All right, onto Gloomy Gulch!

Back at the Beach, Cranky was sitting with his elbow on the table. Wrinkly had already dozed off, and Funky was probably walking along the shore with Rambi. For all he knew, Funky was probably looking for his broken plane.

The old ape snorted. If he were the one rescuing Donkey Kong, it would've taken him five hours at most. Heck, for all he knew, Diddy could still be in Crocodile Cauldron at this point. He was actually tempted to go look for him, himself. The old ape jumped as he heard someone knocking at the cabin's door, herolled his eyes. "Door's open!"

He was expecting Funky to walk back inside. However, he was greeted by two Kongs wearing Kremling masks. One of them took off their mask, revealing himself to be Swanky.

"Well, guess who finally decided to show up?" Cranky said, bitterly. "Tell me, did you make as much money as you were expecting?"

"It...didn't really work out for us," Swanky replied.

"At least Diddy was nice enough to stop by," Candy said as she took off her mask. Cranky's eyes widened in shock, "You mean to tell me that they're ALIVE!?"

"Well, yeah," Candy said with certainty. "They looked a little beaten up. But other then that, they were fine."

Cranky couldn't believe what he was hearing. His great-grandson, who he had always seen as a weakling, was still alive. Of course, he liked to think that Dixie did most of the work. But even then, he was just happy to hear that Diddy was doing all right.

"By the way, do you guys know what happened to Squawks?" Cranky asked. "Funky told me he was sending a message to DK, but we haven't seen him since we got here."

"He's with Diddy," Swanky replied. Cranky let out a sigh. Well...As long as they had SOME help, than everything should turn out all right in the end.

As the Kongs left the Zinger's nest, they climbed another flight of stairs until they had reached the final layer of Crocodile Isle, Gloomy Gulch. As the name suggested, Gloomy Gulch was full of dead trees and wandering spirits. However, it was also home to many animals as well. Cats, bugs, porcupines...they all made the forest their home. So in an ironic way, this forest was the livliest place that anyone could ever end up in.

In the middle of the forest stood K. Rool's Keep. The Kongs had to move a little farther, it wouldn't be long now before they reunited with DK.

"...Say, Diddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever gotten bad vibes from being somewhere?"

"Why, are ya afraid of ghosts?"

"It's not that," Dixie replied. "It's more like...everything gets more calm before something bad happens, you know?"

"Well, we ARE getting closer to K. Rool's castle," Diddy said with a hint of fear in his voice.

Dixie nodded in understanding. Meanwhile, Squawks was sitting on Dixie's beret. He was keeping an eye out for any attackers that were nearby. But as far as he could tell, there was nothing here he could consider a threat.

Suddenly, a strong wind started blowing through the trees. It was as if something was controlling the weather around them. Perhaps Dixie's instincts weren't too far off?

The group heard what sounded like a Necky's cry, they continued moving at that point. After all, the last thing they needed was an encounter with another Necky. Eventually, the group came across a spider with a pattern on its body ressembling lava. This spider looked familiar for some reason.

"Wait..." Diddy had a thoughtful expression on his face. "You're Rattly's friend...Squitter, right?"

Squitter nodded, he looked relieved to see a familiar face.

"Say...where is Rattly, anyway?" Dixie asked. Squitter shrugged as he shook his head, as if stating that he had no idea what happened to him.

"No worries," Diddy said, "We'll probably find him before we reach K. Rool's Keep."

Squitter smiled, he began to lead the group like he did back in Crocodile Cauldron. For Diddy, it was hard to believe how far he had gotten. Surely, none of the Kongs back home would've believed that he made it through Crocodile Isle and survived. As for Dixie, he was sure that her family was proud of her in some way or another. In fact, her sister would probably brag on about her for months.

Dixie looked up at the trees. For a moment, she could've sworn she heard another Necky's cry. It could've been her imagination, but that didn't make things less terrifying.

As the group moved on until they made it to an abandoned town. There were trees and mushrooms growing out of the houses, the only animals living here were the Neckies. But even then. only half of the Neckies there were alive. The Kongs walked towards the tree growing in the middle of town. There, they spotted Rattly hanging off one of the branches. Squitter gasped, he ran towards the tree thinking that his friend was injured.

"Oh, hello," Rattly greeted, acknowledging the group. "It'sss niccce to sssee you, again."

"Oh, thank goodness," Diddy said with a sigh. "I'm just glad you two are still alive."

"What kind of place is this, anyway?" Dixie added. Rattly frowned, he began to rub the back of his head with the tail. "Let'sss sssee...how ssshould I put thisss?"

"This used to be a Kremling village at one point," Squawks said. "These Kremlings tried to overthrow K. Rool's family, but as you can imagine, it didn't work too well."

"They had no choiccce but to leave the island," Rattly added. "The lucky onesss were able to essscape to the Northern Kremisssphere...but as for the unlucky onesss, they became...sssacrificccesss to Kerosssene."

The Kongs glanced at each other with a worried expression, "So were those Neckies sacrifices too?"

"Sssuprisingly not," Rattly said. "Kerosssene only takesss Kongsss and Kremlingsss. Thisss jussst happensss to be where Neckiesss like to gather...whether they're alive or not."

"So this town's more like a resting ground then anything, right?" Diddy asked.

"Exactly," Squawks replied. "But from the looksss of it, thessse Neckiesss don't look very hossstile."

Diddy nodded in agreement. From the looks of it, the Neckies here were more curious then they were hostile. Otherwise, they would've attacked the Kongs already.

"Do you think they're watching us for a reason?" Dixie asked. Rattly began to smile sheepishly. "Actually...there'sss someone that'sss been waiting for you."

"Really?" Diddy tilted his head in confusion. "K. Rool wouldn't be down here already, would he?"

Rattly shook his head. "No...But do you remember when you two were on that galleon sssome time ago?"

"You mean when that bird tried to kill me?" Diddy asked bitterly. "Why do you ask?"

Suddenly, the wind started to grow violently. It felt as if the Kongs could fly away if they tried to jump. But as the wind started to die down, the group was face-to face with a large Necky. His skin was a pale blue, his feathers had a green tint to them. The Necky was smiling. It wasn't a menacing smile, but it wasn't a very pleasant smile either. If anything, it looked more...bittersweet.

"'tis been a while...hasn't it, lad?"

Oh boy, repeat bosses!

...Though to be fair, I always thought it was cool how Krow just sort of comes back from the dead.