The door to the tower's highest level flew open and hit the wall.
"How dare you." The thin green skinned woman hissed. "I had everything, everything - and then you two show up and free them." Grunty glared at Ryu and Lucario.
"What? Are you afraid of us, Grunty? Have you finally learned your lesson, you old bat?" taunted Kazooie.
The witch was fuming. "I'll cook you alive, feather brain!" she growled.
"Enough talk. If you insist on acting this way, then defend yourself!" said Ryu. He wasn't going to stand around any longer. Their foe needed to be defeated.
The witch silently raised her arms, then sent a powerful spell in Ryu's direction.
Ryu dodged it and ran towards the witch with a flying kick. In the meantime, Lucario charged up an Aura Sphere. With the scrapes and bruises he'd gained in the previous fights, his aura had increased greatly.
Grunty conjured up a powerful shield that stopped Ryu in his tracks. "Dharkon lended me a few powerful spells to try out." She cackled as she used levitation to lift Ryu into the air, then sent him flying towards Lucario with a well aimed throw.
To keep the street fighter from crashing into the ground and receiving greater injuries, Lucario stayed where he was and cushioned his fall. This caused him to lose balance and collapse into the ground.
In the meantime, Banjo and Kazooie ran ahead with a Wonderwing, ready to knock the witch down a peg.
Gruntilda blasted the Wonderwing with a combined fire and lightning spell, unknowingly charging up the long dormant machine behind her as the spell's particles ricocheted off of the golden sparkling shield and scattered behind the witch.
Banjo was able to dodge the spell by the skin of his teeth, feeling the heat coming from the spell as they did. "Whew" said Banjo, wiping the sweat off his brow and moving right after to avoid an ice spell "that was close!"
The next spell was just an electric one but far faster. This caught the duo off-guard and landed straight in Banjo's chest, shocking them to the bone. "Serves you right! You shouldn't have stood up to this girl's might!" she cackled. She immediately gasped at the unintentional rhyme.
The witch then turned her attention to the others, but before she could cast a spell, she was hit in the back by a grenade egg. "You just can't stay down, can you?" she then began casting spells left and right while casting her shield spell to protect herself from further attacks. They dodged and weaved away from the others until they were on the other side.
Seeing this, Ryu began devising a plan. "We need to destroy that witch's shield" he told the Pokemon "And I think I know a way to do that" He rapidly told Lucario his makeshift plan.
They began by quickly and quietly approaching the witch until they were halfway there. He then cast a slow Shokunetsu fireball. He followed it and yelled "Now!"
It all happened almost simultaneously: first the fireball hit, followed by Ryu's Shoryuken and, lastly, a fully charged Aura Sphere. The shield weakened significantly, but still stood. The "My-my shield! How did-" she exclaimed until she was caught off by something else striking it on the other side and finally breaking it: the bear and bird's Wonderwing.
Gruntilda began to backpedal as she tried to keep her balance.
The group pushed her farther and farther into the room, until she tripped on a ledge…
… and fell into the now functioning Makeover Machine.
The hatch automatically swung shut, Grunty got up and began to pound on the viewport window. "Nooooooo! Get me out of here!"
The machine sputtered and zapped, moving and jumping for about ten seconds until a ding was heard. Out of the chamber that Grunty had fallen in climbed out a horrid looking woman and out of the other climbed a young bear girl with blonde pigtails.
"My beauty and allure are gone!" lamented Gruntilda. She then turned to the four, with rage in her eyes "I'll hurt you until of you there are none!"
Banjo had other things in mind. "Tootie! That's where you were!" he cried with tears in his eyes.
The witch summoned her broomstick and started to fly around the room. "Bear and bird you shall not save, for on my walls your heads I'll clave!"
"Now this feels more familiar" commented Kazooie with a smirk. "The old hag reappears!"
"Mumbo, could you summon a Fly Pad for us?" asked Banjo.
Mumbo nodded and used his magic to summon said Flight Pad.
Banjo quickly jumped on top of it. Kazooie, feeling the pad's magic through her, spread her wings and took off, flying high and taking Banjo with her. Catching up, they started to pepper her with eggs as she attempted to shoot her down.
A hole in the roof opened up, Grunty flew out of sight and the Bear and Bird followed.
