Not more than two days had passed since the public execution, which still ingrained itself into James' head at how disturbing the captain could be with such a cold steady hand in such a gruesome act.  The raptor had no other orders except to continue his duties and assist with any requests, as always.  Soon however he had been given a rather unusual invite to the captain's quarters, which frightened him now, his view of his leader taking on a more terrifying shadow.  But he could not refuse, and tenderly walked to the cabin, knocking before entering.
	"Aaaaah come in James."
He sat at his desk, hands clasped upon it with an imperial aura and decked out in his captain's clothes.
	"Uh...did you need me for something captain?"
	"Indeed.  I was observing your performance in the exhibition of blades a few days ago."
	"Ahh huh?"
	"I must say...it is quite an unusual weapon you wield."
	"Yeah I uh...it is kinda odd huh?"
	"And for one who relies on speed, is it not rather cumbersome?"
	"Not...really no, now that I trained myself up on it for a few years before I came here."
	"Ahhhh that explains why you possess such an experienced hand for one so young."
	"R-...really?"
	"Oh yes.  I admit that you were not the most skilled of fighters in your class of weapon but your weapon alone marks you enough to be quite an interesting warrior.  Which is why I have summoned you here."
James tensed up, ready for a fight in case he had to defend himself, but the captain noticed this with a smirking chuckle.
	"Calm yourself boy, I did not summon you here to test yourself.  I summoned you here to present you with an offer."
	"An...offer, sir?"
	"Oh yes.  You see...as you know, my elites are some of the finest warriors upon the sea.  Not just for their tactical thinking but also for their tremendous fighting skill.  I do not place the best in my elite always.  Sometimes I like to pick the more...unusual fighters.  The ones hard to predict."
	"And my giant scissors fit that, right?"
	"Precisely!  Such a fine skill with such an unorthodox weapon would be perfect amongst my elites!  And I can trust you well enough to keep your lips sealed about plans as well as protect me...correct?"

He leaned forwards slightly, eye slightly twitching in the raptor's direction.  He could no longer tell what that eye twitch even meant.  Irritation?  Excitement?  Since his execution of Kross, he was impossible to predict.
	"Oh, totally sir!  I mean I'm only here until you deal with those Kongs or whatever, so the sooner that's done the better, I'll handle anyone who tries to fight you!"
	"Wonderful!  Then I believe I should induct you more properly into my higher ranks, as a fighter that is.  Your command will change only when I require it, but other than that you are still a mere rigger.  Would you mind kneeling for me please?"
The last question made his blood run cold.  He became a little panicked and asked softly:
	"Uh...is that...part of the initiation?"
	"It allows me to bless you with the strength of our mission.  Do not fear.  You have not betrayed me and I have nothing to fear from you enough to allow myself the loss of such a skilled fighter."
	"A-...w-w-well...if you...okay."
He was frightened now, he wanted to just run out of the cabin and refuse the promotion, but something told him that he would not be allowed to.  He gently kneeled, looking downwards submissively, terrified but ready to move if he felt any sudden movements, knowing he was faster than some fat-ass gunner.  He watched the captain stride forwards, his arms rising above his head, not allowed to look up before he felt the gentle pat of smooth cold scale upon his head that made him dare to flinch.
	"What is your name, youth?"
	"J-james...Robert...Campbell."
	"By the light that shines upon our scales, I induct thee into a higher echelon of our cool-blooded existence.  May you strive to serve your master, may you spread our scales across the land, in our quest to reclaim the earth and sea."
And with that, he inducted the raptor into his ranks, allowing him to stand up, admittedly confused.
	"So...what was all that about exactly, captain?"
	"Well, now that I have you in my ranks I believe I can tell you something of my plans.  But I must warn you...you are sworn to secrecy.  You must never breathe a word of what happens within this cabin, or I shall have to ask you to leave in the same manner as our dearly departed Kross.  Is that clear?"
	"Y-yes sir."
	"Good."
K. Rool turned and strided towards the windows of his room, gazing towards the bright clear sky, hands clasped behind his back.
	"Our mission is to reclaim this world in the name of our ancestors.  Millions of years ago, both our ancestors walked across the land, swam through the seas and flew beyond the clouds.  A peaceful time, a primal time where our cold-blooded instinct and intelligence made us kings.  But then a tragedy came.  A terrible turn of events."
	"What happened?"
	"The apocalypse, my lad."

