Hurricane Island (Diddy x Dixie)

by LucyM22

Threatened by a quartet of bully children, Diddy is afraid to tell his situation. One day, he meets Dixie and family in the middle of their fugitive situation. They both establish a special friendship, where feelings for each other later arise. Their frustrated attempts to take a first step will lead them to live an unexpected and dangerous journey away from DK Island.

70. Rescue Mission

Chapter 68: Rescue Mission

Mr. Pinky, along with the pair of little kongs, arrived at the hall of the main staircase, and began to climb to the top floor of the building. Diddy and Dixie only hoped that the route mentioned by the teacher would be easy for them to escape.

"Will we mention to him about the herd of kong children?" Dixie asked Diddy quietly as they climbed up.

"Obviously, I don't think he'll object if we explain."

Arriving at the top floor, Mr. Pinky went to a room next to the one that contained the cells, it was a much smaller room of only the eighth part of the other, but with an entrance large enough for someone of any size to pass.

Diddy and Dixie followed Mr. Pinky into that room. Then, he started pointing to a button on one of the walls.

"Ramp…" the teacher said, pointing to the button.

"What are you saying?" they both asked him.

Then, Mr. Pinky went to the button and pressed it... Suddenly, the wall in front of them began to tilt outward as if it were being knocked down, while a small gust of wind entered. What happened next, left Diddy and Dixie speechless: in a descending way, a huge zig-zag ramp was unfolding that ended in the ground outside; this was something wide for anyone to get down.

"B-But, how?" Diddy said, looking down puzzled.

"It must be an emergency exit or some alternative route to move the animals," Dixie added. "But it's perfect for us to get out."

"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's go get the kids right now!" Diddy exclaimed.

"Will we leave Mr. Pinky here right now?" Dixie asked.

"I say we take him with us; he can defend us in case something happens," Diddy added.

Diddy and Dixie, along with Mr. Pinky, went back down the stairs, and headed back to the door that led to the basement where they had hidden the herd of kong children. They didn't have any mishaps along the way, luckily.

Upon arrival, Diddy knocked on the door with some force so that it could be heard all the way to the basement.

"Open the door, please!" Diddy exclaimed, raising his voice a little.

Almost a minute later, the door began to open, and one of the kong children peeked out. But immediately, Mr. Pinky put himself on guard and pointed the gun at the boy.

"NO, NO, MR. PINKY, PUT THE GUN DOWN!" Dixie ordered him instantly, managing to stop him. "Don't shoot any kong children you see here; they were hypnotized by those bad apes too... Well, for their sons, but under the orders of those apes. We have to save and get them all out of this place."

"That's right, Mr. Pinky," Diddy added. "We're even going to get you out of here... Now, stay here while we go get the rest of the kids, okay? Wait for us here."

Mr. Pinky gave another look of confusion, but immediately put down the gun.

"And by the way, if those apes or any of their four sons come, don't listen to them," Dixie said. "And don't tell them we're here and we got the kidnapped children out."

After the instructions, Diddy and Dixie entered the room that led to the basement, where they began to go down the stairs until they were reunited with the herd.

"Listen, everyone!" Diddy said to them, going down the last few steps. "Right now, we're going out. Come, follow us!"

Diddy gave the signal to the herd, and then they started climbing the stairs until they reached the door. They left that room and were reunited with Mr. Pinky, to whom they had to calm him down again and explain that he shouldn't harm any of the kong children. Then, they waited and made sure that the entire herd was complete.

"Now!" Diddy said before speaking to everyone. "Listen to me: we all go to the top floor, and then we'll go down a ramp, okay? And there we'll go to the ship to leave here."

Diddy and Dixie went to the front of everyone and began to guide them to walk. They both felt calmer that they now had all the kongs they needed to get out of that place; they just hoped that they could get safely to the ship and finally get out of all that islet.

The entire herd of kidnapped kongs and Mr. Pinky were silent, and only followed Diddy and Dixie, who were stealthily through the corridors.

"Hey, Diddy," Dixie said as they were walking. "Do you remember that in those video recordings, Rocky mentioned that this hypnotizing mixture takes effect on them for two or three months, and then leaves them crazy? And then they said that... they won't regain consciousness."

Diddy paused for a while, at the same time as the herd did... He hadn't thought about that detail.

"That means…" Diddy said, shocked. "So... they'll never be the same again... Never again?" he added, pointing to the herd and Mr. Pinky. "No, no, no, there has to be a way to bring back their memory!"

"In fact, I'm not so sure about that," Dixie added worriedly. "I mean, surely that hypnotizing mixture, to take effect on them for two or three months, must be doing some considerable damage to their brains."

"But what if it doesn't?... Or what if those apes may have some other of their rare mixtures that could restore their memory and will?"

"We'd have to find out. Although I doubt it very much; I don't think those apes created such a thing; they only create things for evil purposes."

"Oh, but if there's no way to bring back their memory... then it's almost the same as them being like Jenny and the other three kids?"

Both of them looked for a while at all the kongs they brought, who were kept still and only obeying the orders of both. They only thought now what would become of the whole herd and Mr. Pinky if they didn't really recover their memory; practically, it would be as if their lives had already been irreversibly taken from them. They even questioned whether it was worth all the rescue they were doing. They thought about the families of those kong children, how they would react if they saw their little ones in that state and, above all, they thought about Mr. Pinky, whom they had come to esteem so much and who now it was possible that wouldn't remember them anymore, and they hadn't been able to say goodbye to him.

"Anyway…" Diddy said with a sigh. "We have to continue with this anyway; there is no turning back."

Diddy and Dixie gave the signal to the rest and resumed the walk; they couldn't do anything else for the time being after all. Suddenly, both of them stopped and instantly beckoned the rest ones to stop too.

"Stop, please! Don't continue!" both whispered to the herd in a hurry.

In the perpendicular corridor at the end, there was a member of the quartet, whom they hadn't yet ran into face to face.

"I'm telling you everything is fine, Dad!" this member exclaimed, rolling his eyes while having a portable intercom stuck to his ear. "Of course! I swear we saw that monkey boy here too!"

Truth be told, Diddy and Dixie with the herd were quite in sight of that orangutan boy; it was all a matter of the latter turning to look at them.

"Don't worry, if he sees us, we'll confront him and lock him up somewhere, too," Diddy whispered to Dixie without looking away from the orangutan boy.

"I feel like giving that idiot what he deserves," said Dixie, looking hatefully at the orangutan as she remembered everything that happened.

"Tell me about it," Diddy replied in kind, before looking down at another corridor on the sides. "Let's go over there."

Diddy and Dixie told the rest to turn off into the corridor, trying not to make noise with their footsteps.

"Yes!" Jemky exclaimed, speaking to the intercom device. "I told you he even activated the security of the front door... Oh, well, don't believe me then... Anyway, you're almost here, right?"

