Chapter 7: Criminals of Nature
#8 of An Unforgettable Vacation
As the night falls, the rain continues to pour down upon the city. Meanwhile, Louis is having trouble staying asleep after the foursome he had with the three Carnivores who were sleeping soundly and his father's fornication with a lion. The deer tossed and turned at the thought of what he discovered during that rainy afternoon and the trauma of his early childhood. Feeling enraged about the incident, he forces himself out of bed and drags the sleeping Simba onto the floor where he begins pummeling him over his father's carnivore fetish that was forcefully revealed to him. The blows do not leave any visible injuries on the lion's body due to Louis's herbivore strength, but tears began running down from his eyes with every punch he lands. The assault manages to awaken Simba to the sight of his deer companion beating him down. To calm the deer down, he catches Louis's left fist as he tries to punch him directly on his nose. "That's enough Louis," he whispers to his ear as he rises to his knees before his assailant. "I'm as clueless about this situation as you are right now." "Shut up," Louis yells as he points a gun at Simba "You don't know anything about me or my father!" "You're just trying to pity me just because I'm an Herbivore aren't you!?" "No," Simba says as he crawls away from Louis "I'm not trying to pity you!" "Liar!" the deer pistol whips the lion, leaving a bruise on the right side of his face. Upon noticing Simba's refusal to fight back and his apparent honesty regarding the situation both of their families are in, he unloads the magazine in his pistol and begins weeping on the lion's shoulders after he drops the unloaded pistol. Simba notices that Louis never took the safety off the firearm and begins embracing his depressed friend.
"You don't have to carry all this weight alone Louis," Simba tells the red deer. "I honestly could care less if you're an herbivore or carnivore. I don't want the trauma you went through to tear you apart from the inside." Simba begins wiping the tears from Louis's eyes. "Nor do I want your hatred for carnivores to turn you into someone worse than my uncle." "So these fears and insecurities we have are universal between Herbivores and Carnivores," Louis calmly says and he lays the left side of his head on Simba's chest. "Is that what you're trying to tell me this entire time?" Simba nods in response to Louis's question. "Looks like my father and I have a lot to learn from your family Simba," Louis says as he begins to fall asleep in the lion's arms.
"Aw..." a voice comments on Simba comforting Louis after his meltdown. "It's adorable how you would comfort someone who was born to be preyed on." "Scar..." A lightning bolt strikes the city as Simba calls out the intruder while giving him an enraged glare. The strike reveals to Simba a figure of a lion with brown fur, a black mane, and nose, a pair of green eyes, and a scar over his left eye. The figure is clad in a black three-piece suit and smiling at his nephew who clearly has a disdain towards him. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip you apart or let my godbrother blow your head off," Simba tells his intruding uncle as he returns the magazine Louis previously unloaded from his pistol.
"This stupid lion called me his godbrother," Louis thought dumbfoundedly to himself as he witnesses Simba approach his uncle with malicious intent. "Have I awakened into a mad world?"
"Oh Simba," Scar nervously called his nephew as he tries to walk back from him after he revealed his fangs and claws to him "You see my son wanted to..." "I don't want to hear any excuses coming from you." Simba grabs his uncle's neck and slams him back first to the suite's kitchen cabinet. The sounds outside of the bedroom cause Legoshi's ears to perk up and eyes to open wide as he suddenly awakens from his slumber. "Why did you expose Louis to that video with our fathers," Simba yells at his uncle. "Did you do it to cause a primitive scene where you can easily devour him as he wallows in despair?" "Simba please," Scar pleads to his nephew as he responds by slamming his uncle's head to the cabinet before starting to choke him. "Answer me!" Simba yells as Legoshi opens the door to the suite's bedroom. "Simba, what's going..." Legoshi asked when he tried to check in on his friends, "Stay out of this Legoshi!" Louis and Simba yelled at the wolf causing him to slam the door closed in fear. "Alright," Scar responds while being choked out, "I ordered it." "So Louis can hear you," Simba told his uncle as quietly as possible while Louis reloads the magazine, removes the safety on it, and cocks his pistol. Instead of repeating what he said, Scar takes out a stiletto knife and attempts to stab his nephew with it when a bullet pierces his right arm, causing him to drop the knife into the ground. Before Scar could try to pick up the knife a laser appears to be pointed at his forehead prompting Simba to release his uncle.
"You won't be trying to break me nor taint my father's name any further," Louis tells Scar as he stands up next to Simba with his pistol in hand. "I'm willing to offer you a choice, either stand there and beg me for your life or state your true intentions and walk away." "Direct to the point like your daddy..." Scar mentions his father as he covers his bullet wound with his left hand. "Very well. I want you to bring yourself to the Black Market within one week from tonight." Scar walks towards the suite door while applying his handkerchief as an improvised bandage. "If you refuse to do so: your father, the Horns Conglomerate, and Cherryton Academy's reputations will be forfeit. I'll leave it to you to decide little Bambi." The lion leaves the suite and closes the door behind him. But the moment Scar leaves, Legoshi runs out of the bedroom and slaps both Louis and Simba "Hey, what are you guys do..." Jack asked the group as he approached the open bedroom door.
"He wanted you to go where!?" Jack shouted after he overheard Scar's demands while he was sleeping. "Scar demanded that I go directly to the Black Market within a week's timespan or he'll tarnish Cherryton's reputation by releasing the Sex Tape we watched and reenacted earlier this afternoon," Louis explains to Jack and Legoshi who were instantly shocked by his explanation while Simba turns on the suite's fireplace. "Didn't you say that the Black Market was off-limits?" Legoshi asked his Drama Club superior. "If that's the case, there's no way we're letting you go there and get devoured." "It's not just Cherryton Academy Scar's looking to bring to ruin!" Louis yelled at Legoshi "It's not? What do you mean?" Jack asked the frustrated deer "My family's reputation is also targeted by that tyrant. That means my father will be forced to come to Pride City to keep that sex tape from leaking out into the public."
"That's how my uncle typically operates the Black Market in this city," Simba explained to his friends. "He'll deceive certain groups and powerful animals into performing acts that will jeopardize their public image as a show of friendship and blackmail them into doing his bidding." "I discovered those methods when he 'forged a friendship' with the Shishigumi of your hometown." "And how was this 'friendship' between your uncle and the Shishigumi made?" Legoshi asked Simba who takes a deep breath "This is going to be hard for you guys to stomach," he warned his new friends "but you may want to sit down and relax."