The plan wasn't exactly one of those that fell neatly into the "foolproof" and "so simple a hominid could do it" categories, but despite his affection for complex design and schematics, Snide was well versed in breaking it down into simple terms. A true sleazy salesman.
"Five buttons are housed in five separate control rooms," he explained, tapping each of them on the blueprints he had recovered. "Each one of you will have to get inside each room to be ready to hit the buttons on my signal."
Cranky raised his stick in the air. "Why don't you explain to us why exactly you designed an emergency stop mechanism this way?"
So Snide explained. Originally, the buttons had been designed, not as an emergency switch, but as a safeguard against anyone getting too trigger-happy - such as King K. Rool. It should have required five separate Kremlings to fire the Buster. Yet somehow the deranged king Kremling had reconfigured the machine so that it would fire automatically once it had built up enough juice. "Which will be in about fifty minutes, give or take," he said, much to the horror of the Kongs. "But no need to get our neckties in a knot, right? Press the five buttons and it should redirect the power into the five battery towers, causing them to overload and badda bing, whaddaya know, your island is saved."
The Kongs gave each other dubious looks. Then Tiny shrugged and said, "Eh, sounds reasonable to me."
Snide snapped his fingers and gave her a nod and a wink. "Good choice, kid. Now listen close, gang, because this is how we're gonna do it..."
Step 1 was to infiltrate the Blast-O-Matic maintenance room. Three hallways led directly to it but each one was guarded by a Kasplat with dozens more in the maintenance room. Fortunately, there were ventilation shafts running beneath, so Tiny could slip past unnoticed. Once she was inside, she would cause a distraction to draw them all away. What sort of distraction? Well, when she got there, it was a wrench sitting next to an open panel in which a fan was running.
"That will do," she muttered as she picked it up and then jammed it into the fan.
It was super effective. It didn't jam the fan, but it did cause such a clatter that all the Kremlings in the room panicked, thinking the machine was breaking down. Most ran to get as far away from the machine as possible while three brave Kremling mechanics hurried over to see if they could fix it before they all became toast. But even the bravest of them was not willing to stick his hand into the fan to pull out the wrench. While all the Kremlings in the room were otherwise preoccupied, this was when Step 2 came into play: use Diddy to shimmy up inside the pipes that would take him into each of the five button rooms and unlock the doors sealing them all. Cranky had voiced concern about there being no exit from inside the pipes to actually get into the rooms, but it appeared Snide was correct when he said that they all had a window that could be opened for cleaning, so this was how Diddy managed to unseal all of the doors that would allow all of the Kongs to take positions to press the buttons. With the Kremlings cowering in corners pessimistically awaiting their doom, it was a simple matter for the four remaining Kongs to walk in and knock them all out. Then they took positions next to the buttons. Finally, it was time for Step 3: hit all the buttons on Snide's command. Using one of his favorite wrenches to be heard above the clangor of the other wrench still in the fan, he clanged out once... twice... three times, and that was when Donkey, Diddy, Lanky, Tiny, and Chunky all slammed their hands on the buttons.
The machine began to hum as energy was redirected into the five towers. The humming got louder and louder, making all five Kongs nervous, so they started to back away. They bolted when the instrument panels on the towers sparked and crackled with electricity, and all of them met in the hub area. As one, they turned to the Blast-O-Matic. The ominous glow that had gathered at its nose, thrust through a giant port that allowed a heady view of DK Isles off in the distance and indicating it was charging up for a deleterious deathblow, was fading, and all of its gauges were falling and swinging left. The energy was leaving the island buster.
There was a BOOM - no, make that five BOOMs as each of the five battery towers overloaded and vented their excess energy through their weak points, namely the gauges and button.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" roared a tinny voice. The Kongs swung their heads wildly, trying to find the person to whom it belonged.
"He's speaking through the intercom," Snide explained though he shook as he said that.
Donkey raised his hand. "What an intercom?"
"It means if you want to give him the beatdown, you'll need to go up to the pilot cabin at the very top of this ship." Snide pointed up.
All the Kongs looked up, staring through a tangle of wires, pipes and the high ceiling above them as if they could see straight through it to the pilot room where their archnemesis, the crazy Kremling king, K. Rool pounded the arm of his throne with rage.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Tiny cried, pounding her itty fist against her bitty palm, "Let's go kick his butt!"
"RAAAWK! He won't know what hit him," Squawks said with glee.
...
King K. Rool heard five BOOMs vibrate through the colossal dreadnought's metal frame. Five of them. One BOOM was to be expected when dealing with incompetent underlings trying to fix a combustible island buster, but five of them...
