"So," the mayor said, slowly getting up out of his chair, "you must be Klonoa, Lolo and Popka, eh?"

"Yeah… I mean, yes, sir." For a brief moment, Klonoa forgot that he was talking to a person of power.

"Nah, don't worry about all that formal nonsense. I'm just any old geezer who dresses nice, like my brother."

The mayor's demeanour and mannerisms made him come off as very lax and chill, despite being in a pretty high position during a pretty high-stakes situation.

"Name's Mamett, but you already know that."

He held his hand out towards Klonoa.

"It's nice to meet you, sir." the cabbit said, shaking Mamett's hand.

"Sorry the Kingdom ain't exactly what it used to be. As you may have guessed, we're having some… 'trouble', to say the least."

"It's an honour to meet you, Mr. Mayor" Lolo gave a polite bow.

"Aah, you must be Lolo." Mamett turned his attention to the Priestess, "I've heard about you from the High Priestess. She thinks quite highly of you."

His compliments caused her to chuckle, a bit awkwardly.

"Sorry to interrupt formalities or whatever," Popka interjected, "but can anyone explain to us what we're doin' here? We got robots to disassemble, yo!"

"That's right!" Momett spoke up again. "These three can help turn the tables on those rotten fiends. I've seen them in action, I can vouch for their skills."

Mamett didn't answer at first, but his expression was solemn. He tapped his cigarette on the ashtray at his desk, letting the flakes gently drop in, before turning to face the window behind him.

"That won't be necessary, Momett." he sighed with a quiet, almost sombre tone.

"Oh come on, brother!" The showman threw up his hands and rolled his eyes in disagreement. "We have a chance now."

"We've talked about this many times." The mayor raised his voice slightly, turning to face his brother. "Our plan will still be put in motion. I'm not changing my mind on this."

Klonoa and the others could sense that things were only going to escalate between the siblings unless someone did something soon.

"Excuse me, Mr. Mamett, sir." Lolo butted in, albeit in a polite way. "What exactly is this 'plan' you speak of?"

"Evacuation, Miss Lolo." the Mayor answered. "In the next few days, we aim to have all the citizens evacuated out of Joilant and sent to safety. They are safe in the bunker, for now, but there's no guarantee we won't be discovered by those robots and their leader."

"And just let those…those…monsters take our homes!?" Momett sounded distraught by his brother's choice. "I refuse! We must fight for our homes, and these three can help us."

"Yeah!" Klonoa said in agreement. "We can help you protect the citizens. We know where the robots are coming from…"

He thought about what to say next, and promptly remembered the eerily familiar robots.

"...and I think I know someone who's behind all of this!"

This got the attention of everyone in the room. They all looked to him for answers, even Mamett.

"Explain."

Klonoa turned to Lolo and Popka.

"Do you two, by chance, remember Joka?"

Popka shook his head, but Lolo had to think about it.

"Wait," she eventually answered, "wasn't he that weird clown man from the Dream Champ Tournament? The one you went up against?"

"Yeah, that's him! He's someone I have…a lot of history with."

Joka was the former right hand man of the Dark Lord Ghadius, who acted as a constant thorn in Klonoa's side during his first adventure about 10 years ago. Whenever Klonoa thought of Joka, it always took him back to the day the clown took his Grandpa from him and laughed in his face. Granted, that wasn't technically his Grandpa, but regardless, he was someone Klonoa felt close to. Despite this, he eventually defeated his nemesis and presumed him dead. That was until he re-encountered him during the Dream Champ Tournament, looking alive and healthy, albeit without most of his magic. After they were all sent home, he was presumably returned to his homeworld of Phantomile.

But now was not the time to question the logistics of his survival, potential revival and the circumstances surrounding it.

"When we were fighting those clown bots earlier, I noticed that they looked an awful lot like him - similar body type, faces, colours, even their voices were alike. And his laugh…it's a sound that I could never forget, and they share that too."

"You're right." Lolo started to connect the dots the more she remembered. "It does seem a little suspicious."

"Judgin' by that fella with the funny accent we saw earlier, I'm guessing the clown ain't working alone." Popka chimed in.

"Right." the cabbit nodded. "But if Joka is somewhere around here, ordering around his duplicates, then it's important that we find and put a stop to him, fast. He's dangerous."

"Klonoa…" Lolo looked troubled, conflicted even. "If we stay and fight, the Joilanteans will have no way of combating the enemies. I think it's better that we go with Mamett's plan, and focus on evacuating the citizens."