There was a magic cauldron directly beneath the hole, and it called out to Ryu and Lucario. "I can launch you skyward. Help them defeat the witch!"
Ryu looked at Lucario "It is time to put our training to use". The Pokemon climbed on top of Ryu's shoulders and, with a start, they jumped on to the cauldron. Right after touching its contents, they shot up with incredible speed. When they reached the peak, Ryu summoned the magical energy deep within him, just as Mumbo had taught him.
A second later, where Ryu once was flew a medium-sized dragon, with Lucario on its back. While he wasn't showing it externally, he was elated that it had worked.
Grunty did various maneuvers on her broomstick as she continued to dodge the duo's attacks. "Curse you two, I wish you'd fail, so Dharkon on his wings he'd impale!"
Ryu quickly flew towards the witch and Lucario jumped from his back and tried landing a kick on Grunty. However, she quickly dodged the move by swerving with her broom. The Pokemon swiftly landed back on the dragon's back. They tried again right after that, but had to retreat as Grunty began pelting them with all manners of jinxes and spells whose effects were unknown to them
"We lack experience in this kind of aerial battle" commented Lucario. "We need a way to keep her in place to land a proper attack"
"I see you've turned yourself into a dragon, I wonder how you'd look as a carved wagon!" Grunty retorted as she threw a mixed spell of ice and fire at the transformed Ryu.
Ryu dodged the attack by flying down, but it hit Lucario straight in the chest. While the ice part of the spell he could shrug off, the fire part hurt him quite a bit, as it was one of his weaknesses. He felt his arms go weak for a second. This was enough to cause him to lose grip and almost tumble down, before recovering his wits just in time to prevent it.
In the meantime, Banjo and Kazooie could see their egg barrage hadn't been as effective as last time, and their red feather reserve was getting smaller and smaller. They needed to hit her with something stronger. "I have an idea" said the bear.
They flew towards the witch as fast as Kazooie could while staying just above Grunty's own height. When they were about five feet away from her, Kazooie closed her wings and went back into Banjo's backpack. With the momentum they accumulated, they sped towards her precise location like a cannonball. She tried to dodge, but only managed to move a bit back. This, however, was enough to keep the aerial bear.
Despite this, Banjo was able to land on the front of her broom, hanging on by a hand.
Grunty nearly fell from her broom, but ended up clinging to it as she glared at Banjo. "You and the bird pester me nonstop; I wonder if you can survive such a long drop."
The witch then fired a spell point blank at Banjo, which caused him to let go of the broom handle and begin to fall.
Seeing this, Ryu swooped in and grabbed him by the straps of his backpack using his claws.
"I nearly thought we were goners there!" said Kazooie. Banjo didn't respond.
"Banjo?" she asked. His response was a loud snore. "What the- are you kidding me? Wake up!" she yelled, pecking at his head.
"Wha-" he yelled, snapping awake. "How did I fall asleep?"
"A sleep spell, most likely"
Gruntilda wordlessly cast more elemental spells at the animals, trying her best to send Ryu to the ground.
One of the spells that combined ice and thunder, hit Ryu in the chest, sending him crashing to the ground, with everyone else in tow He managed to stop himself just enough to land on his side, thus preventing his body from crushing Banjo and Kazooie. But Lucario wasn't so lucky, being sent flying by the momentum of the crash. Ryu then transformed back into his human form, caked with sweat due to the stress the transformation put him through.
Lucario wasn't in a better shape, still in pain from his burns and the crash. He was having trouble focusing his Aura. He feared not being of any use to defeat the witch.
"We're almost out of red feathers!" noted Kazooie "How are we going to reach the rhyming hag?"
"It seems like we only have one shot at this," said Banjo. "We need to make sure we get it right!"
Gruntilda raised a hand in victory as she saw the dragon crash land, then her grin faded as she saw the bear and bird flying towards her. She summoned her magic in her raised hand, getting ready to cast a fire spell. "Try to dodge this, I hope you won't, the spell that I will cast cannot miss!"
Just like she said, the spell hit them straight on. It burned Kazooie's feathers and singed Banjo's fur and created a plume of smoke from where they flew. However, they ignored the pain and damage it caused. The two of them weren't to be stopped, as they had only one thing in their minds. They dived, gaining speed and with a crash they struck the witch and her broom.
