Chapter 9: Gloomy Galleon
Inside the custom-built brig that was chained to Crocodile Isle, King K. Rool waited inside. He stood just outside a giant bar cage that sat directly in the center, gazing up at the prisoner inside it.
The prisoner's name was K. Lumsy. Another aberration of the Kremling family, he had been born with the condition ridikilus enormus, that made him, as the name suggested, ridiculously enormous - standing twice as tall as a palm tree and weighing a staggering 6500 pounds: a girth that could easily crush a hillock flat, create a 1400-ft. tsunami in a splash, and blow a forest down in a single breath. Little wonder then that he was locked up in a cage.
Except this was K. Rool. With a destructive force like this at his beck and call, one would have thought he'd have unleashed him on the defenseless DK Isles before now. The reason he hadn't is that the colossal island smasher, K. Lumsy, simply wouldn't. Besides his enormous size, he was also born with the condition sanguinem cordis, which made him acutely sensitive to the feelings of others. Anything cute or cuddly would bring him to his knees and have him giggling uncontrollably. Such behavior would be devastating to the reputation of the Kremlings and so King K. Rool took it upon himself to cure him of his condition. Using the highly successful method of sensory deprivation, King K. Rool would break down K. Lumsy's damaging inclinations toward mercy until his inner Kremling was free... for his own good, of course.
"Have you had time to think about your actions?" he asked.
K. Lumsy sniffled and blubbered, "P-Please let me out of this cage! I'll d-do anything!"
The cruel king narrowed his eyes threateningly. "You know what you have to do."
K. Lumsy dropped his chin into his chest and squeaked, "B-But..."
K. Rool huffed and spun on his heels. "Obviously, you need more time to think..."
"No no no! Wait! Wait!"
K. Rool turned and raised his brow.
K. Lumsy twiddled his fingers. "I'll do it. I'll do what you want."
"Do what?"
The gentle giant answered glumly, "I'll smash the island."
...
"Hang on, Tiny!" Diddy yelled, gripping her hand as tightly as he could. Donkey gripped his other hand while hanging on to a hole in the platform. Lanky gripped another hole behind them.
The pillar supporting the platform had dropped a short distance into the hole at the bottom before the weight of the Kongs tilted it and caused the pillar to catch. It wasn't going to stay stuck for very long though. Already it was sliding inside until it would straighten again and plunge down, bringing the Kongs down to be incinerated by the flames. Spotting the chute through which they had dropped in, Donkey gathered his simian strength and hurled the two little Kongs up to it.
They didn't make it. They slapped onto the side of the chute with a loud metallic "gong!" and then fell back down onto the tipped platform. Their impact was just enough to tilt it up again and send the pillar beneath shooting down into the hole. Within a second, the platform was liquefied by the jets of flame.
By a very unlikely bit of fortuity, the Kongs all managed to survive being incinerated by being thrown into each other in the exact center of the platform, farthest away from the flames - Diddy and Tiny in rolling from the top of the tilted platform, and Donkey and Lanky being tossed up when the platform straightened. There was a moment in which the heat of the flames scalded the hair off their bodies, but another moment later, they were doused in the frigid waters of the sea.
Fog billowed into the chilly air with an angry hiss, adding another layer of gloom to the chamber the Kongs found themselves in. Searchlights winked here and there like weary stars. Somewhere in the mist, a wooden ship creaked ominously in the wake of the splash the pillar had made when it had speared the sea.
"Where are we?" Lanky asked.
They were in what the Kremlings referred to as the Bay. Their king, K. Rool, was something of a pack rat, hoarding much of his memorabilia, including his old ship, the Gangplank Galleon, which was bobbing just ahead of them.
"Hey, I remember that ship!" said Diddy, smiling.
Tiny exclaimed shrilly. "Brr! This water is freezing! Let's get out of here, guys."
No one argued with her. They all swam for the abandoned ship and climbed aboard where they shook the water from their singed fur.
Without warning, they heard a shrill scream, "GHOSTS!" They were instantly on the defensive, looking wildly around for the antagonistic phantoms. Two splashes drew their attention to the other side of the ship. Rushing over, they discovered two Kremlings in the water paddling away as fast as they could.
They didn't make it. Something burst out of the water in front of them, freezing the Kremlings in their tracks. It was a giant Puftup with spines as long as Lanky's arms and a single tooth protruding from its lower lip. It glared at the two reptiles then gave a gurgling howl and belly-flopped on top of them, disappearing beneath the water. The Kremlings never resurfaced.
Lanky's voice came out shakily, "Let's get out of here, guys. We need to find Cranky and that weasel so we can shut down K. Rool's machine."
Tiny was still watching the spot where the Kremlings had been flopped so she was the one who spotted something speeding through the water like a seal, except it wasn't a seal.
"I think I just saw Chunky!" she cried, pointing into the shimmering depths. "Chunky's in the water!"
This brought all the Kongs crowding together and jostling each other, crying out, "Where is he? Where?" Tiny tried to tell them he wasn't there anymore and that they didn't have time for this, but her petite protests were overwhelmed by the clamor of her fellow Kongs. Finally, Donkey clapped his massive hands together, bringing the crew to silence. He turned to Tiny and asked, "Where see Lanky?"
"In the water, speeding like a seal," she answered.
Diddy said, "Wait, speeding like a seal? Chunky?"
"Chunky's a lot of things," Lanky pitched in. "But speedy is not one of them."
"I tell you, I saw him!" Tiny protested. "And he looked terrified like maybe that giant fish was chasing him!"
