OFF: New chapter done and posted! Hopefully, it was worth the wait!
Phoenix Tears
Chapter 2 - A Brutal Beginning
Spiral Mountain, a beautiful meadow located at the base of a mountain shaped after the area's name. One year ago, the savage attack of the evil witch sisters had ruined the area but now, once again, Spiral Mountain was a beautiful, pleasant place.
Near the back of the small valley, at the base of a cliff, there was a small, modest house. The house of the famed duo, Banjo the honey bear and Kazooie the breegull, who defeated the evil witches and restored peace to the island.
Kazooie currently sat on the bed, sighing as she happened to be so incredibly bored. In front of her, Banjo, whistling as he cleaned the room. Sure, peace was nice... but the young female breegull was of the adventurous type and although she had greatly enjoyed the break after the long and arduous quest to destroy the witches, once again, the desire for adventure was within her heart.
"Banjo!" she called, wishing that the bear would stop a second and pay attention.
The bear, smiling, kept cleaning the floor, holding the vacuum cleaner with both hands, slowly nodding his head to the rythm of his own whistling.
And then, finally, Kazooie's call registered in his mind and he stopped whistling before turning his head, facing the red-crested breegull. Staring at the smaller, more delicate form of the red and gold-feathered female, the bear's smile widened.
"Yes, Kazooie?" he said, wondering why his friend was frowning in such a way. It was sunny outside, Mumbo and Bottles should arrive anytime soon to visit, and everyone will have a good time. Why was she unhappy like this?
"Banjo! Let's go on an adventure!" It came off more like an order than like a question but the bear didn't mind it. He was kind of accustomed to the breegull's temper by now... kind of.
"Kazooie, Mumbo and Bottles are arriving soon and besides, where to? I thought you had your fill of adventure after Banjo-Tooie..." reminded Banjo calmly.
The female bird sat there, uneasy. Yes, it was true that she DID say such a thing... but well, she's ready for adventure now! She wants to go on a journey again! She...
DING DONG!
"Ha! It must be Mumbo and Bottles!" said Banjo.
"I'll answer it!" replied Kazooie, jumping off the bed as she moved out of the bedroom and toward the house's exit. At least, it would ease her mind until...
Huh?
She opened the door and... then, she saw another breegull? Weren't Mumbo and Bottles coming? Who is that bird? Why is that thing's smile creeping her out?
"Hello miss. Is that Banjo's and Kazooie's house?" This tone of voice... definitely a girl. Still, the fact that it looked so... so masculine while being so feminine at the same time just creeped her out further. Is that some kind of stupid person who came to sell them stuff?
"If it's for a new vacuum cleaner..." she began but the stranger interrupted her quickly.
"No no! I just want to meet the famous Kazooie! Where is she?" So, it wants to meet her? Well, that is nice, she guessed. Guess it must be a fan or something. After all, she did gain a fair bit of fame for ridding the island of those awful witches.
On one hand, having a fan get out of its way to meet her is a rather pleasing thought... but on another hand, Bottles and Mumbo are coming and groupies tend to be annoying. So...
"I'm Kazooie. Now, if it's for an autograph, come later. I am kinda busy at the moment," she snapped rather coldly at the bird, hoping already it would go away.
"Oh really? I have a free Jiggy..." And then, her eyes begun to sparkle as the breegull took out a shiny jigsaw piece made of gold out of nowhere. A Jiggy? Here? But how?... and without having to do any work?
"Thank... you?" she said, trying to catch the shiny piece of metal... but grabbing into thin air as the breegull stepped backward.
Kazooie raised an eyebrow and stepped foward, trying to catch the Jiggy... only to have the breegull once again step backward, dodging her.
"Hey! You said it was a free Jiggy! Why aren't you giving it to me?" called the red-crested breegull, beginning to feel the burning feeling of annoyance rise within her. She had no time for this!
"Well... I said it was free but actually, there is a condition. You have to show me that you are just as fast as they say!" taunted the stranger.
"Why you little..." Kazooie charged foward, decided to peck the eyes out of that arrogant little bird. How dare it? Really, what's that strange breegull's problem?
As Kazooie took off into hot pursuit, Banjo kept cleaning the room, not suspecting what had happened, too busy with what he was doing to notice what had happened... well, until...
BAAAAAAM!
"Target located."
"Target located. You are so dead."
...until robotic copies of himself and his friend Kazooie burst through the wall and begun to blurt out some non-sense. At first, Banjo was quite upset to see all this dust covering the floor and the wall being knocked down... but then Banjo realized that those things were robots and were probably talking about him when they were saying that they located a target.
Putting the vacuum cleaner aside, Banjo faced the two robots...
"Kazooie! There's trouble!" he called... but after a few seconds, the two robotic copies burst into a laughter as robotic as they were.
"Target is clueless. Secondary target will not lend assistance," stated the robotic bear in its monotone, robotic voice.
"Idiot target is completely clueless. Secondary target will not lend assistance to moronic target," added the mechanical Kazooie in an equally monotone, unfeeling voice.
Banjo thought about running away, but at this moment, a small rocket slammed into the ceiling just by the door and caused the ceiling to collapse just in front of it, preventing him from getting out.
Slowly, the robotic bear placed the mechanical bird, which it had used as a bazooka of sorts, back into its backpack and resumed its unfeeling laughter.
"Commence termination." said the robotic Banjo, suddenly stopped its laughter as it took on a fighting stance.
"Read: you are sooo screwed." added the mechanical bird as it pointed at the honey bear.
Then, both robots charged forward.
During this time, Kazooie stopped to catch her breath, at the other side of the Spiral Mountain.
"Man! Where are Running Shoes when you need some?" she managed to say despite how tired she was from running after that stupid breegull...
BAAAM!
... and then, she heard a loud explosion coming from... THE HOUSE?!? She turned around to see that the breegull was now heading back there. Smirking evilly, it threw her its Jiggy... which shattered on a nearby rock, revealing it was in truth, fake.
"Heh! There! You can have it, sucker!" taunted the bird as it took off into the skies, heading back to the house at a surprisingly incredible speed.
It was then that Kazooie realized that this was mostly obviously a trap and that she had been fooled. Instantly, a feeling of pure rage filled her and, tired or not, she was going to place kick some stupid bad guys' butts!
She sprung forward, running after the breegull. As it passed over the house, she saw something being thrown at it. Some kind of ball or... no! That's not a ball that's... NO! This is... Gruntilda's skull! That breegull is flying away with Gruntilda's skull! Which can only mean that...
... huh? What's that buzzing sound?
Kazooie's eyes widened as she saw it coming...
"BANJO! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs...
Then, there was a blinding flash of green light and she felt an immensely powerful gust of wind slam into her like a brick wall. The red-crested breegull barely had the time to yelp in surprise that she was sent slamming headfirst into something hard, causing her to lose consciousness...
TO BE CONTINUED