood right up.

“Hey, vhat… “ Dumptruck began, but like his comrade he didn’t get to complete his sentence, as Baloo strode up to him, still holding onto Mad Dog, and pounded his large stomach into Dumptruck, sending him flying into the cell-door behind him.

“OOF!” Dumptruck moaned, sliding to the floor, dazed.

“Let go of me!” Mad Dog ordered, but immediately went silent, as Baloo turned around and took a firmer hold of him, giving him a nasty glint in his eye.

“Umm, on second thought…” Mad Dog began. “Perhaps we could just call it even?” he said hopefully.

Baloo grabbed his forearm and whirled him around, throwing him as an Olympic would do with a throwing disc. Mad Dog sailed through the air, his mouth open in a silent scream, before slamming into his fellow pirate’s gut, making them both cry out and slump to the floor, out cold.

“As you pirates like to say,” Baloo replied, smiling and cracking his knuckles. “Hardly!”

He then patted his own belly, from where he had bashed it into Dumptruck. “Who says having a big belly isn’t healthy?” he asked out-loud.

* * * * *

After tying up Dumptruck and Mad Dog in his cell, Baloo quietly exited the room, carefully stepping along the metal corridors.

“Thank heaven for stupid pirates,” he quietly said, gratefully.

He recognised a number of the levels he was on, from past experiences, and tried to remember the way out. After the number of times that he, Rebecca and Kit had been to this ship, and always escaping, Baloo was more or less an expert on the place. But unfortunately, it had been a while since the last time he had been taken prisoner here, so he was having trouble recalling every detail of the ship precisely.

Baloo wandered the long hallways of the Iron Vulture, skipping from one room to another whenever someone came along. He was almost getting ready to consider calling someone for directions, or buying a map, when…

“YOU HAVE FAILED ME FOR THE LAST TIME!!!”  Karnage’s wilful voice sounded out angrily, from the bottom of the corridor. Judging by the sound of it, his/her rage had not cooled down in the slightest yet.

Baloo sneaked forward, keeping his back to the wall in case of any approaching footsteps.

“I NEITHER KNOW NOR CARE FOR YOUR EXCUSES, LITTLE FOOL! YOUR TIME IS UP! I HAVE NO MORE NEED FOR YOU, AS YOUR TALENTS HAVE PROVED TO BE NOTHING SHORT OF USELESS! THIS TIME TOMORROW, YOU AND YOUR BOTTLE WILL BE MELTED DOWN IN THE SHIP’S FURNACE!”

Baloo wondered who he was talking to, and what was that about a bottle and being melted down? He sneaked further along, and came up to a door that he briefly recognised as Karnage’s private quarters. He considered just going past and getting back to his beloved plane, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he knelt down to peek through the keyhole.

Alas though, fate was not kind to Baloo much this evening, as Karnage was just about to take his leave and return to Baloo’s cell to continue his interrogation. If he couldn’t get any useful information from the big galoot, then he might as well have some fun with him.

Karnage slammed open his door, just as Baloo knelt down, and ended up slamming Baloo right up against the wall.

“Dumptruck! Mad Dog!” Karnage ordered his men to come. “Where the devil are those two layabouts?!” He fumed, as he made his way to the cell. So eager was he to leave that he didn’t notice the eavesdropper behind the door.

The door to his quarters slowly swung shut, revealing a flat out (literally) Baloo on the wall.

“Uhhh,” Baloo moaned, cracking his bones back into shape. “I think I was safer in the cell-room?”

He shook his head a few times, and then looked around. Baloo remembered that Karnage had been talking to someone, or shouting to be more precise. He took a quick peek in the room, but saw no one.

“Don’t tell me Karny’s loosing his marbles as well as his manhood?” Baloo wondered out loud. “Though I have to admit, he looks a lot better in his new wardrobe.” He grinned, remembering the red dress she had been wearing… and instantly felt ill to the stomach.

It hadn’t fully occurred to him, until just then, that all the time when he had been with ‘Donna Katherine,’ he had really been with Don Karnage. So when he had been dancing with her, he had really been dancing with