Suddenly, Jemky was heading down the corridor where the fugitive herd had been, so Diddy and Dixie had to direct them to other corridors, since he was walking successively close to where they were walking.

"Where did you say?" Jemky continued speaking, while keeping suspicious glances in the corridors. "You already have this island in sight, right?... Ah, then you're already close. Well, soon you'll see that the monkey does walk around here... Well, you'll see."

Diddy and Dixie opened their eyes to the fullest while feeling an adrenaline rush when they heard that, so they no longer cared if they made noise and began to accelerate their steps along with the herd; they knew they had to hurry to get them all out of there.

"Mandrew?!... It's you?" Jemky was heard saying as he approached. "Mandrew!"

The herd was heading at an accelerated pace to a random route, until Jemky lost them.

"Wait, we can't go up the stairs yet!" Diddy whispered, stopping them all. "Over there is Rocky locked up; Jemky could release him."

Diddy and Dixie waited for Jemky to no longer be heard nearby, and then continued to walk normally.

"Oh, now what do we do?" Diddy exclaimed, beginning to panic. "Those apes are already arriving; we're not going to be able to get the ship out easily. We can't leave yet or they'll find us out along the way."

"I got it! We'll leave them all hidden in the ship cabins," Dixie suggested, trying to stay calm. "Then, we just wait for those apes to come in here and then we'll set sail the ship."

"But a ship is not fast; they can locate it, and what if they then launch a missile or something to stop it?"

"Well, the truth, I don't think so. Those apes want them all alive before doing that atrocious procedure, don't you remember it in that instruction? And I don't think they want to hurt Mr. Pinky either, if they also plan to do the same."

Both continued on their way to the staircase hall. During the tour, they passed through the corridor where the pipeline that they were going to use at first as an escape route was located, which was still infested with millipedes. On the sides was also Melvyn who, for a moment, Diddy and Dixie were scared to see him, but then remembered that they themselves had left him there.

"I had forgotten," Diddy said with a shrug.

Suddenly, the moment they passed by Melvyn, they stared at him for a while; even standing still like a doll, he had a complete look of being a real kong boy... A little kong boy who had been real and who had now only been turned into a manipulable object at the hands of the group of evil apes. Just looking at the harmless child's face of Melvyn, who was perhaps called something else, only conveyed great pity to both when thinking about how he could end up that way. Leaving him behind, Diddy stopped looking at him and continued on his way while trying to remain calm. Dixie, on the other hand, stared at Melvyn for a while longer, and then stopped doing it too; along the way, she only thought about that quartet, about who those four kong children could have been, but now nothing could be done for them.

"Now, let's go up quickly," Diddy whispered as they reached the staircase room.

Everyone began to climb, but at the same time, they were generating a few noises with their footsteps that could be heard clearly.

"HEY, WHO'S THERE?! ARE THE MONKEYS?!" Rocky was heard screaming behind the door under the stairs.

Immediately, Mr. Pinky raised his gun and even wanted to go downstairs again.

"No, no, no, Mr. Pinky!" Dixie whispered, holding his arm instantly. "Don't listen to that monkey who is screaming. He's one of the sons of those apes; they don't have to see us!"

"DARN IT, MONKEYS, I KNOW IT'S YOU!" Rocky shouted, kicking in the door repeatedly.

The whole herd ignored it and continued climbing until they reached the top floor; they were finally going to get out of that place. They went to the room where the ramp that Mr. Pinky had shown them was, and they looked outside to see that everything was in order.

"Well, now!" Diddy said, looking at the whole panorama where they could see the horizon outside that island. Then, he spoke to the herd. "Listen, everyone will go down this ramp and go to that ship over there. There you'll hide in the cabins and we'll wait for those apes to enter this building to be able to leave this islet calmly."

"Hey, Diddy," Dixie called him.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking... Maybe we could find some way to restore the memory of all of them, since we still can't leave here with the ship because those apes are arriving here."

"What? Are you sure?" Diddy asked with a look of strangeness. "It's that... It's true what you said: those apes wouldn't do such a thing to restore their memory; they wouldn't have the need to."

"But thinking about it, what if they do have some elixir somewhere?... Or even, instructions on how to do it. It's that actually... Mr. Pinky and all these children will no longer be the same anyway."

Diddy thought about it for a moment, and it was true: all those kongs they were saving had lost all their will and it would be the same whether they were rescued or not. Obviously, neither Diddy nor Dixie had the negligence to leave the teacher and the herd of kong children at the mercy of the evil apes, but at the same time, they wondered what would become of all of them after they were rescued...

"Well... we could try. Let's see what's there," Diddy said, shrugging and sighing. "We just have to leave them all hidden on the ship... Mr. Pinky could do it," he added before turning to the teacher. "Mr. Pinky, take these children to the cabin of the ship and hide yourself too, take care of them and don't let those bad mandrills and orangutans catch them."

Mr. Pinky, keeping his gaze almost expressionless, nodded and walked to the front of the children.

"Follow me!" the teacher said, beckoning to the herd.

Then, they all started to descend the ramp. Diddy and Dixie stayed for a while watching them from above to make sure they didn't deviate and, apparently, everything was going well. Later, the herd with Mr. Pinky reached the outside ground and headed towards the ship. Mr. Pinky seemed to have understood everything clearly.

"Now, let's go," Diddy said to Dixie.

They both re-entered the building and closed the door of that small room. Then, they headed down the stairs of the building at high speed. They went to the first floor where they would go to look for the instructions they found recently in the 'kitchen' of the group of apes.

"Quick, there it is," Dixie pointed out, heading to grab the instruction book. "Then we go to the laboratory of those apes."

Dixie took the instruction book and immediately left there to go straight to the laboratory of the apes, where they had been when they arrived at that building. The door of that room was unlocked this time, so they were able to enter without problems, and then secured it in case it became necessary.

"Now!" Dixie exclaimed, placing the instruction book on one of the counters and beginning to check it. "Wow, it's too many pages."

Diddy and Dixie took quick glances at the instruction sheets in case they could find anything that could help them. They spent about three minutes as they continued to check if they could find a section of creating elixirs... but unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing, and if they didn't find some solution to restore herd's memory, they would have to take them all to Hurricane Island as they were, even if they would never be the same again.

"No, no, no, there has to be something," Dixie said, finishing flipping the book.

A moment later, they reached the last pages where there were only the instructions of the procedure that was applied in Jenny's quartet. Diddy and Dixie paused in the search and were thoughtful for a few seconds, helpless to do anything else.

"And then?" Diddy asked with a look of disappointment.

"But we can't take them all in that state either; what reaction will their relatives have when they see that their children aren't and won't be the same anymore?... And about Mr. Pinky; what's going to become of him now? He had a whole quiet life and now... he simply won't have it anymore; who will watch over him for the rest of his life?"

"Or maybe those apes have another such instruction book around here," Diddy said thoughtfully, observing the entire lab around. "Why don't we review?"

