Clash of the Elements Part 4: The Return of Dark Matter

by mewmaster93

After the events of the last story, Riku has ended up plunging head-first into Pop Star, where an unexpected change occurs that leaves him without his elemental powers yet again. With Kirby by his side, Riku will have to reclaim his lost powers...But unbeknownst to both heroes, an old foe is looming in the depths of space, ready to conquer Pop Star once and for all.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Seas and Skies

With the Warp Star flying through the clear skies of Dream Land, Kirby observed the landscape wide and far and tried to find Ripple Field, the next destination on his journey to help his new friend Riku reclaim his elemental powers. Though there were a couple areas with water surrounding a specific set of land masses, Kirby listed them off as different locations than the one he sought, only changing his focused glare into a widened smiling expression once he notices the waters around Ripple Field coming up below.

Pointing at the ground to direct Riku's vision towards the rippling tides, the star warrior said "Alright, try and brace yourself for impact this time around. Sticking this landing should be a piece of cake if you do!"

With Kirby once again expressing an intense amount of enthusiasm in contrast to the boy's timid concern, the teenage Overlord grasped his stubby hands around the Warp Star as tightly as he could while thinking to himself "I swear if I end up with my face in the dirt again…"

The Warp Star moves towards a particular patch of tropical grass that lies very close to the rippling sea, crashing down in a manner very similar to the way it did in Green Greens. Kirby sticks a perfect landing just like before, but while Riku isn't flung against the ground he ended up holding on for too long and ended up getting caught in the Warp Star's destruction and was sent flying on ahead while the star warrior blinks twice in surprise. The teenage Overlord smacks face first against a nearby palm tree with so much force that if he was still a human his head would have suffered a concussion in the process of breaking the tree apart.

As it stands now though, Riku's girth bends the palm tree forward. A few seconds are spent suspended in place as the teenage Overlord groans and opens his eyelids, while in his mind he thinks "Well, this somehow doesn't hurt as much as it the last failed landing…"

The palm tree creaks, the pressure placed on the center of its body fading away as a panicking Riku widens his eyes and finds himself helpless to do anything as the tree launches him through the air. With his body spinning around as he flies, the teenage Overlord quickly thinks in a panicked tone "Either I'm really out of my element, or this is karmic punishment for what I've done in the past. Whatever the case, it would really suck if there was a wall behind me!"

Thankfully unaware of how cruel the ways of karma was as his body hurtled towards a wall, Riku was only three seconds away from colliding with the wall that stood behind a small pool of water carrying a single shark when Kirby leaped into the air with a blue bandana now wrapped around his head and opened his mouth to suck the boy his way. But instead of the vacuum pulling Riku inside of the star warrior's body, he is instead guided to his right hand, and after gripping the back of the boy's red body as tightly as possible he suspends himself in place mid-air above the pool and lightly tosses Riku safely onto his feet on the ground diagonally below him.

Kirby then quickly puffs his body up to hover over Riku's body and land in front of him, where he then turns and faces the boy with a smile on his face before saying "Well, can't exactly say that I expected that to happen."

The star warrior laughs nervously while rubbing the back of his head, in a way apologizing for what happened after the Warp Star landed. Riku's eyes are wide, not simply because of what just happened, but also because of how quickly Kirby handled that whole matter. With his right hand pointed at the bandana on Kirby's head the boy asked frantically "Hey, where did you get that from? What happened to your Beam power-up?"

The star warrior regained his enthusiastic demeanor and quickly responded to Riku's two questions in a single sentence with "Well I discarded Beam and quickly sucked in a Bun that happened to be nearby so I could acquire Throw and save your life."

But with the power having served its purpose, Kirby discards it in the form of a single star that leaps up and down along the tropical grass, and after it vanishes the two eared dog-like creature known as a Bun is brought back to life a fair distance away from the two heroes. Riku, nodding his head as a means of bowing in an appreciative manner, says to Kirby "Thank you for saving me! I'm sorry that I can't stick a landing after the Warp Star crashes as easily as you can Kirby!"

