CHAPTER TWO: HAT BACKWARDS, EYES UP
Although their leader was defeated, Genrallas' soldiers remained, patrolling the desolate village for any signs of life. Klonoa wanted to take down as many as he could, but he was in no condition to at the moment. He and the other allies had taken refuge in the cave that Pango took him to earlier to take a brief rest and recover.
Klonoa was still reeling from the juggernaut's attack. He wasn't sure if his arm was broken or not; all he knew was that it hurt. A lot. Despite how hard he was trying to hide it, Lolo could tell as well. Now that she had a chance, she sat down next to him.
"Hold still." she said to Klonoa, rolling up his sleeve and gently placing her hands on his injured arm. He winced from the pain.
"It's okay, I'll be careful."
Klonoa looked down - Lolo's hands started glowing with a faint, green aura that began to surround his arm. Gradually, the sharp, stabbing pain he felt before grew duller and duller. In a matter of minutes, the pain had completely subsided.
As soon as Lolo released his arm, he moved it around a bit to check for any signs of injury. But it was as if it was never damaged in the first place.
"Woah…" Klonoa said, impressed with the priestess' work, "Thank you, Lolo."
"You're welcome, Klonoa" she smiled warmly back at him.
"Yo, sorry to interrupt your little staring contest there," Popka spoke up, "but we still got us a big problem here."
The two quickly realised how long they were looking at each other, and quickly pulled away. Klonoa was slightly flustered, but Lolo was bright red in the face. She gently slapped her blushing cheeks to regain her composure.
"Y-yeah, you're right." Lolo said sheepishly, "We still need to figure out where those bots are coming from."
Meanwhile, Pango was busy going through his bag of bombs and deducting how many explosives he had left. His counting was interrupted by a crashing sound off in the distance. The others didn't seem to hear it - they were busy discussing their next strategy - so he looked outside to see what the cause was.
The noise seems to have come from the west of the cave, so Pango headed that direction. It was here that he noticed what appeared to be a small crater near a rocky area. Judging by the smoke coming from the hole, it would seem that something had crash-landed there from above. When he went to take a closer look, what he found caught him by surprise. With that, he quickly sprinted back to the cave.
"Maybe we could try interrogating one of those soldiers?" Klonoa suggested. "They can speak, which means we can make them talk."
"OOOO I've always wanted to try doing that!" Popka said, his face lighting up. "We gotta pin 'em down, strap 'em to a chair and shine a bright light in their face."
"You've been watching too many crime movies." Lolo responded, rolling her eyes at the dog-like boy.
"He has a point." Klonoa interjected, earning the priestess a smug grin from her canid companion. "They aren't going down without a fight. We need to find a way to neutralise them before making them talk. Lest we wanna get our faces blown off."
Their discussion was cut off by Pango's voice, calling to them from outside the cave.
"Hey, uh… guys? You might wanna come see this."
As the trio followed him outside of the cave, Pango directed them to look at what was in the crater he found. They did not expect to see what they saw here.
"Genrallas?"
To be more specific, it was the decapitated head of Genrallas. It was face-down in the dirt, seemingly inactive.
That was, until he started grunting. Though his voice was muffled, the heroes assumed that at least some profanity was used.
"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Popka asked.
The other three didn't answer, but knew exactly what he meant. Pango quickly plucked the head out of the crater.
"AAAAH!" Genrallas let out a sigh of relief upon being freed. "THHHANK YOU VERY MUCH!"
"You're very welcome!" Pango responded, taken back by the robot's politeness.
It took a moment for the bot to recognise his saviour's voice. "...MMM WAIT A SECOND.'' Upon realising that he's being carried by the very people who destroyed his body in the first place, his voice suddenly became more aggressive. "NNNNOT YOU AGAIN! OOOO UNHAND ME RIGHT NNNOW, YOU MORONIC MMMMAMMALIAN!"
"For the love of Claire, does this idiot have a volume setting or somethin'?" Popka remarked, covering his ears in annoyance.
Pango let out a slightly disappointed sigh - for a second, he thought that the Commander would be easier to talk to now that he was reduced to a head.
