"This SUCKS!" Anne complained for the third time, and for the third time, Kipo had to agree. Anne stepped up to the guard again. "Look, I know disobeying your boss doesn't sound... great. And doing it for a bunch of criminals is even worse, but, uh... maybe I should have worded that better, but you got to help us! We're the good guys! Your boss is evil!"
The guard clenched their teeth, and then huffed, sticking their nose in the air. "No matter how hard you try to push your warped worldview onto me, I'll stay strong! I won't give into your twisted view!"
Anne's brow furrowed, thinking that through. "Warped worldview... twisted view..." Anne's face fell into exasperation. "I'm... pretty sure that's just empathy."
The guard huffed again, sticking their nose even FARTHER up into the air to show they weren't listening to anything Anne said.
Kipo sighed, staring at the cells as they passed. They were all darker than the hallway they were in, filled with all sorts of shadows that had scared Kipo before. But now that she knew the truth, and now that she was really looking... they didn't seem so scary anymore. They just seemed normal, like Anne, Kipo, Fei Fei and Kris. Kipo wondered what they did to get locked up here.
Suddenly, the cells disappeared, and just like that, they were only a short incline away from the gates to the arena. As they climbed, a deep nervousness settled into her stomach, but it wasn't all because of the fight... no, it was about another thing Kipo was going to try to accomplish. She just had to find the right moment...
Out of the corner of her eye, Kipo saw Fei Fei move, just slightly, and when Kipo's eyes met hers, Fei Fei gave her a reassuring smile. Kipo gave her one back. It didn't make her lose all of her nervousness, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't help.
"Hel-lo, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer cried, and the five stopped in front of the gate. "I hope you're all doing well today and WELCOME, to the final fight of your. FAVOURITE. Team!!!"
The crowd went wild, and despite how angry Anne was before, now she seemed a little touched.
"We're their favourite?" Anne asked, sounding proud, but before anyone could reply, the announcer continued.
"That's right! With a ninety nine percent win rate, this is definitely going to be Kipo, Anne, Fei Fei and Kris' final fight. But whether they'll be walking on to be defeating the monsters out there or sitting in a cold cell for the rest of their life remains to be seen, because their next enemies happen to outnumber them... a lot."
Anne, Kipo and Fei Fei exchanged an alarmed look while the crowd screamed.
"That's right, that's right... it's the good ol' Barrel of Monkey's you all know and love, ALSO with a ninety nine percent win rate! Which of these two will win? Is less more? Is Kris' group finally outnumbered? Is ten really greater than four?"
The gate opened, and Kipo, Kris, Anne and Fei Fei stepped out, waiting anxiously for the other gate to open. The announcer was asking al the right questions, could they really beat ten people?
Kipo shook her head. Win or lose... it didn't matter. What matter was their plan, though it would probably help if they won.
The gate on the other side of the arena finally slid open, and Kipo squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of the other group. But what she saw shocked her.
"Huh?" she asked, her eyes widening.
"What the...?!" Anne bewilderly looked around, as if some person was going to suddenly show up and explain everything. "They really ARE monkeys?!"
"Who will win? Who will lose? Find out right now in THREE... TWO... ONE! GO!"
The monkeys (yes, they really were monkeys. Just monkeys) suddenly tore across the arena, and before Kipo could blink there were limbs and tiny hands crawling all over her, sending her to the ground with an oof! Kipo lifted her hands, trying to shove them off, but it felt like whenever she got one off, a million more showed up.
"Hey!" Kipo heard a cry from behind her, and that seemed to give her the necessary strength to shove all the monkey's off and climb to her feet. When she got her bearings back, she was surprised to find that only two monkeys had attacked her.
They chattered indignantly at her, and Kipo glared back. "Nice try, but I actually have experience fighting monkeys like you! Though in my world they were a little big-"
Kipo's observation was cut off when she suddenly heard another yell from across the arena. Right, Kipo had forgotten about that...
"Give that back! Ow!" Anne yelled, and Kipo looked over to find that a monkey had taken Anne's sword. Another one was crawling all over her, pulling at her hair and shrieking. "Ow! Hey, stop-OW!"
