It was now well into the afternoon, and the sun was now shining right onto the backs of Spinda, Beast, and his clone as they slowly climbed the massive cliff.
“How close are we to the top?” Beast asked.
“I think about ten feet...” Spinda answered tiredly. “Ugh, I am too rich and powerful for this to just…happen to me! Last week I was preparing to open my first international location, and now I’m here, climbing this damn cliff with my bare hands!”
“Oh, quit your complaining, I’m taking this much better than you are.” Beast replied.
“Says the guy being carried up the cliff!” Spinda pointed out.
True to Spinda’s observation, Beast had been carried up the entire cliff dangling from his apron strap by his clone, who turned out to be such an excellent climber that he could climb with one hand holding Beast faster than Spinda could with two hands.
“Give me a break, I’m old! I’m pushing 50, my body is wearing down…” Beast complained.
“I’m only 3 years younger than you.” Spinda reminded him.
“Well, I couldn’t afford whatever expensive hippie tricks you use to stay limber, I was too busy perfecting my craft!” Beast angrily explained.
“Why do you always try to hold that over my head?” Spinda asked with a not-so-indoor voice. “I make more money than you could possibly imagine!”
“That’s exactly my problem, you idiot! You wasted your talents in the pursuit of money!” Beast explained.
“Hmm?” inquired Spinda with a tilted head.
“You’re one of the brightest culinary minds I’ve had the displeasure of meeting, yet you decided to only use it on frilly little coffees and juices!” Beast elaborated.
“You…you mean that?” Spinda inquired further.
“Of course I do!” Beast confirmed. “I still despise you as a person, however.”
“Ah, thank goodness.” Spinda sighed.
“Well, we seem to be nearing the top of the-wait, what are you doing?” Beast asked his clone, who was slowly lifting him up and down as if he was feeling out a throw. “Do not even THINK about throwing me, you brute! I swear I will-”
Beast was cut off by his own screaming as his clone rather rudely flung him the rest of the way up the cliff, landing on the top with a thud. Noticing his pan was missing, he got back up to his feet and walked up to the edge, shouting down at his clone from above.
“I believe I had a pan!”
Beast quickly regretted pointing that out, as he proceeded to get hit square in the face by a cast iron skillet flying at 90 miles per hour, knocking him right back on the ground.
“Ooh, nice throw!” Spinda said in praise to the clone, who responded with a huff and a thumbs up.
Soon enough, all three had scaled the cliff and took the opportunity to survey the dry desert range of cliffs and hills. The huge hotel was finally visible from a distance.
“Welp, there it is…” Spinda said, shading her eyes with her hand to get a better look. “Can’t say I’m too excited about more hiking, but, y’know…”
The three bears began a steady trek across the dry environment, trying to keep the hotel in sight whenever possible. The sun cast long shadows of the three as they walked, which tipped Beast off to something.
“It’s strangely quiet out here, is it not?” Beast observed as the sun beat down on them.
“What do you mean? It’s a mountain.” Spinda replied.
“The scientist seems to have a lot of goons working for her, So wouldn’t she have a few patrolling the outer areas of her little fortress?” Beast explained.
“That’s because she DOES!” Answered a new voice from above.
The three looked up to see a large group of Chansey looking down at them from a small hill, each of them wearing green combat helmets and disapproving expressions. The middle Chansey began to speak.
“We’re the Mountainous Environment Combat Unit, and we-”
“Geez, they’ve got a military too?” Spinda interrupted.
“I AM STILL SPEAKING!” The soldier yelled. “We’ve got orders only to let you three return to the Royal Resort in pieces! Miss Bliss ain’t too happy about what you did to the police!”
“We only did that to them because they got in our way!” Beast responded, holding out his pan. “And we aren’t afraid to do the same to you!”
“Is that so? How about we give these chefs a little bit of home cooking, girls?” The soldier asked her comrades, who responded with sounds of agreement.
“Alrighty then!” The soldier said with a nod. She then proceeded to take her egg out of her pouch and hucked it at Beast, which hit him unceremoniously in the chest and onto the ground without shattering.
Beast looked down at the somehow still intact egg and picked it up, inspecting it with a disappointed look.
“Seriously? An egg? Is that the best you can do?” An amused Beast asked, looking back up at the platoon. “You’ll have to do a lot better to get rid of-wait…”
Beast stopped himself when he noticed that a quiet ticking coming from the egg, and dread set onto his face as he realized what that most likely meant.
“Oh dear…”
The egg detonated right in Beast’s hand. The explosion was thankfully in the less-lethal range, but it still left Beast covered with soot and a questionable sense of hearing.
”ATTAAAAAAAAAACK!” Yelled the lead soldier as she slid down the steep hill, the rest of her unit following suit. The three had no option but to flee as egg bombs flew over their heads, detonating in front of them.
“What do we do, Beast!?” Spinda asked frantically as they ran from their explosive-slinging enemies.
