Well, um, I just realized that I forgot the author's notes and the end of last chapter...so pretend that this went at the end of last chapter, okay?

I'm sorry I haven't been on for a while, but I had writers block, laziness, and groundment. Anyway, here's the update you've been hankering for!

"So…bored…must…find our general…"

Apparently, Popo was bored. But, after searching for 3 hours through only 6 miles of jungle in any direction, who could blame him for whining a bit?

"Knock it off, Popo! We're not here to have fun!"

Apparently, Banjo could. Popo quickly became angry, but upon seeing that Banjo's claws were out, he decided to zip his lip.

"Hmm?" said Nana, stopping. Then, after going about four feet, the three others in their little rescue party turned around.

"Come on, Nana! I want to get this over with!" shouted Nana's brother.

"Shh!" she replied. "Listen!"

A few seconds passed, before finally a faint sound came into existence…

Whiiiiiir…

"What in the name of Teriyaki is that noise?" whispered Kazooie.

"I don't know," said Banjo, "but we're going to find out!"

"Hold on there, Bear-braaaAAAAAIIIN!" Kazooie said, being taken against her will toward the sound somewhere around "brain" (After all, she was in Banjo's backpack). "You want us to go toward the sinister noise on an island infested with evil!" she continued as the jungle rushed past and the Ice Climbers rushed ahead of them.

"Did you think we signed up to be heroes to lie around and eat honey all day?" shot back Banjo, who was apparently the glue that was holding these misfits together. "Mario sent us on this mission because he trusted that we could stop the Hatred's plot on this island, and Joe gave up his ship and possibly his life in order to make sure we were okay, because he believed in us too! They both trusted us, and so we have to uphold that trust!"

There was a few seconds in which the only sound was the thumping of their feet against the earth, and the panting of their breath. Then suddenly Kazooie smiled and yelled, "So what're we waiting for!" Right after she said this, she did a front-flip, taking Banjo with her and landing in Talon Trot mode.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the source of the whirring, or should I say WHIIRRRING, considering how loud it was. Quickly hiding behind a steel wall , our heroes peeked around the corner…

…and what they saw truly scared them.

At least two-dozen drills were striking into the ground repeatedly with tremendous force, so much the earth was cracking under their feet. The drills were attached to machines on treads that were piloted by skeletons, whose getups clearly showed them to be pirate. Occasionally, a small pool of black liquid (obviously oil) would form underneath a drill, and soon the pilot would notice, and turn off the drill, then press a button to send the metal band around the drill downward, revealing it to be an expandable pipe. As the oil was sent straight up into the machine, the sections of the pipe would light up a dark pink-but-not-quite-red color, to track the oil's progress.

Attached to each machine was a second pipe, or a very large wire, considering it was flexible and movable like a wire. Each wire led to a gigantic flying machine. It looked much like a simple triangle on wheels from a distance, but up close, there were guns and turrets and laser cannons and hatches for dropping bombs, and some other unidentifiable weapons on that ship.

Also, the corners were rounded.

Patrolling around the landing/takeoff strip nearby to an oil field, were several skeleton pirates, and by several, I mean upwards of twenty. Each one had a sword in the right hand and a gun in the left, except for two who held the weapons the opposite way, and thus were obviously left-handed.

"EEP!" whisper-shouted Nana, "Skeletons! I knew there were monsters on this island!"

"They may be undead, but I wouldn't call them monsters," said Kazooie. "They're pretty easy to beat. They work for Risky Boots, a female skeleton pirate whose cruelty knows no bounds."

"And you know this, how?" asked Banjo.

"Shantae told me."

The other three had blank looks on their faces.

"Shantae!" said Kazooie, a bit angrily. "Y'know, the half-genie? Purple ponytailed hair? Red bikini top? Belly-Dancer? C'mon!"

"Well, regardless," said Banjo, wishing not to anger Kazooie, and also wishing not to admit he didn't know who Shantae was, "We need to get inside that base over there." After saying this, he pointed to the dark foreboding base about 700 feet from the landing/takeoff strip.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Popo.

"Well, first, we're going to distract those three, then hide over there," he said, first indicating three guards who were either on break or slacking, because their weapons weren't drawn, and they were all sitting down playing poker, then indicating a nearby pile of boxes, one of which was large enough to hold all three, and open, to boot. "Watch. I saw this in a movie once," said Banjo. He then picked up a pebble and threw it forward, about twenty or thirty feet, behind another steel wall.

"What was that?" said one guard.

"Let's go check it out!" a second one shouted, him and the first guard running toward the pebble.