This sobered the crew significantly. They had seen what that giant Puftup had done to the Kremlings and if Chunky really was down there...
"Let's go get him," said Lanky.
The plan was to spread out from the four sides of the Gangplank Galleon to see if they could locate their timid friend. And if anyone was spotted by the freakishly huge fish, they would swim back immediately to the safety of K. Rool's old galleon. On the count of three, they dove off their sides and plunged into the water.
Gloomy and foggy as the surface had been, it was worse under the water: dark and murky like algae soup with an extra serving of algae. How Tiny was able to spot Chunky in here was anyone's guess and only reinforced for Lanky the suspicion that her overactive imagination had run away with her. Even more concerning was that Puftup swimming around in this muck, just waiting for them to stumble onto him. Lanky shuddered.
Cautiously, he used his long arms to sweep the algae away and paddled his legs to slowly push forward. The water was also numbing cold, his sensitive fingers on all four limbs being the first to go. His nostrils were well on their way to being the next casualty while his eyes threatened to become ice cubes - or ice balls, as the case was. The only thing he could feel - and feel sharply - was the frantic thumping of his heart as it tried to keep his body warm with rushing blood.
Then he saw a huge shadow pass in front of him and his heart beat ever more frantically, like a prisoner who had just seen the Grim Reaper coming for him. He backpedaled away from what he had no doubt was the giant Puftup, but froze when he saw another shape zoom past him, leaving a large trail of bubbles behind.
Chunky! He had somehow been tethered to the marine monster, for at that moment, Lanky realized that the dark line that had been snaking behind the behemoth was a rope and it was attached to Chunky, towing him along like a very unwilling pet. He had to find a way to catch him, untie him, and escape with him, all without being spotted by the puffed-up Puftup.
Or...
Maybe instead of trying to sneak away with Chunky, he should find a way to trap the Puftup instead, so he could simply free Chunky afterward. No doubt K. Rool had some fishing equipment on his old brig. It was certainly a better idea than to sneak up behind the monster. He swam back to the ship.
Several minutes later, he was in a motorboat outfitted with a spotlight and a harpoon. The boat was rather tiny; the weight of the harpoon made it list to the right, which Lanky did his best to compensate. It turned out to be a fast little craft though, much to his relief, zooming across the dark water with a gurgle. He would have no problem outrunning the bloated beast if it came to that - and he had no doubt that it would come to that. Still, leave no Kong behind.
He scanned through the mist for any sign of the giant Puftup. Damp mist clumped to his fur as he zoomed through it, chilling him to his bones and making him shiver. 'Twas an ominous night to be sailing these cursed waters. A dark dread settled deep in his marrow, the voices of dead sailors hissing words of warning in his good ear. They had all come chasing the devil-spawned Puftoss - as the dread beast came to be known - and all had found instead a watery grave, and there wasn't a sailor's doubt that he would become the beast's next victim. Still, the infamous Captain Lanky...
He was broken out of his thoughts by a great bubbling noise off to port. He swiveled the spotlight in that direction to light up the water over there, which was behaving unusually. It was swelling like the beginnings of a giant bubble and then it transformed into a giant orange bubble with lethal spines, giant fishy eyes, and a toothy leer.
Lanky screeched, almost tumbling off the boat. Puftoss! Forgetting all about what the salty sea simian would do against this monstrous foe, he grabbed the wheel and gunned the motor for all it was worth. Puftoss gave a gurgling howl and gave chase.
There wasn't much room to run. The Bay was really only the hold for K. Rool's treasured ship and certainly wasn't built to allow pleasure cruises. After circling the ship a few times, it occurred to Lanky that he could probably catch the giant Puftup from behind by going around the ship fast enough. It was really quite impressive the speed at which Puftoss was chasing him. His round body bristling with spines was as about as far from hydrodynamic as possible. But now that the long-limbed ape had a plan, he was more confident that he could face him down and rescue Chunky.
He wasn't as prepared as he thought. As he came around the ship, he found himself zooming straight for the giant, orange monster, who had turned around and was swimming straight at him! He screeched in surprise but was going too fast to stop or even steer around him. He braced himself for impact.
Neither Lanky nor Puftoss had given much thought to the harpoon protruding from the motorboat's starboard prow. It was Puftoss's fatal mistake. With a great "POOMPH!" the sharp implement punctured the left side of his body, and then with a rude, wet sound that echoed offensively off the metal walls, the giant Puftup zoomed backward through the water, propelled by the air whistling between the barbs of the harpoon in his side. Lanky held on tightly to the steering wheel as his vessel was towed along, for the harpoon had not actually been fired from its cradle and was still attached.
At last, after what seemed like many hours, Puftoss ran out of air and settled atop the water like a very lumpy lilypad. It was some time before Lanky could get his fingers off the steering wheel - his long limbs were shaking so hard that the signal from his brain kept disconnecting, but eventually, he staggered to the side of the boat, which rocked it too hard and sent him tumbling into the water. The brisk coldness of the water snapped him out of it and he remembered what he had been going through this ordeal for. Diving beneath the water, it didn't take him long to trace the cable from the Kremling stuck to the spine of Puftoss to the collar around Chunky's neck.
Poor Chunky was out cold by the time Lanky reached him. The big guy's face was pinched with terror, locked in place after his brain shut down to keep his fight-or-flight system from overloading. After a few unsuccessful attempts to undo the collar, Lanky slowly wrapped a long arm around his buddy and began paddling for the surface. Donkey would be strong enough to rip off the collar, no problem. And once that was done, the whole gang would be together again.
And that's when they would take down K. Rool's Blast-O-Matic.
