(July 9, 2024)
We hastily got into the late-enemies' trucks to head over to the CWC Honor guard base to wipe it out before they could send another wave of fighters to the town we just freed. Yu, Link, Suomi and I rode with Meta Knight, Dedede and BJ . Of course, Dedede made us ride in the back of the truck, because, and I quote, 'Bluey would prolly just turn the inside of the truck blue.' Yes, that actually was his reasoning. BJ ended up volunteering to ride in the back with us to make sure we didn't fly out of the back or anything like that. When we got close to the base, we drove over to a large rock in order to hide the truck. Jason, Soldier, Dani, Woods and Inspector Gadget were already there waiting for us.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up; 'Must-drive-the-speed-limit-Meta-Knight.'" Jason Taunted.
"Laws are here for a reason." Meta Knight said under his Spanish accent. "We couldn't make ourselves more suspicious than we already are."
"You're worried about looking suspicious?" Soldier said quieter than I've ever heard him talk, probably since the entrance to the enemy base was just a little ways away from where we were at that moment. "Then don't drive an enemy truck, Private Circle!"
"We should all calm down and take the base." I said. "Remember, we're in a rush."
"Kid's right." Woods acknowledged. Woods seems to be ok with me. So far so good. "We need to split into teams, it would also be pretty handy to have some snipers… 'Namucarry,' do you handle that M14 of yours with skill?"
"It's 'Narukami.'" Narukami corrected. "And yes, I am pretty dang good with this rifle." Narukami actually didn't say 'dang,' by the way.
"Right, whatever." Woods continued. "You and Dani are going to go with BJ, Jason, Soldier and Dedede, they'll bring you to a sniper tower you can take and use it to cover us as we move in. You'll be 'team 1.' 'Team 2,' you'll go around to the North side and wait for our signal to move in. Fluff, Finland and Elf-boy, go with whichever team you want." It was a simple answer for me. I had to help my brother get to a sniper tower.
"I'll go with Team 1." I said.
"I'm going with Klonoa." Suomi stated determinedly.
"Wait what? I don't want to be on the same team as Bluey!" Dedede whined. Dedede then hobbled to where team 2 was standing. I write 'hobbled' because he's kind of fat and he also has no legs. No joke.
"The feeling's mutual, I don't really want to be on a team with you, tomppeli." Suomi sneered.
"STAHP CALLIN' ME THAT THERE MADE UP WORD O' YOURS, BLUEY!" Dedede ranted.
"You stop calling me 'Bluey' and I'll stop calling you 'tomppeli.'" Suomi negotiated.
"Golly!" Link interjected.
"Klonoa, Go with Team 1, Finland and Elf, go with team 2." Woods ordered sternly. "We don't have time to be standing around. Let's get into position." Suomi and I begrudgingly obeyed.
"Good luck on your side." Suomi said to me. She barely even finished her sentence before Woods forcefully pulled Suomi away from me as he, Meta Knight, Link and Inspector Gadget all ran around the base towards the North side.
"I'll take point." BJ said. "Dani and Narukami, cover the rear and keep your heads down." We snuck through the base towards the tower, weaving around parked trucks and hugging walls whenever we could. We made it over to a tent that was lined with beds and there were a few soldiers asleep.
"Let's put them down." Jason whispered as he took out a decorated knife made out of what looked like rock. Jason, Dedede, Soldier and Dani walked over to the sleeping guards and slit their throats. They just walked down the rows of beds, going up to the guards and putting their knives in their throats. Yu and I stood there watching in horror.
"Klonoa, Narukami, are you alright?" BJ asked. I didn't notice BJ stayed back with us.
"I…" I was speechless. I knew all these CWC guards were evil, but they were just sleeping and not hurting anyone.
"I'm not sure we can be a part of this…" Yu stated outright. BJ seemed to understand how we were feeling.
"Wait outside the tent, I'll come get you when we're done in there." BJ said as he patted me on the shoulder. I felt sick to my stomach, but after BJ gave me a pat on the shoulder, I felt more at ease. Not about what was going on, just… more at ease in general. As the others were putting the guards in the tent down, Yu and I kept scouting around a little bit. I poked my head into another tent where I saw something interesting. There were a few guards talking to this one guy who didn't look like a guard. While the guards I was used to seeing wore masks, scarves and tactical vests, this guy was extremely short and skinny, had large glasses and a receding red hairline as well as a thin beard. From what I could gather, the guards wanted to finalize some sort of transfer request, but the skinny guy kept telling them he was far too busy to move the request to Neptune, while he sat there playing on some sort of tiny gamepad that had red and blue sides.