Diddy went to the counters attached to the wall and climbed on them to search the high cabinets. He thought that maybe the apes would have a separate instruction manual that was exclusive about the creation of elixirs.

On the other hand, Dixie still stared at the instructions they had brought. With nothing to do for the moment, she began to check the last pages where were the instructions that the apes planned to apply on the quartet of mechanical children later.

"Oh, there's no other book anywhere," Diddy complained, closing a cabinet door. "Do those apes create those elixirs on their own or what?... Wait a minute! Is that…"

Suddenly, Diddy immediately got out of the counters when he saw something in a container that caught his attention. That shiny object was still shining just as it was when they had it on DK Island.

"But it's... the emerald," Diddy said, taking it immediately and smiling for a few seconds. "Look, Dixie!"

Dixie opened her eyes to the fullest and immediately went to take it. Indeed, it was the same: bright and deep green.

"So, it's the same!" Dixie exclaimed, also smiling for a while. "I thought I would never see it again... And it's also the same one those apes wanted so much," she added, becoming serious again. "Just now I was reading that."

"What?" Diddy asked with a look of strangeness. "So... do they really plan to 'revive' Jenny's quartet with this one?"

"Yes... And I think they really… 'revive them'," Dixie added, heading back to take the instructions and show it to Diddy. "Look!"

The last page of the instruction book showed a few short steps, indicating a final procedure that the group of apes was probably planning to apply on Jenny's quartet. These instructions, entitled "Steps for the 'immortality' of the mechanized kongs," indicated a strange method that claimed to be able to bring mechanized kong children back to life, or rather... revive them in another way.

"It reads: 'The mechanical kong will move, talk on its own, and you will be able to interact with it as if it were alive'?" Diddy read the page. "But now why would those apes want to do that? I mean... it sounds contradictory that they first finish them off in such an atrocious way and then want to 'revive' them."

"Or rather, I think they want to make them his minions or something," Dixie surmised. "Here it also says 'The kong will be almost like a baby again, it can be educated and trained at convenience and will do everything that is ordered' That means... they would be almost like the herd of kidnapped kong kids."

"But then why did they do that horrible mechanization?" Diddy questioned. "I don't get it."

"Oh, of course, maybe it's because mechanical children are like objects and wouldn't need care or food or anything, and according to the instructions about that mechanization: it said that the quartz they used are to give them artificial vitality, so, that is what keeps them 'alive' and makes them function in 'realistic' ways."

"I think it makes sense," Diddy said with a shrug. "And I'm not surprised by those apes; they wouldn't want to take care of more children; just by seeing how detestable they treat their own sons."

"Hey, Diddy…" Dixie interrupted, looking at the instruction book and then at Diddy, speaking a little firmly. "What if we revive Jenny and the other three kids?"

Diddy gave her a look of surprise at what she said and just thought she was joking.

"Say what?" Diddy exclaimed, holding his expression. "What did you say? Are you serious?"

"Yes!" Dixie reaffirmed, showing him the instructions. "Just look: here it says that they'll be as if they were alive again, they'll act on their own and they can be trained and taught things... Have you not thought that we could 'revive' them, take them out of here too with the others and then give them to their families?"

"Hey, wait, wait," Diddy exclaimed, trying to calm her down. "I don't mean to be negative; we could do that, but... Jenny, Mandy, Ricky and Melvyn are... you know, they don't exist anymore; there is no turning back with them, not even applying that method of reviving them will they be the same again."

"I know, but... this can be an opportunity to save them, even if they're as they're. Who knows what those evil apes will do with them later. And also... the four of them are missing children; Mr. Pinky had mentioned that Mandy was; in the animal shelter there is Ricky's father and he surely wants to know where his son is; about Jenny and Melvyn we don't know anything, but surely someone close to them must be searching for them too."

Diddy thought about it for a while. The idea didn't sound bad at all, the problem was that he wasn't sure if it would be worth it and if they were really 'rescuing' Jenny's quartet, even if there's no bringing them back. Diddy watched the emerald for a few seconds; he also knew that they couldn't do anything else at that time, and that maybe... it wouldn't hurt to try while waiting for the apes to enter the building so they could escape on the ship calmly.

"Hmm, I think we could," Diddy said, smiling a little, earning a smile from Dixie. They would both get excited at that moment, but they couldn't do so much in the midst of that situation. "Well, so... are we going to see Jenny and the other three kids?"

"Yes! And we must go fast, before those apes arrive," Dixie said, looking toward the door. "Let's go!"

Diddy and Dixie walked to the door immediately, then got out of the laboratory. They were ready to head towards the quartet's room.

"Aha! But just look at who's here!"

Diddy and Dixie stopped instantly to hear someone as soon as they left the lab. They turned to see a corner of the corridor and saw none other than Jemky, who was heading towards them. Even so, Diddy and Dixie just stayed to wait for him while they looked at him with all the hatred and feeling of humiliation coming back to them.

"So, you're walking around the building, right?!" Jemky said sarcastically before he started yelling. "MANDREW! THE MONKEYS! HERE THEY-"

Without thinking so much, Diddy and Dixie lunged at Jemky. In fact, of the four bully kids, he was the one they confronted most roughly.

"NO, LET ME-" Jemky exclaimed before Diddy and Dixie managed to knock him to the floor.

"You owe me one, you bunch of burning hairs!" Diddy replied, furious and imprisoning him face down by the limbs against the floor. "You owe us, rather!"

"You're a stupid phony who has nothing to do!" Dixie added in the same way, before crossing his arms back and crushing them.

"AHHH! One moment, one moment!" Jemky shouted at them, trying to look them up. "First of all, how did you manage to get in here, Diddy?!"

"It's none of your business, you dumb!" Diddy replied, slapping him.

Then, Diddy and Dixie took each of his limbs and began moving him to the lab.

"Hey, wait, wait, LET GO OF ME, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" Jemky yelled at them, trying to get his limbs free. "DARN STUPIDS, FACE-"

Immediately, Dixie also wrapped his snout with her hair to make him shut up. Then, both took him to a mobile cabinet with doors that were inside the laboratory, and they released him there.

"STUPID MONKE-" Jemky exclaimed, trying to lunge at both of them, but they pushed him hard into the cabinet.

Dixie then grabbed and pressed him by the neck against the inside of the cabinet in a threatening manner.

"Now, tell me," Dixie said, giving him a murderous look. "Do you have so much time left to forge letters and photos of me?!"

Instantly, Jemky started laughing out loud as if Dixie had told him a joke, which only made Dixie angrier.

"Well, yes," Jemky replied as if nothing and shrugged.

"Darn impostor!" Dixie exclaimed, pressing him more sharply, taking revenge for all the humiliation she felt from that situation.

Jemky put himself in a fighting position and gave Dixie a push to move her away, but instantly, Diddy gave him a hard push and put him back inside the cabinet. Then, Diddy began to continuously slap Jemky's face.

