Next chapter's here now, as the good guys are almost halfway through.

DISCLAIMER: Contra is a property Konami, whereas Bomberman is still owned by Hudson Soft despite Konami's permanent takeover; the Mario and Wario franchises belong to Nintendo. Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is owned by Renegade Animation. Any songs "used" throughout the course of this fanfic are properties of their respective owners.

Chapter 5: From the bridges to the Forest of Illusion

[Boss BGM: Bloody Storm (Contra III: The Alien Wars)]

Mission 4: Danger below and behind
Back from robot hell, let alone a scrap yard, is one of Red Falcon's finest mechanical monsters: Robo-Corpse. With his size, titanium, and possibly artillery upgrades, we may not have a chance against him this time – judging by the way he inflicted near-fatal damage upon Blaze Bomber.
June 10, 20XX
5:10 PM

On the run from the gargantuan machine, we jumped forth to avoid the chainsaw-like sentries that were cutting through the bridge. Ami threw her Ice Bombs behind us to put out the flames from Robo-Corpse's flamethrower, but even so, that didn't stop the titanium-reinforced giant in his attack. He swung his makeshift nunchuck, the Butter Bridge, just barely missing us. Meanwhile, we were baffled as to how he could maneuver around the water without rusting himself since he's a robot; that is, unless his titanium alloy was waterproof.

Since Yoshi (who's carrying Blaze Bomber on his back) was with us, if we were to get our hands on a pair of magical wings that enable him to fly, he would get us out of the Cheese Bridge, and to a safer area ahead: Cookie Mountain. That's when we noticed an item block ahead.

"I see it up ahead," said Lance. "It's got to contain Yoshi's Wings for bailing us out!" With that, he jumped and punched the block, miraculously coughing up the item we needed for Yoshi to get us out. The dino buddy then acquired the wings, grabbed ahold of us and his trapped friends, and whisked us to safety with all his might. Due to the combined weight he had to carry, however, we could travel no farther than to Cookie Mountain.

"Okay, we're out of the bridge," said Bill, catching his breath. "What now?"

Robo-Corpse grabbed ahold of Cookie Mountain by the top with his claws, merely showing his face. "I show you my new weapons I have in store for you," threatened the killer robot, "that's what!" He started off by firing ballistic missiles from his shoulders, inflicting more damage upon the mountain than to us. Then he followed up by raising his elbows, revealing deadly machine guns. He opened fire without delay, prompting us to run some more. He combined that with launching time bombs from his chest, which exploded right in front of us, destroying a bit more of Cookie Mountain.

"Face it, Contras!" Robo-Corpse cackled. "You have no way of escaping my wrath!"

"Oh yeah?!" Ami shouted, throwing a barrage of pumped-up Thunder Bombs. "These oughta stop you!" Unfortunately, for her, her bombs didn't do much damage to Robo-Corpse, given his increased size and titanium alloy.

"I guess we really are doomed to die, aren't we…"

"Don't give up, Ami," I said. "He's gotta have a weakness. Like in a video game, let alone the Contra franchise, every boss-sized enemy has a weakness." I stopped in mid-sentence to snap my fingers. "Wait, that's it!"

Ami was confused momentarily. "What's it? Have you figured out how we can dismantle Robo-Corpse for good?"

"Remember a boss fight against him, which we had to go through in order to progress in Contra III: The Alien Wars, or even Contra 4 as well? The thing is, whenever we finished him, his head would get chopped off, eventually killing him within an explosion."

"I hate to interrupt, you two," interrupted Lance, "but whatever you have in mind, think it quick!"

Then I called out to Bill and Lance. "You two go into that castle above Cookie Mountain with Yoshi to get another of his friends out. Ami and I will draw Robo-Corpse's attention."

"Yeah," Ami added, "Aaron and I believe his weakness has to be his neck!"

"But what can either of you do," Bill worried, "if none of our attacks faze him?"

"No time to explain! Just go, we'll be alright!" With that, Ami and I began to distract Robo-Corpse, while Bill and Lance climbed up a ladder with Yoshi towards the fourth castle on Dinosaur Land. But, the mechanical monstrosity took a quick glance over there, and attempted to grab the castle off the ground with his free hand.

"HEY, TIN MAN!" I bellowed. "OVER HERE!"

Ami joined in. "We're the ones you want, not them!"

Robo-Corpse could only snicker at me and Ami, in response. "You really want to see Blaze Bomber again that badly, eh? Fine by me…it's your funeral." He dropped the Butter Bridge and switched his claws with a pair of circular buzzsaws, ready to make mincemeat out of us. Then he swung his arms downward, but we were quick enough to jump out of the way. He followed up with shooting laser beams out of his eyes, catching us off guard.