"No! It's a trick!" yelled the third. "They're over here!" he said, indicating behind the nearby steel wall, in the exact place the little group stood. With that, all three rushed that way, to find two scared kids in pink and blue parkas, a confused looking bear, and an angry looking bird in the bear's backpack.

"Yeah, bear-brain, that worked!" shouted Kazooie, putting her wings up toward the sky.

Suddenly, two blasts of cold air coming from opposite sides froze the guards in place. Banjo and Kazooie looked down to see two no-longer scared Ice Climbers posing proudly.

"Not too bad, huh?" said Nana.

KA-CHICK!

That was the sound of more than twenty guns cocking.

"Yeah, but not good enough," said Banjo as the Ice Climbers turned around.

There was a short silence, and then the heroes ran.

As laser blasts and gunfire and the occasional thrown sword shot past our heroes, they were contemplating how they were going to get out of this mess. Suddenly Banjo stopped in his tracks, turning around. "You two," he said, indicating the Ice Climbers, "Get behind me and play dead!" They did so, and then he turned to Kazooie. "Use Wonderwing!"

As golden feathers slowly disappeared from Banjo's backpack, laser blasts, gunfire, and the occasional thrown sword all bounced off of Kazooie wings. Finally, though, the blasts stopped, along with a few shouts of "I got 'em!"

You may think the crew stupid for doing this, but the rescue squad was deep in the jungle, and the pirates couldn't see well, as it was getting dark. They could only just barely see Banjo and Kazooie as they fell over, "dead".

A few seconds later, two or three guards ran up, and started checking their pulses and breathing and such. As soon as the guards realized they weren't dead, the guards were unconscious, and no one noticed because all the other guards were gone.

A short time later, it was nighttime, and they were making camp in a cave in a mountainside overlooking the foreboding, sinister, not-nice-to-even-visit place known as the Risky Tavern. They'd found this out a few hours ago, just before the guards woke up and alerted the entire base to their presence. That's why they were in hiding now.

"Well, this has been a dismal day at best," commented Kazooie, poking up the fire, now walking around outside of Banjo's backpack. "We have no food, no water, and there's a massive airship aimed straight at Hyrule from only about 20 miles away! Not to mention that our commander is MIA, and probably dead!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Popo. "Joe is the nicest guy I know, and he's like a big brother to me! I know he's not dead, you just wait and see!"

"Care to give any reason why that might be, short stack?" retorted Kazooie, glancing over to Popo before resuming work at the fire.

"Kazooie!" yelled Banjo.

"What?" replied Kazooie, shrugging her shoulders and glancing at Banjo, before blowing on the fire. Suddenly, Banjo grabbed her by her right wing, and pulled her to the back of the cave, out of hearing range of the Ice Climbers.

"Look!" said Banjo, irritated. "These guys are just kids. They shouldn't even be in this war, and I don't know why they are. But so long as they're here, they need a hero, and Joe is that hero, and until we know for sure, we will not even mention the possibility that he is dead, understand?"

"Well, look here!" retorted Kazooie, "I may ride around in your backpack all day, but I don't have to follow your orders! Who elected you leader of this mess known as a rescue squad, huh?"

Banjo seethed through his teeth, then walked to the middle of the cave. "Alright, people!" he shouted! "We need a plan!"

"Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!" shouted Nana, raising her hand like a little schoolgirl.

"Yes, Nana?" said Banjo, holding his forehead.

"How about Kazooie flies us over to the base, and we bust in through the ceiling and take out all the bad guys?"

"Umm…" mumbled Banjo, looking over to Kazooie, who was empathetically shaking her head no. Banjo looked back to Nana, got on one knee so he was eye level with her, and said: "Uh, that's a really good plan, Nana!" To this, Nana smiled with pride. "But…" she frowned at this, and crossed her arms. "They'll…they'll probably have air defenses around the base! Yeah! So, I don't think it'll work…"

"But they don't, really!" said Nana, excitedly. "I saw the base, and I could tell that there wasn't any! I swear!"

Suddenly, Kazooie sighed. "Actually, kid, the truth is…I can't fly!"

"Of course you can fly!" shouted Popo. "I saw you do it on the way here! It's how you got us here!"

"I mean," said Kazooie, interrupting, "That I can't fly without the help of a flight pad!" she sighed again, looking away from everyone. "They have special powers infused by Mumbo Jumbo's magic. I've never been able to fly on my own," she said, flapping her wings for emphasis. "That's why I need to collect Red Feathers instead instead of using my own…my own have never experienced flight, so they won't work with the magic."