Kirby chuckles and says to Riku "Oh don't fret over it. You just haven't gotten used to the landings yet. Trust me, its taken me lots of tries to get it right."

After Kirby says this, his smile fades away slightly as he nervously chuckles and thinks back to roughly twenty times where the Warp Star's crashes have left him in some rather painful predicaments, and he quietly says to himself "Yep…Lots and lots of tries…"

Shaking off the painful memories before Riku catches on to his melancholy, Kirby waves his hand into the air and says "So, before we take a dip into the water to try and find one of your elements, I should probably grab a power-up that works underwater."

Riku asks Kirby "And which ones are those?" in a fake tone of curiosity.

"Hammer and Sword usually, but considering Bonkers is the only one who carries Hammer and he's generally a mini-boss not found in underwater areas I'll just have to settle on Sword." After Kriby says this the star warrior looks at Riku and starts slanting his eyebrows in a mischievous manner.

The teenage Overlord doesn't take long to read Kirby's intentions and he quickly takes a step back, saying with arms waving in front of his body "No Kirby! I am not someone you can just suck up and use as a power-up!"

The star warrior raises his right eyebrow in confusion and says to Riku "Huh? What are you talking about? I wasn't looking at you."

Despite the fact that the star warrior was obviously looking at the teenage Overlord, Riku doesn't question this as Kirby quickly points behind the boy with his right arm. Riku turns around and sees a small warrior with aquamarine armor walking around and a sword with a sharp point on each side of the blade casually strolling on a patch of sand away from the pool with the lone shark. Riku comments on the convenience of this by saying "Its amazing how the power-ups are so close by the areas that they will be needed the most at."

"Eh, progression is progression, no matter how convenient things end up being." Kirby casually shrugs his shoulders as he says this, but afterwards proceeds to walk over to the Sword Knight.

As the star warrior approaches, the armored figure twitches upon seeing the pink nightmare approaching him, and with his yellow eyes showing fear in its rawest form Kirby says to the knight "Hey, do you mind if-"

Before the star warrior finishes its sentence, the Sword Knight flings the dull end of his sword straight into Kirby's face, making him pause mid-sentence as the knight wastes no time in fleeing for his life in the opposite direction of the pink nightmare. Kirby pauses for a few seconds before lifting his right hand up and politely proclaiming "Thank you!"

Kirby then proceeds to widen his mouth and suck the sword in, and after a flash of light he ends up with a long green hat on his head and a sleek sword with a blue handle and little to no other unique features. As Riku sees the hat and the way the star warrior holds his sword beside his body, he momentarily freezes in place and his little heart goes into a state of shock that causes him an intense sensation of pain. The teenage Overlord looks at Kirby and for a second sees him as someone else, which causes him to think "I thought I had worked past that trauma. Tch, what a terrible time for this to come up…"

Kirby starts to turn around, and about halfway through the pain in Riku's chest subsides as the cheerful look in the star warrior's eyes reminds the boy that the pink puffball is not comparable to the other hero appearance-wise and this line of thought helps subdue his trauma. With his demeanor back to normal, the teenage Overlord asks the star warrior "So what was up with the Sword Knight's reaction?"

"I think he was an enemy I sucked up in the past. It seems he was scarred by the experience…Not my intention I assure you, so I hope I can find that guy later and apologize to him." Kirby glances behind his right shoulder as he speaks, holding the blade in his opposite hand for the time being before switching it off and pointing it towards the vast sea on ahead and saying with bravado "Alright, lets go exploring the sea!"

Riku turns towards the rippling sea and says to Kirby with his eyes widened and his right hand quickly rising up to smack his forehead "…You know what I just realized?"

The star warrior blinks twice and says to the boy "Huh? What is it?"

"I usually rely on a combination of Water and Air to allow for fluid movement underwater. Without either of them at my dispersal…Well…" Riku is hesitant to admit the truth to Kirby, but after a prolonged sigh he comes right out and says "…I can't swim."

Kirby blinks once and says to Riku nonchalantly "Oh, that's it? Well no need to worry, there's a simple solution to that!"

