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Scarlemagne had fallen. The tree above the stadium was spurting waterfalls of gold. Song the Mega Monkey had left with the humans, but all the mutes and Kipo’s friends were trapped in the stadium. Everyone would be encased in gold to give Scarlemagne a lifeless kingdom. All around, mutes were screaming in panic.
“I have to do something,” Kipo said, fisting her paws at her side.
“Kipo, no, you don’t have an anchor—” Benson said through tears.
She threw a hand out to encompass all the beings crowding into the upper parts of the stadium to get as far away from the rising gold as possible. “They’re all going to die if I don’t save them. I’d rather be a panther forever than let all these innocent people become gilded.” She reached over with her huge, furry pink paws and gently took her father’s hand. She glanced at each of her friends. “Than lose all of you,” she added softly.
“Kipo—” her father started to say, but Kipo was done hearing objections.
She embraced the panther.
Now the size of a double-decker bus, she sprang from the outlook of Scarlemagne’s throne and galloped across the pool of gold, careful to avoid the lava-hot streams coming from the tree. She paused at a safe distance. The tree was huge and thick, far too big for her to push over. And there was no way to stop the flow of gold—she didn’t have anything strong enough to plug it and Scarlemagne had destroyed the switch.
The best way, then, was to make a new exit. Rearing up on her hind legs, Kipo slashed at the walls of the stadium. Her claws screeched against the stone but tore a crevice in its side. Around her, mutes saw what she was doing and ran closer, crying for her to let them out.
Kipo slashed again, pushing at the rocks with her claws, pawing at the stadium. How odd that such a big structure made her feel like just a regular housecat, and the mutes by her paws were just little mice. The stone was so high and so strong, her claws only chipped at it. She needed more.
I can’t fail, Kipo thought furiously to herself. I didn’t convince Scarlemagne to let everyone go. I spent all yesterday hanging out with him when I could have taken him down and prevented all of this. Everyone’s here because of me. I won’t let them die—I WON’T!
Her muscles rippled underneath her, as Kipo put all her spirit into taking down the wall. With the adrenaline in her veins, the power of her beating heart, her body shifted and grew. Her back clawed braced against the rock as she pressed forward with her other four—four?—and then felt the stadium rocks crumple beneath her like clay.
Kipo barely had time to process what had just happened as the mutes streamed out beneath her paws like a dam bursting open. She backed up a step in alarm, and then jerked as she heard screaming below her. She swung her head down in surprise as mutes shrieked to get out of the way of her huge feet. She didn’t understand how big she was, or these new limbs. She felt a back paw bump into someone and craned her neck to look, seeing a skunk go tumbled down towards the lava-gold.
Kipo gave a wordless cry of alarm and whirled around, causing more screaming, just as she saw Wolf run out with her amazing speed and snatch the skunk’s arm right before they fell into the lava. Quickly Wolf started pulling the skunk away from the rising pool.
Kipo looked down to see if she had hurt anyone else in her movement. Several mutes that had been in her path stumbled confusedly, disorientated but trying to make their way to the exit.
Kipo whined through her jaguar throat. She hadn’t meant to hurt them.
“Kipo!” Wolf’s voice shouted. “Look out!”
Kipo looked down and realized her weight was causing the stairs of the stadium to crumble. Already, places where she had stepped had caused rocky indents in the path that mutes were struggling to get past. She backed up cautiously, getting out of the way of the exit, but even that seemed to shake the ground and caused mutes to trip. She whined again.
She was too big to help anymore. She was just messing everything up. And she didn’t have an anchor, so there was no way to reverse what had been done.
She looked side to side unsurely, and her eyes caught on a bit of red.
Scarlemagne.
He was laying, still unconscious, far from the exit. The golden pool was rising only a short distance away from him, and no one else was around.
He might have killed people in her name and enslaved her kind and tried to kill her and her friends, but he was still her brother. He thought he’d been abandoned, and then thought that Kipo had been pretending to care about him. She hated that she’d made him feel that way. Even with the complexities of their relationship, he didn’t deserve to die.
Kipo quickly hurried cover to him, trying to tiptoe on her paws—weren’t jaguars supposed to be stealthy?—and gently as possible picked him up with her jaws. It felt weird to carry something—someone—in her mouth. He was so small now, like a little toy, instead of the large mandrill she’d just been fighting.
A stream of gold was coming towards them, and Kipo ducked down and crawled back to avoid it, Scarlemagne hanging limp in her jaws.
“Kipo!”
