Chapter eleven of Daddy Cloudkicker.
Story[]
"Motivate this" Kit growls while attempting to punch Karnage, who grabs it and repels Kit. Karnage gets out of his chair when his other pirates rush in at the sounds of hostility. "Cloudkicker, that was vicious dishonorable and ruthless" he chastised, but actually liked it, "excellent work, you are becoming more of a pirate every second all over again" he complimented, but was nevertheless displeased with Kit's other actions and outright attacks him, Kit dodges and tries to fight back, but Karnage grabs him in a body-lock, but Kit kicks him in the face and breaks free. The other pirates attempted to restrain Kit, but Don forbids them: stating he'll handle it and they back off and watch.
At Khan-enterprises, Baloo Rebecca Riven Molly Rey Wildcat and the jungle-aces had gathered in Buzz's lab with one of the pirate's bombs. "Think I found something; the enhanced-sensors are picking up radio interferences on a nanoscopic scale" Buzz exclaimed and before anyone could ask what he meant he shows the answer on a black-&-white prototype-video-screen: showing that anyone with a DNA-sample would be affected, and when they all each found out they were sampled in the bombs they were horrified, "those things in this are from me? eww!" Wildcat gagged, "there's a sample from each of us except for Khan and Buzz, in this bomb and most likely the other ones too" Riven deduced, "with such technology at his hands Karnage can destroy us whenever he wants" Rebecca concluded, "unless Kit does whatever he says" Oscar added, "and you guys thought my zombie-idea was crazy" Wildcat remarked.
Back with the pirates, after Kit caught his breath he leaps over and tries to kick Don, who grabs him and swings him up into some gears. Kit wanders around looking for Karnage when one gear suddenly turns on and Karnage arrives from it. "Good Kit, you are doing much better than when you last worked for me, a few more tests, and you would actually already become a leader right now" Don theorized, though he still intends to make sure Kit would make a good successor, Kit backs up and rips off a lever from a control-panel and twirls it like a staff. Karnage draws out his cutlass, and when a cloud of steam envelopes them they engage: Kit went offensive but Don skillfully repels him and corners him at a tank, Karnage tries to impale him but Kit jumps away and Karnage hits the tank instead, causing steam to spew out while Kit lands on the sword circus-style and lands a whack at Karnage. Kit stays still waiting for Don to attack, who sneaks around and tries to land a karate-chop, but Kit jumps away again while all Karnage got was his own cutlass, breaking it in two. Kit waits behind a swinging-girder when Karnage suddenly appears from behind it, and after two more passes he disappears. Before Kit could survey his surroundings Karnage rams him, sending him flying down to a horizontal-positioned gear, Don wasn't done yet, he jumps after the teen-bear to deliver a punch, Kit dodges while Karnage only hits the gear itself hard enough to leave a concave in it, while Don flexes his knuckles to stem of any pain Kit leaps in and delivers a kick, fallowed by another sending Karnage falling down to the floor with Kit pursuing. Karnage gets up, revealing his left-eye black and swollen. "You are going to wish you have not done that" he vowed, Kit simply walks toward him, "I only wish I'd done it sooner" Kit retorted and for the third time in his life he wretches off the red-ascot and throws it in front of Karnage. The other pirates gasp while Karnage got even angrier and attacks, Kit acrobatically dodges and blocks and tries to land an upside-down backward-kick, but Don stops it and throws Kit to the floor, "I still have much to teach you, but the first thing you need to learn is gratitude" Don said as Kit gets up, the teenage-bear looks at the smoke-bomb pile where each had a DNA-sample from his loved-ones in them, vengefully he attacks with a punch only for Karnage to grab it, force his entire right-arm behind painfully and Kit himself to the floor, after letting him go Karnage lectures him, "I made you my protégé, all my knowledge all my power all for you" he berates while kneeling and after Kit rolls onto his knees Karnage grabs Kit's head to make him look at the wolf, "but the only thing you care about anymore, is your worthless, little, friends!" he continued and finally lets Kit go, "if Higher-for-Hire is so distracting, maybe I should just be getting rid of them" he warns pulling out the remote again as Kit gets to his feet, and Kit backs off, "don't, I'll do whatever you say" he relented, "good boy" Karnage praised turning to face Kit, "and from now on, I would like you to be calling me master" Don requested, but he wouldn't get that chance as out of nowhere a box collides into him, sending him flying. Looking Kit and the other pirates see it was the good-guys, much to their surprise. "Leave, my boy, alone" Baloo threatened having been the one to