The star warrior walks up to the teenage Overlord and pats him on the back, keeping his hand attached there as he walks alongside him towards the edge of the island while Riku looks at Kirby with a stare of utter confusion and partial concern. Once the two heroes were at the edge, Kirby wastes no time in gently smacking Riku right into the body of water, the boy panicking as he falls in. However, upon dropping into the sea, the teenage Overlord opens his eyelids and is surprised by the fact that he is able to take a nice clean look at the pristine coral and glistening underwater atmosphere.

After a couple of seconds, Riku also realizes that he is able to breathe as though he was on land. It doesn't take long for him to notice that he is wearing a set of curved plastic goggles and had a plastic snorkel that somehow didn't take in water whenever he breathed in. As he waddled to keep himself afloat in the middle of the sea, Riku is joined moments later by Kirby, who also mysterious gained goggles and a plastic snorkel. He lost his hat, but kept the sword. Pointing the sword towards the beautiful sea, Kirby motions his arms around in circles to show Riku how to swim in his new body, demonstrating things in a swift and efficient manner before heading on his way.

Riku had many questions on his mind at that moment, but the unfortunate thing about being underwater is that he couldn't say any of them without exposing his innards to the salty sea. For now, the teenage Overlord could only summon his sword and think "…This world is really bizarre" before he follows Kirby's example and slowly swims after him.

Once again, the trip is not disturbed by a single enemy. There were a few red fish swimming around with goggles on their faces, but they were kind creatures that didn't need to be disturbed. Riku found the lack of enemies to be perplexing, but alas was unable to bring it up to Kirby as the two of them swam through the clear ocean depths. It was certainly nice that the sun was out, for the glistening rays help the heroes see what is up ahead without any concerns. Eventually though the islands above gain a slant of rock underneath the forces the heroes to head downward into a darker cavern, though some light still remained to prevent them from going into the area blind.

As they swim downward, Kirby notices a dark-blue glow coming up ahead and points towards it with his sword while looking over at Riku. As he moves his arms around and goes on ahead he nods at Kirby while thinking to himself "That has to be one of my elements…"

Kirby and Riku get closer and closer to the glowing light, but before they make it in time a grey and white killer whale with white eyes and black pupils comes out of nowhere and chomps down on the orb after mistaking it for a piece of food. The star warrior and the teenage Overlord both flinch in shock of the whale's sudden appearance, but Riku expresses more concern over the matter then Kirby does.

The whale known as Acro suddenly begins to twitch with one eye widening as its sharp teeth begin to release a dark blue glow from the orb it swallowed. Seconds later the back fin begins to lengthen and becomes as sharp and sleek as a blade while the tail gains a third segment that glows yellow like the antenna of an angler fish yet resembles a small fin. The grey on the whale becomes dark-blue and allows the creature to blend in better with the environment, while the eyes curl back and become a hollow dark red. The fangs become sharper and a second row is grown behind the first that are the same size as the first ones were before growing.

With a couple snaps of its jaws at the prey floating in front of it, the now aggressive Acro quickly swims at the two heroes with a great deal of fluidness, its body streaking through the sea like a guided torpedo as the two heroes are forced to kick themselves in opposite directions to avoid the chomp of the killer whale. The predator was more of a threat than it was before, which doesn't exactly bode well for the heroes seeing as their abilities are more suited for close-combat, something they'd be wise to avoid seeing how lethal the creature's bite would be.

However, there was another way to fight that didn't require the swords to strike the skin of the beast. Kirby looks towards the ceiling and with a stroke of ingenuity he swims up and cuts at it with the tip of his blade. Riku, not realizing the star warrior's intentions, is kept in the line of sight of the aggressive Acro as the creature turns around and uses its newly gained night vision to see the teenage Overlord through the water. With its mouth agape, the whale launches itself at the boy while spiraling itself around to increase its speed, its body being engulfed in a whirlpool of water that sucks in all around as it rapidly approaches the nearly defenseless boy.