She lifted her head, ears perking as she heard her name called again. Almost all of the mutes were out now, but Wolf, Benson, Dave, and her father were lingering by the exit. The golden lava was everywhere now, it might start leaking out of the stadium through her exit. She bounded over the pool towards her friends and family.
Bad choice. Her landing caused all of them to fall over. She winced back, ashamed.
Wolf was the first to push herself to her feet. “Kipo we need to get everyone farther away,” she said. “But your every move is making us fall over. You need to step back.”
Kipo whined again.
“I know, sweetie,” her father said. “We’ll figure this out. But we have other things to worry about right now. These people aren’t safe yet. We can handle it, but you need to get out of the way.” He pointed to the woods. “Go that way so your steps won’t affect us. You don’t have to go far. Come back in half an hour or so, and we’ll help you.”
But they couldn’t help her. She had no anchor, and she’d never leaned this far into the jaguar before. And like this, she was only hurting people.
She bowed her head with a low croon, looking at the people she loved. Worried for her. Scared of her. She might not see them again, and that might be for the best.
She sprang off, high into the air and galloped into the woods.
She felt water in her great big pink eyes.
She kept going.
She wasn’t sure what her life as a giant pink jaguar would be like, but right now she just wanted to get away. At least she couldn’t be hypnotized like her mother had been. And her mother was free! Perhaps they would reunite one day, but Kipo couldn’t stand it right now. She couldn’t stand the idea of looking into her mother’s eyes and seeing the anguish that Kipo would be just like her, imprisoned in a Mega Mute’s body, for eternity.
Kipo was so focused on running and on her thoughts that she had forgotten about Scarlemagne. Whoops.
She slowed to a trot and then a stop on a high area of the forest. It wasn’t quite a mountain, but she could see for miles and yet there was no sign of the stadium or any of the structures she knew were by Scarlemagne’s kingdom. Good.
She set him down gently, still unconscious. She then danced lightly on her paws unsurely, wishing she could turn into a human so it would be easier to disappear. No one was around, and while all the mutes were still escaping from the stadium, no one was hunting her, but she still felt like she was sticking out.
She whined to herself and looked at Scarlemagne. What should she do with him? For a moment, she thought about just leaving him in the woods. He could survive, right? But the thought of a young mandrill abandoned in the wilderness made her hesitate.
She sat down, staring at him and thinking hard. No one else would take him in, she was the only one who cared about him. Without any primates to control, he was essentially helpless. He was in terrible danger, and at the same time, a terrible danger. He was skilled in more ways than just his power. If he had the opportunity, he would build his empire again. Someone had to keep an eye on him, but not someone who would hurt him. And Kipo was the only person in the world who could do that.
Besides, it wasn’t like she could mess up their relationship any more.
Kipo still hesitated. She felt raw. Now that she wasn’t moving and the adrenaline had run out, her new body felt horribly odd around her. Her whole body felt like a foot in a hand glove, misshapen and awkward. Her very bones weren’t the same. And she hadn’t fully processed that she was leaving her friends behind. Was she really up for watching over her power-hungry brother?
She felt her tails lash behind her.
Well. There was one thing Kipo knew for certain. She hated being alone. Even now, when she was trying to get away from her friends, she felt sick from how the emptiness of the world around her pressed against her fur. But this little mandrill, unconscious though he was and hurtful as he’d been to her, soothed that ache somewhat.
Kipo lifted her head and let out a howl, gravelly from her unfamiliar throat yet filled with all her anguish. And no one heard it.
She stood up and circled around a bit, her paws somehow lighter on the ground, and curled up. She laid her huge tails around Scarlemagne, so that no one could reach him without alerting her.
She closed her jaguar eyes and cried herself to sleep.
-
When Scarlemagne woke up, he had a headache that he usually only got from screaming at Gerald too loud. He really should stop doing that, but shouting at Gerald was just so fun and sometimes he got a little carried away. He also felt terribly icky for some reason. He groaned and rubbed his head.
Wait a moment.
This wasn’t his bed. The ground was far too hard and he felt grass under his hands. He shook his head, blinking his eyes open blearily. The sunlight stunned them for a moment. What had happened? Was it still the morning of his coronation? No, he’d been crowning himself and then…Kipo, the little sister he had never known until yesterday…she’d betrayed him.
Right.
He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked around. So where was he now?
He was met with the sight of a humongous pink jaguar.
