Chapter 9-Trouble at the ruins

They landed in front of the fortress. Queen Cloudrunner: "This is Cloudrunner Fortress. I'll fly ahead and check if it's safe. Meet me inside."

The queen flew into the fortress. Kazooie: "Wow! It's beautiful."

Fox and the others looked over and noticed Kazooie. Kazooie: "No wonder why General Scales came here." Fox: "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Can you at least get us in?" Kazooie: "OK!"

They made their way towards the gate. After they spent some time trying to find how to get it open, Kazooie simply fired one of her grenade eggs at the gate that was blocking their way into the fortress, forcing it open. As they made their way into the fortress, they ran up a spiral walkway and found another gate. Kazooie was about to open that one with the use of her grenade eggs, but then Fox found a staff switch that opened a gate at the end of the walkway.

When they went through the walkway, they hid behind a pile of ruins. There, they saw that General Scales, the enemy behind the entire mess caused on Dinosaur Planet, has captured the Queen again. Scales: "I know it was the fox and his friends who freed you. Now where are they?" Queen Cloudrunner: "I do not know what you're talking about."

Then Scales became very furious and grabbed the Queen like a rubber chicken. Scales: "You will tell me! Where can I find the fox and his friends?"

She hesitated for a bit, then looked directly at him. Queen Cloudrunner: "They will find you. And they will destroy you."

Scales lost his temper and threw the queen on the floor. Then his men started stomping her while his robots zapped her with them. Kazooie, becoming upset, impulsively ran out of hiding and towards Scales. Banjo: "Kazooie!" Kazooie: "Stop! Leave the queen alone, scaleface!" Scales: "You insolent bird. Who do you think you are?" Kazooie: "I'm Kazooie, the breegull and you're toast." Misty: "Kazooie, are you crazy?" Queen Cloudrunner: "Kazooie! Don't worry about me. Go, save yourself." Kazooie: "Oh, no, I'm not going anywhere until you're safe, your majesty!" Fox: "Kazooie?" Scales: "You foolish little bird. Do you think you can defeat me?" Kazooie: "I can with this."

Kazooie turned her head to the Sharpclaw farthest from the queen and shot one of her grenade eggs at it. General Scales became very surprised at the damage that was caused by that one egg that Kazooie shot out of her mouth. Kazooie: "Not so foolish now, huh, Scales? Now, step away from the queen or else you and the rest of your men will wound up like that guy."

Scales and his men looked at the spot where one of his men once stood and then looked back at Kazooie, who had her wings on her hips and was impatiently tapping her foot. Kazooie: "Well?"

Then General Scales had no other choice but to…call his robots and paralyze her until he grabs her on the neck just like what he did with the queen. Banjo: "Kazooie!"

Then Banjo ran towards Scales. Misty: "Banjo!" Banjo: "Scales! You can tear this planet apart, you can capture all the dinosaurs that live on this planet, you can throw the queen all over the place, but nobody and I mean nobody gives Kazooie the rubber chicken treatment but me and Misty!" Misty: "That's right!"

Misty took off her headband, transformed it into a boomerang and tossed it at Scales. It came back towards her, turned back into a headband and she put it back on. She approached Scales. Misty: "Scales, mess with Kazooie and you'll mess with me and Banjo!" Scales: "How nice. More challengers. So, you 2 think you can defeat me?" Fox: "No, we all do."

Fox, Peach, Rayman, Bubbles and Pikachu tagged along. Fox took out his staff and pointed it at Scales as Peach and Rayman prepared their weapons and Bubbles and Pikachu position themselves for action. Scales: "Ah, the famous Fox McCloud and his pathetic friends." Bubbles: "We're not pathetic!" Rayman: "Yeah!" Peach: "It's over, Scales!" Fox: "Surrender now and we'll go easy on you." Misty: "We've got you surrounded, so you have no choice but to go quietly!" Scales: "How nice of all of you to join us. Let me show you some of our hospitality."

Suddenly, Fox and his friends were surprisingly surrounded and zapped by Scales' robots. Then Pikachu tried her hardest to over power the robots, but it was no use. Then, Fox and his friends lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Kazooie became upset. Kazooie: "Oh, no, all of my friends have been defeated by General Scales…and it's all my fault."

She then began to tear up. Kazooie: "I've failed you, your majesty."

However, the queen did not think this way.