He ground his thumb into the intercom and roared, "WHAT WAS THAT?" Just when you think nothing else could go wrong today...
After a time that was longer than it really should have been the intercom clicked and a timid voice answered, "Uh, Cap'n... I mean, Your Majesty... we have a problem."
"Skip the obvious and tell me what you clowns managed to bumble this time!"
"Well, Cap... er, Your Majesty, we found a wrench in the fan. We were trying to get it out when all of a sudden we hear the battery towers exploding, and now... the machine's powering down."
A wrench in the...? He certainly wouldn't put it past his bumbling krew to drop tools while working on the island buster, but their bumbling nature meant they couldn't coordinate five accidents at once... it had to be...
"IT'S THOSE BLASTED KONGS!" He smashed his fist against the arm of the throne and kept on smashing and roaring in a terrible temper tantrum, repeating incoherently, "THOSE KONGS! THOSE BLASTED KONGS! THOSE FLEABITTEN, MANGY, THICK-HEADED, MEDDLESOME KONGS! THEY RUIN EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! THOSE FLEABITTEN, MANGY, THICK-HEADED, MEDDLESOME KONGS RUIN EVERYTHING!"
And they weren't done. While King K. Rool vented his frustration in a violent tirade, they were working their way up to his pilot cabin for the final confrontation, bopping any Kremling who got in their way. It was sure to be a showdown to go down in history.
At least, it would have been if he had been there when they arrived. Tiny yelled after both Donkey and Chunky punched the door open, "All right, K. Rool, time to teach you a lesson you won't... hey, where'd he go?" The only evidence that the tyrannical reptile had been in the room was all the dents he had smashed in the metal walls.
Snide stepped forward to analyze the scene. Then he muttered, "He must have flown the coop."
Cranky whapped him with his cane. "Seems kind of obvious, genius. We want to know where he went."
Snide sullenly rubbed his head as he turned to the geriatric gorilla, "No, I mean 'flown the coop.'"
Tiny wrinkled her nose. "Is that some sort of code in weasel talk?"
Snide rolled his eyes. "When K. Rool built this rattletrap, he included an emergency escape bay, which was uncharacteristically foresightful of him. He has an escape vehicle called the Flying Croc there, and if you don't hurry..."
He was interrupted by the sounds of an engine starting and fire blasting through thrusters. From the sounds of it, K. Rool was in the stages of taking off, and he was going to get away if they didn't hurry to stop him. Snide pointed out the elevator behind the throne and the Kongs all hurried to it. Donkey pried open the doors and they all clambered up the cables. Donkey made short work of the elevator bottom, so they could scramble through and pry the doors open onto the launch pad. They were quick, but by the time they reached the pad, the Kremling-shaped jet lifted off and shot away through the sky, with K. Rool's bone-chilling laugh somehow ringing back at them.
"Welp," said Diddy, his voice heavy with resignation, "he's getting away."
"And he'll be back, no doubt about it," Lanky added.
Tiny hopped in agitation. "Are we really just gonna let him get away?"
Diddy shrugged. "What other choice do we have?"
He was wrong though. While K. Rool had managed to skitter away thrice before and return with a vengeance, there was something this time that would change all that. A big, soft-hearted something that Dixie had tied around her little finger. K. Lumsy, Kiddie, and Dixie were all playing around in the clearing that K. Lumsy had inadvertently created with his massive size when they heard a rushing of fuel. They looked up in the sky, but for a while was unable to spot the source of the sound. Then Kiddie pointed and grunted urgently at a black shape in the sky making its way across the island.
"What the..." Dixie squinted at the shape. Knowing K. Rool was close by, she was willing to bet that whatever it was, it wasn't good. She scrambled up K. Lumsy's leg and up to his head where she could get a closer look.
"That's what I thought," she murmured when she recognized the Kremling-shaped flier. "I'll bet you K. Rool's on that ship, and he's got something planned. Well, not on my watch!" She scrambled down to look at her giant reptile friend in the eye. "K. Lumsy, I want you to knock that thing out of the sky!"
He blinked innocently at her. "Why?"
"Because K. Rool's in that ship and if we don't stop him, he's going to cause mischief."
"K. Rool?" the gentle giant yelped and began trembling and whimpering.
"H-Hey! Don't be scared! We'll take care of him, don't worry. We just need you to knock him down first and then we'll make sure he doesn't bother you ever again, okay?"
K. Lumsy stopped shaking and looked up hopefully at her. "Promise?"
She nodded vigorously. "Promise. But you need to hurry, or he'll get away."