Before Acro can get its teeth on the boy, Kirby manages to cut apart enough of the rocky ceiling in order to cause a large chunk to drop down on top of the killer whale's head, hitting it with enough force to stop its movements right then and there. Acro's widened mouth stands inches away from chomping through Riku's tiny body, and the boy floats in place with his eyes stiff with fear and his body trembling. He was seconds away from death, and with the water working against his ability to swing his sword and the Leaf power-up incapable of working underwater Riku was utterly defenseless against this foe.

This close encounter with death resonated heavily within the teenage Overlord's mind, making him think for a good few seconds about what it felt like to not be at full power. What he was without the elements was a normal creature incapable of fighting even the weakest of enemies, and if it wasn't for Kirby's existence here there would be no doubt that Riku would surely have perished. With this in mind, Riku realized that perhaps now would be a good time to learn how to fight without his elemental powers, even going as far as to tell himself in his head not to use any powers he reclaims until it was necessary to leave the world as a means of testing his own determination in regards to fighting like a normal person.

Riku is then reminded of the fact that he needs to reacquire his Water power in spite of his earlier thoughts thanks to Kirby pointing his sword at Acro. The teenage Overlord then quickly puts his sword into Acro's head and works to re-absorb his Water element, pulling the blade out with no scars present on the killer whale's head as the creature reverts back to its original appearance. Riku suppresses the change to his body this time, keeping his sword out through sheer force of will. Acro floats in place with white eyes, but he was only unconscious for the time being.

With this element reclaimed, Riku and Kirby quickly swam their way out of rippling waters, arriving back on the island they landed on before and losing their goggles and snorkels in the process. Kirby shakes off the water on his body and then looks at the boy, saying to him with a puzzled expression "Huh? You didn't transform this time?"

Riku says to the star warrior "I chose not to. Since I knew a transformation was coming, I was able to stop it from happening."

"Oh, well at least you did get your powers back. For a second there, I thought maybe the process had failed despite Acro returning to normal." Kirby says in turn.

"No need to worry about failure on that end. This method of mine is sure to work no matter what happens." Riku says with absolute confidence.

"Is that so? Alright, well that's good to hear!" Kirby replies enthusiastically as he waves up towards the sky to call down the Warp Star, and as the ride descends from the sky he says to Riku "Lets do a two-for-one, huh?"

"What do you mean by that Kirby?" Riku asks in a puzzled tone of voice.

"I mean we are going to get two of your elemental powers back instead of just one." Kirby says as he leaps onto the star.

"…But why did you use that specific terminology? Wouldn't it have made more sense to say 'Lets quickly get one right after the other?'" Riku asks in a completely serious tone of voice. Once again though, the star warrior ignores his question, causing the teenage Overlord to sigh and just submit to the fact that he won't get any answer from Kirby. Thus, the boy leaps onto the Warp Star and latches onto it tightly after dispelling his sword.

Kirby then launches the star up towards the clouds in the sky, saying as loud as he can to Riku "WE'RE HEADING TO THE BUBBLY CLOUDS, I THINK WE MIGHT FIND TWO OF YOUR ELEMENTS THERE!"

"OK!" Riku responds loudly as the Warp Star breaks through the bottom layer of clouds and enters a very sunny domain where the clouds were filled with gummy bubbles and looked a lot like marshmallows. There were pillars of gold and canes of peppermint scattered around the air, making this place look like a comfortable paradise for anyone who could ascend to here. Once again, there were no enemies around, but this time Riku wasn't disturbed by this since it made the place look much better on the eyes.

Kirby looks around as the Warp Star stays suspended in place for a few seconds, trying to find a light similar to the one the two of them had seen underwater. From afar, the star warrior sees a shimmering yellow light buried atop a lone cloud in the distance, and points to it while saying to Riku "Look over there! I think I see another one of your powers!"

The teenage Overlords looks in the direction that Kirby is pointing towards and says with his eyelids squinting "Not just one…I sense two elements over there!" Riku was surprised by the fact that he could sense the elements, but it didn't take him long to piece together how reclaiming two elements must have re-enabled his ability to sense elemental energy. This kind of went against his whole 'I should try and fight like a normal human with a sword' talk earlier, but its not like Riku could shut off that particular ability of his.