"You also beat me this way, you burnt-annatto-hairs!" Diddy exclaimed as he attacked him.

"You're an envious scoundrel!" Dixie added, pulling the lock on his head, then releasing him sharply. "And you also pulled me by the hair this way... Jenny!"

Jemky looked at them for a couple of seconds and started laughing again as if they were telling him a joke, before speaking to Dixie.

"Are you jealous because your ex-boyfriend kissed Jenny?!" he said, finishing laughing, before Dixie gave him another tuft pull abruptly and even made him hit himself against the cabinet.

"You were who did that, you idiot!" Dixie replied.

Dixie gave Jemky another hard push, closed the cabinet doors and held them down so he couldn't come out.

"Quick, let's do the same as with Melenky!" Diddy told Dixie.

Diddy climbed to the top of the cabinet and, as they did with Melenky, leaned his back against the wall to push the cabinet with his feet, causing it to fall with the doors against the floor.

"DARN LIZARD-HEADED MONKEYS!" Jemky shouted from inside the cabinet and started banging to try to get out. "AND WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO WITH MELENKY?!"

"Let's drag the cabinet out of here!" Diddy whispered to Dixie.

Diddy and Dixie started pushing the cabinet out of the lab, while Jemky was trying to get out and savagely banging on the walls of the cabinet and insulting them both.

"Can you go see anything else to put on it?" Diddy told Dixie.

Dixie quickly returned to the laboratory and took the first device in sight and then returned to the cabinet where Jemky had been locked. Then, she put the device on the cabinet, and with that they were able to "reinforce security" so that Jemky couldn't get out.

"DARNED!" Jemky shouted at them, trying to push the cabinet in vain. "I HATE YOU! STUPID WORM-FACED MONKEYS!"

"Learn first not to be envious!" Dixie replied.

"Now, let's go see those other four kids," Diddy whispered to Dixie.

Diddy and Dixie ignored all of Jemky's insults and made their way to the quartet's room. This time, they finally felt that they could walk freely through the corridors of the building, because now they no longer had any individuals to hide from for the moment.

When they arrived at the quartet's room, they immediately went toward the other quartet, although this time, Melvyn was missing, since he had been left in the corridors.

"Are we going to take them one by one?" Diddy asked.

"How about we operate them with those electrode suits?" Dixie suggested.

Both went to where the electrode suits were, which were used to manage the Jenny's quartet... But they noticed that these seemed to be very complicated to wear, because they contained a lot of electrodes with wires in addition to elastic bands that had to be put on different parts of the body; all that would take them quite a few minutes, in addition the fact that they wouldn't know how to operate those suits.

"Uhh... What if we just carry them all in our arms?" Diddy suggested as he examined the electrodes on one of the suits.

They went back to the quartet and began to put them lying on the floor. Then, each one lifted the mechanical kong children individually. First, they took Jenny and Ricky, because they were the ones who seemed to weigh almost the same as them.

"Well, let's go fast!" Diddy exclaimed.

The two, each with a kong child in their arms, headed as fast as they could toward the laboratory. They moved with a little more difficulty because they were now carrying them in their arms. Fortunately, this time they no longer had any obstacles or any enemies that could find them out, so they arrived without problems to the laboratory.

Upon entering, they left Jenny and Ricky sitting in the chairs where the apes had the herd of kong children at the beginning.

"Now go get Mandy. I'll go get Melvyn," Diddy told Dixie.

They left the laboratory and now each took different directions. Diddy went to the pipeline that they originally planned to use as an escape route and where they had left Melvyn. Diddy sat Melvyn on the floor and then lifted him up to carry him. Meanwhile, Dixie had returned to the quartet's room and did the same with Mandy. When they got back to the lab, they placed both of them in the chairs too.

"Now, the instructions!" Dixie said, going to take the instruction book and open the last few pages.

Diddy also joined to read the instructions, and both quickly and carefully read everything it said.

"So…" Dixie said, reading. "We need the emerald... Three sapphires... A container... Hydrogen peroxide... a syringe... crushing machine... a cutter... a mixer…"

"Oh, and here would there be all that?" Diddy questioned.

"I guess so; the apes just needed the emerald. We'll have to look for those materials and ingredients," she said before closing the instructions and leaving it back at the countertop.

"Well, in short: we have to prepare a mixture with those ingredients and pour it into those black boxes, which have those robots, using a syringe, right?"

"Exactly, that's all," Dixie said as she began to search the shelves and cabinets.

"I think I've seen those sapphires around here," Diddy said before joining the search as well.

Both set out to find all the elements that were required for the procedure. They didn't have such difficulty, so it took them about five minutes to find everything; apparently, the group of apes already had almost everything prepared to execute that experiment on the quartet. Diddy and Dixie still didn't understand why the apes would want to do such a thing to those kong children, though they assumed it was for evil purposes anyway.

They gathered all the elements in one of the central countertops, and then dragged all the chairs where the quartet was until having them close.

"I guess it's all these materials," Diddy said, making sure everything was complete. "Well, what do we do first?"

"According to what it says here…" Dixie said, opening the instruction book again. "First we have to crush the sapphires."

"It's with this machine, right?" Diddy said, taking a metal device that had quite a few blades inside a container.

Diddy placed the three sapphires inside the device, plugged in the latter and began to make it work. The device began to crush the sapphires and send them almost powdered through a duct, so Dixie immediately took a glass container and collected everything inside.

"Now…" Dixie said, rereading the instructions. "We have to pour hydrogen peroxide."

Dixie took a jar of hydrogen peroxide and poured it halfway into the container.

"Next we do the same with the emerald, right?" Diddy asked.

"Yes, but we just have to get a piece out of it, and that's what we have to crush and mix with this," Dixie said, holding the container with crushed sapphires up, before putting it back on the countertop.

Diddy took the emerald and carried it to another device, which was small and had a support finished on a disc with blades around it. Dixie saw safety goggles over one of the countertops and took two to hand one to Diddy and put one on herself, even though they were somewhat large. Diddy then plugged in the device and put the disc near the emerald.

"H-how is this used?" Diddy wondered, looking at the disc of blades.

"You just turn it on and cut the emerald," Dixie said, pressing the power button on the device, causing Diddy a scare when the disk began to spin at speed.

Diddy, his hands trembling a little, put the spinning disk device in a part of the emerald so that he could take out a small portion. Meanwhile, Dixie held the emerald, also taking care not to touch her fingers with the disc. When they managed to remove the piece, both took off their goggles. Dixie immediately went to introduce that cut piece into the crushing machine, from which it came out made of shiny powder. She picked it up inside the container where the mixture of sapphire powder with hydrogen peroxide was.

For the next step, Diddy took the last device they needed to use, which was a machine with an integrated container and that appeared to be a mixer. Dixie poured all the mixture into the container of the device, and they made it work. The devices were somewhat noisy, so they were grateful that there was no one outside the lab to hear them.