"Want to take them out?" Yu asked me.
"Yes. There's something interesting going on in there." I answered. "I'd like to find out what exactly the scuttlebutt is.
"Hey, what's going on in here?" Jason whispered as he and Dani came out of the other tent with blood all over their faces.
"There's something interesting going on in this tent, and I think we should find out more." I stated confidently. "Dani and Jason, you two go to the other side of the tent and wait for my go. You guys take two, Yu and I will take the other two. Leave the skinny one alive. He'll have information for us."
"You think you can just make orders, Private?" Soldier whispered sternly.
"Yes." I said confidently, remembering how I commanded the girls to victory back in Akechi's region. Soldier relented pretty easily. I motioned Jason and Dani to go around the tent, waited a few moments, then Yu and I ran into the tent and knocked over two of the guards. Jason and Dani then kicked the door down and ran at the two guards that were still standing. Jason and Dani quickly took out the two other guards, then Dani pinned the skinny guard to the ground.
"Stay quiet, pequito cojones." Dani threatened the short skinny guard. The guard was staring at Dani with more fear than I'd ever seen in his eyes. Jason then slowly walked over to his little gamepad he was playing on before and picked it up off the ground.
"I hope you saved your game, because you're about to lose all your progress…" Jason threatened as he held a knife up to the gamepad.
"Oh my Neptune! Not my switch!" The skinny man pleaded. I poked my head outside the tent to make sure out tracks were clear, and I saw guards gearing themselves up. They were most likely about to head over to the small town.
"It may be best if we clear the base ASAP, we can always interrogate this guy later." I suggested. Dani then took the butt of his rifle and hit the skinny man in the forehead, which knocked him out.
"¿Cómo llegaste a ser teniente?" Dani whispered at the knocked-out redhead. We left the tent and continued towards the tower; however, I noticed Dedede getting a little bit antsy.
"Ayy, when do I get to get some action?" Dedede asked impatiently.
"Blade only for now, triple-D." BJ whispered. "We don't want any attention."
"I haven't seen any action for a long time!" Dedede declared. "We always talked about wanting to see some glory! Well HERE IT IS!" Dedede then pointed his unsuppressed shotgun in the air and fired. This got the attention of everyone in the base and they started firing at us.
"Dedede, you moron!" BJ growled under his breath. Jason then slapped my back.
"Alright 'Klawna,' let's see your fighting skills!" Jason said in a hyped up manner. Jason, Dedede and Soldier all rushed towards the fully-alerted honor guards, leaving BJ, Dani, Yu and I all behind the tent.
"I still want us to have control of the sniper tower, it will give us an advantage." I said in a hushed tone.
"I'll get us there. We can hide under the pandemonium Dedede created." BJ said quietly. He took out his hatchet and took point, so Dani, Yu and I followed. Stray bullets were flying everywhere from the massive gunfight that was happening in the middle of the base, and one of the guards ran behind one of the tents we were moving behind and started firing at Suomi's group. Yu took his knife out, but then BJ held his hand up and shook his head 'no.' BJ snuck behind the guard behind the tent and I wasn't able to clearly see what happened next, but it looked like BJ chopped the guard's legs off, then chopped the center of his face with the hatchet. That still wasn't the most gruesome thing I've seen in this dimension. BJ then motioned us to come forward and we found ourselves at the base of the sniper tower.
"I'll keep you covered, just try and stay out of danger." Yu told me as he and Dani started climbing the ladder leading to the top of the tower. I held out my fist for a fist bump, which Yu promptly returned. Dani and Yu made it to the top safely, so BJ and I approached the fight in a more intelligent manner. He and I still tried to be stealthy. The guards knew there were intruders, they just didn't have to know how many there were. We were sneaking around the outside and taking out guards who were trying to get some distance between themselves and the fight; however BJ insisted he take everyone out and I just stayed back and covered. Did BJ not trust me? Suddenly an alarm started going off. I thought this meant more guards would come to the base, so we had to get some sort of defense set up, but we still hadn't even taken out all the guards at the base yet.