He said this with a soft mournful tone, sighing softly to himself as he gazed towards the sky.
	"A terrible fire from the stars themselves, cursing us for whatever reason.  Most of us perished in the winter ahead, a winter that lasted for thousands of years, of which all of your ancestors, the saurians, did not survive.  But...not all scaled beings perished, even when the mammals endured and scrabbled their way to the top.  My species, the crocodilians, endured through sheer persistence and perfection, for millions of years unchanged just to stand here before you.  I carry within me a direct ancestry to all those years ago, from within that bountiful reptilian paradise, and within there lies a distant tropical heat that my ancestors remember, all throughout their bloodline that to this day I can still feel warming my heart, and encouraging me to fulfil my quest."
	"I...that's...pretty amazing sir, but I-"
	"Don't you understand, boy!?!?  You stand upon the brink of a new era!"
He turned towards James and grabbed his shoulders with a deepening passion for his ideals.  The captain's eyes glinted with such a wild desire that the raptor couldn't turn away, entranced by such a presence, a charisma so tantalising.
	"When we defeat those filthy Kongs, we shall be one step closer to reawakening the land with an age of reptiles, an age that has been denied to us for so many millennia.  Wouldn't you wish for the days when we were kings of this world?"
	"...I...it's so...but how?"
	"One claw at a time, my lad.  One claw at a time."
He put a muscular arm around the raptor as they gazed into the sunset outside the cabin window, the ship creaking gently like a mumbling sleeper.  James was still a little uncertain, asking to clarify:
	"Are you telling me that the only thing stopping reptiles from ruling this world, is an island full of apes?"
	"Boy, you have no vision!"
He makes a motion to slap the back of James' head mockingly to make him duck.
	"It is only a SYMBOL of our step to reclaiming the top of the food chain!  Do you think that we are merely pirates?  We are AMBASSADORS!  Ambassadors of a new world order not seen since millions of years ago!  And who better to lead it, than the species of the Kremlings, the great crocodilian itself, who have remained unchanged since the dawn of time?!"

The raptor's eyes stirred with a sense of wonder and pride for his own species, of his scaled brethren.  James had his lesson learnt before of being in such parties.  But the way this captain, this KING spoke to him, he was enchanted by the idea.  With nobody to stop him this time, no police and no personal guardian to hold him back, he felt something awaken within him as he proclaimed proudly:
	"Captain...when you become king of this world...I'll be there."
	"Good, James...good.  How perfect it shall be, considering you are that of our ancestors, for with you, we shall truly be able to reclaim our pangaeic paradise that was so cruelly taken from-"
A knock at the door interrupted his speech, which made him snarl before he heard the message from another elite.
	"Sir!  Sorry to disturb you sir but the Kongs are coming off the port bow!"
	"AHA!"
K. Rool released James from his grasp and immediately began to change his clothes, switching from the ragged captain's cloak and pirate hat, to the royal cape and crown, his figure revealed even moreso in such.
	"Our plan is halfway done!"
	"What plan!?"
He received no answer when the king barged out of the door and roared:
	"PLACES EVERYONE!"
The elite kremlings readied themselves to put up a fight for the invading force, as did the rest of the crew.  The king of the kremlings stood before his cabin door, chuckling as he made several orders.
	"Koarse, bring me the bananas!  Krow, ready the cannons!"
	"Bananas!?"
James was confused as hell, as were most of the regular crew before they saw a rather comical sight.  The larger elite kremlings were moving bananas out of the cargo hold, huge vibrantly plump bananas as big as themselves.  Everyone looked at each other trying to find answers, scattered across the ship until one of them asked bravely enough:
	"Uh sir?  Why do we need bananas?"
	"Well, how else you gonna catch a monkey?" said an elite.
	"But where the hell did you get all these?" asked James.
	"It's the Kongs' private hoard.  Only way we could lead 'im here was to leave a good trail for 'im."
Murmurs of realisations came from the crew before they steadied themselves once again for a fight, gazing towards the nearby shore of Donkey Kong Isle.  In the distance they could see a brown blur rampaging across the shoreline, slowly getting bigger.  James was hesitant to ask what it was, as he stood beside K. Rool's guard.  Kruz could see him, and while bemused, he kept his guard ready, wondering why his rigging superior was in charge of the cannons.
	"Is that..."
	"Ohhh yeah," said Krow beside him.  "Get ready Rex, this is gonna be the foight of yer loife."
The brown blob turned larger, charging towards them in a lumbering stride, pounding the waves and leaping from the rocks of the sea to leap straight onto the ship.  The kremlings roared, the brown blur split into two, one large and one small.  James could barely see them through the crew that tried to assault them, but he instead ended up seeing his fellow crewmates get punched and thrown into the air.
Some of them careened overboard from sheer force, broken snouts and limbs if they were unlucky, the invaders cutting a swathe through the hoard until they faced the elite kremlings who roared:
	"PROTECT THE KING!"
And then, for the first time, James finally saw the dreaded Kong.

