Our heroes were in position, awaiting the arrival of the Robo-Kongs. Luigi, Rambi, and Ellie were resting by the cave that lead into the mines. Sonic, Expresso and Squitter were waiting impatiently for Tiny and Dixie to show up in the jungle. Candy, Yoshi, Rattly, and Winky were trying to keep themselves warm for their big brawl with Diddy and Lanky. And Mario, Shadow, and Cranky were standing at the top of the volcano, getting ready to save Donkey Kong.
Mario took deep breaths to calm himself. With just one chance to save the island, he couldn't afford to let nerves get to him. Shadow had his arms crossed, furious that he couldn't get the chance to wipe the floor with the Kremlings with their own Chaos power. And Cranky's face was an unshakable canvas of grim determination ready to save his grandson.
"You still have the deactivation code?" Cranky asked Mario.
"Mm-hmm," Mario reached into his pocket and pulled out the little blue strip of paper containing a string of fifteen numbers. He showed it to Cranky and then put it back in his pocket.
"And you're sure it's the right one."
"I can't really say," Mario admitted. "Candy's the one who gave it to me."
"Then we should be fine. Funky may be smart but Candy's one of the few Kongs that doesn't have a screw loose. I trust her judgement, though frankly I don't have a choice."
"We'll win, Cranky," Mario assured him. "We always do."
"Remind me how exactly," Shadow interrupted. "If I remember correctly, the panel to input the deactivation code is right between the robot's eyes. I highly doubt he's just going to let us stand on his face and do nothing."
"Which is why I'm giving the code to you," Mario handed Shadow the code. "You're the fastest one here. Once we bring him down, you'll have seconds to type it in and get him out of there."
"Heh, more than enough time for the Ultimate Life Form. Your grandson is in good hands, old man."
"You better hope he is," Cranky said. "Otherwise, we'll all be flash-fried."
The three of them heard helicopter blades and looked over the horizon to see the quartet of air carriers delivering the trapped Kongs. They flew over Gorilla Glacier, where the rear carrier dropped off Robo-Diddy and Robo-Lanky. Diddy used his jet-pack to safely descend to the mountain's summit, whereas Lanky just fell flat on his face. The two of them looked to their opponents and howled loud enough to shake some of the snow and ice off of the mountain.
The carrier that dropped the two of them off immediately turned back to Crocodile Isle, meanwhile, the other three split up and went to the three areas marked on K. Rool's plans.
"Looks like we'll have to keep waiting," Cranky said. "Are you sure your friends can handle them?"
"Well," Shadow said, "they're not utterly incompetent."
"That's Shadow's way of saying 'yes'," Mario explained. "What about you? Are you worried about your clan at all?"
"Why would I be?" Cranky answered.
Mario was taken aback by Cranky's laissez-faire "Well, for one thing, they could get killed!"
"Nah. A Kong might might get kidnapped, a Kong might get caged. But killed? Forget it! Ever since I founded this place, apes came from all over looking for a home. For family. And we're not gonna lose that to anyone; not haunted tikis, not viking penguins, and especially not to a pot-bellied, bulgy-eyed psychopath and his army of dimwits!"
"Well," Shadow said, "I'd say we're in a good position to see how strong your clan's convictions really are."
The three of them looked towards the mountains in the North, watching the two Robo-Kongs do battle with the heroes sent to save their home and them.
The mechanical monkeys started to take to the skies, Diddy with his jetpack and Lanky by inflating himself. Before they could, Winky and Yoshi shot out their long, sticky tongues and latched themselves each to one of the rockets on Diddy's jetpack. They pulled themselves closer, seemingly flying straight towards the giant monkey. Just as they reached him, they flipped over, dragging Diddy with them and throwing him head-first into the snow.
As Lanky inhaled, Candy climbed aboard Rattly and the coiled up snake jumped. The intense winds heading straight towards Lanky's robotic lips carried them closer towards their target. Candy raised Donkey's coconut cannon and fired. The hard, hairy fruit was blasted straight towards the Robo-Kong's pursed lips. The coconut clogged Lanky's personal vacuum, and Candy and Rattly were now flying through the air. The she-ape jumped off of her friend, leaving the log behind as to not slow her down, and landed right on top of the orangutan's red nose.
Candy got up and ran straight towards Lanky's eyes. She pulled out the code to release her friend, getting it ready so she can get him out as soon as she could when the ground, or rather the face, beneath her feet began to shake.
Lanky had still absorbed a large amount of air. And now that his main method of releasing that air was all plugged up, he'd have to use an alternative route.
Lanky unleashed foul stream of noxious smelling fumes from between his glutes.
He farted, in other words.