The Dream Traveller was surprised, and a little bit confused by his friend's response.

"But we've managed to save La-Lakoosha-"

"Without casualties? Without the robots inflicting unnecessary bloodshed on the defenceless citizens? Klonoa, people have lost friends and family during the invasion on my hometown. If there's a chance we can get the people of this kingdom to safety, I must take it. It is my duty to protect and defend."

"Lolo. If we leave the enemies, they're going to completely take over Joilant. Pretty soon, the citizens won't have a home to go back to. And if Joka is amongst those responsible for this, they won't stop here."

"If Joka is amongst those responsible for this, then they won't be safe here. I genuinely understand if you have a grudge against him, I am unsure of the history you two share, but you said yourself that he's dangerous. It's important that we prioritise protecting the innocent over forming an assault."

"This is protecting the innocent." Klonoa snapped. "By putting a stop to those attacking them in the first place! I'm not letting those monsters take this Kingdom!"

Lolo was taken aback by the cabbit's demeanour. She had never heard Klonoa sound like this before. Even Momett and his brother were surprised. It sounded like there was some pent-up frustration building within. Popka was starting to feel a little nervous being in the middle of their argument.

"Kid, you gotta cool down." Mamett came to Lolo's defence. "And listen to your friend, she's making good points."

"So is Klonoa." Momett then came to Klonoa's defence. "We can't abandon our Kingdom - your Kingdom - and let the robots run rampant. Don't you, at least, think you should discuss this with the citizens before forcing them to go by your rules? You are their Mayor after all."

Klonoa nodded in agreement, before looking at Lolo. Something about seeing her dismayed, almost intimidated face sent a pit to his stomach. Popka's expression was also one of disappointment towards Klonoa.

"Exactly! I'm the Mayor. Not you" Mamett replied, putting his hands on the desk. "Which means that A) I've gotta prioritise my people, and B) What I say goes. I'm done discussing this, Momett, we're getting nowhere."

"We're getting nowhere because you're being so stubborn, brother!"

"I ain't stubborn, I'm just not stupid enough to risk my citizens' lives to fight those soldiers. And you're not much better than me. We're not staying in Joilant. We're evacuating and that's final! Besides, we'll survive, I guarantee it."

"But we don't want to survive, we want to live!"

"I said we're done discussing!"

"Why!?"

"Because I said so!"

"Don't lie to me, Mamett. Why are you so heckbent on abandoning Joilant!?"

"BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I TOLD THEM I'D DO, DAMMIT!"

Mamett's impatient yelling echoed throughout the room, before it became encased in dead silence.

"...Told who?" Momett asked, his voice quiet and slightly shaken. "...Mamett…what did you do?"

Mamett gave a deflated sigh. There was no hiding it now.

"Come here, all of you." he beckoned the others towards the window. "There's something you should probably see."

The group heeded his call and looked through the large glass. They could see what appeared to be the town square, although Klonoa had never seen it from this angle before. The ground was completely frozen over, stalls were completely encased in ice, and dotted throughout were ice sculptures of various different Lunatean citizens - Joilanteans, Volkans, Mira-Mirans, even La-Lakooshans. Upon looking closer, they saw that all of them wore expressions of fear and panic. A chill collectively shivered up all of their spines.

"Those sculptures out there?" Mamett spoke, pointing to the icy statues. "They were people once, completely iced over by the robots who invaded my Kingdom, alongside their Commander. They begged and pleaded for mercy, but they didn't care. He didn't care. Although his mission was to take over the Kingdom, it was clear that their General, sick bastard that he is, took delight in causing suffering to others. Whether they can be thawed out and possibly revived or not is a mystery to me right now, but I haven't had the chance to find out yet. I saw some trying to fight back against him and his army, but to no avail. They had the upper hand."

Mamett briefly paused to open a drawer under his desk, containing a small glass bottle of what seemed to be whiskey. It was clear to the others that it hurt him to look back on.

"Eventually," he continued, whilst pulling a metallic flask from within his coat and pouring some of the alcohol inside, "as I tried to get some of my people to safety, we crossed paths. He knew that going for their 'leader' would cause the Kingdom to fall into complete disarray. I had to think of something."

He took a quick drink from the flask.

