Love Hawk

Chapter Seven: Flight of the Macaws

The poacher's float motored into an airfield, where a cargo plane awaited. Disembarking, the poachers loaded the cage containing Rafael, Nico and Pedro onto the plane first, where they joined the rest of the caged birds. Blu and Jewel's had been set aside on top of a pair of crates. Fernadno, the young boy who had captured them in the first place, was also there. Casting a quick at the poachers, he sidled over to Blu and Jewel.

"I'm gonna get you guys out of here." He whispered, about to unlock Blu's cage.

Blu and Jewel had little time to wonder about the boy's change of heart, as Nigel landed on Jewel's cage, screeching loudly. Then the dreadlocked poacher grabbed Fernando's arm.

"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded.

"I... nothing!" Fernando stuttered.

"You shouldn't have done that." Growled the poacher, pulling Fernando away. "Come on!"

Fernando looked back at Blu and Jewel, a look of regret on his face. Biting the dreadlocked poacher's arm, he slipped free and ran off.

"Just forget him!" The dreadlocked man told his thin colleague, who was about to give chase. "Get the birds!"

Obeying, the thin man and his fat friend carried Blu and Jewel onto the plane, who felt as if their last hope had gone up in smoke. After they had been secured, the poachers took off. The ascent seemed a little bumpy to Blu (Unbeknownst to him, Linda and Tulio had commandeered a parade float, and had followed a trail left by Fernando to the airfield. They had attempted to ram the poachers' plane, but were too late, the top of the float merely grazing the craft).

As the plane flew to an unknown location, Blu looked over at Jewel, who was looking completely despondant.

"Hey, buck up, gorgeous." He smiled at her. "It ain't over 'til it's over."

"But it is over." Jewel sighed, giving up. "There's no way out, no escape. It was nice knowing you, Blu."

Jewel lowered her head, a look of complete despair on her face. Seeing her like that actually hurt Blu, who felt like a hot knife had been plunged into his chest.

'I can't give up!' Blu thought. 'I have to do something, anything!'

Taking in his surroundings, he saw a fire extinguisher on the wall, and a spare piece of rope, used to tie down the bird cages during flight, hanging from a hook, the end of which was hanging atop his cage. Climbing up the cage's side, Blu grabbed the hook at the end of rope, and used it to loop the other end onto the fire extinguisher, and his end onto the cage's metal grating.

"What are you doing?" Asked Jewel, puzzled by his ministrations.

"I'm gonna pop this cage open like a soda can, baby." Blu smirked, before ramming into the side of it repeatedly.

As the cage slowly jerked across its crate, it knocked the fire extinguisher off its holder, causing it to drop to the ground, the downward force pulling on the other end of the rope, which wrenched open the top of the cage.

"Now that's poppin'!" Cheered Nico.

Blu came over to Jewel's cage, freeing her.

"Hurry." He told her, swinging the door open. "We gotta free the others."

Together, they released all the poachers' victims. Blu then toppled a pile of cages in front of the door to the cockpit, preventing the poachers from getting in. He then swung over to the rear and pulled the hatch release lever, opening the back of the plane.

By this time, the dreadlocked poacher had realised what was happening, but Blu's blockade prevented him from doing anything about it.

"Go, go, go!" Blu motioned to the other birds.

"Freedoooom!" Bellowed Pedro.

The birds swarmed out of the plane and into the sky, flying back to their rightful homes.

"Come on!" Jewel cheered, dragging Blu by the wing. "Come on, we need to get outta here!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Blu protested, pulling out of Jewel's grasp.

"Umm..." Mumbled Jewel, realising. "It's okay. Hey, it's okay. We'll figure this out together, right?"

As she made to hold Blu's wing in hers, Nigel suddenly attacked from behind. Laughing maniacally, he pinned Blu to the floor. Blu gasped for air, the cockatoo's talons squeezing tightly around his throat.

"Let him go!" Snarled Jewel, lunging at Nigel. The cockatoo's larger size enabled him to simply throw her off and into the wall. The impact caused a cage to topple down onto her wing.

"Aaahh!" She cried out in pain.

"Jewel!" Gasped Blu.

"Oh, my wing!" Jewel groaned.

"Oh, pity." Sneered Nigel. "Now we have two useless, flightless birds."

As Nigel laughed once more, Blu seethed with rage. Unable to move due to the cockatoo's bulk, he looked around for something that could help him put the ugly bird in his place. He spotted the fire extinguisher, sputtering from it's fall, the rope still hooked to it. Reaching out with his foot, Blu managed to loop the rope's free hook around Nigel's ankle.

"Nobody messes with my lady, jerk!" Blu declared, pulling the ring out of the fire extinguisher's release valve.

The red cylinder flew into the air, taking Nigel with it as it smashed though the cockpit door window, and out through the plane's windscreen. As Nigel managed to free himself, he was then caught in one of the plane's propellers, damaging it enough to bring the whole plane down.

As the aircraft tipped, Blu, to his horror, saw the now-flightless Jewel sliding down the open hatchway.

"Blu!" She called, trying deperately to hold on. "Blu!"

Blu tried to catch her, but wasn't fast enough to keep her from falling.

"No!" He cried out.