"BJ, we need to help the others take the base quickly so we can prepare for the reinforcement waves." I said.
"Going completely loud might be the quickest option, but I don't want you getting hurt, Klonoa." BJ said.
"I can take care of myself." I declared. BJ and I then rushed to the middle and helped everyone take out the guards. The firefight must have lasted for fifteen straight minutes, at least it felt that way.
"WE'VE GOT WOUNDED!" I heard Woods yell from the other side of the base. I rushed over to help and BJ stayed close by. We ran to the other end of the base, there Link was bleeding from his right calf.
"Golly! It's Klonoa!" Link said, lacking the energy he usually had. Suomi and Meta Knight ran over to us.
"Klonoa! You're here!" Suomi yelled ecstatically. "We have to keep the enemies away from Link! The King will kill us if we don't return Link in one piece!"
"Let's move him to the sniper tower!" I suggested. "Yu and Dani are there, so they'll keep the area safer. I also wouldn't mind being there to make sure none of the guards sneak up there."
"Sounds good. You two move Link, BJ, help me push the enemies back!" Meta Knight said with a thicker Spanish accent than Dani's. Suomi and I both put one of Link's arms around ourselves to take most of the weight off his wounded leg while Meta Knight and BJ kept us covered as we weaved around the outskirts of the base.
"I'm going to kill that tomppeli Dedede!" Suomi angrily declared. "This would have been a lot easier if he hadn't thrown us to the wolves."
"I hate to say it Suomi, but we need to get along as best we can with these guys." I advised. "Like it or not, these guys are the best chance we have at defeating Neptune." Suomi stared straight forward in deep thought after I said that. She exhaled, starting off sounding very tense, but more calm by the end.
"You're right. It's just hard to remember that while we're in a very risky situation caused by someone on our team being overzealous." Suomi said as she and I neared the sniper tower. Bullets were flying past our heads, and eventually they started coming from behind. Suomi and I ducked behind a tent to return fire. I took out a few guards before I noticed blood pouring out of Suomi's shoulder! A million thoughts ran through my head. "Two of my friends are wounded!" "Wait for backup then move them?" Get Suomi to safety! Leave Link!" I couldn't leave anyone! Even though I'm not exactly a Shikikan anymore, I still felt responsible for the lives of my friends.
"KLONOA!" I heard Yu yell from behind me as we fired at a small squad of enemies using his automatic pistol. He had apparently climbed down from the sniper tower to help us. He came behind the tent, reloaded his pistol, holstered it then took his rifle off his back. "I'll keep you covered! Get Suomi and Link to safety!" I put my AK, Suomi's KP and Link's crossbow all on my back and grabbed hold of Suomi and Link. Yu kept our rear clear as I dragged Suomi and Link over towards the tower.
"I can still… do my duty!" Suomi said through clenched teeth. She got back onto her feet and got her gun off my back and sprayed bullets at the honor guards, albeit not very accurately since she was using only one hand. I then heard a lot of shouting from a bunch of honor guards, which meant they were doing a final charge. They wanted to wipe as many of us out as they could.
"Everyone take positions, they're coming for us." I told my friends. We all got behind a tent and mounted our guns on the corner. A mess of guards came around the corner, but all of the sudden they all exploded. Blood splashed all over, some of it even got into my eyes. It was quiet. I wiped the blood out of my eyes and saw Soldier strut around the corner with his rocket launcher smoking.
"As you were, privates." Soldier said as he moved the front of his helmet up so he could actually see us. Everyone else came over to where we were.
"Is everyone alright?" BJ asked in a very concerned tone. Dedede then came over.
"I feel better than alright!" Dedede boasted. "It's been a while since I got to experience glory like this!" Suddenly Suomi charged at Dedede and knocked him down with her unwounded arm. Yu and I ran over to her and pulled her off of Dedede.
"YOU TOMPPELI! YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN US KILLED!" Suomi yelled as she was trying to wriggle free from mine and Yu's grips. I'll admit, it was really hard to keep her restrained. Dedede stood up and ran at Suomi with his arm cocked. I put my hand in front of Suomi, ready to absorb the blow of Dedede's punch, but BJ came up behind Dedede and caught his punch before he even threw it.
"She's right, Dedede. That was extremely reckless." BJ lectured Dedede.