A huge brown-haired gorilla standing at least 6-and-a-half-feet tall, with lighter cream on his hands, feet and face.  His eyes burned with primal fury, primate hands clenched into whitened fists, bearing his omnivorous teeth.  A ragged red tie hung from his neck inscribed with the letters DK.  He was clearly feral to James, the way he patted his hands on the wooden deck, glaring at the intruders of his island, looking around at the bananas that were rightfully his, and only turning even angrier.
Beside him was another brown-haired primate, a monkey half his size with a long prehensile tail garbed in a red cap and t-shirt.  Despite their appearance, there was intelligence in those eyes.  These weren't just mindless animals.  The kremlings braced themselves and charged towards them, including the raptor.  The gorilla rolled to one side and slammed his mighty fist straight into First Mate Krook's snout, knocking him to one side, before gutpunching another bigger kremling.
The smaller monkey faced off against Krow the rigging leader, lean and mean with cutlass at the ready.  He charged towards the monkey, who leapt back and allowed the swing before cartwheeling around and sweeping the leg right out under his feet.  Krow got up quickly with some acrobatic skill, and made a spinning overhead strike in the hope of confusing his smaller foe enough to cleave through his head.
The smaller primate wasn't fooled and rolled between Krow's legs, backflipping a double-kick straight into the rigger's back and making him slam forwards into the ground slightly stunned.  He didn't give up when he immediately got back up a little unbalanced, and waited on the defensive for his foe to make a move.  The monkey made a feinting dodge one way, only to roll behind Krow and kick him hard in the back of the leg, forcing him to fall to his knee before the simian leapt upwards and slammed both feet into the back of the kremling's head.  Down for the count.

The bigger ape, which James eventually realised was THE Donkey Kong who was the island's namesake, was not as athletic as his smaller friend but certainly far stronger, his punches absolutely brutal.  Breaking ribs and cracking skulls with every pound, limbs torn and broken if he ever managed to grab one in both hands.  Even the elite kremlings were not safe and tried desperately to make sure they wouldn't be grabbed.  Sometimes Kong was merciful and merely grabbed a croc to throw him into the sea.  Other times he was a little nastier, and would break arms or legs like they were twigs in his meaty grip.
James was turning more scared, but steeled his nerve as he roared with a charge forwards, daring to take on the mighty ape with his scissors, swinging with shivering fury.  DK was already a little wounded but nothing he couldn't recover from, a few bleeding cuts.  But nothing slowed down his primal strength.  James tried to aim for the legs, knowing he had speed as an advantage, but the ape was more clever than expected to cover his weakness well.  Whenever the raptor thrusted for the legs, DK jumped and slammed both fists down like a hammer on the flat of a blade, burying the scissors into the deck and punching the unarmed raptor square in the jaw to make him fly to the side.