"Hmm…we can't stay here." he said to the others, ignoring the robot's whining. "We gotta take him back to the cave before more soldiers show up to see what all the fuss is about."
The others agreed, and they headed back to the cave with Genrallas, who complained the whole way there.
Once they got back to the cave, Pango placed Genrallas on a rock, the others standing around him.
"Tell us everything you know!" Klonoa interrogated the metalhead. "Where are your men coming from? Why are you attacking innocent people? Who sent you here?"
"MMM LIKE I SAID BEFORE, I'M NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING! I GOT NERVES OF STEEL."
"What nerves?" Popka snided, directing the bot's attention to his lack of body.
"YYYOU CAN TAUNT ME OR THREATEN ME ALL YOU WANT, BUT I AIN'T TALKIN!"
"Listen, Mr. Genrallas," Lolo interjected, politely, "What you're doing is wrong, innocent people are getting hurt. I don't know why you're here, but if you tell us where all your men are coming from, nobody will hurt you. Please cooperate with us here."
Klonoa could tell that Lolo was attempting to play 'Good Cop' here, like in the movies.
"NNNOT MY PROBLEM," the bodiless brute responded coldly, "I'D RATHER NOT GO OUT OF MY WAY TO HURT INNOCENT CIVILIANS, BUT THIS IS JUST A CONSEQUENCE OF WAR."
"Not your problem? NOT YOUR PROBLEM!?" Pango yelled, grabbing Genrallas' head and pinning him against a wall with his hand.
"YYYEOW! RRRELEASE ME THIS INSTANT, MMMEATBAG!"
"These people did nothing but mind their own business. YOU invaded their home. YOU stepped into their territory. Your soldiers are your responsibility. Their actions are on YOU!"
The others could feel the Volkan's anger. It made sense that a former soldier of war would take offence to this casual disregard to life from someone in the same field.
"GOOD SOLDIERS FOLLOW ORDERS, NO MATTER WHAT!"
"Great soldiers do what's right. No matter what."
There was a pause between the two. Pango calmed himself down, whilst Genrallas averted his gaze from Pango, as if to think on what he said.
"MMM EVEN IF YOU'RE RIGHT," Genrallas resumed, "I'M NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING ABOUT WHERE THE GENERATOR IS! NNNO AMOUNT OF TORTURE OR MMMEAN WORDS WILL BREAK ME. I MUST REMAIN LOYAL TO OUR GLORIOUS LEADER ...WHO I WILL ALSO NOT TELL YOU ABOUT."
"Wait," Klonoa intervened, "So it is a Generator pumping out all of these robots?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY-"
The bot cut himself off, realising his mistake.
"GYOOOOO I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT! OOO THE BOSS IS GONNA FRY MY CIRCUITS FOR THIS!"
"Where is the Generator?" Lolo questioned Genrallas. "We need to stop it from producing any more robots!"
"OOOOH NO NO NO! NNNYI'M NOT SAYING ANOTHER WORD. I'M ALREADY GOING AGAINST MY ORDERS AS IS!" He was clearly frazzled and flustered from running his mouth.
"Y'know, funny ya mention that," Popka said, "That reminds me of something I saw earlier."
All eyes were on Popka now - even Genrallas was perplexed as to what he was gonna say.
"When I was droppin' off those two squirts at the temple, I was able to get a pretty sweet view from high up. An' I noticed something weird in the distance. I could make out a large, weird looking metal structure at the….ooh what was it called? Oh yeah! The Sea of Tears."
"The Sea of Tears?"
That was the area they first met, and it was a fair distance from La-Lakoosha. Why would the Generator be all the way over there? And why did Popka wait until now to say something about it?
"Was it definitely a Generator you saw, Popka?" Lolo asked.
"Well, I could see robots coming out of it, so what do you think?" Popka answered, sarcastically.
"IMPOSSIBLE! MY SUPERIORS INSTALLED A MAP OF LUNATEA INTO MY DATABASE BEFORE ASSIGNING ME MY MISSION. THERE'S NNNO WAY YOU COULD SEE THE GENERATOR AAAALL THE WAY FROM THE CLAIRE MOA TEMPLE."