"It was also pretty stupid. A bit of a boy's body part move." Jason added as he started applying gauze to Link's wound. He didn't actually say 'boy's body part.'
"Shaddup you leaf-inhaling neanderthal!" Dedede retorted. On a sidenote, how does one inhale leaves? Suddenly, Woods shushed everyone.
"Do you hear that?" Woods asked. I stood there listening and I heard some sort of humming. It was getting louder the more I listened to it.
"BOMBERS!" BJ yelled. "WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" BJ picked up Link and started running, so we all followed him. I glanced behind me and saw at least eight giant planes headed right towards us! As they got closer, the planes started firing machine guns at us!
"EVERYONE FIND SOME SORT OF HOLE IN THE GROUND!" Woods yelled. We all made it into a small dug-out that was behind a building. We all squeezed in there and kept our heads down as the bombers flew directly over us. Explosions were going off everywhere, bright lights engulfed everything, there was so much heat in the air on top of the already hot desert air. I tried getting a deep breath to calm my nerves, but I couldn't. It felt like all the air was being sucked up by those explosions. Anxiety was eating me up the entire time I heard those massive engines flying over the hole we were hiding in. The planes passed us after only thirty seconds or so. Those were possibly the longest thirty seconds of my life.
"Is it over?" I asked as I was heavily breathing. BJ got out of the hole and helped me up.
"The bombers are gone. It's over." BJ breathed a sigh of relief. My ears were ringing profusely and I felt dizzy because of the lack of oxygen at a time when I really needed it. We went over to the trucks we came in, only to find one of them survived the bombs. We put Link in the backseat and made him as comfortable as we could, Woods drove, Jason rode shotgun and the rest of us squeezed into the back. No one said a word the rest of the way back. We had a foothold, and then Neptune's planes rendered it completely useless. All the buildings there were gone, tents gone, no walls to hide behind, you get the picture.
—-
The truck rolled back into town after a decently short ride. Luckily the ride was long enough for me to tend to Suomi's wound. We all got out of the truck, Inspector Gadget grabbed Link and all the men started walking. I wasn't sure where to go. Luckily BJ came over to me.
"We'll take you back to our hideout." BJ told me. "Suomi, we'll get your arm taken care of, and we can take care of your elf-friend as well."
"Great!" Link said in a weak but still upbeat manner. We walked over to a small shop that had lots of flowers in front of it. They were very pretty. Anyway, all the guys went into the front entrance.
"How was the mission?" I heard a female shopkeeper ask. I wasn't inside the store yet, so I couldn't see her.
"Not well, there are a few things we have to figure out if we want to take any of Neptune's land." Meta Knight informed the shopkeeper.
"Well you'll figure it out." The shopkeeper said in a positive tone. The guys kept walking through the store, so I was able to get inside the shop. The shopkeeper had blonde curly hair and wore a pink tank top over a long sleeved green shirt. She looked at me for a split second, but then ran over to Suomi. "Oh my gosh… Suomi? The one who needed the burka? Are you ok?" She asked Suomi. I looked over to Yu, who looked petrified.
"You ok, Yu?" I whispered as the shopkeeper and Suomi were talking. Yu leaned over to me.
"I know her…" Yu whispered nervously.
"It's no big deal, I've had worse wounds." Suomi assured the shopkeeper.
"Wow, that's impressive. What are you, some kind of girl-warrior?" The shopkeeper asked Suomi.
"I guess you could say that." Suomi said. "I just need to let this heal, then I can keep fighting Neptune."
"Well stay safe out there ok?" The shopkeeper said. "It's not super easy to find friends around here." She then hugged Suomi while being careful of Suomi's wound. While the shopkeeper was hugging Suomi, she and Yu locked eyes. The smile on her face faded away. She let go of Suomi slowly. "Y… Yu Narukami?"
"Dew… it's… good to see you're alive." Yu stammered.
"Thank you…" The shopkeeper said. She then looked around. "Did you manage to find your sister?"
"Yeah, she's safe now." Yu answered. "Thank you for asking. Listen Dew, I'm glad we got to meet again because there's something I really need to say to you." This seemed to catch Dew by surprise.
"Um… O-okay…" Dew stammered.