Later, Fox regained consciousness and found himself in a cell with his staff and his friends missing. Luckily for him, he was able to find a loose block in the wall. So Fox pushed right through it and he was free. After pushing the block back in place, he received a message from Slippy about a disguise that can fool the Sharpclaws. However, he also told him that the walls were preventing him from transporting the disguise. So all that Fox needed to do now is to find some sort of explosion to create a hole in the wall so Slippy can transport the disguise in order for Fox to return his staff and get him and his friends back to the mission.

After the message, Fox proceeded through the hallway until he reached a room with a cage (with a very familiar looking Cloudrunner in it), the room was a little dark, so it did look like a Cloudrunner. Also, a sleeping Sharpclaw was seen at the very end of the room and right in front of the Sharpclaw the magic staff floats on a block-like table. Fox's mind: "My staff! So that's what happened to it. When my friends and I were knocked out, Scales took the staff from me and used it to lock my friends and me up in cells. Well, I can't worry about that at the moment. What I need to concentrate on now is to blow a hole through these dungeon walls so that Slippy can transport me that disguise. Hopefully, there's something useful on the other side of the room. But I must be careful and not wake the guard or else I'm back in that cell or worse."

He quietly sneaked through the chamber and made it into a room with a wind lift in the middle, a pressure plate on one side and a barrel generator on the other. Fox moved the barrel on to the lift and stood on the pressure plate, causing the barrel to float up to the ceiling and blow it up. Fox ran below the hole on the ceiling, contacted Slippy, and was given the disguise. He activated the disguise and returned to the room with the caged Cloudrunner. Just then, the Sharpclaw started waking up. Sharpclaw: "Stay here. You keep eye on prisoner. Me go for break."

Fox deactivated the disguise, grabbed his staff and returned to the cell room where he pulled a staff switch that opened up all the cells in the room. His friends suddenly walked out of their cells like they just woke up. Misty: "Fox!" Fox: "Misty!"

Misty ran to Fox and, before you know it, they started putting their arms around each other. Misty: "Oh, Fox. Thanks the stars you're OK." Fox: "You, too, Misty. I wouldn't know what I'd do if anything bad happened to you."

Fox and Misty soon let go of each other. Fox: "I'm glad to see everyone's back together again. However, I have a strange feeling that something's missing, but what?"

Then, Fox heard someone crying from behind him. He turned around and saw that Banjo was the one who is crying. He kneeled in front of Banjo. Fox: "Hey there, Banjo. What's the matter, buddy?"

Banjo pulled off his backpack and showed Fox how empty the backpack was. Fox: "Oh, right…Kazooie."

He then realized something that made him hit himself on the head. Fox: "Oh! Duh! How could I have been so stupid? I should have known where I have seen that Cloudrunner before." Bubbles: "Huh? What are you talking about, Fox?" Fox: "Guys, follow me. Kazooie is closer than we think."

Fox soon led his friends into the chamber with the Cloudrunner cage. Inside that cage is the familiar looking Cloudrunner and Fox knew exactly why it looked familiar. Fox: "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected. Guys, say hello to our missing team member; Kazooie." Banjo: "Kazooie!"

Banjo ran over towards her immediately, everyone else followed after. Kazooie soon noticed them. Kazooie: "Huh? Oh. Hi, guys."

They all approached her. Banjo: "Kazooie. You don't look so good. What's wrong?" Kazooie: "(Sob) Oh, can't you guys see the mess that I've caused? It's all my fault that Scales defeated you guys. (Sob) Go ahead. Let me loose and give me the rubber chicken treatment. I deserve it after the way I betrayed you all." Fox: "OK, OK. Quit your crying. I'll get you out."

Fox ran to a nearby staff switch and pulled it, causing Kazooie's cage to open. She then flew out and stood in front of her friends waiting to receive the rubber chicken treatment. Kazooie: "Go ahead. Do your worst. I'm not afraid."

They all stood and stared at Kazooie. Fox: "Am I missing something?" Kazooie: "Huh? What do you mean?" Fox: "OK. Let me get this straight: You want us to give you the rubber chicken treatment? It just doesn't make any sense." Misty: "Are you OK, Kazooie?" Banjo: "Are you sure you're not sick or something?"

Kazooie made an angry grimace, turned her head away from her friends and shot a grenade egg to express her anger. She then folded her wings. Kazooie: "That Scales! I can't believe he would do that to the queen! Does he beat up every dinosaur he captures? That jerk! I do anything for her safety even if it means having to endure the rubber chicken treatment! Oh, the poor queen. I can't imagine what cruel things Scales is doing to her as we speak. If only she were here, she would tell us where Scales has hidden the Spellstone."