James did his best to get up, weakened and breathing oddly, checking to see if anything was broken.  Thankfully not.  His scissors were still imbedded in the deck, and the gorilla was busily wailing his fists on the crew, surprisingly fast for such a monstrous size.  He was grabbing fists that held swords, pulling them hard towards him to either headbutt or gutpunch the crew at his whim.
Even the larger muscular kremlings, such as K. Rool's personal bodyguards, had problems despite matching up to DK on strength alone.  They could easily play tug-o-war with him against the grip on their weapons, and endure one or two gutpunches more than most of the crew, but they would eventually lose out.  DK even picked up one of the larger kremlings like a wrestler and suplexed him viciously onto the deck, the mighty cracking sound either wood or bone.  James managed to sneak up behind the ape, and stab the shoulder after regaining his weapon, the huge primate roaring and turning around with darkened eyes.
	"COME ON THEN!  YOU WANNA SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT YOU FUCKIN' APE!!?!"
More careful now about his enemy's strengths, he watched the powerful haymakers and continued to dodge under them, feinting a thrust to the legs and hoping DK would jump so he could cleave upwards.  Unfortunately the ape was far smarter than expected, and instead rolled to one side before delivering a brutal thrusting kick straight into the raptor's side.  He cried out from the severe bruising and did his best to dodge, clutching his ribs and trying to hold his weapon up with one hand, keeping away while he regained his strength partially.
But the ape was not so generous, and charged forwards making James forcefully defend.  But instead of moving backwards, he fought against instinct and strafed to cut along the gorilla's side, reddening the hairs to the colour of chestnut, warm blood dripping onto the deck.  But it only made DK grunt, and swing a horrendously fast backhand that James barely managed to avoid despite expecting it.

He spun with the momentum of the ape's backswing and made another cut along the side, but the gorilla's stamina was insurmountable and he didn't slow down one bit.  Finally he had enough, grabbing the raptor's neck in a single huge fist and picking him up off the floor.  James started to panic, feeling the fist easily able to crush his neck like a straw, scrabbling desperately and choking violently with the teasing of air that barely scraped through his trachea.  His mind desperately tried to think of a way out, wanting to make the ape let go, wanting to burn his hand off, to singe that horrid hairy monkey fist.
For some reason, scrabbling enough at the hand made the ape shriek and drop the raptor, falling back to nurse his hand which James thought he could see turn a little darker, almost like a burn.  Regardless, the battle between them would be interrupted as the cabin door slammed open, and King K. Rool stood before his foe, dressed in royal garb.
	"KOOOONG!"
The king already had the gorilla's attention, who stood and faced the royal kremling with a deep growl.
	"So we meet at last.  I wondered how long it would be until your hairy arse would drag itself onto my ship."
Kong seemed to understand what he was saying, but could only speak like a gorilla, grunting and whooping much to the king's displeasure.
	"Hmph...you come onto my ship and you don't even have the grace to speak my language?!  Not only are you uglier than I thought but also far less civilised than I expected!  If you want your precious private hoard, then you and your little friend must face me!"
The crew all realised this throwdown, and steadily moved away to allow space between them to fight.  DK and his little chimpanzee friend stood together, ready to face their greatest foe.  K. Rool merely spread his arms, oozing of confidence before ready to battle.  James had to wonder why K. Rool wanted to fight him in his royal clothes instead of the cutlass-and-blunderbuss-wielding captain clothes.  But he did not ask, as the battle of Gangplank Galleon began.

