I'm so, so sorry for taking so much for a simple update. But in my defense, I had been working hard in other stuff...

Chapter 4: Lost Lands

Kirby's party was walking on a giant desert. Th only thing that can be visible in sight was sand and more sand.

"Oh boy, this sun, I-I can't take it no more longer!" said a really tired Dedede "How can you tolerate it?"

"I warm weather never had stopped me." Starry said.

"Why are you so irritated Dedede, I never see you in such a condition, not even in Rock Star, Neo Star, Raisin Ruins, nor Dangerous Dinner." said Kirby.

"That's because on those places, I always got a waddle dee to attend my necessities." said the king "Now I don't have Bandana Dee by my side."

"Who is Bandana Dee?" asked Starry.

"He is one of my loyal servants, he is actually my actual right hand." Dedede answered.

"He is also our friend, I should present him to you someday." said Kirby "And speaking about him, where is him?"

"When I left, I ordered him to take care of the castle. He insisted to go, but I don't want him to get injured again." Dedede said, the last part mumbled.

"Aw" Starry and Kirby said in harmony.

"That's so sweet." said Starry.

"Ah, this heat is killing me!" said Dedede, changing the conversation, "Where is that piece?"

"Well, the compass points to that... ocean?" said Starry "This may not been a desert, but a giant beach."

"Oh yeah! This is better!" declared Dedede rising his arm.

"The next part is located in that island far away." said the hooded girl "We must cross this ocean to reach it."

"Then let's move one." said Meta Knight, who finally spoke.

"Look over there!" said Kirby pointing to the ocean "More stardust!"

"You are right Kirby, I think we must continue this underwater." said Starry.

"How didn't it dissolved underwater?" asked Dedede.

"The stardust can hardly combine with other materials, only stars are an exception" explained the hooded girl.

The entire party were wearing their googles, even Starry, yet she still wearing her hood. Kirby was wearing his classic blue googles; Meta Knight, the purple ones in front of his mask; Dedede, the yellow ones, which were a different kind; and Starry, light blue ones (similar to Kirby's), which were barely visible under the shadow made by her hood.

They then jumped to the water. For some weird reason, Starry's hood stayed still like if she still was on the surface. Also, Dedede's hat didn't float away to the surface. Yet Starry and Meta knight's capes did got affect by the underwater physics. Meta Knight decided to turn his cape into wings.

"Amazing" Starry thought.

The party floated to the stardust and collected it. Suddenly something behind them gave a growl, making them turn around. They found a killer whale behind, Acro. He tossed at some rocks them.

"We don't have enough time to fight him!" Starry said "We must ESCAPE!"

And they swam away. In front of them were some wooden blocks. They dodged almost all of them, others were destroyed by their weapons.

"Hey guys!" a voice said "Over here!"

Kirby turned to the direction where the voice came from and saw his friend Kine.

"Follow me!" he said and swam away. The others following behind.

After dodging many obstacles, the sunfish guided them to a underwater cave. Everyone entered the cave. Then Acro charged towards the cave, but he was too big for the entrance, as a result, he got hit.

"Thanks... for your help... Kine." said an exhausted Kirby.

"No problem, Kirby. It's always nice to help an old friend." Kine said "And who is your new friend, huh?"

"I'm Starry, nice to meet you." the hooded archer said.

"The pleasure is mine." the sun fish said.

"And how is going with you and your wife?" asked Kirby.

"Everything had been nice since you and Gooey defeated Zero." answered the sunfish.

"Yeah, I can still remember the fight, unfortunately." said Kirby, that last word murmured.

"And what about you? Rick, Coo and I haven't see you since the Kirby Fighters Deluxe tournament."

"Well I'm now on another quest to save the universe." said the pink puffball "Alongside Starry, Meta Knight and Dedede. Do you wanna join us?"

"Another adventure with you, Kirby? It would be a pleasure, but I'm quite occupied, you see, Mine needs me."

"Um... OK! Well, we must leave."

"Come back if you want. It's always nice to receive visitors!"

"I will!" Kirby said as they exited that cave and continued.

After few minutes later, the party was swimming calmly until something attacked them with a rock. The thing that threw the rock was once more Acro. He had already regain his consciousness and really wanted to fight.

"This thing surely will not leave unless we defeat it!" said Meta Knight.

"That whale is really persistent!" said Starry.

And they begun to fight, Acro started to throw some stones, empty cans and plastic skulls(how many trash does people throw to the ocean, huh?). Meta Knight and Dedede used their weapons to block the projectiles. Starry, knowing that she can't shoot arrows underwater, used her bow and one arrow to hit everything in front of her, like two small blades. Kirby spit water to the creature, he kinda prefer having a weapon because his water gun has a really short range compared to sword, parasol, hammer, bell and spear abilities.

