Chapter 13: Clash of the Tycoons

With only one way to escape the island, a savage fight breaks out between the two rich families, to determine who can head home.

Mark Jr. was fortunate enough to land on a large slab of black rock that was being moved down the slope by means of the lava flow. He managed to stand up, before quickly finding his balance and surfing his way down towards Shipwreck Village. However, not long after he did so, he was suddenly swung off balance as something collided with the rock he was on.

It turned out to be Mike Jr., who was doing some surfing of his own. He attempted to ram into his rival again, but this time he managed to swerve out of the way. They repeated this cycle for a long time before Mike Jr. picked up the pace and sent Mark Jr. flying off his "board" and into the jungle, which hadn't been affected by the eruption yet. He didn't hesitate to leap after him.

---

Meanwhile, Katherine found herself hurrying down the mountainside as the lava approached her, while also dodging several small rocks that Katrina tossed at her from behind, though not without getting hit a few times. Eventually, once the two reached the ground, the former attempted to swing at the latter, but she kart-wheeled to the side to avoid it, providing a brief glimpse of her zebra-print panties.

"Tsk, tsk. You really have no shame, do you?" Katherine teased.

"You'se one to talk! You flew over here in your pajamas!" Katrina fired back.

"Only because it was the middle of the night, and I didn't want to wait until a more desirable hour to search for my children," Katherine defended.

"Heh, well that's funny. I thought'cha didn't care about your kids." Katrina smirked arrogantly, making her rival's blood boil.

"I'll teach you to hold that tongue-" Katherine was interrupted by another rumble from the volcano. "...if it's the last thing I do!"

"Okay then. Why dont'cha put your money where your mouth is?" Katrina maintained her smirk.

"Might as well. I've got truckloads of it," Katherine snarled.

With that, she directed a punch at Katrina once more, but she jumped onto a low-hanging branch and quickly scrambled into the trees.

"Come out and fight like a lady, you pompous harlot!" Katherine roared, scanning the area with clenched fists.

"Make me, banana b***s!" Katrina's voice rang out from somewhere in the canopy.

Katherine grunted impatiently, before a coconut to the head caught her off guard. Soon, she was bombarded with countless coconuts and durians from the trees above, with many of them hitting her and even forming bruises or drawing some blood. She attempted to escape the assault by running out of the woods and onto the pink-sand beach, but without warning, Katrina dropped onto her rival and decked her in the face with a series of rapid punches.

"Oh, by the way. You have a little something on your chest." Katherine sneered, making her opponent pause. "Right... there!"

Before Katrina could respond, she received a strong punch to the breast, letting out a pained yelp. However, before Katherine could follow up, she was quickly scratched across the face. She didn't bother bringing up a hand to check for blood, but she could already feel the marks on her cheek swelling up a little. Katrina then harshly jabbed Katherine in the crotch and pinned both of her arms onto the ground.

"Why's you doin' this, Katherine?!" Katrina demanded, only to be knocked onto her back with a knee-jab to the gut.

"You'll pay for being the absolute eyesore you are!" Katherine leapt back to her feet. "Plus, my husband's enemies are my enemies!"

Katrina simply responded by knocking her onto her back with a leg-sweep, before they tussled on the ground for a spell. The two matriarchs eventually got back onto their feet, chasing each other into the water and onto a small cluster of rocks where they duked it out some more. For a while, they simply traded jabs and kicks, until Katrina managed to punch Katherine in the very cheek she had scratched not too long ago. This caused the latter to hiss in pain, leaving her vulnerable to a couple of crushing blows to the gut.

"Ugh, y'know I try not to do dese' things in a mini-skirt," Katrina groaned.

"Oh, so now you're being classy for once, by choosing not to show off your undergarments? Speaking of which, I was expecting something a bit more scandalous. How does Mark even fit his teeth around those anyway?" Katherine snarked.

She attempted to nail her rival with a roundhouse kick, though Katrina managed to grab her ankle and toss her into the dark ocean. Katherine quickly popped up at the surface and treaded water, before she let out a blood curdling scream and dropped into the depths below. Katrina looked closely, before noticing what appeared to be several white-tip reef sharks attacking her rival, the white foam on the water's surface being dyed pink as a result. Katherine flailed around for a bit, before disappearing beneath the waves for good.

---

Back in the jungle, Justine was still tumbling down the rocky volcanic slopes, and that was the case for another few minutes. When she finally landed on the flat ground, she took a short time to weakly open her eyes and start to get up. She was considerably battered and bruised, but thankfully nothing was broken. However, before Justine could get up all the way, she spotted Josephine falling down towards her with an extended leg as she let out a fierce battle-cry, poised to pin her down with a powerful dropkick. She managed to log-roll out of the way and quickly stood up, before the two started to dish out numerous punches, parrying some of them by raising their lower arms.

Justine was taken by surprise as her rival grabbed her extended fist and launched her deeper into the woods with a judo-flip. She tumbled into a crate of spears that had been made by the locals. However, upon taking a close look at one of them, she then experienced a flashback to her first time seeing them in action, where Captain Jones used one to kill an eye-lashed viper in no time flat.

By the time Justine had her epiphany, she spotted Josephine hurrying towards her, her eyes burning with aggression and her teeth bared. The two then fought some more, with Justine attempting to hit her rival with her spear, only for each hit to be parried by an open palm. It wasn't until she decided to stop using the blunt end of the spear that she got the upper hand. She sliced Josephine across her left palm, causing her to scream in pain and stop fighting for a moment. Justine then capitalized on her opportunity by front-flipping over her rival and slashing her in the right ankle, before roundhouse-kicking her deeper into the woods.