The two apes readily charged towards the reptile king trying to punch his belly, but finding it to be a lot sturdier than the other kremlings as the king beat them back with a rapid series of punches, strangely like that of a boxer.  Seeing one attack unable to work, they tried to aim for his legs, but K. Rool leapt above them with a surprising height for someone so large and landed behind them, the ship shuddering with the force of the impact.  The Kongs tried to charge once again, but K. Rool brought out his crown and swung it hard towards them.
It spun several inches off the ground like a low-flying boomerang, its points a lethal blurred ring around the royal symbol, scratching across DK's ankle to make it bleed openly.  The ape roared and charged forwards to try and punch the kremling leader, who swiftly dodged to one side and made a furious uppercut to the stomach.  He knocked the gorilla's wind from his body and kicked him back, before grabbing his crown smoothly as it spun back towards him.
	"Pathetic mammal."
He spun out the crown once again towards Kong, hoping to spin it straight into his eyes, but the ape leapt over with his smaller monkey friend bouncing off of his muscles.  The little chimp in turn somersaulted in mid-air, to slam both his feet straight down onto K. Rool's unprotected head, dizzying him badly from the strong blow.  The crew could only watch as their king turned more furious, charging across the deck like a rhinoceros, grabbing the crown that was spinning its way back to him as he stood at the other side, ready to throw once again.
Despite his furious boomerang-like throw to barely give the apes enough time to dodge, they were ready enough to leap over once more, the smaller ape eagerly slamming his fists straight into the crocodile's head, who blocked this time with his arm to shove him off.  But as a result, he had left his front wide open for a brutal haymaker from the gorilla, a thick hairy fist smashing his jaw violently as he roared out a painfully surprised "ORRRRK!".

K. Rool decided however that he was not down and out, headbutting the ape as a counter and bullrushing him when he was stunned.  He slammed Kong against the deck, grabbing his crown before charging once again across the Gangplank Galleon, managing to clothesline the smaller monkey in mid-air and send him careening down to the deck with a black eye.  He smiled at his handiwork as he readily threw his crown yet again.
The crew were rather surprised at the faith the captain had in using the one attack that exposed his head, but they reasoned to themselves that he had a plan.  And in a way, he did.  As he swung out his unusual royal headgear, the apes charged in once more while he did his best to block both of them, surprised by a charge at his front from the smaller ape.  He was distracted well enough to make him bend down and receive a mighty stomp from DK above, straight onto his head and knocked out cold.  The king had been defeated, pounded down straight onto the deck, collapsing onto his belly.  His crown spun back to him in a strangely harmless manner, resting against his head.
Some of the crew, including James, were rather surprised and upset that their great leader had lost against the apes, who pounded their chests and crowed triumphantly over the deck of their victory.  The reptiles snarled, but not all of them, who had other plans in mind.
But some of the higher-ups of the crew kept noting the king's body, the cape ruffling in the sea breeze, waiting for something, any sign of life.  Eventually, as silently as possible, the king's body stirred from behind the mammals, standing up slowly, dominating them.  The crew were surprised, but tried not to show it or else lose the element of surprise.
As K. Rool's shadow slowly crept up over DK and his ally, they turned to meet a brutal green fist straight into the smaller monkey's face, and a large crocodilian jaw biting hard onto DK's shoulder, the ape roaring from surprised pain as fangs snapped together like a bear trap.  Spitting him out to shoulder smash him away, K. Rool roared:
	"CANNONBALLS, NOW!"

From above, out of nowhere came several cannonballs set up upon the rigging, shooting downwards at the two apes but surprisingly not destroying the deck, bouncing a little off it even as the apes tried to dodge the sudden renewed attack.  Krow, who had recovered, was cackling as he fired away, Kruz realising with James at last of their superior's plans.
K. Rool turned furious with bloody teeth, one or two fangs missing now embedded into the gorilla's shoulder who clutched it tightly.  They made their way through the rain of cannonballs, dodging with panic before slamming straight into the king once again, who expected their attack and did all he could possibly do to stop both of them.
He blocked stomach blows, his crown was kept on his head, but his face was beaten black and blue by furious fists of vengeance, only eliciting another brutal charge.  This time however, he made a surprisingly strong leap, froghopping across the deck in an attempt to slam down onto his enemies' heads, using their tactics against them.  The monkey and gorilla however had learned fast, and were strafing around the oddly-made cannonballs that bounced and rolled around the deck wantonly so, ready to wail on K. Rool as soon as he landed firmly to try and attack again.
James was rather surprised at this rather insane plan, and was surprised that the ship itself hadn't been completely destroyed at this rate.  But the king of the Kremlings persevered in leaping across the deck, evading and stomping onto the mammals whenever he had a chance.  Cannonballs rained down from the rigging, but the apes were not daunted by the toughening battle, especially when DK decided to grab one cannonball and hurled it straight towards K. Rool.
The crocodilian expected it at some point and dodged easily enough, only to land straight towards a furious swing from the gorilla, knocking him out clean and cold at last.  He slammed hard onto the deck with a resounding bass groan.

