The town felt empty, rotten to the core and broken down. The cold air breezed at Banjo's furry exterior, which usually had no effect on him since bears were known for sleeping through the entire winter season. Brown rust carried throughout the vehicles and poles like a skin disease, as some areas of the town were taken over by their natural inhabitants, weeds and vines coiled like an infestation in the manmade city. Nevertheless, Banjo was completely scared out of his mind. Kazooie, however, was loving the experience seeing as she was grinning the entire time. She always thought those little gremlins looked better as undead monsters, and can't wait to see them in action.
"Oh, drop your bollocks, Banjo. This isn't that bad." Kazooie looked back at Banjo, aiming her at wherever he could that he'd expect something to pop up. At cars, post boxes, telephone boxes, enough places to make Kazooie feel dizzy. "Graaah, stop it! I may be your volunteered shotgun, but I am NOT a fan of spinning!"
"Sorry, Kazooie. It's just y-you know.. I'm not exactly a fan of horror." Banjo gritted his maw, squeezing at Kazooie's talons. The cold, unnerving atmosphere was starting to get at Banjo, a place unlike wherever he had been before. With each step down the road. A click of Kazooie's tongue rang as she looked back at Banjo.
"Doing okay?"
"Yeah.. maybe things will turn out okay? All we really have to do is just find what ah'm assuming King Ringading, take off that chip, and he'll come back to normal?"
"Yes, that is indeed the exposition, Banjo." Kazooie had to admit, as the old bony witch was dead set in her ways of redundancy, being as shallow as can be with her trivia games and humdrum presentation as of recent, she knew how to make a horror game that made her adrenaline rush through her entire body. A few more steps and there seemed to be nothing worth talking about.
What was there, however - was a building. An abandoned dataDyne building with blood dragged from the skirts of the streets inside of it. A sick invitation to the duo. Banjo could barely talk, nor help the feel that this was a bad idea. They had to save Jingaling, though. A good hero is a selfless one.
"Alright, Kazooie. It's time for us to shoot some zombies.." Banjo sighed.
"Yeah yeah YEAH YEAH! Let's DO IT!" Kazooie rubbed her wings in excitement, as the bear walked inside. All over the place were tables flipped over, papers strewn all over the place, and more blood spattered all over the floor and wall. "Hey Kazooie, if you don't mind me, I'd like to probably try Mumbo's Party first.."
"Oh sorry, I thought you were the hero?"
"I aaaaam! I'm just.. not used to this much blood where I come from!"
"We beat up Lord Woo Fak Face."
"That is entirely different! They were boils! And— what was that?" Banjo suddenly aimed at a corner, an impish black shadow munching on a figure lying on the ground. The zombie Jinjo suddenly stopped and stood up on his feet, and looked back at the duo. His eyes were tinted purple from the influence of Gruntilda's power, and his skin was a pale orange that was more apparent with the dimly lit lights shining through the room.
Suddenly, the Jinjo started to follow at them, head tilted aside with a gurgling noise from their mouth, blood spilling out.
"Gnnnngh!" Banjo started to fire Kazooie's signature blue eggs at him, striking him down and lodging an especially hard egg into his eye socket. "AAAAAAARGCK!" He called in pain.
"Banjo, this is not a good thing, we need to get out of here." Kazooie looked up at him, and what do you know, four more Jinjos sprouted from the back to attack the duo.
"Gaaah! Okay, I'm gonna regret this but.." He looked up at one of the hanging fluorescent lights, and shifted his Kazooie to fire egg mode before taking fire. Soon, the lamp fell to the ground in flames, engulfing two of the Jinjos whom screeched bloody murder.
"Nice going, Banjo! You really do have some survival instincts in ya after all!"
"No talking, now fire!" Banjo wasn't the type to do some cheesy one liners about Jill sandwiches, and fired some more fire eggs at the other Jinjos, some just arriving to meet their fate! Kazooie was having way too much fun. "AAAAARGHH!"
"Hahaha, that one was for calling me a stork the other day!" Shots were fired, "and THAT was for calling me an ol' buzzard!"
"Hey, Kazooie, I know yuh think this is all awesome and stuff, but we need to find the king." Suddenly, a little figure scuttled through the floor. It was hard to see at first, but with a turn of their bodies they saw a little pink creature, morphed into some horrendous ugly being that gargled and chittered. "Is.. that Toots?" Banjo said in horror at what Gruntilda has turned her.
"Hurry, fire me!" Kazooie yelled.
"But, what if King Jingaling finds out we hurt-"
"He's under Grunty's control! He'll understand!" The flames from the lamp slowly spread across the room, engulfing some tables. "Speaking of, we oughta get out of this building before we're roasted beef." The two started to exit the dataDyne building before a lumbering large figure stood at the doorway, reeking of filth and dark green veins covering his skin, eyes whitened and mouth agape. A visible chip shaped like a jigsaw piece was connected to his neck, but otherwise the robe, slippers, necklace and crown made it all too apparent who it was.