"Now! It's almost ready," Dixie said when they stopped the machine with the mixture already dissolved.

Dixie removed the container from the machine and placed it on the countertop. Meanwhile, Diddy took four syringes and took them to Dixie.

"It doesn't look that hard," Diddy said.

Each one took one of the syringes and began to subtract a little of the mixture with them, trying not to exceed the amount.

"Hey, Diddy…" Dixie said as she finished filling a syringe.

"Yeah?" Diddy asked, preparing another syringe to fill.

"Well…" suddenly, Dixie was somewhat thoughtful, but at the same time, as if she wanted to say something important. "I forgot to tell you before, and I know it's not a good time now, but…" Dixie stared at Diddy, which made him look at her with some strangeness. "Thanks for... having come to rescue me," she told him before looking away and looking a little embarrassed. "Uhh, I really didn't think you would, I mean... You were very upset with me and I thought you hated me for what I didn't do."

Diddy stopped with the syringes and stared at her for a while, not knowing what to say to her at first. He felt a little acceleration in his heartbeat, as he didn't want to touch that topic for the time being, but still, he had to answer it.

"Dixie... you don't have to thank me," Diddy replied, smiling a little. "I was never going to leave you alone in a situation like that... And yes, I was quite upset with you and didn't think at all about fixing things with you if that had been true, but... I also didn't hate you enough to let mysterious apes take you on a ship along with other kids."

Dixie was serious for a few seconds and then smiled a little at him too, but then looked away again and became thoughtful.

"Hey, Dixie," Diddy said earnestly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Remember that you went for me to the zoo; it wouldn't be fair if something happened to you later and only I returned to DK Island and you didn't," he added smiling again and she smiled back.

"And by the way…" Dixie said after a few seconds, again looking somewhat embarrassed. "Sorry also if I treated you badly when you arrived here, sorry for not having believed you that Jenny and the others were mechanicals... And now I see that I just let myself believe things too."

"No, don't worry about any of that anymore, Dixie... I know that we both didn't act in the best way in this whole situation, neither did I, and even before... But we can't change anything anymore... Now, it only remains to remedy it as best we can."

The two looked at each other seriously, but later smiled with some shyness. Suddenly, Dixie was wanting so much to hug Diddy and even give him more signs of affection as if everything was fine again, but she also knew that things had already passed... and that they were in a dangerous situation at the time being.

"Uhh, well... Let's do this quickly to Jenny and company," Dixie said with a brief smile, returning to the matter.

Dixie took two syringes, and Diddy the other two more. Then, they went to the chairs where Jenny's quartet was.

"Well, let's try one first," Dixie said, preparing one of the syringes. "Let's try it with Mandy."

Diddy pressed the button on Mandy's left ear, which opened her head and showed the internal mechanism where the black box was in the middle. Then, Dixie reviewed for the last time the instructions in the part that indicated where to introduce the mixture, then went back to Mandy to do that last step.

"Here we go," Dixie said.

With her hand shaking a little, Dixie began to manipulate the black box that Mandy had, from where she took out one of the wires she had connected. Then, she inserted the needle into that space and began to press the plunger of the syringe, letting the mixture pour completely. After that, she reconnected the wire and closed her head.

They both stared at Mandy for almost a minute, but still nothing was happening; she just kept maintaining an expressionless look and mannequin posture.

"Let's try it with the others meanwhile," Diddy suggested with a shrug.

Diddy and Dixie immediately proceeded to do the same step to the other three kids, trying to get the mix into the correct wire space. Then, in the same way, they closed all kids' heads and waited a few more seconds for something to happen... But they didn't see any effect emerging.

"Are you sure we put them in the right wire?" Diddy asked insecurely.

"Of course, in the instructions it said," Dixie reaffirmed, taking a look at the instructions.

Diddy read that last page again too and, in fact, they saw that they had followed the instructions correctly... Suddenly, Diddy noticed a detail they apparently hadn't seen before.

"Wait a minute…" Diddy said, getting a better look at some letters at the end of the instructions that seemed to be written in opaque ink. "Oh, no, no, no!" Diddy exclaimed in despair reading what it said. "The mixture was for each one, it was not a single mixture distributed for the four of them."

"W-what?!" Dixie exclaimed, reading that too. "Oh, no! But it can't even be seen!" she replied, rubbing that last writing that was faint. "What do we do now?"

"Hey, but I don't think that affects them, there would only be a small difference in dosing-"

Suddenly, they both heard some movements in that same laboratory... They turned to look and got a little fright when they realized that Mandy was now standing and staring at them... This time, giving them a look that hadn't been seen since they were on Hurricane Island... She was seen again as if she had a life of her own.

"Is s-she… alive?" Diddy asked, looking a little nervous.

"I g-guess so," Dixie replied likewise. "Now... L-Let's just talk to her to see if it turned out as the instructions said. Be careful not to scare her."

Diddy and Dixie carefully walked towards Mandy, who was following them with her eyes as they approached, and also began to show movement and even breathe as anyone would. They both stood in front of her and began to signal to her as she continued to stare at them. At the moment, she was only seen with an expression that someone who had just returned to life without remembering anything would have.

"Uh, h-hi... Mandy?" Dixie said with a forced smile. "C-can you hear me?... Just in case you do know who we are?"

"Can you talk, Mandy?" Diddy asked her in the same way. "Your name is Mandy, right?"

Mandy kept still, but at the same time, she was showing a look of strangeness towards Diddy and Dixie, as if she didn't understand them at all.

"I think we have to wait a while longer," Dixie whispered to Diddy.

"Or else, I think we'll carry them in our arms to the ship," Diddy suggested with a shrug. "Or not, wait, we'd have to climb all those stairs with them and-"

Suddenly, both got another scare when they now saw Ricky getting up from the chair in a sudden way. This one, instead, went towards the two and began to observe them in a curious way.

"Uh, R-Ricky? Can you talk?" Diddy asked, signaling to him.

Dixie took the instruction book again and read what the last descriptions said.

"They should be able to talk; here it says," Dixie pointed out reading. "The kong will move, walk and talk as if it were alive again. It should be said that its behavior will be similar to how it has been treated as a manageable robot, it'll even act as if it remembers everything it was made to do."

"Well, they don't seem to behave the way they were when we met them on Hurricane Island," Diddy said with a shrug.

"At least it's working, I suppose," Dixie added, heading back to the quartet.

Suddenly, Jenny also appeared standing and looking at them both as if they were strangers.

"Look, Jenny has already reacted too!" Dixie exclaimed. "Only Melvyn is left to react; he may not take long."

"Can we take them walking, right? The instructions said that they could be given orders as well."

"That's right, we'll just guide them and that's it," Dixie said as she headed toward Melvyn, who had not yet made any moves. "Melvyn... Melvyn! React, please," she said, waving his shoulder.