Just like before, Banjo hung on as best he could. This time, however, Kazooie wasted no time getting off his backpack and into the broom before Gruntilda could cast a new spell in their direction.
The witch let out her signature "hah" at the sight of the Breegull landing on her broom. "You are persistent; without the bear, against my spells are you resistant?"
"Are you resistant against this? asked Kazooie, climbing into the witch's head and pecking her all over. Banjo moved through the broom and into where Gruntilda was sitting. He climbed up her leg and into her back, attempting to drag her off. However, her size and weight made it difficult to do.
In the meantime, Lucario was doing his best to get Ryu to get up. "Our help is needed and I can't get to them without you". Ryu groaned in response.
Lucario knew what he had to do. He put his hand on Ryu's head and used his aura to soothe his own calm him down. Once he felt Ryu's aura relax and slow down, he used his own in a more accelerated fashion, beckoning his to energize and strengthen.
After a few seconds, he began to get back up. With that short rest and Lucario's aid, he was able to get back on his feet, albeit slowly and with some effort. "Let's go. Time is of the essence." They ran into the hole containing the cauldron and jumped. Just like before, he turned into a dragon in midair.
Grunty kicked Banjo off of the broom, grabbed Kazooie, thus stopping her pecking, and flung her away as she shot elemental spells at the two of them, now too infuriated to speak.
But then, Grunty stared in shocked silence as Kazooie flew upwards, using the last red feather as she performed a Beak Bomb, having grabbed Banjo and saving him from falling.
The two landed on the broom once more and continued to try to push the witch off of the flying object.
Lucario rode atop the Dragon-Ryu with his eyes on the target. However, he could tell that his companion's movements were slower and less focused than before. Even with his help, he wasn't going to last long. Transforming and staying in that form took too much effort and focus.
Once they finally closed in to Gruntilda's location, they could see that, while the bear and bird duo were able to avoid the witch's wrath, they hadn't been able to accomplish much either. "It is only a matter of time before they're struck down".
Seeing the obvious white dragon in front of her, Gruntilda tried to cast another spell to shoot them down. However, Kazooie was having none of it, pecking at her hand as hard as she could, causing her to recoil and lose focus.
He readied himself to jump from Ryu's back, but the dragon had other ideas. Putting himself in a more vertical position, he summoned all the energy he had left and fired something from his maw, a projectile that looked suspiciously like his Hadouken. He then transformed back into his human form, falling from the sky. Seeing it coming, Kazooie hid behind the witch, but kept harassing her from there.
Lucario had no option but to jump then and there. Using his ExtremeSpeed, he crashed against the sorceress at full force. This caused Grunty to begin to stumble back in her broom, and with Banjo still pulling at her from behind, she seemed like she was finally going to fall from her wooden steed.
However, she began to recover her balance and fought Banjo's pull. "You think you can make me-" she was silenced as Lucario -now truly focused and with his aura stronger than ever- used Force Palm on her stomach, causing her (and everyone else) to fall off the broom and into the ground below.
Grunty hit the ground first, her enraged scream cut off by the others landing on her. She used magic to shove them away, then slowly stood up and glared at those who surrounded her.
"Mark my words, this may be the end, but Dharkon shall win, you see, for he is not one to be undeterred, and standing down I do recommend." The witch then raised her arms and summoned her most powerful spell yet…
Only to be met by the strongest Aura Sphere Lucario could muster followed by Banjo and Kazooie performing a Wonderwing. The combined power of these two attacks caused her to stumble back several steps. She tried to stop herself and regain her balance, only to trip with the tower's edge and fall into the depths below.
Grunty's scream faded from view as she fell further and further away from her lair.
Kazooie decided to stay outside of Banjo's backpack for now and stepped up to the edge. "Good riddance… Again."
"What I'm wondering is, was she somehow real, or just some figment of our imagination?" Banjo wondered aloud with a claw to his chin in thought.
"Who cares? She's gone." Kazooie responded, hoping down from the ledge and making her way over to Ryu and Lucario. She looked the two up and down, then hugged them both. "I don't think the two of us can properly thank you for saving us."
Mumbo walked up and took out his wand. "Well done, Mumbo wake up group now."
The shaman said a few spells, waved his wand around, and the group left Dharkon's influenced nightmare.