“Why is this always dropped into MY lap?” Beast yelled in response.
“This is the WORST time to argue about this, just think of something!” Spinda demanded.
Beast was just about used to making life-and-death decisions by this point in the day, so what happened next came naturally to him. He knew that they needed to go on the defensive since they were outnumbered, so they needed a spot to take cover.
“Get behind that boulder, I have an idea!” Beast said, pointing to a large rock.
The three took cover behind the boulder, and the head soldier motioned the rest of her unit to stop.
“Why’re we stopped? Let’s surround ‘em!” One soldier suggested.
“I’m not gonna let ‘em play defense like this.” The lead soldier explained. “Toss a grenade, we’ll force ‘em out.”
The soldier nodded and pulled her egg out of her pouch and flung it over the rock. Knowing the soldiers would probably try this strategy, Beast hopped up and hit the egg bomb mid-air with his pan, sending it right back at the Chansey who threw it, getting all of the explosion and then some.
“ACK!” Yelled the lead soldier before she ran to her soot-covered comrade’s aide.
“Oh crap, are you alright?” The lead soldier asked her downed ally.
“Uhm, I think there’s something wrong with my foot…” The soot-covered soldier answered.
“Crap…who’s our medic?” The lead Chansey asked the rest of her unit, who all proceeded to raise their hands.
“Yeesh, me and my dumb questions…” The leader groaned to herself. “Alright, one of you stay back and tend to her injury. The rest, LET ‘EM HAVE IT!”
“These guys can’t be much worse than the cops, right?” Spinda asked as the soldiers charged their hiding spot.
“Only one way to find out…” Beast answered.
The three bears sprung into action, leaping onto the rock in a dramatic fashion. Beast gave Spinda a good twirl and flung her into the group, where she proceeded to make a good opening knocking out a few Chansey with her deadly spinning. A soldier tried hucking a grenade in her direction, but she quickly deflected it with a twirl, sending it elsewhere.
“HA! There goes your little bomb!” Spinda bragged, leaning in close to the soldier’s face with a cocky expression. “Not so tough now, are ya? You have no way to attack me now!”
Spinda’s assumption was proven incorrect when she felt a stubby pink hand sock her cheek.
Beast was having his own trouble with the fistfighting soldiers. The soldier Beast was fighting was relentless, throwing little punches and kicks that he only had the reaction time to block with his pan.
“If punches and kicks are all you can do, I’m afraid you’re outmatched!” Beast told the soldier and he swung at her with his weapon.
The soldier danced around his swing and grabbed his apron. “Oh, I guess you’ve never heard of Seismic Toss, huh?” she asked.
“I don’t even know what that is!” Beast responded.
“Well, lemme show you!” The soldier said
The soldier then flung Beast high into the air with a strength that could be confused with a world-class strongman. Much to his fear and confusion, He flew upward much higher than expected, hundreds and hundreds of feet into the air with no sign of stopping, the entire island quickly becoming a speck in his view. Beast eventually started to feel the pull of gravity weaken and he lifted his head to look around him.
Most of the sky was now pitch black, only fading into blue somewhere below Beast’s feet. It was also dead silent, making the whole experience oddly tranquil. But Beast wasn’t given much time to soak in being on the edge of space, as the still barely present force of gravity pulled him back down and he began careening back towards the island. He returned to the ground after a couple of minutes of falling, landing with little more than a thud and a cloud of dust.
“Good lord, that hurt…” Beast groaned as he sat up and looked around him. “Wait a minute, where’s my pan?”
Beast’s pan fell onto him, making a quick reunion with his cranium and sending him back to a laying position, where his eyes met with the same Chansey soldier from earlier.
“Hehe, Miss Bliss promised a fat reward for bringing you guys in…” The soldier explained. “And I can see why! You three won’t go down easy!”
Beast quickly flopped his left arm around, desperately trying to grab his pan which had fallen somewhere barely within his reach.
The soldier pulled her arm back slowly for a punch. “That’s why I’m gonna enjoy beating you senseless…”
Beast was just barely able to find the handle of his pan before receiving a beating, grabbing it and knocking away the Chansey with one clean sweep.
“So much for this island’s military…” Beast muttered to himself as he got up, dusting his apron off.
“Beast!” Yelled a relieved Spinda who ran up to him and hugged him. “Thank goodness you’re alright, I saw you fall from the sky!”
“I’m fine. Where is the clone?” Beast asked the panda.
“Yeah, about that…” Spinda replied before pointing behind her. “You might wanna see this…”
Beast’s clone was having a grand old time all on his own making quick work of the soldiers, even making a creative display of dispatching the last few soldiers by using one to bowl the rest of them over like pins.
“It turns out he could handle everything on his own!” Spinda explained as she and Beast watched the whole display.
“I see…” Beast replied before calling out to the clone with a thumbs up. “Excellent work!”
The clone turned around, responding with a huff and his own thumbs up.