"Before he could finish us off, I decided to approach the Commander with a 'compromise' or sorts - if I let him and his men take control of Joilant, he would allow me to evacuate all of the denizens safely. It wasn't a deal I was happy with, but it was the only way I could prevent any more bloodshed. After some convincing, he eventually agreed, but gave me two weeks to do so. That was about 11 days ago, so I only got a few more days to get them all out of here. That's why I've been so determined to evacuate Joilant. I won't let him prey upon any of my people."

Mamett sat down at his desk, head in his hands.

"Mamett…" Momett walked up to his brother. Although he was upset that Mamett hid the ugly truth from him, he knew that an earful wasn't what his brother needed right now.

"How do you know he's going to keep his word?" Klonoa asked.
"I don't." the Mayor replied. "But what other choice do we have? The citizens here don't have the resources to fight back. All I have is a regular-ass shotgun, that ain't gonna be enough."

Momett gently placed his hand on Mamett's shoulder.

"Mamett. You need to tell me these things. If I'd have known this was why you're being so reluctant to change the plan, I would've helped you."

The showman closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, before looking back at Mamett.

"I'll help you evacuate. But when everyone is safe and secure, we must return to try and stop them. We may be outnumbered, but we can plan things out. Together."

Mamett looked up at his brother.

"Together…" he replied with a small, but hopeful smile.

They had their disagreements and arguments aplenty, but at the end of the day, they were still family. They would have each other's backs through thick and thin.

Klonoa was happy to see the brothers reconcile, but his attention was more so drawn to Lolo. She didn't notice him glancing in her direction, as she also had her attention on the heartwarming moment. Her happier expression caused a smile to sneak onto his face, but he still felt a sense of guilt jabbing at his brain.

However, he noticed something through the window. Something was blocking out the light from outside. Something with a silhouette growing darker and darker by the second.

No…someone.

"MOMETT! MAMETT! LOOK OUT!"

He rushed to get them away from the window, but before he could reach them-

-SMASH!-

Everybody in the room was knocked back, shards of glass jabbing into not only the Momett Brothers, but Klonoa as well. Lolo and Popka were too far back to be hit by the debris, luckily. When the dust cleared, the ambusher was revealed to be another clown bot, a second one jumping through the shattered window to join it.

"Shit! Jackattaks!" Mamett uttered, before getting back on his feet. "What the hell do you two think you're doing? You know how much that window cost!?"

"Sorry to crash the party, Mr Mayor-" one of them said.

"-but we were told that the Dream Traveller was here, so we wanted to pay a little visit.'' The other Jackattak continued the sentence, before making a sarcastic gasp. "And there he is! Would ya look at that?"

Both the robots started laughing hysterically in unison, before abruptly stopping to look at Mamett, clutching their hammers ready, as if they were moments away from sandwiching the Mayor's skull between their weapons.

"Listen, I-I know what it looks like, but the evacuation is still happening. You'll have the Kingdom to yourselves soon enough."

"Oh, I don't doubt that, darling…"

A new voice rang out from behind them, as a peculiar looking shape rose from the ground outside.

Klonoa could hear the Mayor utter a curse to himself when he saw the figure. This must be the Commander. They weren't overly large like Genrallas, but they seemed to be propelled upwards by cold air that came from within the enemy - freezing, cold air actually, as the spot they hovered above started to freeze.

As they got closer, more features could be made out; they had a large, pointy head with a propeller at the very top. It had no facial features aside from a mouth containing a large, intimidating-looking set of teeth. Their body was populated by a large, furry, light blue scarf of sorts, a red "battle skirt" with grey accents, and a pair of disconnected claws, seemingly tethered by unusual-looking floating links. Their main colour scheme seemed to consist of green with red accents, donning armour primarily consisting of dull blue and olive colouring.

"Oh Maaa-meeeett~'' it called out in a singsong tone.

It was here that Lolo and Popka's eyes widened with surprise, as if they recognised the figure.

"Leptio!?" they yelled in shock.

"Leptio…" Klonoa thought to himself. That name rang a bell, and the figure looked like someone he's met before. Then he remembered.

"Wait!" He turned to his allies. "Wasn't that Leorina's monster?"

They both nodded at him, a fearful look in their eyes.

"But," Lolo said, looking back at the metallic monster, "I don't remember him looking like that!"

"OH! Dost mine ears deceive me?" Leptio put his hand to his nonexistent ear. "Is that my dear old friend of a dear old friend, Lolo?"

Not even a moment later, he swooped towards their direction, to the point where they could practically feel his breath on their faces. His very presence was ice-cold.