His fart was blasting him off like a rocket. He flew around the mountain top chaotically with no way to control where he'd go or how long it'd last. Candy tried to hang on for dear life, but as Lanky's face was slick metal, there was nothing to grab on to. She fell off of the mechanical orangutan and began to plummet to her doom. She screamed as she saw the snow come closer only to notice something strong and wet wrap around her. She looked to her torso and saw what looked like a thick pink rope tied around her stomach. She yelped as she was yanked to the side and into the arms of a certain green dinosaur.
"My hero," Candy said in a playful tone.
"Are you alright, Miss?" Yoshi asked.
"For the next five seconds, maybe." Yoshi was confused before following her line of sight and seeing that Robo-Diddy had gotten his head unstuck and was pointing two glowing pistols at him. Our four champions braced for impact before Lanky arrived and accidentally collided with Diddy, knocking them both to the snow.
"Well, that was lucky," Winky commented. Yoshi put Candy down and Rattly handed her coconut cannon back .
"Thanks, sweetie," she said. "Clearly we're going to need a way to get on their faces and stay on there."
"I can do it," Winky said. He placed a thumb to the pad on his hand and after struggling to remove it, he had demonstrated his stickiness.
"Well that helps us a little bit," Yoshi said. "But it's not like they're going to let us walk up to them."
Robo-Diddy pushed Robo-Lanky off of him, and the two of them got up and glared at their opponents. They knew that for their mission to succeed, they'd have to die first. Diddy pointed his pistols at them and they began charging.
"I have an idea!" Rattly said excitably. "But you two need to keep them busy." He pointed at Candy and Yoshi.
"Can we at least hear what the plan is first?" Yoshi asked him.
"No time!" Candy said. She shoved everyone out of the way of Diddy's first shot. The four of them lied in a heap before Candy got up and pulled Yoshi to his feet. "We're just going to have to trust them. I got Diddy, you get Lanky. Winky, help him however you can."
Yoshi and Candy ran straight for their targets while Winky got back on his webbed feet.
"Follow me!" Rattly ordered. He went in the opposite direction of the action and the frog followed closely.
Candy was charging straight towards Diddy, her coconut cannon at the ready. Diddy fired a second shot directly at her but Candy fired a shot of her own and the two projectiles collided, exploding right in between the two apes. This went on with Diddy firing Chaos Energy and Candy firing coconuts. Neither of their projectiles managed to hit the other, instead striking each other's ammunition in a spectacular explosion.
Seeing this, Diddy changed strategies. He took to the skies and flew forward in Candy's direction. As he did, he fired at the ground beneath him, leaving large craters on the mountaintop that were making their way towards Candy. Candy jumped to the side, just before the next shot nearly blew her head off. Unfortunately, Diddy merely changed direction and kept on with his assault. Candy was forced to run and jump out of the way until Winky's plan finally started.
Back with Yoshi, the little dinosaur was doing some hopping around of his own. He was avoiding Lanky's stretchy arms while the orangutan kept trying to grab him. At one point, when Lanky reached for him, instead of Yoshi jumping to the left or the right he leapt straight up and landed on his arm. He ran along it straight towards its owner only for Lanky to shake his arm up and down, sending Yoshi into the air, leaving him defenseless as Lanky wrapped his other hand tightly around him and pulled him close to his face.
Lanky's eyes went wide in confusion as he opened his fist and saw a large spotted egg inside rather than his captured quarry. The egg burst open and Yoshi leapt out towards his opponent. He threw a smaller egg right into one of his eyes and as Lanky clutched the area trying to get the egg out, Yoshi shot out his tongue and it stuck to his face. He pulled himself forwards, delivering a flying kick that knocked the enormous ape down.
Lanky landed on his back and Yoshi landed right between his eyes. But before he could open the panel, Lanky snatched him again. After getting back on his feet, Lanky stretched out his arm and slammed his open palm against the side of a boulder, with Yoshi right between the two. He reeled his arm back and revealed Yoshi, flattened like a pancake and surrounded by several cracks on the boulder he was stuck to.
After pushing himself out, Yoshi hid inside an egg once again and ran at full speeds. He circled around Robo-Lanky. Every time the mechanical mammal tried to grab him, he was too slow. Having had enough of this, Lanky slammed his palms in the ground to his sides, creating a shockwave that lifted Yoshi off the ground. Lanky quickly punched Yoshi sending him on a collision course to one of Diddy's energy blasts.
The egg was right under one of Diddy's pistols when he pulled the trigger. The explosion pushed Diddy Kong back and blasted Yoshi straight towards Candy. The two of them skidded through the snow, leaving behind a deep groove several yards long before stopping in the center of a ring of large rocks. Yoshi hatched out of the egg, bruised but otherwise fine. He noticed Candy underneath him, similarly damaged.