It was King Jingaling.
"Mmrrrroooaaaaah.." the Zombie Jinjo King spilled.
Kazooie was honestly getting tired of the whole zombie scene. "Yeah, hi. We came to rescue your sorry Jinjo ass. So if you just let us take that stupid chip off of your neck, we can be on our merry-"
But with immense strength, the king rushed and tackled Banjo to the ground, pushing Kazooie aside near the flames that roared in the room. "GAAAAH!"
"Kazooie!" Banjo screamed with true fear tinging his voice, looking at her before seeing that the king was on top of him! His beak rotted of death, and his breath smelled of rancid expired scones. "King Chickenwing, it's us! Don't you remember?!" He pleaded for the king to remember, the chip having a strong effect on him.
The zombie bared his teeth and opened up, ready to devour his face and skin off. "RraaAAAAGH!" The breegull, thinking fast, fired a grenade egg that blew Jingaling off of Banjo. This lead to the bear immediately taking off and grabbing Kazooie with him, holding her up at Jingaling who was now standing up, wrinkled and skin burning up. This one was a tough one to bring down. "Brrrreeghns…"
Banjo fired Kazooie's blue eggs at him, hoping they would stop him in his place, but to no avail. "Banjoooo, he's not stopping! DO SOMETHING EEEELSE!" Kazooie's voice itself was wrought with fear.
The bear couldn't keep his cool any longer, and brought Kazooie closer to him. "Hey, w-wait! At least tell me what you're-" Banjo wound up for the aim, using Kazooie as a makeshift bat. As Jingaling was arrive closer, he used all his bear power to take a hard swing at the Jinjo King's skull, forcing Kazooie's beak to break inside his head and spatter our a ton of blood all over her beak. The lumbering zombie was down for the count.
"Banjo, what the bloody hell did you do that for?!" Kazooie yelled, with Banjo gritting his teeth harder and his heart beating.
"Ah'm SORRY! He was about to kill us and ah needed a way to save us!" Banjo whined, before Kazooie looked at him and chuckled. "Ahah.. well you did something at the very least." The duo looked at the zombie, moaning and onto the ground as blood spilled. He slowly started to get up again, and the duo decided not to risk it.
"Oh no you don't!" The bear swung Kazooie at Jingy's head again, dislocating his beak and causing the king to cry out in pain. As he whined about his nose and his body more engulfed in flames, Kazooie hopped off of Banjo and reached for the chip. The breegull yanked it off from his neck and the entire arena glitched in a buggy mess.
"aaaAAAAAA͉̱͓A̻̤Ạ͖͕A̟̣̞͍A͓̙̤͕A̪͈̭̬͍̠͞ͅA͉̱͓A̻̤Ạ͖͕A̟̣̞͍A͓̙̤͕A̪͈̭̬͍̠͞ͅ" A hellish scream roared out from the possessed king, his skin flushing from pale green veins to smooth and gentle yellow, eyes blinking back to green, and his voice from low and monstrous to chipper and posh.
Some various loud noises later, Banjo and Kazooie's wounds were healed, the two back to where they had started, the hub world.
King Jingaling stayed as close as he did when they were fighting, but as soon as the game glitched out, he instantly glitched back to his former alive and kingly self, falling to the floor. "Oooaoooh.. w-what happened?"
Jingaling turned and laid on his back, having a severe headache and blinking his eyes open and shut again to the duo. "B-Banjo? Kazooie? What are you two guys doing here?" He took a look at the place around him and squinted. "And uh, what is here? Why is the room dark? Are we about to do a surprise party?" The king looked at the duo, still catching their breath.
"You.. were kidnapped by Gruntilda and became a.. a zombie again." Banjo panted.
"I.. I WHAT?!" Jingaling was horrified at the prospect of being a zombie again.
"Yup," Banjo replied, "an' yer people were zombies too.. It wasn't much fun shootin' em, but it was quite liberating for Kazooie."
"M-my people were zombies?! You SHOT at them?! .. Where's my Tootsie?!" Immediately after, an electricity bolt shot out in front of Jingaling, and Toots was in his lap, back to normal and mortified out of her little mind.
"Aah.. shh shh, hold on Tootsie, it's okay.." He geld onto her and petted her, "Don't fret, don't.."
The dignified king looked up at the duo with such a grateful smile. For the duo still trying to compose themselves, a much welcome one after witnessing the king attack them in his zombified form. "Why, I do owe you an apology.. I'm so sorry if I caused you any trouble if I was really possessed.."
"It's nothing at all, King Pingaling!" Banjo smiles and held out a hand to help Jingaling up, which he accepted graciously. "Ah guess we know Gruntilda isn't just playing cookies and cream with us this time now, she really means business if she's gone to use our pals against us."
"That is most daunting.. also it's Jingaling. Jing, A, Ling."
"We'll try to remember, King Zingading." Kazooie replied.