"Anne!" Kipo cried, but a quick look around showed her that Anne wasn't the only one having trouble. Kris' sword was also close to being stolen as they fought against their barrage of three monkeys, and Fei Fei was in a tug of war with a monkey for her wristbow, while another pickpocketed the rest of her arrows from her.
'They're trying to take away our weapons...' Kipo realised. 'That means I technically have the advantage now!'
Kipo rushed forward, throwing aside the snarling monkeys that leapt at her, and dove at Anne's sword. The monkey jumped, startled, but they were too slow to move out of Kipo's way. Kipo grabbed a hold of the swords hilt, tearing it away from the monkey. The monkey screamed, and reached forward towards the blade, but they stopped themselves before they could grasp it.
'So they're smart,' Kipo noted, before turning her attention away. "Anne!"
Anne looked up, and Kipo hurled the sword towards her. Anne's eyes lit up, and she easily grabbed it, hitting the monkey off of her with the hilt. Meanwhile, Kipo had to do an elaborate dance to run away from the monkeys trying to grasp at her legs. Eventually, Kipo's back hit Anne's, and they stood back-to-back, facing the monkeys.
"Man, if you knock them down, they just get back up," Anne huffed. She sounded tried. "I wish I had my tennis racket."
"Yeah..." Kipo's fists transformed into paws, and she smacked a monkey away. It got right back up, just like Anne said. "What do you think we should do? I don't want to hurt them..."
Anne's face momentarily changed into alarm, like she hadn't considered that before. "Yeah, me neither! ...But what else are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know," Kipo answered truthfully. She glanced around, spotting Fei Fei, still locked in battle with the monkey. "I'm going to ask Fei Fei. Can you help Kris?"
Anne glanced around, too. "Yep. Okay, I got it."
"Right," Kipo said. "I think we might need to use our plan, so be ready, ok?"
"You got it!" Anne agreed, her voice determined. "Alright, let's go!"
"Right!"
Anne and Kipo broke away from each other, and Kipo jumped over the surprised monkeys making her way to Fei Feu. There, she slid across the sand, grabbing the monkey that had been giving Fei Fei trouble. Fei Fei, surprised at her sudden win of the tug-of-war battle, stumbled backwards, but she quickly regained her footing, knocking the pickpocket monkey off of her, but not before it could grab one last arrow. Kipo punched it farther away before it could come back.
"Thanks," Fei Fei told her, sounding relieved, and Kipo nodded.
"No problem," Kipo told her, glancing at Anne and Kris. They seemed to be having a little trouble... Kipo shook her head. No, she had to focus on her problems first. "Fei Fei, so you have any ideas about what we can do?"
"About them?" Fei Fei motioned to the monkeys as Kipo nodded. "Um... they seem to get up when we knock them down, but if we just force them to stay down..."
Fei Fei help up an arrow with a very sharp tip, but it was lowered when Fei Fei saw Kipo's face.
"Let's not go that far," Kipo told her firmly. "Any other ideas?"
Fei Fei grimaced. "I... maybe we should just go to our plan."
"You think so?" Kipo glanced up at the stands around them. "Alright. How many arrows do you have left?"
Fei Fei patted her pockets, and her face suddenly fell.
"What?" she asked quickly. "What is it?"
"I don't have any of my stuff left," Fei Fei explained, panicked. "They took it all!"
Kipo's eyes widened, and she glanced around. All of Fei Fei's arrows and trinkets had seemingly completely disappeared, but Kipo's sharp eyes caught a silver flash.
"They're burying you stuff," Kipo growled. "Fei Fei, I'm changing the plan a little bit. Just be on the lookout for the things you need, and tell Anne that she's taking my place in the plan."
"Is Anne strong enough?" Fei Fei wondered.
"Kris, then."
"Is Kris strong enough?" Fei Fei asked, but before Kipo could reply, she answered her question. "I'll ask them both."
"Ok," Kipo said. "Don't worry, I'll cover for you."