As he watched her fall screaming toward the ocean, Blu did the unthinkable: Closing his eyes,he jumped off the hatch. In his mind's eye, a long-forgotten memory of falling came into his head. Opening his eyes, he realised that it had become a reality. As he fell toward Jewel, he wrapped his wings around her tightly.

"Blu!" Jewel gasped in disbelief. "You're crazy! What are you doing?"

"I'm not gonna let go!" Blu told her. "I can't live without you! I... I love you!"

For a moment, Jewel just stared at Blu, shocked. Then she leaned forward and kissed him deeply. Closing his eyes, Blu felt himself overcome by a joy he had never felt before. He felt as if his heart was beating ten times faster. Unconsciously, he slowly opened his wings, then opened his eyes.

'Feel the rythym of your heart'. Blu suddenly remembered Rafael saying.

An instant before they hit the water, Blu started flapping his wings, halting their descent, and turning their direction towards land.

"Oh, wow." Blu said quietly, overwhelmed by what had just happened.

"Blu!" Gasped Jewel. "You're flying!"

"You better believe it, baby!" Blu cheered. "I'm flying, I'm really flying! You were right, gorgeous; No ostriches in my gene pool!"

As they soared though the Rio cliffs, Jewel whooped with joy. Blu spotted some cable cars in their path, but was easily able to avoid them.

"I can't believe you really did it!" Jewel smiled.

"Hey, it's like Ralfy said." Blu smiled. "All I had to do was feel the rythym of my heart!"

"With a little help from me, of course." Smirked Jewel.

"Of course." Grinned Blu. "Shall I take that little smooch you gave me as an 'I love you, too'?"

"You can take it anyway you want it, handsome." Jewel winked at him.

"First things first." Blu declared, becoming serious. "I gotta take you to someone who can help with your wing."

Returning to the airfield, Blu spotted Linda, Tulio and Fernando, who were seated on the float they had arrived in. As Blu came in for a landing, he gently set Jewel down first. As Linda ran to Blu, she became the first to notice Jewel's damaged wing.

"Here, let me see that." Tulio offered, reaching down.

Jewel recoiled, still mistrustful of humans, but Blu gave her a supportive look, and she relented.

Tulio took Jewel back to the aviary, where he treated her broken wing. While Jewel was recuperating, she and Blu spent a look of time together, much to Blu's delight. Their relationship had greatly changed: No longer did Blu shower Jewel with cheesey pick-up lines, for if there was one thing their adventure had taught him, it was that actions could speak louder then words, and most of Blu's actions involved waiting on Jewel tirelessly, with much kissing and cuddling inbetween.

"You know, I used to think cuddling was just for cissy birds who had no game." He told Jewel after one such session. "But I'm definitively starting to see the attraction."

"I'll bet you are." Jewel giggled playfully. "You up for another round?"

"You really have to ask?" Smirked Blu, wrapping his wings around her.

Finally, the day came for the fully-healed Jewel to be released into the wild, and Blu was set to join her. Jewel went first, given a boost by Tulio. Blu, after sharing one last fist-bump with Linda, followed, flying after her.

"There you are." Said Jewel as he reached her. "Don't you know it's rude to keep a lady waiting?"

"My apologies, lovely lady." Blu bowed in midair. "Would you be so kind to show a certain handsome gentleman the sights!"

"I'd be delighted... Handsome." Jewel bowed back, before flying away. "But you'll have to catch me, first!"

"Consider yourself caught... Gorgeous." Blu smiled, giving chase.

All the birds of a feather
Do what they love most of all
Moon and the stars, strumming guitars
That's why we love carnival

Some time later, Blu and Jewel were flying through their new home in the jungle.

"Loving our life in the jungle, everything's wild and free..." Sang Jewel.

"Never alone, 'cause this is our home..." Blu joined in.

Their three chicks then lent their voices to the song.

Magic can happen for real, in Rio
All by itself (by itself)
You can't see it coming
You can't find it anywhere else

Pedro then added his own spin:

I'm a kako wero kinga kinga kinga kinga
Birds like me, 'cause I'm a hot winga (there's your hot winga)

Making his infamous "love hawk" squawk, Pedro flew over to a tree branch, where Nico, batting his hat like a tambourine, started singing.

"Here, everybody loves samba." Nico crooned.

"I like the samba!" Piped up Pedro.

"Rythym you feel in your heart." Rafael sang from his tree hollow home, alongside Eva and their children.

"I'm the samba master!" Declared Pedro.

"Beauty and love, what more could you want..." sang Nico.

"Hah!" Whooped Pedro, as everyone else joined in the song.

Everything can be for real, in Rio
Here's something else (something else)
You just feel it happening
You won't find it anywhere else

As Blu and his family soared above the jungle, they were joined by Linda and Tulio, who were hang-gliding their way through the skies. Luiz had somehow managed to get his own glider, and called out "I love you, Rio!" as he passed by.

Blu looked out over his new home, the sun slowly setting over the jungle. He was a changed bird. No longer shallow and arrogant, he felt as if he had everything he would ever want or need, right here, right now. Along with his family, he soared back down into the jungle, heading for home.

The End.

(Rio and all associated characters are the property of 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios.)