throw that box, "boy, attack" Karnage ordered, "get out of here, go, you don't know what those smoke-bombs did to-" Kit began more alarmed than grateful, "dude" Ernie interrupted, "we know" Molly added, "and we don't care" Rebecca finished, "we're your friends Kit, we are not leaving without you" Ramon promised, "how very touching" Don compliments walking over to Kit, "but Kit doesn't need any friends" he added drawing out the remote again and presses the button, the room was flooded with poison-gas and affecting the intruders, "this is the price for disobedience Cloudkicker, now do as I command: attack!" Karnage ordered, Kit, after looking at Ramon's tear-leaking eyes, had other plans, "no" Kit says and takes off toward the bombs, "Cloudkicker" Karnage cried, the other pirates were too stunned to move to stop him while Kit grabs one bomb, opens its DNA-capsule and gives a sample of himself: a glob of spit, when he was done Kit was sent flying from the force of the exhaling-gases and momentarily lay face-down on the floor while the pirates look in astonishment, Kit then gets up and while he was feeling the gas's effects he marched up to the pirates, all but Karnage back away in fear while Kit stops right in front of Don, "new deal Don garbage: if I lose my friends, you lose your protégé" he proposes, Karnage scowled knowing he was right, "and I know how much you hate to lose crazy" Kit added falling to his knees and hands, Karnage was too angry at Kit defecting yet again to even object at being called crazy, so he takes the remote, switches the bombs off and damages it beyond any hope of being turned on again, as soon as Kit noticed he could breath again he looks at Don, who clearly has no intentions of killing him, not yet, but he still aims to at least hurt him, as proven when he tries to kick the adolescent-bear who dodges and grabs Karnage's leg, the captain struggles but Kit's grip was too strong and to Karnage's horror sends him flying, "pull chocks y'all" Kit declares to his friends and they happily comply: Rey claws Don on the torso, Felix gives him a punch and Sam fallows up with a body-slam, Baloo grabs his legs and swings him to the floor hard, and finally Riven finishes him off with a jump-kick to the face. Karnage kneels in agony spitting some teeth out as his pirates surround him, quickly he orders them all to retreat and he himself goes to a control-panel and twists a switch. "I still intend to groom you Kit Cloudkicker, for now" Don vowed; since he never lets anyone go, he still refuses to give up on Kit, at least until he can find another criminal-kid who hopefully is as bad as Karnage is or more, but until then Kit will remain the intended heir, even as a defector, "I still intend that" he adds before leaving, and that's when the place began to shake up and crumble: apparently Karnage had activated a self-destruct mechanism, Ernie attempts to fallow the pirate but it was no use, one giant gear comes rolling down to Kit who tries to getaway, thankfully he is saved by Rey, Baloo Wildcat and Riven gather up some bombs and all flee to the exit, "lets go home" Rebecca encouraged.
At Khan-industries, once again the good-guys were in Buzz's lab working on disabling the bombs so they would never be used again, Katie Dodd and Louie were also there, please to hear Kit was back. "Is it done yet?" Wildcat asked impatiently, "that's it you'll, these bombs are officially dead forever" Buzz declared, earning a cheer from Wildcat, "go Wildcat, you're sample-less, if that's a word, no samples, go Wildcat, go Wildcat, get funky, ah, yeah, ah-ah" the mechanic sang happily, "um I know this isn't my style but, you did just kick Karnage's rump, shouldn't we celebrate, or something?" Shere proposed shyly, everyone look at him as if he's serious, "yeah" Louie cheers leaping onto Baloo, "all you can eat" Baloo chanted, "free form" Louie adds, "breakfast explosion!" they both finish, "sorry I asked" Khan muttered as he was dragged in, but was enjoying it, meanwhile Kit, now back in his trademark outfit, sees Ramon sitting depressed, "everything okay?" the teen asks, "I am, sorry" Ramon murmured suddenly, "you're sorry? for what?" Kit wondered confused, "when things were bad there was a moment where I truly believed you were, like Don Karnage, I doubted you, and for that I'm sorry" Ramon explained, "I doubted myself Ramon, focused, serious, determined, as much as I hate to admit it, he and I are kind of alike, but there's one big difference between me and Karnage: he doesn't have any friends" Kit said making Ramon smile. "Who wants anchovies?" Riven proposed, "man nobody wants anchovies" Louie objected, "I do, pass me the ketchup" Riven argued, "I'm telling you you're not getting anywhere near the ketchup" Louie countered, "man, give me the ketchup" Riven demanded, "do anchovies smell like flowers?" Louie humors, "no they don't smell like flowers they smell like anchovies" Riven clarified, "nobody wants it" Louie states, and it goes on and on.
The End