There was a long silence, before Nana said, "Well…you can still try…"

"Try!" shouted Kazooie with tears in her eyes, and anger as well, more at herself than at Nana. "I can't just try and suddenly, whoosh, I'm airborne! Life doesn't work like that!" she continued to yell, bending at the waist, to get at eye level with Nana but still seem taller.

"Hey!" shouted Popo, stepping in, "Leave my sister alone! She's just trying to help you out!"

"Oh, please!" shouted Kazooie, as Banjo stood up, trying to get everything sorted in his head. "What kinda fairy tales has your mom been feeding you that you two honestly believe that kind of stupid, sappy cra-"

"KAZOOIE!" shouted Banjo, angrily. Then, as Kazooie stood up fully and turned toward him, he softened, looking almost sad. "Look…" he whispered, indicating Popo and Nana.

Kazooie looked. Their parkas overshadowed their faces, but they were clearly crying, as tears flowed off their cheeks. After a short silence, Popo looked up, anger and pain in his eyes that a person never hopes to see.

"Mom's dead." He said, his voice choked, but full of anger.

Kazooie drew back, startled, and looking as if she was a deer caught in a car's headlights. Then, she slowly reached toward Popo. "I…I'm sorry…"

The eldest Ice Climber turned and ran out of the cave, sobbing all the way. Kazooie looked at Nana, who looked sad at the whole situation. Then she looked to Banjo, whose arms were crossed and eyes were angry. She sighed, wishing her anger hadn't gotten the better of her…yet again…

It was a few hours later. The sky was full of stars, and the moon was full. Popo was sitting at the edge of the cliff, his knees cuddled into his chest, he face resting on his knees. His hood was down, revealing brown, straight hair that covered was cut in the shape of his head, but stopped at his neckline, and the bangs stopped just below his eyes. A small wind was blowing, causing the top of his hair to move around slightly. And a few sobs sounded occasionally, but there were no more tears, indicating he was done crying…for now.

The cliff was just ten feet in front of the cave, and thusly it wasn't far of a walk for Kazooie to take. She sat down on the edge of the cliff, sighing. "Beautiful night, huh?" she said to Popo, looking into the sky.

"I guess…" he mumbled, uncurling, but looking in the opposite direction of Kazooie.

Kazooie sighed again. "Look, I…you see…" Another sigh. "Back in the cave…I kind of…exploded, because…well I don't like myself that much. So when something gets me mad, a take it to heart, subconsciously…and sometimes…I just insult people, so I can knock a few pegs off them…and I'm just kind of thinking, maybe it'll put a few extra pegs on me, I dunno…and when it doesn't work, I just get angrier."

Popo was still looking away from Kazooie, but if she could see his face, she would see one that was still thinking, still angry and sad, but growing less angry by the second.

"I'm sorry, Popo. I don't expect you to forgive me. I know I wouldn't if I was in your position. But…Banjo's come up with another plan, and it requires all of us…working together…so, if you could find it in your heart to work with me a little longer…"

"Kazooie?"

She looked to see happiness in his now red and puffy eyes, and a smile on his face. "I forgive you."

She smiled, truly touched by this little kid. -I could learn a lot from him,- she thought as she started to cry, herself, and Popo pulled her into a warm hug…

…The hug of a brother.

After a few minutes, they separated, and Kazooie gave a final sniff. Then she said: "You know, you're a pretty handsome little guy! You should wear your hood down more often!"

"You think so?" asked Popo.

"Yeah!" said Kazooie. "Why, in a couple years, all the girls will be going after you!" To this, Popo gave a big smile, eyes closed, teeth showing, blushing, nervous giggle, the works. Kazooie, too smiled, then said: "C'mon, Banjo's got some fish cooking on the fire."

"Oh boy!" said Popo, leaping up and rushing inside.

Kazooie softly chuckled, standing up and going inside…

…and she finally felt good about herself.

Okay...everyone together now...AWWW! Oh, andd in case you haven't noticed, this episode will be four chapters long! Count 'em! But...the first two chapters were kind of short, the first one even for my standards. So don't think this longer than the other episodes. Oh, and starting with this chapter...spoilers for next episode!

Next chapter, Banjo's plan is put into action! But the gang encounters an unforeseen obstacle once on the airship. Or...is it really an airship? And whether it is or not, what is the Hatred's plan? And did Joe survive? If so, where is he? Find out all this, and maybe more, in a chapter I just had to call:

'The Real Superpower of Teamwork!'