"My, my." he said, holding a claw to her chin, gently enough as to not scratch her, forcing her to look at him. "You're all grown up, it seems. Last we met, you were nothing but a clumsy little crybaby."

Seeing his friend with an unnerved and uncomfortable expression, Popka swatted the clown's hand away with a swipe of his claw.

"Yo Leptio! Lay off her, ya creep! Go back to being Leo's puppet."

Leptio looked at his claw, then back at Popka, before letting out an angered snarl.

"You will speak when SPOKEN TO, BOY!"

Before Popka could react, he was knocked away with a swing of the monster's hand. The canine hit the wall with such force that it caused a painting to fall off of it.

"POPKA!" Klonoa and Lolo yelled in unison, the Priestess rushing to his aid. The sight of the injured accomplice caused Leptio to let out a hearty laugh.

"Oh, and by the way, Leptio was a weakling who got his butt kicked by a prepubescent hairball and settled for being a slave to a traitor. The Flower Clown's performance has been cancelled - he's dead! I'm proud to introduce his replacement act: Leptock, the Cryo Clown!"

Klonoa looked at the Flower Clown with a fury in his eyes. He may not have a powered ring, but he wasn't gonna sit by and let this bully throw his friends around. He made a break towards Leptock, but-

"FREEZE!"

The clown predicted Klonoa's attack, and swiftly shot out a freezing cold mist from his claws towards Klonoa's feet before he could make a move. When the haze cleared, the boy's shoes were frozen to the floor, rendering him immobile.

"Bwa-hah-hah! It would appear you've gotten cold feet at the last second there, my old enemy."

Leptock's pun and contagious laughter caused the other robots to join him for a chortle. Eventually, things cooled down as he wiped an imaginary tear from his imaginary eye.

"Keep your peepers on him, my friends. If he moves, bash his brains out!" he motioned to the Jackattacks, before directing his attention towards Mamett once more.

Momett attempted to charge him with his mallet, but Leptock simply froze him to the floor as well, not even bothering to look in the showman's direction.

"Now, where were we?"

"Look, Leptock." Mamett put his hands up slowly to show he meant no harm. "I know what this looks like, but the Dream Traveller, his friends and my brother have all agreed to assist with the evacuation. We'll all be out of your hair soon enough, as we arranged."

"Oooo, you shoulda told me you had otherworldly guests, you scoundrel." the cyborg clown replied. "It's rude to keep secrets, after all."

Despite the room temperature being below zero, Mamett could feel the copious amount of sweat dripping from his forehead.

"I-I apologise." the Mayor stammered, wiping his brow. "But we still have a few days left. If you let us get on with it, you and your cronies will have total control sooner rather than later."

"Yes…about that." Leptock was admiring a portrait of Mamett and his brother, before nonchalantly tossing it aside. "I am starting to grow a little bit antsy. My boys are bored and I'm wanting to put my skills to good use. I want to perform and show the Kingdom of Joy what I can truly do, y'know? And to do that, I need an audience. A live audience."

The monster stood before Mamett, lowering down to where they were face to face.

"Do you catch my cold, old timer?"

Mamett knew exactly what he was getting at, but the Joilantian refused to give him the reaction he wanted. He took a deep breath before opening his mouth.

"Ok, first of all, I don't think that means what you think it means. Second of all, you know the deal. I ain't gonna repeat myself."

His tone grew colder, not an ounce of fear in his voice.

"You can have my Kingdom, but you will not lay a finger on my people. You or your cronies cause a single drop of blood to hit the ground, and I sic the Dream kid on you. After all, not only has he beaten one of your fellow Elites, he levelled one of your bigass towers, and he's beaten you back when he was just a boy. I'm sure he'll beat you again. Do you catch my drift, clown?"

Leptock snarled at Mamett, but the Mayor didn't flinch.

"OHHH THE PESKY DEAL! WHY DIDN'T I READ THE DAMN PAPERWORK!?" The cyborg threw his hands up, before punching the wall in frustration and throwing himself around the room. "IF ONLY THERE WAS A LOOPHOLE!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, ceasing his "tantrum", before turning towards Mamett with a sinister smirk.

"Unless…"

The heroes all looked at each other with concern. Leptock was up to something.

"I am well aware that by the laws of….something, I cannot break my promise to you. I must abide by our silly little agreement. BUT! If something happened to you, my big-nosed buddy, then what happens to our deal? How can I keep it if one of us is dead? So it would be an awful shame if something was to take care of you right NOW!"