Josephine landed back-first against a rock and weakly started to get up, before inhaling the scent of smoke nearby, accompanied by a searing sound. Looking back, she was alarmed to see that the lava had caught up with the girls, and didn't hesitate to start running. However, the poison from the spear quickly kicked in, weakening her until she was forced to drop to her knees and pant. Justine spotted the incoming lava as well and quickly ran off, causing her rival to extend a hand in desperation, only to get ignored. With one last half-strangled cry for help, Josephine quickly found herself engulfed by the oncoming wave of magma.

---

As for Justine, she managed to outrun the lava and enter the village by flipping over the metal wall that now surrounded it, which did a markedly good job in keeping the townsfolk safe from the recent volcanic activity. As soon as she stopped to catch her breath, she was immediately taken by surprise by a bear-hug from Mandy.

"Oh, thank goodness you're alright!" she yelled in relief, sounding as though she was on the verge of tears. "All I know is there were these choppers, and... and then you and your brother went missing, and... then the volcano erupted, and...!"

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm fine," Justine replied as she reciprocated the embrace.

"That's good, but what's the deal with everything else I just mentioned?" Mandy asked.

"It's... it's complicated. I'll explain later." Justine scratched her head a little, before running off again. "But right now, I've gotta go find my brother!"

---

Speaking of her brother, he was busying himself in a heated brawl against Mike Jr. on the edge of the moonlit rainforest, and though he did manage to land a few hits on his rival, it was clear that he was taking much more of a beating. He attempted to jab his rival in the face, but his fist was grabbed and he was forced to bend over with his arms held behind his back. Mike Jr. then jabbed his knee into Mark Jr.'s stomach a few times, before harshly shoving him forward, where he managed to not fall down. He was then yanked up by his collar, only to be punched in the face and sent tumbling backwards into a thick tree.

Walking towards his opponent, Mike Jr. grabbed his neck with both hands and attempted to strangle him, only to have a nearby rock chucked at his face. This left him open to a kick to the chest, knocking him a couple of yards back. Mark Jr. weakly got up onto all fours and had a brief coughing-fit, with each cough sending a good two tablespoons of blood onto the ground. By the time he stopped coughing and started to hyperventilate, he noticed Mike Jr.'s shadow blanketing him.

"Well gee, it seems my favorite part of the game has come early," he taunted, cracking his knuckles. "Sudden Death!"

"I swear I've heard that line more times than I can count in fictional media," Mark Jr. muttered, inaudibly enough to where his rival failed to notice.

"So! Any last words, you scrawny waste of carbon?" Mike Jr. continued.

"Yeah..." Mark Jr. weakly stood up. "Sei un grande stupido idiota!"

"Wait, what? That doesn't even make se-!" Mike Jr. replied, only to be caught off guard as his rival tackled him onto the ground, punching his face and torso repeatedly.

Mark Jr. quickly got back to his feet and ran off into the darkness as soon as he concluded his assault, leaving his opponent frustrated as he got up soon after.

"Ha ha, real funny, loser! You think you can just run away like that?! From me?!" Mike Jr. shouted. "Heh, I always knew you were a coward!"

It was then that Mark Jr. dashed through the clearing again, knocking him over with a leg-sweep before hurrying off once more.

"Oh come on now! Is that all you got?!" Mike Jr. yelled again. "Why don't you just drop dead already?!"

"Oh, by the way. About those last words: that was Italian for, 'You're a big, stupid oaf'!" Mark Jr. teased from somewhere above the ground.

"Eh?" Mike Jr. looked up into the canopy for a bit, before a flash of lightning illuminated his rival's position. "Aha! Bingo!"

With that, he hurriedly climbed up the nearest tree and into the foliage as he approached Mark Jr., who simply stayed put as he watched his every move. As soon as Mike Jr. got close, however, he found himself getting hit by the countless vines thrown at him, which grew progressively harder to get untangled from as time passed. Blinded by his own frustration, he continued to throw every single vine off of him, but they kept piling up. And to make things worse, he accidentally grabbed the body of a venomous lancehead snake, who was lounging in the canopy and immediately sank its razor-sharp teeth into his arm.

Mike Jr. yelped in excruciating, white-hot pain but nonetheless continued to shake off the vines that Mark Jr. threw at him. However, after a few more minutes of struggling, the former eventually succumbed to the venom and grew weak, falling down towards the ground with a few vines still wrapped around him. Mark Jr. grabbed another vine, using it to reach the ground with ease, and looked up to the sound of Mike Jr.'s scream of agony.

His scream was abruptly cut off with a loud cracking sound, though in the darkness, it was unclear what had caused it. That is until a droplet of blood fell from above and landed on Mark Jr.'s shoulder. Soon after, another flash of lightning occurred, providing him with a good enough glimpse of the jungle canopy. Mike Jr. was suspended several yards off the ground with his limbs extended in a starfish-like formation, no thanks to the vines around his wrists and ankles. A noticeably thicker vine was tight around his neck and had snapped it, effectively killing him, which thus explained the blood dripping from his mouth. Slightly unnerved at the sight, Mark Jr. backed up onto the black-sand beach, where he happened to run into Justine.

"Oh, good. There you are!" she said in a relieved tone, before noticing the look on her brother's face. "Uh, are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get out of here," Mark Jr. replied, following his twin back towards Shipwreck Village.