Oh dear. It was dozing, but looked nonetheless threatening. Six legs each with sharp claws that could tear down trees with one swipe, lean muscles that breathed slow with a stone-breaking power, and a glimpse of sharp canines peeking through the peel of its mouth. And here Scarlemagne had thought the Mega Monkey had been impressive. This Mega…it was one of the most vicious-looking he’d ever seen.
He should leave now, thank you.
Slowly pushing himself to his feet, Scarlemagne backed away from the Mega’s face, glancing around as he kept his footsteps quiet. Now would have been a nice time for his own Mega Monkey, but even if it (she, he reminded himself, that monkey is Song) were close, Kipo had removed his control of her. That girl had ruined all his plans with her stupid friends she’d chosen over him and her giant pink jaguar paws—
Scarlemagne froze again.
His very intelligent mind pieced together several things at once. Firstly, that this Mega Jaguar was obviously Kipo. She was different from how her form had been described to him, much bigger, but how many other pink Mega Jaguars were out there? Except—he’d learned just before he’d been knocked out that Kipo needed some sort of item in order to turn back from a jaguar into a human. So if this was her, a jaguar, and that item had been destroyed…
Oh.
Oh, this wasn’t good. Why would she do that? She’d known she couldn’t transform back, that’s why she hadn’t shifted during their fight, something he had deliberately used against her. Had it been an accident? How aware was she? Song seemed to understand when people spoke to her, but one instance was hardly a defined pattern.
He really didn’t want to find out unless he had his flamingos with him to make an emergency escape, so kept backing up. Except, Kipo’s tail was partially around the area in an arc, so the only way he could leave without touching her would be to get right by her giant fanged face.
Lovely.
Scarlemagne considered his options, few as they were. Then, reluctantly, he edged towards Kipo’s face. Her heavy breathing messed up his fur. He grimaced and kept sidling forward.
It wasn’t until he was much closer that he realized that he was sweating. Those pheromones that he usually begged his body to make more of became his doom, because Kipo’s nose twitched as the scent was exposed to the air. And with her water neutralizer, his hypnotism had no effect.
No, no, no, sleep! he prayed quietly, holding completely still so as not to make a sound.
It was not to be. Kipos slitted purple eyes blinked open, and then locked onto him, directly in front of her.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
“Tell me this now,” he said softly, trying not to seem threatening to the giant deadly jaguar. “Can you understand me?”
The jaguar gave him a blink and then lifted her head. He tensed, have expecting her to lean forward and just eat him. The terrible end of Scarlemagne, eaten by his animalistic stupid human sister. But then as her head was up, she nodded.
Scarlemagne relaxed considerably. “Oh good,” he said. “That dramatically decreases my chances of being eaten.”
Kipo narrowed her eyes and huffed a breath out her nostrils at him, as if insulted by the idea.
“Jaguars are predators, dear,” he said dismissively. “If you were really one, you would absolutely eat me.”
Kipo’s snout crinkled at that.
“Well, now that my safety is assured,” he began, brushing off his coat—why was it so filthy, like he was covered in Mod Frog mucus? “What in the blazes happened?”
He looked around again. Kipo had shifted her tails somewhat so he could see forest beyond, but no recognizable structures. How did they get from his kingdom out to wherever this was?
He looked back at the pink jaguar and was pretty sure of the answer.
Kipo looked away, her expression surprisingly complicated for a jaguar. Sadness, unease, perhaps shame? Was she regretting her choices now?
When she didn’t answer, Scarlemagne snapped his fingers, calling her attention. “Hello? I realize you can’t talk, my dear, but I need some form of answer.”
She looked back and frowned at him stubbornly.
Well, he’d have to figure this out on his own then. He lifted his hand to his chin thoughtfully. “After I was knocked out, everyone was trapped in the stadium and gold was flowing in. I assume you decided to shift into your Mega Jaguar form to rescue them—” he rolled his eyes, “—but after that…things get tricky.” He put his hands on his hips and tilted his head. “Did you succeed? Or is everyone a gold statue right now?”
Kipo gave a low growl and then jerked a nod, pride and stubbornness in her eyes.
Right, so that plan had failed. He wasn’t that upset. It had been one of his more impassioned spur-of-the-moment decisions, he’d been hurt and angry, but now that he had slept on it, he realized that idea hadn’t been so great. Golden statues in terrified poses couldn’t obey him or speak his praises. Kipo had just ruined his whole coronation and he’d been upset. But now he thought he could find some way to rebuild—to counter her little anti-pheromones to take back his human army and force the mutes back into his control. He was clever, he could find a way.