"Oh man!" Yoshi said. "I am so sorry!" Yoshi lent her a hand and helped her back up.
"It's fine," Candy assured him. "Right now, my biggest concern is-" She was cut off by the sound of something powering up. She and Yoshi both turned to see Diddy charging both of his pistols to finish them off. The two of them tried to run but they were surrounded at all sides. They were trapped.
"Dude!" Winky shouted at Rattly as the latter stretched himself out by tying himself up around two trees. "Whatever your plan is, now would be a good time to do it!"
"I agree 100%!" Rattly said, having just finished tying himself up. "Hop on!"
"What?"
"You said you could stick to them, right? Well first, you need to get up to them. So I'm going to slingshot you to Diddy's face so you could stick to it and type in the code."
"You're crazy!"
"I'd rather be crazy than dead. So quit complaining and do it already!"
Winky grumbled but complied with Rattly's instructions. He hopped over to the snake slingshot and pressed his back against him. He pushed back as far as Rattly could go.
"Are you ready?" The rattlesnake asked Winky.
"No," the frog answered nervously.
"Too bad!" Winky screamed as Rattly propelled him forwards with speed comparable to a train. The frog flew through the sky, panic gripping him as he grew closer and closer to Robo-Diddy's expressionless face. He crashed right into him with the force of bullet, disorienting him into wasting his shot and firing into the sky rather than at Candy and Yoshi.
Winky peeled himself off and watched the rectangle of metal in front of him slide away to reveal nine large buttons, each with different numbers on them, and a long green screen with fifteen lines all standing in a row. He unstuck one of his hands and reached behind him. He pulled out the code for Diddy and began typing. He didn't even put in the first digit before he felt metal fingers squeeze his body and try to pull him off.
Winky slapped his hand back on to Diddy's face, trying desperately to not be removed. That just made the mechanical monkey pull harder and Winky had no choice but to use all of his sticking power to remain attached. His hands no longer an option, Winkystarted typing in the code with his tongue. Silently praying that he was typing in the correct numbers, all the while Diddy kept trying to yank him off.
He had just finished typing in the last number.
The screen glowed green once.
Twice.
Three times.
And then it let out a light ding sound and the entire area just above Diddy's nose opened upwards like a door. Once it was fully opened Winky saw what K. Rool and the others have done with the real Diddy.
He had a large white helmet strapped to his head, the top of which had a long thick, black cable that reached to the top of the fake Diddy's skull. His hands were surrounded by white metal rings that moved as he did. These rings attached themselves directly to Diddy's wrists through tmall wires that hooked into his skin. His waist was also surrounded by a white ring that hung tightly to him like a belt. From the lower side of this ring sprung millions of cables, so many you couldn't even see the lower half of his body.
Winky was so shocked by this, he couldn't pay attention to staying attached to Robo-Diddy's face. Diddy pulled him away as far as he could. But just before he lost his grip, Winky shot out his tongue and wrapped tightly around the real monkey. He yanked as hard as he could, ripping the real Diddy out of his giant mechanical counterpart, the two of them soared through the air before crashing back onto the mountain side.
As Winky pulled himself up, he heard groaning right next to him. "Diddy!" he exclaimed. He turned Diddy on his back and tried to shake him awake. "Diddy! Are you alright? Say something!"
Diddy slowly opened his eyes. As his pupils adjusted he was able to make out the image of his old friend. "Winky?" he said, "Is that you?"
"You're alright!"Winky shouted with glee. He wrapped Diddy up around his slimy front legs and hugged him tight. Diddy was confused at first but before he could ask what was going on something else caught his attention, the giant robot version of him that was starting to fall over right on top of them.
"Uh, Winky?"
"Yeah, buddy?"
"We need to go. Now!"
"Why?" Winky heard the creaking of metal against metal and turned around. "Oh, I see." But by then it was too late. The two of them scream as they watched Robo-Diddy's came closer to crush them into goo. But just then, something pink and slimy wrapped around them and pulled them out of danger. The two of them opened their eyes and saw Candy and Yoshi standing right in front of them.
Candy rubbed Diddy's head, messing up his hat. "Good to have you back, little guy."
"Did I go somewhere?" Diddy asked completely confused.
"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to focus on-" But before Candy could finish her sentence, Yoshi pulled the two boys into his mouth. He then shot out his tongue and wrapped it around Candy. Candy yelped as she was dragged inside with Diddy and Winky. Yoshi curled himself into an egg, just before a massive torrent of fire completely enveloped them.