Fox became shocked. Fox: "Kazooie! Repeat that last sentence again." Kazooie: "If only she were here she would tell us where Scales has hidden the Spellstone."

Everyone around her smiled. Fox: "Guys. Let's go find the queen."

And so, Fox and his friends left the chamber and into a very tall room, their ticket out of the dungeon. Now you think they would just fly out with no problem, right? Wrong! Because as they were leaving the chamber, they soon realized that the dungeon air was full of the Oneros Aera, or flight-disable gas as it's stupidly called. Well, they should have figured that out earlier when Bubbles was on the ground when she usually floats and Rayman was sniffing the air a lot. This could be a problem, or is it? Well, let's see what Fox has to say about this.

As they came to the exit to the dungeon, Fox looked up at a very high circular wall. Fox: "Oh, no! At this rate, we'll never finish this mission." Bubbles: "Don't lose hope, Fox. Dinosaur Planet is depending on us." Fox: "Yeah, I know but how will we get up there with the Oneros Aera in the dungeon. It's not like one of us would just jump like a million feet into the air."

Suddenly, Misty jumped a million feet into the air. Fox became extremely surprised. Then, Misty landed back on her feet. Misty: "I don't know about you, but I think it's a bit too low." Fox: "Huh?" Bubbles: "Maybe you jumped a little too high." Fox: "WHAT?" Misty: "Is there something wrong, Fox?" Fox: "SOMETHING WRONG? SOMETHING WRONG? Of course there's something wrong! A bit too low? A little too high? I didn't know either of you had super jumping abilities!" Misty: "You mean you didn't know that we had these abilities?" Fox: "But I thought your jumping abilities were your flying abilities, but I…I just don't understand."

Misty and Bubbles looked at each other then back at Fox. Misty: "It's a long story, Fox. But we need to proceed with our mission. Can we talk about it later?" Fox: "Well…alright. We'll talk after we're done here. OK?" Misty: "Yeah, yeah. Alright. Now hang on to me so that we can finally get out of here."

Fox did exactly what she told him to do. Then she grabbed on to Banjo and leaped into the air. Bubbles followed along while she grabbed onto Rayman and Peach, doing the same. So did Kazooie. They jumped so high that they saw the entire fortress. But don't worry, they didn't jump into space; they just jumped to where the air was a little less dense.

Shortly afterwards, Kazooie had everyone land after she spotted the queen trapped inside another cage. Kazooie: "Your majesty!" Queen Cloudrunner: "Kazooie! I am ever so glad to see you and your friends escape from Scales' clutches." Kazooie: "I'm surprised to see that you're worried about my safety. It's all my fault that this had to happen to all of us. I'm so sorry. Could you ever forgive me?" Queen Cloudrunner: "Kazooie! It's OK. I tried to admonish you to save yourself because I knew that Scales was going to ambush you and your friends. I certainly can tell that you refused to listen and risked your life for my own safety. You are very brave. But now is not the time for complements, so listen up: the floor of this cage seems a bit rather unstable. Maybe you could use one of your explosive eggs to blow it up and set me free." Kazooie: "Heh! That'll be easy."

Kazooie fluttered down below the queen's cage and using one of her incredible grenade eggs blasted the cage's floor into pieces thus freeing the queen as the queen, herself, fluttered down towards Kazooie. Kazooie: "Are you OK?" Queen Cloudrunner: "Yes, Kazooie. I am all right thanks to you. Unfortunately, thanks to Scales, I have a small problem." Kazooie: "What's wrong?" Queen Cloudrunner: "Well, you see, ever since the Sharpclaws invaded Cloudrunner Fortress, my children got scared and scattered throughout the fortress. If only there was some way I could lead them all back here before something terrible happens to them." Kazooie: "Maybe I could help you find your children. I know a secret bird call that I can use to summon all your children here faster than you can say, "mammals are slow"." Fox: "I heard that." Queen Cloudrunner: "You will? Oh, thank you. But please hurry and find them or they may leave the fortress forever." Kazooie: "I'm on it!"

And then she was gone.

Minutes have passed, but with the help of her secret bird call, she was able to return all of the Cloudrunner children back to the queen.