Whatever the case, Kirby guided the Warp Star towards the yellow light and let it crash down gently, and this time Riku is dropped on the ground where the star landed instead of being sent flying like the other two times before this moment. Once on the cloud, Riku looks on ahead and sees a white glimmer blended in with the clouds. Electricity and Wind were represented by the two orbs in the ground, though in Kirby's world they would represent the Spark and Tornado powers respectively.

Sensing nothing amiss in the air, Riku begins to step forward to claim his two powers, only a figure to emerge underneath the elements in a matter of seconds. It was a cloud shaped creature with many spikes surrounding its body and a single glistening eye that stares down at Kirby and Riku. Annoyed at yet another boss appearing to get in their way, the teenage Overlord scowls and says in a raised voice "You have GOT to be kidding me?! Now Kracko is here?!"

Kirby, nonchalant as always, says to the boy "Well to be fair, this is his domain" before turning to Kracko and nonetheless asking "But still, it is weird that you would show up at this exact location Kracko."

Kracko says in a distorted, static-y tone of voice "My presence here makes sense Kirby, King Dedede sent me here to seek out these strange orbs."

Kirby is surprised by Kracko's response, while Riku slaps the front of his face and says with a groan "Oh sweet merciful lord…"

The star warrior, on the other hand, takes this news in stride and asks "Why does Dedede want the orbs?"

Kracko fizzles with electricity and says to Kirby "The King had a black orb fall into his castle just a few hours ago, and after becoming intrigued by it he sent out a request to have myself and a few others seek out any other orbs that might have fallen onto Dream Land. And as luck would have it, I just happened to come across two."

"A black orb?" Riku thinks to himself, his eyes widening in a panic as he draws his stubby arm away from his face and continues to think with his teeth partially grit "Not again…King Dedede is in possession of my darkness element!"

But instead of letting his panic break through to his natural expression, Riku notices something crucial in Kracko's sentence that assures him that Dedede hasn't taken the power of darkness into his body yet. However, Kracko having two orbs in his possession did not make the teenage Overlord feel comfortable, even though Kirby still maintained a nonchalant air about him as he looked at the cloud and said "Well sorry Kracko, but my friend here needs those two orbs more than Dedede does. Can you just hand them over peacefully?"

"No can do, Kirby." Kracko firmly says, but with his eyebrow raised he proceeds to mention "But I do find it curious that you want these orbs for your friend. Just what secrets do they hold?"

Kracko uses electricity to grab onto the two orbs, pulling them in front of his body as he says to the heroes "I'm sure the King will not mind if I use these orbs for myself. Plus, a test of what they are capable of would surely prove beneficial…"

Without hesitation, Kracko takes both orbs into his body, with Riku quickly drawing his sword and pointing it at the cloud creature while thinking to himself "What will happen to someone who absorbs two elements at the same time?"

Kracko freezes in place and his eye widens as though he was experiencing incredible pain, but then a field of electricity followed by a binding cloud of fog surrounds the cloud monstrosity and covers his appearance completely. After a few seconds the electricity bursts and disperses the fog as the electricity itself fades away, and Kracko reveals himself in his new form. The creature had grown a body of sorts that still retained the rounded curves of his normal cloud self yet was now shaped like a cone that was attached to a single flat cloud surrounded by pulsating electrical spikes. Atop the cone body was a head that looked like Kracko's original body but with a smaller size and a second eye having now grown alongside the first. Kracko also had a cloth green sleeveless vest wrapped around his body and a single thunderbolt grasped in his newly grown right hand.

"This feels…strange…" Kracko says in a more clearly spoken tone of voice than before, his eyes focusing directly on the hands that have grown out of his new body as he says in a joyous tone "And at the same time…it feels so invigorating…"

Kracko raises his arms into the air, but as he does so he unwittingly causes the clouds in the sky to move and block the sun. The clouds also turn a slight shade of grey, which causes the cloud monstrosity to raises his eyebrows and say in an intrigued tone of voice "Interesting…So those orbs carried within them the raw essence of the elements for Electricity and the very Skies themselves…"

Kracko looks down upon the red Kirby whose name he hadn't yet identified and said to him "And I sense that you hold within you two elements of your own. These are your powers, yes? I am quite interested to know just where you managed to acquire such an array of powers."