"It must be that it doesn't take effect yet; I put the last mixture on him," Diddy added, also heading to him to try to make him react. "Melvyn! Can you hear us?... Oh, although it's time for him to react."

Suddenly, Diddy and Dixie felt someone hugging them. When they turned around, they realized that it was Mandy, Jenny and Ricky who were hugging them and smiling at them as if they were excited to see them.

"But what?!" Diddy exclaimed, looking at them strangely.

"Okay, okay, calm down," Dixie told them with a forced smile, calming them down. "Wow, it must be that they're already behaving as they were trained, according to what the instruction said… Maybe they must be recognizing us!"

"And now they look like normal ape kids," Diddy said as they finished calming them down, before speaking to them. "Yeah, yeah, we're your friends, of course," he told the three kids.

Then, both continued trying to make Melvyn react, as he still didn't respond in any way.

"What if we pour more of that mixture into it?" Diddy suggested.

Suddenly, Diddy felt again that someone was hugging him and, when he turned to look, he realized that it was Jenny, who was giving him a playful look like when they were on Hurricane Island, so Diddy was trying to pull away, but she kept holding him by the torso.

"No, no, no, calm down, Jenny," Diddy said with a forced smile and pulling her arms away.

"Hey, Melvyn doesn't get up or move," Dixie said, beginning to worry. "I think we'll have to carry him in our arms."

"I don't think it's a problem; he's easier to carry," Diddy replied as he continued to move away from Jenny.

Suddenly, Jenny lunged at Diddy and began to kiss him on the face continuously and forcibly.

"Hey, no, no, Jenny, leave me!" Diddy exclaimed, trying to remove her, but then she started to hit him. "Hey!"

"Jenny, no!" Dixie exclaimed, heading to push her away and defend Diddy. "Calm down!"

Dixie grabbed Jenny, but then she pushed her away tightly and lunged back at Diddy to hug him and try to forcibly kiss him.

"No, Jenny, please!" Diddy exclaimed before Jenny knocked him to the floor. "Dixie, get her off!"

Dixie immediately went to Diddy's aid and grabbed Jenny by the torso to push her away.

"No, Jenny, calm down!" Dixie replied, trying to calm her down. "That's not right! Don't learn those behaviors taught to you by that idiot and envious orangutan!"

But Jenny just shot a fierce glance at Dixie and started hitting her and pulling her hair.

"Hey!" Dixie exclaimed, trying to take her hands out of her hair. "Release me, Jenny!"

Dixie pushed Jenny's arms away and gave her a little push, to which she wanted to continue pulling her hair, but Dixie would not allow her. After a few seconds, Dixie felt that a second one also began to pull her hair and, looking at who it was, she saw that it was Mandy, who had also joined to give her some hair pull.

"Mandy, no! Let go of me too!"

"Girls, no, leave her!" Diddy exclaimed, heading to Dixie's defense. "Stay still!"

Diddy tried to push Jenny and Mandy away, but at the same time, they also became aggressive towards him and Dixie. Later, Diddy had to apply more force to push them both and with that he managed to push them away. But suddenly, Diddy felt someone else start hitting him and realized it was Ricky, who had also adopted aggressive behavior.

"No, Ricky, don't start too!" Diddy replied by pushing his hands away.

"Ricky, calm down!" Dixie ordered, joining in defending Diddy.

But suddenly, Jenny and Mandy grabbed and pulled Dixie's hair again without stopping. Meanwhile, Diddy was being attacked by Ricky and, suddenly, Melvyn also appeared trying to attack him.

"Hey, no! STOP!" Diddy exclaimed, trying to calm the two boys. "Stay still!"

The quartet was attacking Diddy and Dixie, and even reminded them of that same first fight they had the night they had met to play challenges.

"STOP, ALL OF YOU!" Dixie exclaimed, losing her patience and taking Jenny and Mandy by a few small locks. "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, PLEASE!"

Dixie managed to calm the two girls and then went for the two boys, to whom she gave a small ear pulling and with that she managed to calm them down too.

"Calm down, please!" Dixie ordered the four of them, catching their attention. "Well, I guess you do understand us. Look, you are... Uh, well... You are kids to whom some evil apes did an atrocity and they are going to do the same with another herd of kids. So, right now we're going to get you out of here and we're going to take you to Hurricane Island, and for that we want you to follow us. And by the way, in case you remember: we were your friends, and friends are not treated like that aggressively, do not learn those bad behaviors that those other four stupid and evil kids taught you!"

"Do you think they're getting it?" Diddy asked Dixie with a look of strangeness.

"From what it said in the instruction, I guess so," Dixie whispered, hoping she wasn't wrong. "Okay, now, let's get them to the ship quickly."

Diddy and Dixie took the hands of the quartet, and began to direct them towards the outside of the building; they just hoped that everything would go as they expected. But first... Dixie remembered a small detail, so she quickly returned to the central counter of the laboratory and took the fractionated emerald, then hid it under her beret and adjusted it well; she didn't want to leave such a precious object abandoned.

"Now, let's go!" Dixie exclaimed, returning to Diddy and the four mechanical children.

"Okay, you just follow us!" Diddy said to the quartet. "And please, don't let go of us or do some mischief."

The whole quartet nodded and smiled at them as if they were understanding perfectly, which also made Diddy and Dixie smile for a couple of seconds. Then, they took up the matter again and all left the laboratory, this time through the other door, since this one was closer to the main staircase.

"Wait!" Dixie whispered when they suddenly noticed the mobile cabinet lying on the floor where Jemky had been locked. Dixie spoke to the quartet to give them the order. "Please don't make any noise and let's pass quietly."

Diddy and Dixie led the quartet quite cautiously along that way, taking care not to make any noise in case Jemky heard them... But suddenly, Melvyn let go and went to the cabinet to start examining.

"No! Melvyn!" Diddy whispered in despair as he tried to reach him. "Melvyn, come back here!"

Diddy grabbed Melvyn's arm, but Melvyn got mad at that and slapped him.

"Hey, no!" Diddy exclaimed, holding his other arm.

Suddenly, Ricky also joined in attacking Diddy again, starting to hit him.

"Hey, no! Melvyn! Ricky!" Dixie exclaimed, going to Diddy's defense and pushing the two boys away, but then Jenny and Mandy also started pulling his hair. "No, Jenny and Mandy! Stop!" Dixie pulled their locks and ears again, and calmed them down. "Jenny, Mandy, Melvyn and Ricky! Calm down, I already explained... Oh, maybe they're not even called that."

"Hey, Dixie... wait a minute," Diddy said, looking strangely toward the cabinet lying down.

Diddy went toward the cabinet... It began to become very strange that he didn't hear any scream or noise within it. He began to give the cabinet a few light taps and, for some reason, didn't hear any response. He was sure that they had heard thousands of insults from Jemky by then, so he decided to lift the cabinet a little, and then the quartet of mechanical children helped him… When he saw its doors open by gravity, he realized that the cabinet was empty.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Diddy exclaimed desperately, dropping the cabinet heavily. "Let's leave quickly, quickly!"