It still annoyed him tremendously, though, that he had had everything he wanted in his grasp and she had wrenched it away.
He looked her up and down. “And I’m guessing you can’t turn back into a human?”
She looked away again.
“Ever?” he prodded.
Eyes downcast, she shook her head.
Scarlemagne shouldn’t feel pity for her. She had crushed his dreams, and it was her own fault she was stuck like this. Honestly, this should be a punishment for what she’d done. Yet all he could think of was that she could never play the piano with him as she had done before, or show him board games, or wear dresses he picked out for her. She couldn’t be that harmless-looking little girl he’d brought into his court, but was stuck as a literal beast.
“I’m sorry,” he found himself saying.
She looked back at him, ears perked with surprise. He pursed his lips, unsure how to comfort her through this but wishing he could.
Her eyes softened a smidgen, with a small glow of appreciation.
Scarlemagne cleared his throat. “Well, you have your mind, so your life’s not over. I doubt even an extreme irreversible bodily transformation can keep you down, Kipo.” He waved a hand dismissively as if that would blow the whole issue away.
She flicked one ear to the side in what he thought was amusement.
He put his hand on his chin again and tapped his jaw thoughtfully. “If you were unable to turn back, and none of your precious friends are here now…did you run away?”
Kipo let out a cat-groan and thumped her head back down on the ground, causing him to jump silently at how the earth shook underneath him. Her ears fell flat and she looked very much like she was pouting.
That answered that question.
“Kipo, Kipo,” he sighed. “What else is a teenager girl expected to do when she turns into a giant monster cat?”
She made a perplexed expression at him.
“There’s still the question as to why you brought me?” he wondered aloud. He waited, but she just watched him, giving him no hints. He tried to imagine it and—
“Wait a moment,” he said, feeling his face go slack. “How did you bring me? You don’t have hands, and I wasn’t awake to hold onto you to ride—did you carry me in your mouth?”
The fierce predatory jaguar had the decency to look sheepish.
“That’s disgusting!” Scarlemagne screeched, shaking himself. Oh, now he could feel it, all that animal salvia on his fur—dried but still very much there. His clothes were ruined too, then. And this was his favorite one he’d picked out for his coronation! Ew, ew, ew.
Kipo was looking far too amused now. He glared at her.
“Alright, you didn’t leave your friends but drag me all the way out here for nothing. What’s your game, Kipo?”
She shrugged her great cat shoulders.
He gave her a disbelieving look. “Are you trying to tell me you don’t know?”
Kipo narrowed her eyes at his angry tone and then shifted a giant paw towards him. It took great effort not to flinch away from it, but he knew Kipo would never hurt him so long as he wasn’t attacking her or something she cared about. He watched cautiously as she shifted a big toe and lightly poked him in the chest.
You.
“Me?” he asked strangely.
Kipo nodded.
Scarlemagne lifted a hand to his forehead for a moment, that headache returning. He could feel a bit of a bump on the side of his head, too.
“I don’t understand,” he said finally, “But I suppose it doesn’t matter. Neither of us will get anywhere if we can’t get you adjusted to your new form.”
Kipo flicked her right ear, now looking confused.
Scarlemagne crossed his arms. “You ran away because of your form, Kipo. Because you can’t transform into a human, meaning that you are a constant danger to everyone and everything around you. Megas destroy things just by walking. You obviously know this. So we’ll practice you being careful. Up, up!”
He gestured insistently to her and she frowned but obeyed, pushing herself to her six feet. The moment the middle pair touched the ground, however, Scarlemagne felt the ground shake and he waved his arms to keep from falling over.
“No, no!” he cried, shaking his head. “Slower. Gentler.” He waved around the clearing. “Walk around in circles until you can do it right.”
This went on for about an hour, Scarlemagne standing in the middle of the clearing, shouting advice to Kipo as to how to handle her new form stably. He tried comparing the walk to a gentle waltz, smoothly gliding from one foot to the next, which seemed to improve things. She glared at him once in a while, like a frustrated teenager, but his efforts slowly paid off.
“There we go,” he praised as she stalked like the great hunter cat she was. “You’re making progress already!”
Kipo straightened, looking pleased with herself, lashing her three tails behind her proudly. Feeling safe, Scarlemagne walked closer.
“You know, Kipo,” he started, “This form does have its benefits. Once you can learn to control yourself, just as we did now, I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.” He smiled, rubbing his chin. “I certainly could improve the situation.”
