The duo made their way back to the village. With a plan in mind, they were ready to take back La-Lakoosha. As they approached their destination, Pango pulled a handful of small, metallic balls from his 'bomb bag' and offered them to Klonoa.
"If you find yourself in a pinch, throw one of these and get the heck outta there."
"Thanks, Pango." Klonoa said as he placed the balls in his pocket. "Do you know a place the people can go during a crisis like this?"
"I do." Pango answered, "Tell anyone who isn't injured to make their way to the Claire Moa Temple. It's the closest thing to safety as far as I know."
"Got it! Are you gonna be okay on your own?"
Pango grabbed a bomb from his bag, threw it in the air and caught it without even looking.
"Don't worry about me, kid. I'm a Volkan at heart, I've been on the frontlines for years, I got this!"
With that, the two split up, Pango headed to face the invaders solo, whilst Klonoa rushed around the village to help the innocents.
As Klonoa traversed the village, he reminisced about the first time he came here. Although the route he took back then was rife with monsters, La-Lakoosha was still a beautiful town. It was a place he wouldn't mind settling down if he could. But to see it in the state it was in now was a depressing sight.
He quickly snapped out of his daydreaming when he heard the sound of yelling.
"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US, PLEASE!"
It was coming from a pile of rubble to his right. As he approached, he noticed that there was a La-Lakooshan woman trapped underneath the ruins of a house, along with another La-Lakooshan, a male one, trying to lift the wreckage, but to no avail. Klonoa ran up to the villager and helped him lift the rubble long enough for the trapped citizen to crawl out.
"Are you okay? Is anything broken?" Klonoa asked as he and the other man helped her get on her feet.
"I'm ok, just bruised. Thank you so much." the woman replied, trying to catch his breath.
"Wait a sec." The male villager took a closer look at Klonoa.
"It's you! The Dream Traveller!" he exclaimed in an excited and relieved tone. "Thank the Goddess you're here!"
"I'm Klonoa, It's nice to meet you." he said. "Head to the Claire Moa Temple, and tell anyone you come across to head there too. You should be safe there."
"Gotcha." the man replied as he held the injured woman's arm over his shoulder to support her. "Thanks again!"
"I saw some more people trapped by those horrible monsters. Please save them!" the woman begged.
"I will, don't worry. Be careful, you two."
They said their farewells as the two civilians headed towards the temple and Klonoa headed further into the village.
Klonoa continued his run through the village, helping citizens onto their feet and pointing them in the right direction. He felt like the evacuation was going smoother than he expected. However, that feeling came to a halt when a pile of rubble caught his eye. It was burnt to a crisp, but the flames had long passed aside from some small sparks.
But it was what he saw within the rubble that caused him to feel sick to his stomach.
A body. A charred body.
He could only see a head and an arm poking out of the debris, but that told Klonoa all that he needed to know. The skin was blackened, with parts of it burnt off, revealing muscles and even bone. The head was an even grizzlier site - there was barely any hair left, leaving the citizen scalped. One of their eyes was missing entirely, and their mouth was open. It was clear that they suffered this gruesome punishment alive and slowly. Their arm was out because they were trying to reach out to something, anything, for help, but it was too late for them.
Klonoa closed his eyes and took a moment to silently grieve their death. Although he did not know them personally, it was still a horrifying fate to suffer. Whoever it was who summoned Klonoa back to Lunatea, he wished that they summoned him a little earlier.
His mourning was intercepted by more cries for help, causing Klonoa to go on the move again. He followed the cries to a mountainside at the edge of the village. It was here that he saw two small children, a boy and a girl, crying and screaming for someone to save them as they were surrounded by the same type of bots he and Pango encountered earlier.
He had to act now before it was too late. He couldn't save the one before, but he still had a chance to save these two.
As the automatons closed in on the kids, Klonoa jumped over one to get in front of them, knocking one of them over in the process.
"HEY! If you want these two, you're gonna have to go through me!"
With that, Klonoa clenched his fist and punched one of the robots in the face. Unfortunately, he did not take a second to consider that they were made of a durable metal, causing him to immediately pull his hand back and wince in pain. The robot slightly staggered back from the blow, but quickly got back into position. Klonoa and the kids were cornered as their attackers prepared their blasters and took aim.
"Come on. Think, Klonoa, THINK!"
That was when he remembered the 'weapons' Pango gave him before they split up. He picked up the children and carried them on his back.
"Alright you two, hold on tight." he said as he grabbed one of the orbs from his pockets and threw it at the robot. As the droids glanced at the object that Klonoa threw, the cabbit took that as his chance to flee as fast as they could. Although carrying two children on his back slowed him down slightly, he was still able to run far enough so that there was a fair distance between him and the bots.
Just as the enemies realised that their targets were getting away, the ball that Klonoa lobbed at them started making a fast beeping sound. Suddenly, it exploded and bright, green goo burst out of the tiny ball, covering their attackers. Klonoa watched back in shock as the robots tried to blast them, only for their bodies to slowly deteriorate and melt away into a pile of mush and parts.
"They were acid bombs!?" Klonoa thought to himself as he decided that he would consult Pango about his choice in weapons later. Right now, he had to get the children to safety.
"Hey there you two, my name is Klonoa. I'm here to help you. Do you know where your Mom and Dad are?" he asked the two children gently, trying his hardest to make them feel safe. Although the girl was still scared and wouldn't talk, instead clinging onto him and burying their face into Klonoa's back, the boy decided to speak up.
"We can't find Mama and Papa." the young La-Lakooshan explained, on the brink of tears. "We got lost and then those monsters found us. I'm scared. I wanna go home."
Klonoa took a moment to think of what to do next.
"Okay." he said. "You two can stay with me, I'll take you somewhere safe, and then I'll find your Mama and Papa. Is that okay?"
The children didn't speak, but nodded their heads in agreement. Klonoa turned around and headed back towards the temple. Although this meant that it would be harder to evacuate those still in the village, he knew that he couldn't just leave these two to die.
Klonoa ran through the village, taking care of any enemies that crossed his path with Pango's acid bombs. He yelled for everyone still there to head to the Temple, which he could now see in the distance. But before he could get any further, more robots blocked his path. Klonoa felt around in his pocket, but could only feel one bomb.
"Am I really down to my last one already?" he said to himself under his breath. "Better make this one count."
Klonoa took the bomb out and got ready to throw. But as he got into position, a large thud coming from behind him took him and the kids by surprise. He tried to maintain his footing as he could feel the ground shaking beneath him. Although he wasn't facing where the noise came from, he could sense that whatever caused it was close. Very close. So close, that it was practically breathing down his neck. He jolted round once he heard the girl behind him shriek in terror.
Standing before him was a giant robot, bigger than any of the others attacking the village. It had a great, wide, red body littered with yellow buttons and accents and a pair of hulking arms. It had yellow pauldrons that curved into a spiked shape at the edge and two long smokestacks on its back. The lower half of its body was formed of a battle-skirt of sorts, sporting a golden, G-shaped emblem on the 'buckle'. They were so large that Klonoa could barely even see its head as it stood before him. And he wasn't going to stand around to take in the view.
The metallic juggernaut let out a disgruntled and intimidating growl. Without a second thought, Klonoa scooped up the children, turned back around, and darted past his robotic roadblocks, dodging their blasts and bullets. The pipes on the big bot's back let out an ominous whistle as smoke billowed out of them. It then pushed past its smaller kin and proceeded to give chase to the fleeing trio.