"Ya know what?" Popka replied, scratching his chin and looking up, as if he was trying to look back into his own mind, "You're probably right."
Genrallas was completely puzzled, as was everyone else.
"...BUT THEN HOW DID YOU KNOW THE GENERATOR WAS AT THE SEA OF TEARS?"
That was when a sly, almost sinister looking grin crept across Popka's face from cheek to cheek.
"Cuz you just told me, ya dumbass!"
Klonoa never thought it was possible to see the colour practically drain from a robot's face, but Genrallas' mortified reaction proved him wrong.
"I…BUT….YOU…." The frazzled bot was too stunned to speak. He was in complete disbelief that he got outsmarted by someone like Popka. All he could do was look down in defeat. Even someone as stubborn and stuck up as him couldn't attempt to blame anyone but himself.
"So the Generator is somewhere in the Sea of Tears." Klonoa resumed the conversation. "Do you think it'd be hard to find?"
"H-hopefully not." Lolo replied, also stunned by what just happened, "Now that we know where it roughly is, it should be easier to find and follow the path the robots use to get to the village."
"Well then, what are we waitin' for?" Popka chipped in, "Let's get off our butts an' stop that Generator!"
As the three got ready to head off to their next priority, Klonoa noticed that Pango seemed to hesitate.
"You coming, Pango?" Klonoa asked.
The ex-soldier looked down at the humiliated Genrallas. He looked conflicted, as if he was doubting himself on something. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
"You three go without me. I'm gonna stay here and fend off as many bots as I can."
"Are you sure?" the cabbit asked, concerned.
Although he had a feeling that this was going to be the inevitable outcome, he was still worried about what might come of his new ally as he faces the iron army on his own.
"Positive!" Pango replied, sounding more confident in his decision. "This is my home, and someone's gotta hold the fort until you destroy that Generator. My family is here, too; I gotta make sure they're safe as well."
Klonoa couldn't help but smile; Pango's optimistic attitude was admittedly infectious. He was the kind of person the cabbit aspired to be like when he was younger.
"And besides," the Volkan continued, picking up Genrallas and holding him under his arm, "Somebody's gotta keep an eye on this little fella."
"WWWAIT WHAT!?" the bodiless bot shrieked in anger, snapping him out of his sulking, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!? Y-YOU'LL REGRET THIS, YOU TUBBY TERRORISER!"
Pango was unfazed by the head's insults. In fact, he even looked slightly amused at his creative language.
"Thank you, Pango." Klonoa held out his arm towards the man.
"The pleasure's all mine, kid. Good luck, Dream Traveller."
Pango happily shook his hand. His grip was strong, but Klonoa didn't pay it much mind. Even if he was lowkey worried the soldier was going to break his hand by accident.
"I hope we'll meet again soon. I'd love for you to meet my family."
"Yeah, I…" Klonoa cut himself off, his smile slightly fading. He wanted to say something like "I'd love to meet them, too", but he couldn't bring himself to say something he knew he couldn't follow up on.
"...I hope to see you again, too. Take care."
Although Pango could hear a slight pain in the boy's voice, he knew he couldn't stick around to talk to him. There was a lot for everyone to do. Maybe once all of this is over, he can get to know the cabbit more.
Lolo and Popka could also see that something was bugging Klonoa, but they also knew that there were more important things to do.
Genrallas did not give a Slazza's ass about Klonoa's feelings; he was more concerned about having to live with one of the people who reduced him to nothing but a decapitated head.
Klonoa and Pango joined the others outside of the cave, before they both waved goodbye and headed their separate ways.
Klonoa, Lolo and Popka giggled slightly as they could still hear Genrallas constantly complaining, even after Pango was out of sight.
But this was no time to dawdle. Somewhere in the Sea of Tears lies the source of their problems. For the sake of the kingdom, they had to act fast.
With that, the trio set off on their next adventure, and perhaps even take a bit of a nostalgia trip.