Disclaimer: I do not own TaleSpin

Chapter Three

"Buffy's Jewelry Store, Buffy's Jewelry Store, must be one of those new businesses that just opened up." Mathew said with one hand on the steering stick and the other clutching a neatly folded map. (He has forgotten all about the map Rebecca gave him, and was using his own map.) "If that place is new, I'll never find it on this map, it's twelve years out-of-date!"

With a sigh, he placed the map down and continues flying the plane. Just as he made a decision to go over to Louie's, gunfire, followed by the sound of bullets on metal as someone was shooting at his plane!

"Oh, no, not those Pirates again!" Mathew groaned.

"This is the glorious Don Carnage, speaking to you with my wonderful voice." The Pirate leader spoke through the radio, sounding rather sly and like he loves himself too much.

Mathew growl angrily, he hated people shooting at his plane. Grabbing the microphone, he growled: "Put a sock in it, Carnage."

"Put a sock in—? Ooh, you make me very angry!"

"Like I care," Mathew muttered.

"Any last words before I have you shooted down?"

"Yeah, a few." Mathew answered. "If you ever laid a hand on Kit Cloudkicker, I'll rip your precious head off!" Before Don Carnage could reply, Mathew pressed the red button above his head, activating overdrive. The Phoenix shot through the air like a bullet, the sonic boom of the overdrive's speed send shockwaves toward the Pirates, causing their planes to spin out of control in the air and then drop like stones into the water below.

"Ah! Not again!" cried Don Carnage, his favorite blue Pirate uniform soak and wet with seawater. "I'll get you for this…um, what is his name again?—I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, WHOEVER YOU ARE!" he yelled, waving his sword in the air.

The Phoenix dropped its supersonic speed as Mathew pressed the red button again, deactivating the turbo engines. Looking at where he was going, he saw Louie's Place just up ahead.

"Same old Louie's Place." Mathew mused as he brought the Phoenix down to the docks and parked it.

As soon as he landed, a dozen little monkeys came swooping down on the Phoenix, washing the windshield, refueling it and covering the bullet holes where Air Pirates has shot.

The door on the pilot side opened and Mathew stepped out.

"Whoa, Louie really outdone himself, he didn't have this plane service twelve years ago." Mathew said, watching in amazement at how fast those little monkeys did their job. He walked down the dock toward the hut and entered.

The orangutan with a Hawaii-style t-shirt and a straw hat looked up at Mathew's entrance.

"Well I'll be a—Mathew, is that you, Cuz?" Louie asked as though he could not quite believe his eyes. "It's been so long, my man!"

"Too long, my friend." Mathew agreed.

"Come over here and have Krakatoa Special, on the house!" Louie said, hoping behind the bar and with his hands and feet, he begins scooping various flavors of ice cream, throwing them up in the air and catching them with a milkshake glass. As a finishing touch to his ice cream special, he stuck two firework sticks in it before sliding it down the bar toward Mathew who just took a seat in front of the bar. "Now tell me all about your travel around the world, did you ever find that boy of yours?"

Mathew picked up his spoon and took the first bite of the Krakatoa Special.

"Mm! Man, this is delicious, Louie!" Mathew said, taking a second bite.

"Glad you like it, Cuz, now tell me about your journey to find your lost boy." Louie said, sounding slightly impatient.

Smiling, Mathew replied: "I've found him."

Louie jumped onto his bar and danced in celebration!

"Whoo-ee! That is great, Cuz! So, uh, where is the little tyke?"

"He's at his home in Cape Suzette." Mathew said, taking another bite of the Krakatoa Special.

Louie stared at Mathew very intensely for a long moment, then he look at the opposite wall of which held pictures of various pilots, at the very top was the picture of Baloo and Kit. He looked from the picture, to Mathew and back again.

"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle…" he murmured. "Is your son's name's Kit?"

Mathew nodded and Louie gasped.

"He hangs out here a lot with Baloo, I can't believe I didn't notice the resemblance, it's uncanny and yet I didn't see it before now." Louie said.

"Why people miss the uncanny resemblance between me and Kit is beyond me. First Rebecca and now you," Mathew said, taking yet another bite of the Krakatoa Special. "I mean, how many Cloudkickers do you know, anyway?"

"Besides you and Kit? None, Cuz." Louie admitted sadly, he felt so stupid for not noticing the connection between Kit and Mathew before now.

"Louie, I need a favor."

"Anything, man! Just name it!"

"Tell me what you know of Kit's past."

Louie's face saddened, he regretted insisting that Mathew ask him of anything. The word 'anything' includes talking about something like this. For Louie, the word itself came as a very heavy price.

He held his chin thoughtfully for a moment; either wondering what to tell him or debating with himself whether he should make a run for it.