"Well I'm not telling you." Riku firmly states in response to Kracko's desire for knowledge.

Kracko, rubbing his chin with his right hand in such a way that he has to pause and enjoy this sensation, goes on to say to the red Kirby "Such a shame. I feel these orbs will be wasted on the King, so perhaps it would be for the best if I absorb the other elemental powers and learn the truth behind how you came to acquire them."

"So what, do you want to fight me for my two elements?" Riku asks, keeping his sword grasped in his stubby hand as tightly as he can manage as he stares straight at Kracko.

"Not at all, actually. I feel that even in my current state I would not be able to defeat you both. For my own safety, I shall face the two of you another time, perhaps once I have tipped the scale of elemental powers in my favor…" With a fond wave of his right hand, Kracko is quick to fly off away from where the heroes currently stand, leaving them both dumbfounded for quite a good few seconds.

"I-I…Ok, what just happened here?" Kirby, for once in his life, is left completely confused and actually tilts his head to better scratch it with his left hand.

Riku, with his right hand back to being applied to his face after he dispels his sword, says to the star warrior "While I'm trying to wrap my head around all of this, there's a couple of important things I got from what just happened…One, Kracko didn't go insane like Whispy and Acro did because he absorbed two elements instead of one. Two, he appears to be much more intelligent and savvy then he was before. Third and most importantly, he can detect my elements, which combined with the last thing I mentioned, means things have really, REALLY just gone downhill for the two of us."

"So what you're saying is that Kracko is going to seek out the remaining elements to try and become strong enough to take us both out and steal your two elements?" Kirby sums up Riku's explanation in terms he understands, and the teenage Overlord nods his head in response.

"Well just how many elements do we have left to find?" Kirby asks, trying to keep a calm air despite how worried Riku looked.

The boy said to the star warrior "Fire, Earth, Ice, Light and Dark…We know King Dedede has Dark now thanks to what Kracko said, and I don't think Kracko is going to make a move against Dedede until he has enough elements in his possession so we don't need to storm Castle Dedede just yet. With Wind and Electricity under his belt, I think it would be for the best if I reacquire Earth next to counteract the two elements that Kracko has right now."

Kirby rubs his chin and says "But if Kracko goes for Ice while we go for Earth, then won't he counteract your attempt to counteract him?"

While the star warrior brings up a rather good point, Riku merely says in a flustered tone of voice "Don't bring Pokemon weaknesses into this Kirby. Besides, if it comes down to that, then I'll just reacquire Fire and counteract his counteracting of my counteracting."

"…What?" Kirby says, Riku's mess of a sentence making little sense to him as he tilts his head in confusion.

The teenage Overlord shakes his head and says "The way things are now, Kracko's two elements beat my two elements. We have to look at this whole matter like it is a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, so its important that we get the upper hand on Kracko as soon as possible."

"And how is a Rock-Paper-Scissors comparison better than a Pokemon reference?" Kirby points out with a nonchalant attitude.

Riku puts on a flustered expression and says to Kirby with a wave of his hand "N-Never mind, just summon the Warp Star so we can head off to whatever desert area the Earth element might lie in."

The star warrior nods his head and waves towards the sky to summon the Warp Star, and both heroes quickly get on it and fly away from the Bubbly Clouds to head back down to Dream Land. However, what they didn't realize is that Kracko did not quickly descend through the clouds, but instead chose to remain afloat below the cloud that the two heroes stood on while using his newly enhanced control over the clouds to hear their conversation from below.

Rubbing his fingers together to spark electricity within then, Kracko says to himself as he begins to rubs his chin "Fascinating…So the remaining elements lie within environments similar to the element itself. Hmmm, I could follow the two to where the Earth element lies and ruin their entire plan by snatching it for myself, but there is a better way to go about this that doesn't run the risk of me being forced into a confrontation with the two heroes…" With plans brewing in his wiser mind, Kracko descends into Dream Land.

Next Time: …So why exactly is this story called "The Return of Dark Matter"?