The peaceful moment was cut short when an intense rumbling filled the air, and a large shadow was cast over the three bears. Beast and Spinda looked up to see the shadow belonged to a crazy-looking wooden vehicle on treads that stood tall over even the clone. It housed an oversized boxing glove and on top of it sat a helmeted Chansey chomping down on a large cigar.
“Well, lookie what we have here! It seems the freak Miss Bliss threw away is back for revenge!” The smoking soldier yelled. “Well, I’m here to cut your little tantrum short. Say hello to…The Lucky Punch! This lovely lady can deliver 5,502 pounds of pressure per square inch using cutting-edge spring load technology! In other words…YOU’RE FREAKIN’ DEAD, MONKEY BOY!”
The clone roared and took a defensive stance, bravely challenging the Chansey and her strange machine. The soldier grinned and pushed a lever next to her steering wheel, unleashing the glove which landed inches short of the clone, moving through the solid rock ground like butter and making a large crater.
“Oh, did that scare you, monkey boy?” The soldier jeered. “Just wait till it actually hits ya!”
The clone looked back at Beast and Spinda and angrily huffed, pointing away from him.
“What do you think he’s saying?” Spinda asked.
“I believe that is monkey boy for ‘Run!’” Beast answered.
Beast and Spinda took their leave to find a hiding spot, leaving the clone on his own to deal with the Chansey and her machine.
The machine easily beat the clone’s punching power, but it was quite slow, allowing the sluggish hybrid to just barely dive out of the way of the machine’s punches. But the clone was unable to counterattack, due to the driver being well out of reach. It was then that an idea started to brew inside the half-bear-half-primate’s mind.
The clone waddled over to a small cliff and awaited the next mechanical punch. The Chansey took the bait, launching a punch which the clone dodged, the giant fist slamming straight into the rock wall.
“Hold still, you freak!” The soldier said in frustration as she pulled the lever to retract the fist, only to find that that fist was stuck in the wall and wouldn’t retract.
“Aw crap, it’s stuck!” The Chansey yelled, yanking on the lever. “C’mon lever, work with me!”
While the soldier was distracted with the lever, The clone carefully climbed onto the giant fist and waited patiently.
After a few seconds of yanking, the fist finally came free, retracting back into the machine and getting the clone right at eye level with the soldier. When she finally looked up to see the shaded eyes of the thing she was calling “Freak” and “Monkey Boy” for the past 15 minutes, her eyes were the size of dinner plates.
“W-well isn’t it-I uh, um…you-”
The clone gave the troublesome Chansey a well-deserved backhanded smack, sending the soldier flying somewhere into the horizon.
Meanwhile, Spinda and the original Beast were crouching behind a rock a safe distance away from all the commotion, deeply worried about the fate of their ally.
“Do you think…do you think she got him?” Beast asked Spinda. “I haven’t heard anything for a couple minutes…”
His question was answered when the shadow of a familiar vehicle cast over them both, terrifying them.
“SHE FOUND US!” Beast yelled.
“WE’RE DEAD!” Spinda screamed.
Beast then looked up at the vehicle a second time and saw that the clone was piloting the vehicle, and huffed at them as a greeting.
“Are we dead yet?” Spinda asked, still covering her eyes.
“It would appear our ride is here.” Beast answered.
The three took the rest of their journey back to the hotel in style, With Beast and Spinda hanging onto the vehicle while the clone remained in the driver’s seat.
“Well, I’m hoping the worst is behind us.” Beast figures, cutting the silence.
“Can’t be that bad, right? All we gotta do now is get back to the hotel and open all those cages.” Spinda replied.
“Still, it’s the scientist’s base of operations, who knows what she has waiting for us!” Beast explained. “Need I remind you she created both this vehicle and the creature driving it?”
The clone huffed at Beast’s words.
“No offense.” Beast apologized.
“I just wanna this over with. Whatever happens, happens.” Spinda admits.
“I wholeheartedly agree.” Beast replied.
Miss Bliss slammed her little stub fist onto her desk and swept her radio set off of it in frustration, now fully aware that the three escapees were on a collision course straight for the Royal Resort.
“Uhm, Miss Bliss?” Said who else but one of the guards entering the scientist’s room. “We just got word that-”
“I KNOW!” Yelled the Blissey as she whirled around to look at them, terrifying them both. She realized she had let her anger get the best of her again and apologized.
“I-I’m sorry for that outburst, it’s just that I’ve been so stressed out the past few hours.” Miss Bliss explained. “I’m so close to fulfilling my dream of giving everyone world-class food…but that damn Munchlax and his little posse have their hearts set on ruining everything!”
Miss Bliss pointed to one of the guards. “You! You’re tired of just eating eggs, right?”
“I…never really minded…” The guard admitted.
“Trust me, you’ll thank me once all of this is finished. I am in the right here!” The scientist insisted before looking out of the window. “I am not afraid to show how determined I am to make sure everything goes well…”
Next part: https://rentry.org/8ctkoun6