"Okay, Cuz, I'll tell you as much as I know, for my knowledge of the Lil Britches is sorely limited."

Mathew inclines his head, indicating that he understood.

"First off, I'm not sure what to tell you in case Kit wanted to tell you himself, but I first met him when he came crashing through the front doors on that airfoil of his, he skidded across the bar, knocking tables and chairs down until he reached the stage and bumped headfirst into Baloo's great belly. They greeted each other and Baloo kept another pilot from harassing Kit about stowing away on his plane.

"Then Carnage came in through the front doors looking—as I later found out—for Kit. The boy made a hasty exit from the building, making a hole in my wall in the process. The next plane that boy hitchhiked was the Sea Duck, Baloo's plane. I don't know what went on from there, but evidently, they bonded and became the close of friends, pilot and navigator. Then barely three days later, Baloo came back here without Kit, I asked about him and he said he didn't wanna talk about it, Kit betrayed him, or so he thought. Baloo then started dancing to music and saying the same thing every five minutes:" Louie took a deep breath and imitated Baloo's voice. "Hey Louie, ain't this the life? No bosses, no troubles, no obligations."

"What?" Mathew exclaimed in shock. "'No obligations,' what happened? He didn't abandon Kit, did he?"

Louie sadly inclines his head. "Kit was once among the Air Pirates…."

Mathew gasped at that, feeling his world spinning and turning upside down.

"From what I gathered from Baloo weeks later, Kit has spent a year with those creeps before he met Baloo. And then he 'got sick of 'em,' and stole a stone from Carnage which he has stolen from Shere Khan, Anyway, Baloo was here dancing when a pilot came in asking for Baloo. He told Baloo that there was a distress call from someone named 'Lil Britches', I turned the radio on and we heard him—I'll be right back, I recorded that distress call, I got it on tape here somewhere… "

Louie went behind the bar and begins tossing random things unceremoniously aside until at last he found what he was looking for. A tape player and a tape.

"Okay, now listen to this." Louie said, placing the tape in the tape player and hitting the play button.

Mathew leaned forward to the tape player, at first, there was static, and then Kit's voice sounded from it.

…Couldn't stop them wrecking the city but I tried… Please tell Baloo, tell Papa Bear, I'm his navigator…always…

Mathew's heart broke at hearing the distress in his son's voice as he pleaded with other pilots to give the message to Baloo. A tear slid down his cheek.

"What happened next, Louie?" He asked, wiping away the tear.

"Well I can't tell you very much at this point. All I can say is that as soon as Baloo heard that, he said to me: 'Louie… he didn't double-cross me… I gotta get back to Cape Suzette!' and he dashed out of the place, jumped into his plane, turned on overdrive and took off! That was the first and last time he ever used overdrive for longer then five seconds… "

"Baloo had overdrive in his plane?" asked Mathew.

"Yeah, man, he still has it, it just doesn't work anymore, overuse of it burned it out. Anyway, that's all I can tell you, if you want more to the story, you're gonna have to get it from Baloo or Kit."

"Thanks, Louie, you've been a big help, though there are clues and puzzle pieces missing from the story but I think that can be solved when I talk to Baloo and Kit." Mathew stood up. "Thanks for the Krakatoa Special, I may order that every time I stop by from now on. Well, I gotta go deliver a shipment for Rebecca."

"You're working at Higher for Hire now?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Cuz, d'ya think you can hook me up with Rebecca?" asked Louie with a wink.

Mathew gave him an awkward look before saying: "Somehow I don't think the two of you will work out."

"Aw, you just want her for yourself!" Louie playfully accused.

More then you'll ever know, old friend. Mathew privately thought.

Mathew left the building, waving good-bye to Louie on the way out.

Walking up to the Phoenix, he saw that Louie's many monkey helpers did more then wash and refuel the plane, they also repaired the bullet holes on the side of it. It looks as good as new!

"Great job, fellas, here!" Mathew tossed the pit crew leader a ten-dollar bill. The little monkey caught it but was clobbered by his fellows as they started wrestling over the money.

Laughing, Mathew walked past them, hopped into his plane, and took off toward the sky.

Well, I got to see an old friend and found out a little bit about Kit's past, what a great way to spend the first time on the job…

As he flew along the way, he saw a piece of paper sticking out of the compartment where he stores his cold drinks in. he opened it and found the map Rebecca gave him!

"After all this time I spent flying aimlessly, and all along I had the directions!" he said loudly, mentally scolding himself. One look at the map told him to just turn five degree to the west and he'll be heading straight to his destination. He had an idea of how to make the trip faster. Looking up at the red button, he said. "Twice in one day can't hurt, right?" and he pressed the button the plane shot forward with a swooshing sound and out of sight…

Well, here it is, chapter three! What do you guys think?