Riding back to his kingdom with a giant Mega Jaguar under his command would surely bring everyone back into line. And he would make it good for Kipo, too; he could build a safe place for her, and have servants read to her. He’d play piano for her whenever she wanted. It would be the two of them, just as he had wanted before. It didn’t matter if she were permanently stuck as a giant panther, he could take care of her. She was his little sister, after all.
Minus the betraying bits. They would have to work through that. Scarlemagne would have to be sure that Kipo did mean it when she said she’d cared.
Kipo frowned and huffed at him in displeasure.
Well, she’d take some convincing.
“We’ll sort it out,” he said diplomatically. “But I’ll ask you to think about it. Together,” he lifted a fist, “We could create our own kingdom, Kipo. Under us, there would be no fighting.” He raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you want? For everyone to get along?”
Kipo grumbled and held up two paws, balancing on her middle and hind legs.
“Humans are out of the question,” Scarlemagne waved off.
Kipo frowned at him and then looked down dejectedly, slowly laying down and pressing herself against the earth.
“What is it now?” he said, tilting his head. He watched her mope, her eyes on her paws, her claws retracted. “Are you saying you don’t want to fight?”
She glanced up at him and nodded before looking back down.
“You could have fooled me, back at the arena.” He shook his head. “You’ll come to see one way or another, Kipo, that fear and force are the only ways to keep control.” Just like with the Mod Frogs, a very thoughtful gift that she hadn’t appreciated. He had done it to protect her. No one hurts his little sister, not even when she was overthrowing him.
Well. Maybe he could, but not terribly.
Kipo then did something no one had dared to do in front of Scarlemagne in years.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me?” he said, aghast. “Show some respect! I am older than you!”
That, for some reason, seemed to perk Kipo up. She looked at him with a small smile and shifted her hips in a way that seemed to say, But I’m bigger.
“Don’t think that just because you’re the size of a skyscraper, you can show me attitude,” Scarlemagne lectured.
Her tail lifted, shifting side to side, and she looked far too pleased with herself.
He scoffed. “Whatever.” He decided to change the subject.
“We’ve been here for over an hour,” he pointed out to her. “I think we should try to get some food and water—and maybe a bath,” he added, wrinkling his snout down at himself. “Then we can focus on wherever we want to go next.” Preferably back to his kingdom, but that was the very place Kipo had run from.
He looked around the forest, but Kipo was edging closer to him, tilted slightly on her side.
He frowned. “Get up, we have to get moving.” She gave him annoyed look and shuffled closer, and he stumbled back a few feet. “Watch where you move! Getting stepped on by a clumsy thirteen-year-old in a giant cat body is not how I want to expire.”
Kipo made a grumbling sound and tilted herself back, glaring at him for a moment. Then she opened her jaws and leaned forward.
Scarlemagne screamed. He turned and ran away, admittedly with less grace than benefiting a king. When he reached the end of the clearing, he stopped for a moment and looked back, wide-eyed.
Kipo was still laying down, her jaw since closed, and she was watching him with that amused look again.
Scarlemagne stomped his foot. “What in the world were you thinking?!” he shouted, “I told you before, that is disgusting! I already know that you’re not a real Mega Mute and won’t eat me! Why would you try to put me back in your mouth? It’s already bad enough you did it once to bring me—”
He cut himself off. Then looked up at her.
“You’re offering for me to ride you,” he realized aloud. She’d been presenting her back but he hadn’t understood.
Kipo dipped her head in a nod and then edged closer.
Scarlemagne had ridden plenty of vehicles and beasts before, notably his flamingos and Song. But this was different, firstly because he had control over those creatures and secondly because, well, this seemed like a show of trust for Kipo. And she was a trusting person, and it wasn’t like he could hurt her in this form. But no creature he had ever ridden had this amount of power.
He straightened himself up, regaining some of his dignity. “Very well.”
He stalked over and she watched him, lowering herself as far as she could and leaning a bit to the side.
He waved the effort off. “Oh please, I’m not one of your weakling human friends.”
With two bounds, he was up on her fur, kneeling down to keep his balance. He clutched tight as she stood up, turning her head a bit. He crawled more towards her ear, because if something happened then she would have to endure his screaming.
“Right,” he muttered, and the huge ear twitched, almost smacking him. He glared at it for a moment before looking out on their surroundings. He was used to heights from his flamingo-car, and it wasn’t long before he spotted a lake in the distance. “To your Northeast—there’s a LAAAAAAAAKE--!!!!”
He screamed as she turned and bounded towards it. He gripped her fur as tightly as he could.
Not like a flamingo. Kipo was much faster.