"We've just seen what his buzzsaws can do," I grunted, "Now if we could just turn them against him…"

Ami, however, gulped at the thought. "But what good would that do? In case you haven't noticed, he's like over a hundred feet bigger than us! If only…of course! I almost forgot about those!" She pulled out two cans of spinach from her backpack, which thankfully were not confiscated when she was imprisoned a couple of hours ago. She gave me one of the cans, before we squeezed them open to gulp down the spinach. In just seconds, we were given super strength, Popeye-style.

Robo-Corpse swung his buzzsaws towards the ground again, but we were ready for him this time. We grabbed ahold of one of his arms in an effort to push the circular saw towards his metallic neck.

"I see you've managed to acquire superhuman strength," said Robo-Corpse, "but even that will never help you!"

"Now where have I heard that rebuttal before?" I retorted. "But needless to say, never say never!"

The giant robot used his free arm to fire a machine gun from his elbow, following up with spewing flames from his mouth. But, we were wise to use the arm we're holding as a shield, preventing mortal damage. Then, with all our might, we punched his arm repeatedly, ignoring the pain on our knuckles in the process. Bellowing like Norse gods, we finished up with a mega punch simultaneously, sending the buzzsaw straight at his neck beyond control. As our spinach-enhanced strength wore off, Robo-Corpse's head was decapitated, and it fell to the ground. We stretched our hands and breathed a sigh of relief, as his now-headless body ceased function.

[End BGM]

"I think we've got him," said Ami, wiping sweat off of her forehead. "Whew! That was a close one!"

"I second that, Ami," I agreed. Just then, Robo-Corpse's claw twitched momentarily, his headless body regaining function afterwards.

[Danger BGM: RedEye King (Star Fox Adventures)]

We were both flabbergasted at what we just saw. "Huh? What?!" We were forced to get out of range, running towards the ladder that led to the castle above. For the next few minutes, I pondered over the situation at hand.

"Ami, I think I know what we can do now." As I spoke with my best friend, the headless robot blew flames from his neck.

"What do you mean, Aaron? Even without his head, he can still move! It just doesn't make any sense!"

"I'm aware we only succeeded in blinding him, in a manner of speaking. But, look at where his flames are coming from. I mean, think about it: what is typically required for a flamethrower to work?"

"A fuel tank. Why?"

"I have an idea. Can you hand me the X-Ray Goggles that Penny Crygor invented for us, prior to our vacation?" Ami did just that without delay, whereas I used the goggles to see through Robo-Corpse's titanium body, and found something of interest inside his chest. "Just as I thought. There're enough fuel tanks inside to level his whole body, assuming we detonate them all at once."

Meanwhile, the fourth castle lifted off the ground like a rocket. We figured Bill and Lance must have found a switch to set it off like in Super Mario World. Bill called us, via the communicators. "We've found the next egg containing Yoshi's friend, and we're just about heading your way now."

"Good job!" said Ami. "Say, can you redirect the castle straight into Robo-Corpse by the neck? We've just decapitated him."

"What are you talking about?" asked Lance.

"There's no time to explain!" I warned. "Just do it, but make sure to bail out before the impact!"

We hung up our communicators, and began our ascent for higher ground. Ami threw as many Fire Bombs as she could at the missiles that Robo-Corpse fired from his shoulders. When we reached the top, we saw the castle fly closer to the neck, and we brought up our communicators again.

"NOW!" we shouted simultaneously, as Bill and Lance jumped out with Blaze Bomber and the Yoshi eggs, aboard the winged Yoshi. The moment they landed next to us, we watched as the enemy castle flew straight down Robo-Corpse's neck, eventually crash-landing upon impact. Eventually, the blast set off a chain reaction of fuel tanks erupting in a series of explosions, completely blowing Robo-Corpse and his downed head into a million fragments of scrap metal. We ducked for cover to avoid the debris and shield our eyes from the huge explosion. Within the next minute, the smoke cleared; we could now see that the gargantuan killer robot was gone for good.

[End BGM]
[Victory BGM: Sub Castle Clear Fanfare (Super Mario World)]

Exhausted from the heated battle, we raised our arms in triumph. "We did it!" Ami beamed happily.

"That sure was a close one, alright!" I agreed.

[End BGM]

For the first time since we began our journey on Dinosaur Land, we managed to get a break from having to fight the evil forces of Red Falcon. We leisurely climbed down another ladder, this time leading into the Forest of Illusion. It was sunset the moment we entered the forest, and definitely a good time to set up camp for the evening, not to mention heal our injuries.

"I'm glad we're all safe once more," said Bill.

Lance nodded. "Now all that's left is getting our supper ready."

Throughout the night, Bill and Lance hunted for food, and cooked it up for our dinner. Meanwhile, Ami and I looked at the nearly-dead Blaze Bomber, hoping if there's a possibility that Penny and her grandpa might repair him. Our trains of thought stopped as we yawned out of exhaustion. We pulled out our sleeping bags and went to sleep, while Bill and Lance stayed awake to guard us in case of an ambush.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Indeed it was a close call. Sorry if it wasn't exactly long for a boss fight chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it!