Chapter 4: Sticky Indeed
Popopo nearly screamed when his telephone rang. He had just about gotten to sleep, too! He hesitantly reached out from under the covers to answer it.
"Hello?" he said quietly.
"Hello! Finally!" replied a very smart-alecky voice. "I've been calling each Dream Lander residence in Vegetable Valley for over an hour! Sure is great to hear your voice... uh, whoever you are. Just a moment, your name's listed in the directory. Ah, here it is. Popopo, is it?"
"Yeah," said Popopo, still in the same small voice.
Silence.
"So..." continued the voice. "You're the only one left, are you?"
Popopo didn't answer. He didn't want it to be true.
"You still there?" asked the voice. "Hello?"
"Who are you?"
"Hm? Oh, right. My name. Well, that would be Gooey. You'll be needing my help."
Is 'Gooey' a name? thought Popopo. He should be called Gugugu, or something.
"Not much of a speaker, are you?" said 'Gooey' impatiently. "If you're wondering why I'm called Gooey, then it's because I'm here to help you get out of a sticky situation!" He gave a very short laugh, but then his tone of voice became more serious. "This is going to be harder than I thought. And I already thought it would be hard."
"What?"
"Okay, Popopo," replied 'Gooey'. "All your friends have been... kidnapped... somehow. You'd better get used to talking on the phone, because you're going to be doing it a lot. I'm here to help you get your friends back and to do that I'll need to keep in touch with you constantly. The first thing you need to do is go outside, where I will have two items waiting for you. Do that right now."
Popopo heard a click and knew 'Gooey' had hung up.
He lay there for a while, not wanting to get up, not wanting to go outside where there might be some unknown danger waiting to snatch him up. But, he did eventually rise and go to the door of his house. He opened it just a crack and cautiously peeked outside.
There were indeed two things outside. One was large, mostly flat, yellow, star shaped, and hovering a few inches off the ground. The other object was a white cellular phone that had yellow buttons and a yellow star at the end of its antenna. This phone was sitting atop the first object and making a ringing sound.
Popopo answered it. "Hello?"
"Ah!" replied 'Gooey', his voice as clear as if he was standing right next to the Dream Lander. "You finally plucked up the courage to go outside. What took you so long?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "The phone you hold in your hand must be guarded with your life. It will be what allows us to talk to one another during... well, you'll see. Don't want to get into that just yet. Anyway, the star in front of you is one of my patented Warp Stars. I invented them and soon I will be able to market them all across the galaxy! Using a specialized type of fuel, along with gravity manipulators, the Warp Star will take its rider to a predetermined destination at a very high speed. They can also be flown without autopilot, but you'll need training to do that. When you get on this Warp Star, it will take you to Castle Dedede. We need to find out what's behind this kidnapping, what we're up against."
"W-what?" choked Popopo. "No! Not back there!"
"Popopo, it's the only way." 'Gooey' sounded completely unperturbed by the protests. "You're the only one who can do this. Don't worry; with the phone in your possession, you'll be fine."
"B-but, I can't... Not me..."
"Hey, how about you try being brave, all right?" snapped 'Gooey' suddenly. "All you need to do is have a look around. This could be a simple procedure. I mean, once you find out what's behind all this, it'll probably be quite simple to, uh, sort out. If you don't do this, you will never see your friends again. Got that?"
Popopo climbed onto the Warp Star in a dazed state. Instantly, it sped off, flying high into the air and rocketing away towards Mt. Dedede. He screamed in fright, but his feet were stuck to the Warp Star somehow, which prevented him from falling off.
'Gooey' apparently knew that Popopo had embarked, because his voice once more blared from the phone.
"Excellent! Now, let me explain the special ability of this phone. It was designed with a specific function for Dream Landers. All you need to do is put it in your mouth. Then it will stay there and you will be able to talk with me without carrying it around. I can assure you that you won't feel it inside your mouth at all, as I have tested one just like it on myself. No, I'm not a Dream Lander, but I have a similar oral cavity, so it should work the same for both of us. Oh, and you can remove it whenever you want as well."
Popopo did as he was told. The phone had nearly flown out of his grasp when the Warp Star had taken off, and he didn't want to lose it.
Castle Dedede began growing closer, but the Warp Star wasn't slowing down.
"Oh, there's one more thing I should mention," said 'Gooey'. "Warp Stars are made of a super-high-density material, so they're extremely strong. Since I don't think it would be wise for you to enter Castle Dedede through the conspicuous visitor's entrance, you're going to be bashing through a couple walls to access the interior. The Warp Star will accomplish that."
Popopo's eyes widened as the castle got nearer and nearer. The Warp Star was tilting vertically, with his feet still stuck to it. Abruptly, the Warp Star's other side rammed into the wall of the castle, smashing straight through it. Popopo yelled again as it crashed through two more walls of the fortress.
When it finally stopped, he fell to the floor. The Warp Star remained hovering a few inches above the ground. He looked up at it and saw a series of star shaped holes through the walls behind it, leading back outside.
He was now in a dark, stone hallway. There were a lot of these hallways in Castle Dedede. He had once played "Hide and Seek" here, but he and his friends were kicked out for trespassing. No one was supposed to go in without an invitation. That incident had helped quash what little adventurousness he once had.
But, as he looked about, shaking with fear, one thing became clear: There were no guards around. From what Popopo had heard, this was a very unusual occurrence. He didn't know whether to be relieved or even more scared.
"I have highly sophisticated scanning equipment at my disposal," said 'Gooey', making Popopo jump. "I will now give you directions to the only activity I could find in the entire complex of Castle Dedede. I would've dropped you off closer to it, but I don't want you heard."