Diddy took the quartet's hands again, and Dixie did the same. Both began to speed up their steps, at the same time as the quartet followed them, as they were beginning to assume that perhaps Jemky could have escaped, or worse, that one of the other kids had helped him escape.

"Quick, to the stairs!" Diddy exclaimed when they had already spotted the hall of the main staircase.

Suddenly, Ricky stopped abruptly, causing Diddy to stop as well, and then started running in a different direction while laughing as if he was playing with Diddy and Dixie.

"Oh, no! Ricky!" Diddy exclaimed, in despair. "No, Ricky, come back here!"

Diddy swerved as well, trying to catch up with Ricky, but unfortunately, Melvyn let go too and started doing the same as Ricky.

"No, Melvyn!" Dixie called him while holding Jenny and Mandy's hands, when suddenly, one of them let go too and started running as if she wanted to play. "Mandy, no!"

Not even a couple of seconds passed, when Jenny let go of Dixie too and started running.

"Oh, no, no, no! It can't be!" Diddy exclaimed, panicking when he saw that the four kids had run in different directions.

"G-go for two of them, I'll go for two more!" Dixie said before starting to run after one of the quartet.

Diddy and Dixie began to chase the quartet, but to bad luck, they were starting to run to other corridors, making it difficult for them to locate.

"No, no, no, don't go there!" Dixie exclaimed, her patience exhausted. "COME BACK!"

Jenny and company's quartet were running and laughing as they ran away from Diddy and Dixie; they were taking it as if it were a tag game. Meanwhile, Diddy and Dixie were beginning to get far from the staircase hall as they were chasing the quartet, who were already taking different routes, and that made it much more difficult for them to catch.

Later, Diddy and Dixie, with four kong children to catch, had lost sight of their targets. Both began to regret a little of having "revived" them, since they didn't take into account the difficulty of supervising them.

"Dixie, over there!" Diddy pointed to Mandy from another hallway.

Dixie caught sight of Mandy entering one of the corridors, so she resumed the chase and tried to head towards her... Suddenly, she felt that someone stopped her by grabbing her by the hair; she assumed it would be one of the four mechanical children... when suddenly... she also felt how her blood circulated abruptly to her feet when she noticed two other different children, who in addition to holding her, were pointing firearms at her head.

"Aha! So, you are trying to escape, aren't you, girl?" Mandrew said mockingly.

"How are you, precious Dixie?" Jemky added before winking at her and pointing the gun at her at the same time. "Did you think you were going to get out of here?"

Dixie, not understanding the turn that the situation had taken, and now seeing them with those lethal objects in hand, just stayed with a blank mind while her heartbeat was accelerating and her blood circulated at a higher speed.

"Hey, Dixie, where are you?" Diddy's voice was heard approaching. "That's where I saw-"

Suddenly, Diddy appeared on the scene too and was instantly frozen to see Jemky and Mandrew in that posture towards Dixie. Out of survival instinct and protection, Diddy attempted to grab Dixie and lunge at the two.

"No, let her-"

But for bad luck... Rocky and Melenky appeared on scene too and, likewise, with firearms in hand. Diddy immediately stood still and began to raise his hands, now not knowing what to do and with his pulse well accelerated.

"Well, well! And finally, we have the monkey too," Rocky told them in a mocking tone as he pressed the gun against Diddy's head. "You both believed you could leave us locked up just like that easily."

"Oh, are you afraid of us now, little dumb monkeys?" Melenky added, smiling in the same way.

Diddy and Dixie were just breathing heavily as they thought about what to do next. Without problems, both could fight the four of them at that moment, but the only thing that prevented them from that... it was that they were now armed; it had been a long time since neither of them had seen them like that.

"By the way, monkey... and how did you get here, huh?" Jemky asked him in a somewhat mocking tone. "I thought you had drowned in that ravine."

Suddenly, Diddy gave the four of them a murderous look, and lunged at one of them as if he had no consequences.

"Hey, hey, what do you think you're going to do, you dumb monkey?!" Mandrew exclaimed, stopping and slapping him instantly.

Then, Jemky pulled back the slide of the gun and fired a shot toward the ceiling, causing a huge scare to Diddy and Dixie, in addition to stunning their hearing for a few seconds.

"We have them loaded, in case you didn't know," Jemky told them in a threatening tone as he pointed at them again. "Now you'll stay still and do as we tell you, pair of dwarves!"

"Now walk!" Rocky ordered, giving them small pushes with the gun along with the other three kids in the group.

The quartet began to lead them walking to the two, with gun in hand and without lowering it at any time, which left Diddy and Dixie no other alternative in that situation, as both were still tense and without assimilating that their escape plan was getting very complicated.

"But first of all, answer my question, you dwarf," Jemky told Diddy, pointing at him as they continued walking. "How the heck did you get in here?!"

"It's n-none of your business," Diddy replied, under his breath and fighting his nerves.

"Answer me!" Jemky replied, pressing the gun harder against his head.

"Urgh! Well, I came suspended from the sides of the ship!" Diddy replied, grumbling. "Okay?! Are you happy now?!"

"Hmm, and you got in here through that duct, didn't you?" Jemky asked.

"Yes," Diddy replied, rolling his eyes and holding the urge to beat up the four of them if not for the guns.

Diddy and Dixie, although very indignant, began to tremble as they no longer knew what to do at that moment. The only thing they wanted was that at least the situation wouldn't get worse and, of course, what they prayed most was that the herd of kong children, Mr. Pinky and Jenny's quartet wouldn't give signs at that time, because they feared enough for their safety if they were to be found. In fact, Jenny's quartet wasn't far away, and at least they hoped they wouldn't run into them in the presence of the other quartet.

"By the way…" Rocky said, looking at them both menacingly. "When you locked me under the stairs, I thought I heard you going up and down a bunch of times. What did you do so much?!"

"I was also hearing you coming in and out of our room a couple of times!" Melenky added in the same way.

"And I think I heard you both hanging around the lab!" Jemky added. "What were you doing all this time around there?! Confess!"

Diddy and Dixie just looked at them indignantly as they continued to tremble, but didn't utter a word to answer them.

"TALK!" Jemky ordered them, pushing them with the gun. "You must be plotting something!"

"And you've hung around together, haven't you?" Mandrew commented with a judging look. "I thought you hated and didn't even want to see each other anymore."

That comment only made Diddy and Dixie angrier as they grumbled at not being able to do anything about it at the time.

"And tell it!" Rocky demanded, pushing them with the gun as well. "What the heck were you doing?!... Or we won't have any problem pulling the triggers. SO TELL US!"

"The only thing we did…" Dixie replied, looking hatefully at the four of them. "It was watching all your stupid video cassettes where we saw how you took us for fools from start to finish."

