A/N: Here's Chapter 2. Probably could've gotten more interesting content at the beginning if I put the Mystic in Palutena's role, but if you've seen the ending of Kameo, you know why I couldn't do that.
Chapter 2: Sea of Clouds
From gazing through a magical fountain in the Enchanted Kingdom's royal palace, Kameo gasped in horror at the sight of the Midair Stadium engulfed in darkness. Kameo heard the door behind her creak open, drawing her attention to the figure standing at the doorway; an elegant elf woman wearing a regal white dress and a turquoise headdress, holding a large blue book and a gold headband with a red jewel in it.
"Mother!" Kameo cried out to her queen and adoptive parent, Theena. "In the land below, there's a…"
"I already know, Kameo," Theena informed her.
"Huh? But it just happened. How do you know…"
"In the privacy of her room, she too watched the match between the bear and the human, as I'm sure you were," said Ortho, an elderly wizard inside the book Theena carried.
"But that's not important right now." Theena cleared her throat. "What matters now is this new threat. I fear that the world, even the Enchanted Kingdom, is in grave danger." She handed Kameo the book and the headband. "Kameo, take the Element of Power and the Wotnot. Go down to the surface world and use the Elemental Warriors to repel these invaders in any way you can."
Kameo nodded as she put on the Element of Power. "I won't let you down, mother." After Theena said her goodbyes and wished her luck, Kameo ran to the top of a flight of stairs leading to an open window. Taking one last look at Queen Theena, Kameo closed her eyes, outstretched her arms, and leaned back, falling out of the palace. As she plummeted from the Enchanted Kingdom, Kameo twisted herself around to face the endless sea of clouds she fell past. Using her wings to slow her descend, Kameo eventually landed gently on a small patch of land surrounded by clouds.
Before Kameo could take in the sights, she heard a humming noise behind her. She turned to the source of the noise, witnessing the Cetan ship rise from the surrounding red clouds. Kameo stood in awe as the ship passed over her, scattering Shadow Bugs onto the clouds as it flew by. The Shadow Bugs formed into Omens and converged towards the surrounded elf princess.
"Ah, Kameo, bearer of the Element of Power," one of the Omens addressed her. "Do you really think that trinket will help you against the might of the Shadow Lords Army? I'm sure you've heard the phrase, 'if you play with fire, you get burned.'"
"I haven't yet begun to burn, but when I do, all that will be left of you is ashes," Kameo boasted.
Using the Element of Power, the red jewel in her headband, Kameo transformed into one of the ten Elemental Warriors; a Venus flytrap with a face, arm-like vines, and thorny bulbs for hands. Pummel Weed assumed a boxing stance, punching out the Omens with devastating combos as they closed in, even bisecting some of them with powerful uppercuts from underground.
After the Omens were dealt with, Kameo reverted back to her normal self and squinted her eyes, barely making out a dormant trophy laying in her path. It was Banjo and Kazooie, and with a tap on their stand, Kameo reanimated the duo.
"Well, this is embarrassing. Getting revived by someone from a game nobody played," Kazooie said groggily as her eyes adjusted to the sight of their savior.
Before Banjo could scold Kazooie, the memory of them getting knocked out of the stadium surfaced to the bear's mind. "The bomb! Is Tooty and everyone else okay?"
Banjo stood and faced Kameo for an answer. "Well…" Kameo started to say as the image of the stadium absorbed into darkness flooded her thoughts. Not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, she instead said, "I'll explain later. Right now, we have an airship to catch. It's just ahead of us."
"So lead the way then, big ears," said Kazooie.
"Hey! At least I have ears!" Kameo retorted.
Spreading their wings, Kameo and Kazooie both soared past the floating rocks ahead, giving chase to the Cetan ship. More Omens and other creatures made of Shadow Bugs crossed their path, and though they weren't much trouble for the trio to take out, by the time they reached the edge of a cliff, the Cetan flew ahead, just out of their reach.
Kameo grunted in frustration. "I'd fly after it if it wasn't so fast."
"If there was a Flight Pad around, Banjo and I could Beak Bomb towards it," said Kazooie.
"Actually, it looks like someone's already on it," said Banjo, pointing towards an Arwing in hot pursuit of the Cetan.