Fei Fei nodded in confirmation, and Kipo suddenly took of like a shot towards the far wall, away from all the rest of her friends. She must have surprised the monkeys, because instead of some of the monkeys starting after her, like one or two, almost half of them did. They probably thought she was planning something. To be fair, she was.
Jumping up, towards the wall, Kipo suddenly turned around, kicking off the wall to get even higher up, at the apex of her jump, Kipo suddenly transformed, and she heard the crowd gasp as her new form crashed down into the sand, making the ground shake like an earthquake. To her relief, her plan worked, and the sand underneath her feet shifted.
In fact, her plan worked so well that even the monkeys that had decided to focus on the rest of her friends decided to swarm her. Kipo reared back, sweeping the ground with her tail, but it did nothing to deter the monkeys as they started climbing up her limbs. Suddenly, a sharp bite on her back made her jump, and then they just kept coming. Kipo roared. The monkeys were suddenly not just annoying, but also painful.
Through her pain, Kipo could hear the announcer's delight.
"Aha! The battle of numbers has turned into a battle of size! Does Kipo's team have the advantage now- hey, what are you all doing?! Get off of there! Guards! Guards!!!"
Kipo grinned, and glanced over to the other side of the arena, where Anne and Kris were helping Fei Fei up to the upper level of the stands. She saw the crowd's confusion, and the guards forcing their way through, but at this point, Fei Fei, Anne and Kris were already up, with Fei Fei fiddling with her wrist bow, and all three of them scanning for the announcer's box. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too hard to find. The announcer was practically leading the way with how much he was shouting.
Suddenly, a burning pain on her back made her jump, and she could feel warm liquid trailing down her limbs. Kipo roared, and shook herself violently, but the monkeys held on tight. Kipo growled. Her footsteps were starting to faulter, and now blood was even starting to leak into her eyes. She needed to get these monkeys off as fast as possible!
Kipo grit her teeth, and slammed her body into the stands, and distantly, she heard the worried cries of the crowd. Kipo hoped she wasn't making trouble for any of her friends.
To her relief, a couple of monkeys DID fall off, and, to Kipo's surprise, a guard, too. They must have been running along the stands...
Unfortunately, the monkeys didn't stay off for long. In the span of only one second, they were rushing back, attacking both Kipo and the guard that had fallen. Kipo watched as the guard got up quickly, brandishing their spear, but that looked like a weak stick compared to the monkeys with red dripping down their mouths rushing at them.
Kipo growled at the monkeys, bounding forward to grasp the guard with one paw. They yelped, but Kipo couldn't exactly reassure them as a giant jaguar, so she just set them back in the stands. They watched her with big, wide, terrified eyes, and Kipo tried to give them a smile. Hopefully they wouldn't just immediately go try and catch her friends agai- oh. Well. There they go. Kipo sighed, and turned her attention back to the monkeys.
She really hoped that her friends were almost to the announcer, she wasn't sure how much longer she could fight off these blood thirsty monkeys.
How did dogs usually deal with ticks. Kipo though back to the mega dogs. How did they act again?
Kipo suddenly tucked in her legs, falling into a sitting position, before rolling over. Though the arena wasn't that big, it was thankfully big enough for Kipo to roll on her back and back to her feet. Kipo nearly cried in relief when she finally got back to her feet, finding her wounded back free of monkeys. But that wouldn't hold for long, but, as she expected, the monkeys were running back. Kipo growled. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible.
Kipo took off in a sprint, running over to the other side of the arena and jumping up into the near empty stands, transforming back into her regular self. Kipo sail towards the stands, landing on her normal human feet, but they buckled underneath her as she landed. Kipo swayed from side to side, her heart pounding. She'd... lost a lot of blood in the arena... but that didn't make any sense!
Suddenly, a voice reached Kipo's ears, and she nearly fell in relief. She couldn't hear any of the words, but that was ANNE! Over the microphone! They'd done it!
Kipo stepped forward, but her knee failed her, and she buckled over, falling onto the stands. Her head was pounding, everything hurt, and Kipo could feel her vision going black, and quickly.
The last thing she heard was the screeches of monkeys.