Off by them, some moans were heard. Banjo and Kazooie felt their skin jump as they thought to be more Jinjo zombies coming at them, but it turned out to be the moans of some Jinjos lying down in pain, back to normal with their rainbow colored selves.
"Oh dear.. my people." Jingaling witnessed with such holy terror. "Reduced to being pawns for the witch's sick games.. I can't let this stand, you two." He looked back at Banjo and Kazooie with such a determined look. "If you don't mind me, I'll be more than thrilled to join your quest into rescuing the rest of the Isle O' Hags and bringing the witch down!"
The duo looked at each other. What did he say? That he would be joining them? ".. I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kazooie replied.
"That I'll be joining you. I won't be on the sidelines this time. I'll be joining the both of you into saving your friends.. my friends too." The king snapped his fingers and nodded. "I may not look like a heavy hand to deal with, but I assure you, I have a good sense of knowledge and wisdom behind my girth."
"Hold onto that thought." Banjo and Kazooie huddled.
"Banjo, Are you sure? I'm more than used to us two going on adventures, I'm not willing to do third or forth wheels..!"
"Kazooie, we need all duh help we need. Grunty overthrew the Lord of Games, for LOG's sake!"
".. Alright, you have a good point. It's either more dunces by our side, or in the graveyard."
The duo dispersed and looked back at the king with excited smiles. "Alright, Kingaling! We'll save the rest together!" Banjo chirped, holding out a hand to shake the king's hand.. Before realizing the king had a fist balled, in an attempt to do a fist bump.
"Oh, uh, were you going to do a fist-"
"No no, my apologies, I never thought to shake your hand."
"Okay, let's just.." The two tried to alternate between an open hand and a balled first, making the entire exchange look like the worst rock paper scissors game ever. This quickly annoyed Kazooie as she yelled.
"OH, FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD! CHEST BUMP ALREADY!"
Huh, never thought of that. The Jinjo King and bear readied their chests, leaping and bumping them into each other. "Guh-huh!"
"Ahem, you don't mind me bringing one of my subjects along, right? I've entrusted him to be my personal assistant, and I really think he could be of good help as well." Jingaling looked over at one of the Jinjos and whistled at him. "Twig! If you're okay, please stand up!"
An orange Jinjo from the pile of passed out Jinjos started to get up. He was an ordinary Jinjo of course, nothing special about him at first glance.. Except his role in the castle. He walked over to the king and bowed. "At your service, your highness!"
"Alright, now who's this joker?" Kazooie groaned, an original character? Really?
"This here is Twig. He is a trusted assistant to the throne in which I personally have chosen, and has a sister named.. Um, Twitter, was it?"
A chuckle came from Twig, reasonably high pitched but not annoyingly so. "Tweeter, your majesty."
"Right, Tweeter. Anyways, he's always helped out with whatever dilemmas I have had in the past, and I am sure he'll help out alongside with me in your quest!"
The Jinjo bowed again, making the bird think he was nothing but a suckup. "It would be my honor, my liege! I shall give my life to you, as well as the heroes of the Jinjo Village oh so very long ago!"
"Cut the crap, you." Kazooie blandly said, before getting smacked at the back of the head by Banjo.
Suddenly, the over-pleasantry ceased. "Oh, okay fine," Twig muttered, standing up straight. "I'm not exactly keen to help you personally, but you are one of the heroes that saved our kingdom."
Banjo chuckled, rubbing at the back of his head. "Heh heh.. Well I get that. Now let's just go find LOG and- OH MY GOSH, LOG!" Banjo completely forgotten about the entire reason why they're in this situation, running over to his seemingly lifeless shell. He got out the jiggy-shaped chip, slipping it inside LOG's monitor. He suddenly flew up above ground and regenerated at least some of his power.
"It took you poor souls enough time to remember me." The lord snarked.
"Hey, we can very well take that chip out and smash it to the ground. See which soul is poor after that."
"KAZOOIE!" Banjo scolded.
"I'm.. going to push that aside, because at this instant it hurts to feel anger. This chip will be of much important throughout your quest. The witch stuck these on your friends, and the more chips you return, the more power I can regain. Whilst I can't send you to Gruntilda now, I can however open up another game for you to go into. Rinse and repeat, another collectathon that you'll be going on about. Because people love to eat those up." The Lord of Games explained.
".. I'm going to take that chip out." Kazooie started to get out of that backpack before King Jingaling forced her down the backpack. "Wah- hey! LET ME GO! I SAID LET ME GOOO!"
"Hmm.." Banjo looked over at the games and picked one of them. Both Jingaling and Kazooie stopped to look at it.
"That? I don't know if I would have chosen that one, but if it regains more of my ability, I will send you on your merry way." The Lord said, before nodding his head. Soon enough, a bolt of electricity shot down onto the game cartridge, making it glow and ready for entry.
"Alright, y'all. One down, more to go!" Banjo encouraged Kazooie and his new partners.
And soon enough, they ventured into the game, who knows where they will be next.