Joanna grew worried. The HoverBike was low on fuel, and she still saw no sign of the Cetan. Resigned, she was ready to lower altitude in preparation for a landing when Hisako tapped her shoulder.
"What is it? I have to find a place to land quickly," said Joanna.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about finding a place to land," Hisako said cryptically.
"And why is that?"
"Because the flying ship is right behind us!"
"What!?"
Joanna about faced just in time to see the Cetan ship ram into the back of the HoverBike, throwing Joanna and Hisako into the air. They both landed with a thud on top of the Cetan, along with the now totaled HoverBike.
"OK, so I might of overshot it a little," Joanna admitted as she stroked her aching bottom. "Still alive, Hisako?" She gave Joanna a look. "OK, stupid question. But at least we're on the ship now."
The pair strolled across the top of the ship, determined to finding a way inside. Before long, all of the Cetan's external weapons opened fire at an incoming aircraft; the same Arwing Banjo saw before. The Arwing skillfully avoided each shot by twirling and barrel rolling through the rain of bullets. It circled back around for another pass when a crane claw sprung from the Cetan and struck the smaller ship. Heavily damaged, the Arwing spiraled out of control, heading straight for Joanna and Hisako.
"Get down!" Joanna yelled, tackling Hisako flat onto the surface.
The Arwing barely flew over their heads, but the force of the bypassing ship was enough to send Joanna and Hisako over the edge of the ship. The pair fell out of the sky, luckily landing on a patch of soft clouds, faring far better than the Arwing, which plummeted towards a lake on ground level.
"Well, so much for this being an easy infiltration mission," Joanna said coolly.
Hisako shook a raised fist at the departing Cetan ship. "You have escaped my wrath, Shadow Lords Army! For now!"
Joanna looked down at the clouds and floating platforms below them. "It looks like we can safely get back to the ground from here. We may need to find some help."
Hisako nodded. "Yes. Jago senpai would be a great asset to us." Her cheeks turned red as she stared in the distance, lost in her thoughts.
"As would any other member of the Night Guard or Disavowed. Or any other hero we come across, for that matter," Joanna added.
"Yeah, yeah, them too," a salivating Hisako said dismissively.
A long hovering carrier, with a witch's hat on the front bumper and runners resembling black shoes, hauled away a huge hoard of bananas as it sped away from the jungle undergrowth. Piloting the vehicle, called a Cargo, with a single steering stick was a short hunchbacked creature with three teeth protruding from his bottom lip, wearing a red cloak with a skull on the back. The Gruntling maneuvered the Cargo away from the cliff he nearly drove off of, all while a large sentient carrot with eyes rested on top of the banana hoard.
"Hurry up! They're coming!" Topper the Carrot yelled in a panic.
"Gruntling driving asss fasssst assss he can! Will not fail misssstressss and get arressssted by Rubbissssh Video Game Policccce like you!" the Gruntling replied.
The Topper was right to worry, as their comrades hidden behind the vegetation were massacred one after another by an angry pursuer of the Cargo.
"Please! I was just following orders!" another Topper in the shrubbery pleaded.
"And now you die!" his attacker said before punching the Topper clean through the thicket and over the cliff the Cargo just drove by.
Another Gruntling tried a sneak attack to avenge the fallen Topper, only to get slapped away for his troubles. The assailant continued his rampage by literally pounding another Gruntling into the ground. After a rustling in the trees, the chaser leapt into clear view, revealing himself to be a brown-furred gorilla wearing a red tie with the yellow letters DK printed on it. After roaring and pounding his chest in rage, Donkey Kong saw the Cargo getting away from atop the cliff.
"No one steals my bananas and gets away with it!" Donkey Kong snarled as he balled his fists.
The Topper on the banana hoard jumped to the back of the Cargo, jolting awake the three large dragonflies resting there.
"Get him!" the Topper ordered.
The dragonflies, called Buzzbombs, flew high up and dive-bombed toward Donkey Kong. Someone else ran out of the hedges and sprung off of Donkey Kong; a monkey wearing a red shirt with yellow stars and a red hat with the Nintendo logo on it. He was Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's nephew and sidekick. Diddy fired two peanuts from the wooden popguns in his hands, shooting down two of the Buzzbombs. The third Buzzbomb rose up and beelined for Diddy Kong until a third primate showed herself, a female monkey wearing a pink crop top and a pink beret with the Rare logo on it. She was Dixie Kong, Diddy Kong's partner in more ways than one, and though she lacked a tail, her long blonde ponytail more than made up for it, as she used it to twirl in the air, smacking down the last Buzzbomb with her hair.