It turns out, while everyone was focusing on Robo-Diddy, Robo-Lanky was getting his fire breath ready. As he breathed, the snow and ice began to melt. Waves of hot water flowed down the mountainside. Large rocks became loose and tumbled to the ground below. Trees were splintered and uprooted. Animals living near the mountains ran for their lives to avoid the flood. Eventually, the water was absorbed into the earth and the chaos had ended. For now.
Lanky ran out of air and landed back on the mountaintop, which had become considerably closer to the ground than it was before. Yoshi hatched out of his egg and spat out his allies.
"Sorry about that," he told everyone sheepishly. "I didn't think you guys cared for the smell of burnt hair."
The three of them looked around in awe and fright as the mountain head they stood on had been reduced to ruin and flames.
Winky eyes went wide with fire, as he remembered the one person in their group that wasn't protected. "Rattly! Rattly, where are you?"
"Over here, guys!" Everyone's eyes turned to the sound of Rattly's voice and found him wrapped around a burnt tree that was dangling dangerously over a cliff. "I'd come and meet you guys but uh, I'm kinda too scared to move."
"Hang on! We'll get you out of there," Winky assured him.
"Forget me!" Rattly shouted. "Stop that thing before he melts the whole mountain!"
"I'm on it!" Candy said. "Here, hold this," She pulled out the code for Lanky and handed it to Diddy. She then ran straight towards Robo-Lanky with her cannon ready. "Hey, Lanky!" she shouted. "Suck on this!"
She pulled the trigger and a barrage of coconuts started flying, pelting Robo-Lanky all over. The giant orangutan took notice and fired an extending arm straight at her. Candy ducked and rolled and fired again. Yoshi, Winky, and Rattly looked at her in awe while Diddy looked at the passcode in confusion.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Diddy asked, holding up the blue strip. Yoshi turned to him and caught him up to speed. So all we need to do is type that code in Lanky and we can save him?"
"Yeah, that's just about it," Yoshi answered. "The better question is, how are we going to get there." Yoshi jumped as two little rockets seemed to pop out from Diddy's back.
"Leave it to me," he said with confidence. Diddy took off to the skies and rocketed straight towards his friend. Unfortunately, his friend got the same idea. After managing to smack Candy aside, Lanky began sucking in air again. By the time Diddy arrived, Lanky was already halfway to full blimp mode. Diddy landed on his face and placed a hand between his eyes. The panel opened up and Diddy punched in the code as fast as he could. The metal beneath his feet was cool, but was slowly getting warmer as Lanky was getting ready to burn the rest of the mountain down.
Diddy typed in the last number and a door opened up, revealing the real Lanky in the same situation that he was. Diddy raced over and tried to pull him out but he didn't know where to start.
By that time he figured out what to do, it was too late. Robo-Lanky put his lips together and blew. Candy just barely had enough time to duck behind a large boulder, while the others ran from the flames as fast as they could, latching onto the tree Rattly was on and praying it wouldn't snap.
Diddy pulled out his peanut guns and, making sure not to hit the orangutan, opened fire on all the equipment keeping him in place. All of the machines broke and Lanky started to fall deeper into the robot. But Diddy grabbed him just in time and flew him out of there.
With Lanky removed, the gigantic Robo-Lanky had nothing to keep it conscious. The robot stopped its assault and floated lifelessly in the air, its stomach slightly extended from the leftover air inside.
Diddy landed gently on to the mountain, carrying the unconscious Lanky around his shoulder. "Is everyone okay?" he shouted.
Candy peeked out from behind the boulder and smiled at Diddy. "I'm okay," she told him. "Nice job, kid."
"Way to go, buddy!" Rattly shouted from the tree he, Yoshi, and Winky were clinging on to for dear life.
"Yeah, good job," Yoshi was nervous as the tree became less and less stable with all of their weight on it. "Now do you think you can use that fancy jetpack to get us out of here?"
Diddy was about to put Lanky down to do just that but Candy stopped him. "Look." She pointed up back to Robo-Lanky, who was slowly descending down to the mountaintop.
"You think something bad will happen?" Diddy asked her.
"Let's not stay to find out." Candy took Lanky's other arm and wrapped it around herself. The two of them ran towards the tree as Robo-Lankey's deactivated frame edged closer to the surface. They jumped on the tree with everyone else and it immediately snapped under everyone's weight. The tree started sliding down the mountain just as Robo-Lanky hit the mountaintop, exploding with enough force, it shook everything around it like a magnitude 10 earthquake.
Our heroes clung for dear life as they slid down the mountainside. Rattly looked behind them and went wide-eyed in terror.
"Incoming!" he shouted. Everyone turned to look at the giant boulders raining down upon them. The earlier explosion had caused an avalanche and if our team doesn't play their cards right, they'll be its first victims.