"I'm truly sorry for how I acted at the beginning of all this." Yu admitted. "I wasn't myself, and since we'll be technically living together, can we have a fresh start? Just… pretend that what happened before didn't happen?"
"Can I ask you something before I answer that?" Dew asked. Yu slowly nodded. "Do you still think Ren was nothing more than a stepping stone?"
"Ren Amamiya…" Yu started. "I would give anything to say 'sorry' to him. I wouldn't be free right now if it wasn't for him. I wish I could tell him how grateful I am to him for rescuing me." Dew stood there nodding with a slightly satisfied look on her face.
"Ok…" Dew started. "We can start anew. By the way, who's the fuzzy cabbit?" Dew asked, referring to me.
"Oh yes, Dew, this is Klonoa, my best friend and brother in arms." Yu said in a happy tone. "Klonoa, this is Dew Coletyn."
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Coletyn." I said as I extended my hand out for a hand shake. Dew wasn't very interested in hand shakes though, because she immediately hugged me super tight then started pinching my cheeks.
"OH MY GOSH, HE'S SO CUTE! HE CALLED ME 'MISS COLETYN!'" Dew yelled as she very roughly pinched my cheeks and shagged my fur. It honestly started to hurt.
"I think you're hurting him…" Suomi intervened. Dew immediately let go.
"I'm sorry lil' guy!" Dew apologized. "You're just so cute… you can simply call me 'Dew' if you want to. Anyway, all of the guys live downstairs. I'd let you all sleep up here, but there isn't much room."
"Thank you, Dew." I said as I smoothed out my fur. "By the way, do you have some sort of radio I can use?"
"I unfortunately don't have one…" Dew said.
"I have one!" Link butted in. I then radioed the King to inform him that Link had been wounded, but he was otherwise ok. Later that evening the King drove to the town and picked Link up. Even though Link is pretty dang annoying, I hope he ends up ok. Dew Coletyn's basement is actually pretty nice. It looks like some sort of wine cellar, and it is definitely more spacious than the upstairs, but it's not as cozy. Nothing but brick walls and a cement floor. It's also pretty open so there's not much privacy. I walked around a bit with Yu and Suomi looking around, and then we found two dead bodies. I jumped a bit because I wasn't expecting to find dead bodies down here. It's also worth noting that one of the bodies was only wearing tighty-whities.
"Oh wow, I didn't know those two dead bodies would end up down here. I just had to hide them anywhere I could." Suomi admitted.
"Wait a minute, you're the one who dropped these bodies down here?" Jason asked, who apparently overheard us. The cellar is pretty small so I suppose that was inevitable. Jason then turned around and yelled. "YO, DEDEDE! SUOMI WAS THE ONE WHO DROPPED THE BODIES DOWN HERE!" His voice echoed profusely.
"I DON'T CARE! I STILL DON'T LIKE THAT THERE BLUEY!" Dedede yelled from a different corner of the cellar.
"WELL THAT'S FINE, CUZ I DON'T LIKE YOU EITHER, DEDEDE!" Jason loudly retorted. He then brought his voice down to a normal level. "Dropping those bodies down here meant more to us than you may think. If you hadn't dropped those bodies down here, we wouldn't have left the cellar to fight. We actually ended up saving your butts." Jason didn't really say 'butts.'
"How long have you guys been hiding out down here?" I asked.
"Pretty freaking long." Jason answered. He didn't actually say 'freaking,' by the way. "We were all kept in this weird prison of Neptune's upon first arriving here. We all communicated secretly to each other without the guards finding out, and we were all able to work together and escape. After we escaped we wandered the desert trying to find a decent place to hide out, and we found this town. Dew has been nice enough to let us live in this cellar."
"We've all been through a lot…" Yu said grimly. "...All because of Chris Chan."
"I'd love to hear all of your stories." Jason said. "Let's try and find a decent bar at some point."
"If this bar has koskenkorva, then I'm in!" Suomi said ecstatically.
"Make sure you don't overdo it, though." Yu warned Suomi quietly. Suomi puffed her cheek out. We all settled down for the night after talking to Jason. While I feel good about us fitting in more in these guys, except for Dedede, there was a problem looming over me; any foothold we gained would be wiped out because of Neptune's bombers. It's not only a matter of taking ground, but we also have to find a way to stop planes from becoming a problem. Neptune has air superiority, and while she has it, our ground advancements won't mean much.