The crew were shocked and terrified.  Their king had been bested, their plans laid to ruin, and now there was nothing stopping the apes from just slaughtering them all.  They were backing away in preparation to defend themselves, as the gorilla and monkey started slapping their fists into their palms, ready for a beatdown.  One of the elite kremlings however stood before the entire crew, and proclaimed:
	"We lost boys!  The Kremlings have been defeated an'  the king is out!  Everyone, give 'em back their bananas."
Surprise was the first thing that came to mind.  Then confusion.  Then anger.  The crew had no idea what to do, but without anyone else to receive orders from, and in spite of their fury for having lost so easily without so much as a fight to go down with, they followed their orders without saying a single word.  They brought forth each and every single banana that the ship contained, mutually submitting to the strength of the legendary Donkey Kong.
The primates seemed to realise their foes' surprising sense of honourable humility, and decided to be merciful, letting the bananas pile up as the ship swung back towards land slowly.  The apes seemed to appreciate the fact that the reptiles were so willing to concede to the winner, the potassium-laden cargo tenderly unloaded by not only DK and his young relation, but other animal friends of the island too.  James could note some of the bizarre menagerie from this distance, including a rhinoceros, a few parrots, an ostrich and a large frog.
The crew could scarcely fathom how their leader had lost, but dutifully followed the orders of their superiors.  James was not only rather insulted by how easily the pirates had submitted to their enemy in such a graceful manner, but he was also rather confused at how willing the elite pirates were to submit without question.  K. Rool didn't mention a single word of this, his body currently placed back in his cabin for the sake of his dignity.

Hours passed, and it was not until the sun had half-submerged itself within the horizon that the unloading of the entire stolen banana hoard was complete.  With that, the pirates slowly moved their ship away, defeat written across their snouts, sneers and tears lining the length of the deck, the island turning smaller and smaller by a few inches over time.  The elites of the crew slinked away back to their leader's cabin, with James included.  They tightly locked the door and turned towards their captain, sitting upon his chair smugly despite the bruises and dried blood all over him.
	"Did they suspect anything?" was his first words since his defeat.
	"Not a thing cap'n.  They took all their bananas back an' said nuthin' else."
	"Excellent."
	"Uh, sir?"  James had no idea where this was going.  "What...exactly is going on?"
	"Since you are a very recent inductee to my elite guard I will explain.  The whole banana hoard theft was merely bait."
	"Bait?  Wait, you wanted to get them here?"
	"Of course.  Surely you realise that reptiles have absolutely no need for bananas.  What else would it be?!"
	"...prevent scurvy?"  
	"Ha ha ha ha!"
The other elites laughed with their captain at this silly answer.
	"That we have already dealt with.  As soon as the Kongs let their defence down we shall initiate phase two of the plan.  Krook, gather your special squad as well as Keen and...invite our guest back to the ship."
	"Yessir."
Krook saluted and walked out immediately to find his group for the next operation.  James was not entirely up on what the plan was to be, yet, but K. Rool assured him with a knowing nod.
	"Have patience, my dear saurian seaman.  You will soon see our plan come to fruition.  It will take a few days, so for now you may return to your usual rigging duties.  But remember..."
The elites as if on cue grabbed his arms strongly, the raptor struggling temporarily in surprise.
	"If you breathe one single vowel of this to anyone else, then you shall have the honour of becoming a part of my ship permanently...when I use your guts for rigging.  Is that clear?"
	"P-perfectly, captain."
	"Good.  Now, return to your duties."
With a tender anxious nod, James ran out of the captain's cabin to try and find Kruz, a little worried for what would occur, needing the company of a friend to calm him down.  He knew the battle against Donkey Kong had been rathet hectic and, as he just realised, a ruse for something bigger.  But he had no idea for what truly laid in store for the Gangplank Galleon.