He grabbed Mamett and held him towards the open window. He tried his best to wriggle free, but the clown's grasp was too tight.

"Consider our contract, terminated. Toodaloo, Mr Mamett. BWAH HAH HAH HAAAH!"

It was here that Mamett noticed something move behind his captor, something that brought a confident grin onto his face. Leptock reeled his arm back, ready to throw his captive towards his doom.

"Oh yeah? Well, in that case, there's something you forgot to consider, Leptock."

"Hmm?"

"You shoulda froze those two completely when you had the chance."

Leptock turned around, only to be greeted by a mallet to the face, courtesy of the now-freed Momett. The impact sent him spinning out of control, releasing his grip on Mamett. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the Mayor reached for the shotgun under his desk and loaded. Eventually, Leptock regained control.

"JACKATTACKS! KILL THEM ALL! MAKE IT HURT!"

The bots got their weapons ready to take on Klonoa, one of which was met with a swift boot to the head by the newly-freed Dream Traveller. Lolo rushed towards his side, before jumping into his ring. He used his weapon to inflate the nose of the other Jackattack before they got a chance to attack, and threw them out the window and out of sight. One down, one to go.

Upon seeing how its fellow soldier was taken out, the second Jackattack, rather than attack Klonoa, grabbed its own nose. With a good tug, the bot ripped it straight off its own face, slightly exposing the robot endoskeleton within, and threw it aside.

"Nuh-uh!" the enemy wagged its finger at Klonoa. "You aren't laying a finger on my honker, hee-hee-he-ACK!"

Before it could finish, Popka threw himself onto the mischievous machine's back. The Jackattack flailed around, trying to shake the canine off of it. It eventually ran with its back towards the wall in an attempt to squash Popka, who, as he was about to hit the wall, let go and dropped to the floor, causing the bot to trip over him and fall on its back. It didn't even get a chance to get up as Klonoa caved its face in with its own hammer. The henchbots defeated, Klonoa helped Popka back onto his feet.

"Teamwork, baby!" Klonoa's companion exclaimed, before he and the cabbit exchanged a quick fist bump.

Their small celebration was cut short by both Momett brothers being launched back, towards their direction.

"ENOUGH FOOLING AROUND!" Leptock yelled. "It's time to get this show on the road!"

Klonoa growled in annoyance, there was no way he was letting this clown push them around just because he got an upgrade.

"You three." He looked towards Popka, Momett and Mamett. "Take the elevator and get as far away as you can. Lolo and I will hold him off."

Klonoa looked back at Leptock, who was taunting him with a silly dance. The cabbit boy charged forward. Leptock swung his arm at Klonoa, who managed to jump over it. He jumped and grabbed a hold of the clown's scarf, before throwing a couple punches at Leptock's face. He may have metallic parts, but he wasn't a robot, which meant that Klonoa was able to do some damage to his body.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, as Leptock was able to grab him before he could land a third hit and pull him away, before slamming him into the floor with such force that it was a surprise he didn't fall through it.

"It's been fun, Mr. Dreamer, but I'm the main act here. See you in hail."

Leptock formed a sharp looking icicle from his palm, with full intent of impaling Klonoa with it. Luckily, Momett threw his mallet at the cyborg clown, throwing off his aim and causing him to miss Klonoa. He quickly ran and picked it back up whilst Leptock was stunned

"The elevator's open! You two, get in quick!" Mamett yelled. Popka and himself were already inside it.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Leptock yelled, making a break towards the open doors.

Despite his injuries slowing him down, Klonoa got up and rushed to reach the elevator, as did Momett, but at the speed Leptock was going, he was going to catch up to the Dream Traveller for sure. The showman knew this, and, almost without thinking, shoulder-bashed Klonoa in the back, causing him to fall into the open lift.

Momett looked towards his brother, giving him a saddened, but warm smile, before hitting the button that calls the elevator with his hammer, causing it to break.

"Keep Joilant safe, brother."

"MOMETT! NO!" Mamett tried to reach out and grab his brother, but the others, understanding what Momett was doing for them, did their best to hold him back. It was too dangerous, and as much as it pained the heroes to do so, especially Klonoa, they couldn't bear to lose both brothers to the mechanised monster.

The elevator doors shut - the last thing the Mayor saw was Momett turning to an enraged and bloodthirsty Leptock, hammer in tow, ready to face an uncertain fate head-on.

"Going down."