"Bah! We already realized that; you called us by those other names we had," Rocky replied. "But what were you doing next?!"

Diddy and Dixie, still looking fearfully at the quartet's guns, just kept silent.

"TELL US!" Jemky replied, pressing the gun harder.

"It's none of your business!" Diddy replied with a posture of resistance.

"Oh, aren't you going to tell us?" Mandrew told them sarcastically. "Do you want us to release the bullets then?"

"I know you're not even going to kill us right now anyways!" Diddy replied, regretting having said that, but trying to look confident. "You want to take us to your criminal dads, so you can't kill us because you have to take us alive for that atrocity they want to do to us and that they did to Jenny and the other three kids!"

The four of them stood still for a few seconds, but then began to harden their gazes towards Diddy and Dixie. Jemky grabbed Diddy's shirt roughly and pressed the gun to his head, speaking to him in the most threatening tone he could.

"Trying to be too clever, aren't you, monkey?" Jemky said with a defiant look. "That's true, but I remind you of one thing: our dads haven't seen you yet and they give you up for lost, so I can calmly pull the trigger right now to send you to sleep forever and get rid of you as if nothing... And remember, too, that you and I are not friends."

"And so…" Rocky said, resuming the matter. "Tell us! What were you-"

Suddenly, the quartet stopped at the moment when distant knocks began to be heard and seemed to come from the floor below. They sounded so repetitive that it made the quartet get on alert.

"Is it the front door?" Melenky asked. "Oh, right, it must be that it's still blocked."

"You guys stay with these monkeys; I'll go and see!" Rocky said before putting down the gun and starting to run. "They must be our dads!"

Those words quickened Diddy and Dixie's pulse and they felt again a sharp circulation to their feet; they begged with all their being that a miracle would happen so that the quartet would leave so that they could continue to escape and, of course, that the situation wouldn't become more tense.

"Oh, hey, why those little faces?" Jemky said in a mocking tone as they continued to point the gun at them. "Just behave well and nothing bad will happen to you."

"But our dads will want to mechanize them anyways," Melenky added.

"Oh! You never understand sarcasm, Melenky," Jemky replied before speaking to Diddy and Dixie. "Well! Let's see who arrived too. Walk!"

Jemky, Mandrew and Melenky were shoving Diddy and Dixie with their guns and kept walking, this time a little faster as they headed towards the first floor.

Diddy and Dixie were just with their minds full of overwhelming thoughts, and when they were already going downstairs and reaching the first floor, they began to feel worse and kept begging that something could be changed.

They reached the hallway that was heading to the front door, where Rocky was manipulating a device near it... A few seconds later, the security locks were unlocked, and the front door opened... Diddy and Dixie's pulse quickened much faster and they even felt as if their hearts were tired of beating when they saw five silhouettes with dark layers entering, silhouettes which... were from the group of mandrills and orangutans, who also brought a device that appeared to be an electric scalpel and a container filled with colorful quartz.

"Why didn't the door open?!" was the first thing one of the apes said to Rocky, sternly.

"Uhh, it's that... It had block-"

"And now what mischief were you doing?! AND WHAT THE HECK DO YOU DO WITH A GUN, ROC-"

"C-calm down, Dad!" interrupted Rocky to that brown-lapel mandrill. "Before you reproach us... We have a surprise that you will love," he added, smiling maliciously before heading towards the other kids of the quartet. "Guys! Come here!"

The other three kids of the quartet, who had guns pointed at Diddy and Dixie, started heading towards the front door along with the two of them... The faces of the quintet of evil apes were changing gradually as they looked at the pair of kongs, who when they saw them began to tremble quite noticeably and with anguished looks.

"W-what?!" the apes exclaimed. "The monkey! Is it the monkey?!"

"The same one!" Jemky replied, smiling with victory. "He came with you on the ship too; he tried to save his ex-girlfriend and took her out of the cells, but now we catch the two of them."

The five adult apes regained their postures and, with menacing looks, they approached Diddy and Dixie, and took them as if they were dolls. Instantly, both resisted the apes, but then three of them pulled out larger firearms and pointed at them immediately.

"Stay still," the brown-lapel mandrill threatened them, pressing the gun against their heads.

Diddy and Dixie froze as their teeth chattered from seeing the apes and being held by them. Then, the blue-lapel mandrill caught Diddy in the air and held him against the wall sharply.

"You... brat monkey!" the mandrill told Diddy menacingly and slapped him a couple of times. "You're going to pay us for the beating you gave us a year ago! No one makes fun of us... Because of you, we lost the brat monkey girl's siblings!" he added, pointing to Dixie. "But now... you will be part of the herd of mechanical brats too."

Diddy only had his pulse as fast as he could feel, even to the point of feeling as if his heart was going out. In the same way, there was Dixie being held by the red-lapel mandrill, as she began to feel constant squeezes in her chest and her eyes began to moisten with fear.

"And what were you doing trying to escape, girl?!" the mandrill told Dixie, pulling her strands of hair. "No one leaves here!"

"And wait a minute…" the black-lapeled orangutan said before speaking to the quartet. "How did the monkey manage to open the cell where the chimpanzee girl was?!"

"Uh, uh, well…" Jemky replied, beginning to tremble a little. "Oh, okay, it's that... I took Jenny to Dixie's cell to bother her, but I didn't know the monkey boy was there too, and then he turned her off and with her he could press the button that opened the cells... Yeah, yeah, I know you will scold me for that-"

"No!" the green-lapel leader orangutan interrupted in a serious posture. "For this time... I think you've done something right, guys... You've caught that monkey boy we needed," he added, this time smiling at the quartet, and earning a look of surprise from them.

"W-what?!" Melenky exclaimed, holding that expression.

"How so?" Rocky asked them in the same way, crossing his arms. "Aren't you... going to beat us or something?"

"Not for my part," the red-lapel mandrill replied.

"Neither do I. Finally, we'll settle the score with this monkey," the brown lapel mandrill added, smiling at them too. "We've needed to do that for a long time, and I see that you've managed to catch him, so you deserve a prize."

"A prize like... some guns?" Jemky suggested with a persuasive look.

"But you already have them in your hands," the blue lapel mandrill replied, to which the quartet tried to hide them as soon as they realized they had them. "No, no, no! Don't hide them... They're all yours. Of course, handle them carefully... And beware of an accident again!"

The entire quartet was gradually showing a smile at what the apes told them, and then they high-fived each other victoriously.

"Now let's go to the laboratory!" the mandrill said who was holding Diddy. "We have a mission to fulfill…"

The five apes, carrying Diddy, Dixie and the objects they had brought, began to walk towards the stairs. The quartet, who continued to be excited, accompanied them too while they were making faces of mockery towards Diddy and Dixie; both were only consumed to the maximum by fear while they no longer had nothing to do... And they didn't even think about fighting those big apes in those conditions…