As the Buzzbomb crashed behind the three Kongs, Diddy, without even looking, threw an Orange Grenade over his shoulder, finishing off the Buzzbomb as Donkey, Diddy, and Dixie posed in front of the explosion. They looked back at the fleeing Cargo and pointed threateningly at it.
"You're going down!" the trio said in unison.
As they jumped off the cliff, chasing after the Cargo, something ate away at Diddy. "Doesn't this whole thing feel like déjà vu?" Diddy asked.
"Yeah! Because my banana hoard's always getting stolen!" Donkey complained.
"No, I mean this specific instance is familiar somehow," Diddy clarified.
"Well, now that you mention it…" Donkey admitted.
Dixie Kong shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what you guys are talking about. This doesn't feel familiar to me at all."
As the Kongs trekked after the Cargo, they're impeded by more Buzzbombs, Gruntlings, and Toppers, as well as purple goblins called Grublins and giant onions and flying cauliflowers named Bawls and Colliwobbles respectively, but with Donkey Kong's strength, Diddy's agility and Peanut Popguns, and Dixie's Helicopter Spin attack, the Kongs defeated their opposition with relative ease. Eventually, they entered a clearing deep within the jungle, where DK's banana hoard laid with no one else around.
"Wahay! We found them!" Donkey Kong exclaimed.
DK clapped, gave two thumbs up, and raised his hands above his head while Diddy threw his cap into the air in celebration. Dixie, however, wasn't as enthusiastic.
"Hold on, guys! The bananas are just here with no one guarding them. Don't you think this is a little too easy?" Dixie said in concern.
"You're smarter than you look, this is totally a trap! And you fell for the bait, I almost want to clap!" said a voice behind them.
The Kongs turned to see an obese, green-skinned woman with a long chin and nose covered in warts, wearing a stereotypical witches' hat and robes, along with a pink and purple striped scarf wrapped around her neck.
"Banjo told me about you! You're Gruntilda, aren't you? What do you want with us?" Diddy demanded.
"Yeah! I already got one fat, green bozo to worry about!" Donkey added.
"Oh, we've met, and I'm quite the fan! So the croc and I came up with this plan! He'll bring me Tooty so that I can become a beaut! In exchange, I just had to steal your fruit!" said Gruntilda.
Diddy stepped forward in front of Donkey Kong. "Well, you made two mistakes, you hag! First of all, Banjo and Kazooie can easily take care of a clown like K. Rool!" said Diddy.
Dixie moved to her boyfriend's side. "And second of all, now you have to deal with us!" Dixie declared as she and Diddy both adopted fighter stances.
"I didn't come unprepared, I'll have you know!" Gruntilda magically materialized a Dark Cannon into her hands. "With this baby, I can turn you into trophies in one blow! And FYI, K. Rool has one too, so I wouldn't bet on the bear if I were you!"
As Gruntilda charged the Dark Cannon, Donkey was already paralyzed in fear for the safety of the two young Kongs in front of him. If Gruntilda's weapon was as powerful as she claimed… He winced, hating what he was about to do, but he saw no other options.
"Diddy. Dixie. Keep each other safe," Donkey said as he winded up his arm, uppercutting Diddy and Dixie into the sky just as the Dark Cannon fired.
As Diddy spun in midair, he witnessed the black arrow escaping from the Dark Cannon's barrel, but covered his eyes as the arrow hit Donkey Kong.
"DK! NOOOOO!" Diddy cried before he and Dixie both became a twinkle in the sky.
Gruntilda stood triumphantly over the Donkey Kong trophy on the ground. "And at first I thought this was going to be kinda lame, but this is much better than creating my own game!" Gruntilda said before collecting her prize.
A/N: So yeah, Donkey Kong and Diddy are remaining the same, but I'm adding Dixie as an extra, mainly because it felt wrong to exclude her (and I couldn't really fit her anywhere else). I suppose this makes sense since Sakurai originally intended Diddy and Dixie to be a tag team duo in Brawl, but later on dropped Dixie. Another change will be in the next chapter as well, so stay tuned.