Later, she returned to the area where the queen and her friends were waiting for her. Queen Cloudrunner: "Thank you, Kazooie. I am forever in your debt. And now I will tell you where the Spellstone is. Scales has hidden the Spellstone in the treasure room. Find it and return it to the Force Point Temple. Good luck, Kazooie. Our planet lies within your wings and in your friends' hands."

And so Fox and his friends made their way into the treasure room and hurried through the massive chamber.

When they reached the deepest part of the chamber, General Scales and few of his men were found trying to escape with the Spellstone. Fox: "Scales!"

Fox took out his staff and started shooting them. Scales grabbed a nearby Sharpclaw and used it as a shield. He then sent a few more after Misty and the others. Scales: "Get the Spellstone out of here." Bubbles: "Oh, no, you don't!"

Bubbles pounced directly at Scales. Fox: "Huh? Wait! Bubbles! Don't!"

Too late! Scales faded out of the scene while laughing maniacally. Bubbles landed in that exact spot then started punching and kicking the air with her eyes closed. Bubbles: "Hi-ya! I've got you now, Scales! Now give us back the…"

Suddenly, she opened her eyes and relied that Scales was gone. She looked back and forth to see where he went. Bubbles: "Hey! Where did he go?" Fox: "I don't know, but wherever he is now, I know that we'll meet again." Misty: "Fox! They're getting away with the Spellstone!" Fox: "Huh? Right! I'm on it!"

Fox grabbed the only jet bike available to him and chased after the Sharpclaws.

Unfortunately for the Sharpclaws, they had their get away in a circular track like the racecourses found in Diddy Kong Racing. So all that Fox has to do in order to finish this course is take down the Sharpclaw that had the Spellstone. However, he ended up taking down all of the Sharpclaws along the way. It turned out that was a bad idea.

After he rammed the last guy with the Spellstone, he couldn't stop the bike. What he didn't know is that he grabbed the jet bike that had an unstable brake system. By ramming into the Sharpclaws, it immediately jammed the system. The good news was that this was definitely not the end of Fox McCloud. A strange blue light pushed him off of the bike before it crashed and blew up. The next thing you see is he and Misty rolling on the floor for a while. When Fox opened his eyes, he saw Misty lying right beside him. Fox: "Misty, you saved me."

Misty also opened her eyes and looked at him. Misty: "Of course I did, Fox."

Fox and Misty got themselves up. Fox: "Thanks, Misty. I owe you my life…again." Misty: "No problem. You know I'm always happy to do it."

They both smiled at each other. Then Fox's smile disappeared. Misty grew worried. Misty: "What's wrong, Fox?" Fox: "All that ramming. The bike…it couldn't stop…and I lost the Spellstone." Misty: "Not to worry. Bubbles is on it." Fox: "She is? Alright, Bubbles!"

Just then, Bubbles came running towards them with the Spellstone. Bubbles: "(Gasp) Here you go…(pant) Fox. (Pant)" Fox: "Thanks, Bubbles but give it to Misty." Bubbles: "What? Are you sure?" Fox: "Trust me."

Bubbles shrugged her shoulders and did what Fox told her to do. She looked at the Spellstone. Misty: "(gasp) It's blue." Fox: "Exactly. It's the same color as the ocean." Misty: "Oh, you shouldn't have."

They both gazed into each other's eyes deeply and happily again.

Later, they returned to the Arwing, just to see the queen for the last time. Queen Cloudrunner: "I am forever in you debts. Thanks to you, Scales is gone and my tribe will begin to rebuild their lives. And as for you, Kazooie. For doing so much for me, I will crown you honorary princess of the Cloudrunner tribe."

Kazooie was given a crown almost exactly like the queen's. Kazooie's eyes sparkled again. Kazooie: "This is the happiest day of my life." Queen Cloudrunner: "Thank you, Kazooie. You are a brave and noble bird. As for the rest of you, that horrible gas that disabled your flying abilities has been cleared away so you can be on your way."

Fox then walked back to the Arwing. He was about to get back into it, but then stopped. Fox: "Oh, yeah. That reminds me. Girls? Do you have anything to say about your jumping abilities?" Misty: "Uhh…" Bubbles: "Well… (With Misty) Meet you back on the planet. Bye."

Then they both took off. Fox: "Hey, wait. Come back here! Grrrr! I am going to throttle those 2 when I get back to the planet."

He hopped back into his Arwing and returned to the planet as the others followed. Queen Cloudrunner: "(Whispering) Good-bye, Kazooie and good luck."