He nodded. "Okay, but you promised."
"Promise."
Reassured, K. Lumsy bent down and picked up a palm tree he had knocked over. He then chucked it as hard as he could, sending it spinning like a helicopter blade. With that much wind resistance playing with its momentum, it fell far short of its target.
Dixie smacked her forehead and then said, "Uh, K. Lumsy, try throwing it pointy end first, 'K?"
"Like this?" Retrieving another tree, he threw it like a javelin at the Flying Kroc. To Dixie's delight, it was a direct hit. Crumpled from the impact, jets twisted at odd angles, the Flying Kroc went into a spin, spiraling around the island like a metal moon. They heard a pop and saw a shape fly out of the doomed craft. A moment later it began to fall, only to be slowed when a parachute ballooned open above it.
"You did it!" Dixie cried with glee, skipping her feet and throwing a punch in the air. "We've got him now!"
"You promised," K. Lumsy reminded her, looking nervous again now that they could see K. Rool coming down.
"Don't worry, big guy," she reassured him. "Me and my friends will kick his butt good and so hard he won't be able to sit down." She shimmied down the gargantuan reptile and then waved to her younger cousin. "Come on, Kiddie. We've got a butt to whup!"
...
"Did you see that?!" Lanky exclaimed, waving his long arms theatrically.
"BWAAAAARK! Knocked him clean out of the sky!" Squawks confirmed.
"He ain't getting away now!" Tiny crowed, pumping her fists.
Diddy scuttled toward the elevator and waved for all their attention. "Let's get moving, gang. We've got a leatherhead to punish and make sure he never threatens our family again!"
The Kongs all howled their agreement, beating their chests, stomping their feet, and making a ruckus that the Kremling krew in Crocodile Isle could feel vibrating through their feet. The Kongs then made their way down the dreadnought as fast as they could to confront their archnemesis in one final battle that would ensure their peace and safety for years to come.
...
K. Rool landed on a stretch of beach called Shimmering Shoals. Upon landing, he ripped off the parachute harness and began roaring and stomping in a fit of ill-temper, sending the water spraying in great fountains. "Stupid Kongs! Stupid, stupid Kongs! Stupid, fleabitten, mangy, banana-munching, half-evolved simians! I'll destroy them all if it's the last thing I do!"
With all the ruckus he was raising, it wasn't hard for Dixie and Kiddie to find him.
"Your time's up, K. Rool!" she declared with a dramatic thrust of her finger. "There's nowhere to run. Time to settle this once and for all..."
"Hey!" he snarled. "You're the ones who destroyed my mechanical creation! You're going to pay! You're going to all pay!" He charged like an angry Knocka.
Dixie tossed her head. "All right, Kiddie. It's just like how we did it before. We can beat him, right?"
"Uh!" Kiddie clapped his hands in agreement.
K. Rool bore down on the two Kongs, but just before he bowled them over, they leaped over his head - not something terribly easy as the somewhat submerged sands were too fluid to allow much thrust. The Kremling King skidded on the sand as he wheeled around and came back for another charge. Once again Dixie and Kiddie leaped over him. He turned around and tried to charge them once more. They jumped over him.
Now K. Rool changed tack. Rather than charging them when he turned around, he whipped off his crown and tossed it like a boomerang at the young Kongs. They jumped over this, too, but as they were in the air, Dixie yelled, "Now, Kiddie!" Kiddie obediently grabbed her, tucked her inside as he curled into a ball, rolled along the ground, and finally chucked her as he came out of the roll.
K. Rool realized too late he had given the two of them the opening they had been waiting for. Dixie's foot landed square on his unprotected head and he went out like a candle, crashing onto the shoals with a mighty splash. He didn't move.
"Uh?" Kiddie asked.
Dixie inched closer to the fallen Kremling and nudged him gently with her foot. He twitched slightly but otherwise didn't move. She shrugged, "Huh. That was easier than usual." It usually took a couple of bops to the head to bring the deranged reptile down, but the repeated blows he had taken had softened his otherwise thick skull. No getting up again for a couple more rounds this time.
"Well, I'd say that was mission accomplished," said Dixie with some pride in her voice. She waved to her cousin, "Come on, Kiddie. Let's get back to the others and we'll decide what to do with him."
"Uh?" Kiddie asked, looking at the unconscious Kremling.
"Don't worry about it, he's out cold!" she assured him. "And where's he going to go? Come on. We can have K. Lumsy hold him in his giant fist if it makes you feel better." With that, she trotted off to reunite with her family. Tossing suspicious glances at K. Rool, Kiddie followed behind her.