Popopo walked slowly down the hallways, following each instruction 'Gooey' gave him. Eventually he came to a door, through which he was instructed to take a peek.
At the far end of a long table in the room inside, Popopo could see King Dedede, who was talking with a strange dark orb that was floating over the table. This orb was small, glassy, and covered with gray stars that moved about its surface.
"My plan has worked perfectly," King Dedede was saying in a flat tone of voice. "It seems that I will not need your assistance to subdue this planet after all."
The orb responded in a low voice with a heavy accent that sounded like it was coming from a badly tuned radio. The accent was so strange and the "tuning" so bad, Popopo barely understood a word of what the orb said, even though he was sure it was speaking his language.
"Yes, but this planet is different." King Dedede apparently understood the orb completely. "I believe that my travels are finally at an end. There is more nourishment here than on any planet I have ever encountered in my enduring search throughout space. I have secured enough solely in this castle already to grow strong enough to take the rest of this community. What was that they called it again?"
The orb gave a short, yet still indecipherable answer.
"Ah, yes. How fitting..." King Dedede stopped talking for a moment and his gaze wandered to the doorway.
Popopo squeaked in alarm. He had been seen!
The king jumped up on the table and pulled one of his trademark mallets out of nowhere. "We have a breach!" he yelled, before rushing at Popopo.
In the split second after King Dedede charged, Popopo noticed something very strange about the king's eyes. Normally, his pupils were large and surrounded by blue irises. But now the irises were gone. In addition to this, the pupils were no longer round; they had become diagonal slits, which pointed to the outside of the face at the top and inward (toward the beak) at the bottom.
And with that, Popopo screamed and ran.
But he didn't know where to go! He didn't know the way back to the Warp Star!
Seemingly miraculously, it wasn't long before the Warp Star sped past the pursuing King Dedede and caught up with Popopo, who jumped onto it immediately.
WHAM! The king's mallet came crashing down, but Popopo had already sped away. The Warp Star flew through the corridors and back out of the castle through the holes it had made on entry.
As Popopo's breathing returned to normal, 'Gooey' spoke.
"Would you mind not screaming in the future? I can hear everything you hear as if I'm standing right next to you."
"He was going... kill me!" sputtered Popopo. "I'm not ever going back to that place I almost died in even though my friends are in there and I want them out of there but I don't want to go back and I want out-"
"Calm down, Popopo," interrupted 'Gooey' exasperatedly. "This is no time to panic." He then added in a lower tone, "It's quite likely that you'll have plenty of time to do that later if my fears are confirmed."
"What?"
"I heard the entire conversation between King Dedede and... whatever incomprehensible entity he was speaking to. What I want you to tell me is if you noticed anything odd about the king."
"He tried to kill me!"
"Yeah, but besides that."
As the Warp Star flew along, strange gibbering noises could be heard coming from its cargo.
"Hey, get a grip!" shouted 'Gooey'. "I need a straight answer! Take some deep breaths and tell me anything you saw that was strange about King Dedede's appearance."
"Well... there was... one thing..." said Popopo finally. "His eyes... they were... different... slitted... and slanted..."
There was silence for a time after Popopo finished.
The Warp Star came to a stop in Vegetable Valley, but far above the ground, without descending to Popopo's house.
"So, it's true," said 'Gooey' slowly. "Dark Matter has arrived. It's finally the Starred System's turn to face this menace."
"What?"
"They didn't heed my warnings..." continued 'Gooey', sounding bitter, "and now it's too late. Well, I was given this job for a reason. It all makes sense..."
"What?" repeated Popopo. "Hey, uh... why won't you let me land?
"Because I don't want you to run away..." replied 'Gooey' in that same slow voice. "What I am about to say will, uh, likely cause you great distress."
"My friends are coming back, right? Tell me they are..."
"You needn't worry about them. Believe it or not, they are quite safe at the moment. Captured, but safe. However, the entity that has enslaved their minds must be dealt with before it possesses the rest of the life on this planet."
Popopo didn't know what to say. Time seemed to be frozen.
"The entity I speak of is called Dark Matter. It is a traveling force from the furthest reaches of space. Other civilizations have dealt with its power before, but all have managed to drive it out. Now it has come here. I know all this because of the supreme knowledge database compiled on my computer systems. But, I fear that this planet is not yet ready to face such a threat. We do not have the means of will to drive it away. Dark Matter grows stronger by possessing other creatures, making them slaves to its every thought, extensions of its mind. That was not King Dedede speaking; it was Dark Matter using the king's body to speak."
What did all this mean? Popopo felt limp. His mouth was hanging open.
"I was given an assignment to help a lone survivor, or the lone survivor, when there was one. Apparently, you're that one. You are the only person who can deal with this menace."
Silence.
"Alright then," continued 'Gooey' abruptly. "We don't have any time to waste. There is an ancient relic called the Star Rod, which holds a power that can vanquish Dark Matter. The Star Rod is kept at the Fountain of Dreams in Rainbow Resort. We must hurry to the fountain so you can acquire the Star Rod and deal with Dark Matter."
"...Wait, that's it?" Popopo recovered slightly from his thoughts of loss upon hearing how simple the plan sounded.
"What do you mean?"
"It's that easy? I get the Star Rod and use it on Dark Matter?"
"Er, hmm," murmured 'Gooey', more than a hint of uncertainty suddenly present in his voice. "Well, that was the idea."
The Warp Star started flying in the direction of the Fountain of Dreams.
"But my sensors don't show that the Star Rod is still at the fountain."