Acro's vitality was on the half, he started to ground pound. The gang dodged and counterattack. Acro seemed get weaker, on more blast and they win. Suddenly Acro, after doing a ground pound, dashed at them hitting the entire team. All of them got unable to get up, that attack was truly strong. The killer whale was about to charge once more until something hit him from the back. The creature got defeated.

The team looked around to see who have saved them, yet the only thing they found was a spear on the whale's back. There are many creatures that wielded spears; Lanzors, Waddle Dees, Pierces...

Yet the group left it a mystery and continued. Above the ocean there was a boat and a small creature gazing at them and followed them.

At some point the gang arrived to the island, after collecting more dust. They followed Starry as she possessed the compass. And they found something on the tropical island, a temple.

"The part maybe is inside." said Starry.

"Then let's enter." said Dedede.

And they entered. Kirby sucked a torch and turned into Fire Kirby.

"Be careful, temples usually have secret traps." said the girl.

And suddenly few arrows appeared, somehow the traps got activated, luckily no one got injured. Then a spiky ball appeared behind, the gang ran.

"Who activated the traps?!" asked Kirby.

In front of them were two doors one on the left and the other on the right. Kirby and Dedede went left, meanwhile Starry and Meta Knight went right.

"That was close..." said Dedede.

"Um... Where are Starry and Meta Knight?" asked Kirby.

Meanwhile...

"Where are Kirby and Dedede?" asked Starry.

"We had get separated from them." said Meta Knight.

"What should we do?" asked both the pink hero and the hooded archer simultaneously.

"We must proceed." said both the king and the knight.

"Ok" said Kirby. And both groups continued, hoping to reunite soon.

Kirby were walking until they spotted something. They saw a giant door with a giant lock with the number 15 on it. Nearby it was what seemed to be a giant bowl. On it was a melon. Both the king and the puff suddenly felt hungry. But before someone could take the melon, they saw a picture of a bowl of fruit above.

"Ah. I get it! We most put fruit to the bowl to open the lock." said Kirby.

"But where are we going to get 15 fruits?" asked Dedede. And they noticed four doors two on the left of the room and two on right. Each with a different color and a icon. One was red with an icon of a apple, other was purple with the picture of grapes, another one was pink with a picture of a peach, and the last one was green with a icon of a melon.

Both decided to take the red door first. And they found a small course with few obstacles, like blocks of stone and big columns. Four shiny apples were scattered through the course. After walking few steps away from the door, something big fell from behind. The duo of rivals turned back and saw a giant block that made contact with the walls, the floor and the ceiling. It seemed to move towards them. At the distance they saw a yellow square with a signal that said "Safe Spot"

"Should we hurry? It doesn't seem too dangerous." asked Dedede. He didn't seemed to afraid as the wall, except of crushing them to death, was unable to do any harm at all.

Then in only just an instant, spikes popped out of the wall. And seemed to move faster.

"Ok, run!" Dedede said as he and Kirby ran away from the danger. On the way, Kirby, skillfully, grabbed three apples, meanwhile Dedede only just grabbed one single apple.

Kirby was the first to reach the "goal",and when he did, he found a switch and pressed it. Then the wall left to where it came from.

"Well... done... kid" said Dedede exhausted for running."You, know this reminded me the Gourmet Race."

"Yes, but without eating and more dangerous..." said Kirby.

Both left the room and put the apples on the bowl. Then went to the purple door.

Inside this next room, instead of a giant crunching wall, there were many shotzos.

"Hey pinky! I got an idea. Why not race for the food? 'Cause more faster we gather them, more faster will exit this room." sugested Dedede.

"Um, OK. But this isn't a competition." said Kirby.

Dedede and Kirby started to run and gathering more food.

Meanwhile...

Starry and Meta Knight had ended in some sort of fighting chamber. Hordes of enemies appeared from nowhere. They were fighting with great skill. After taking 8 waves of enemies, a Hornhead appeared.

It dashed towards the duo. Both dodged. Starry charged an arrow and fired it. Meta knight slashed quickly. The giant beetle then got up and started to slash with his horn. Meta Knight got away from it. It then shot a beam with his horn.

Then it started to fly and followed Starry. She started to run away from it until got hit by a wall. She got away before it could land on her.

Meta Knight then charged a powerful sword beam at the creature, finishing it.

"We made an excellent team! Don't you think?" asked Starry.

"Yes, indeed." he said "We must proceed now."

Suddenly the floor disappeared, revealing a bottomless pit.

"You must be kidding." said Starry as both warriors began to fall.

At some point, Meta Knight turned his cape into wings and started to search for Starry. He didn't saw nothing that could be her. Did he got too late? Was it the end for young Starry?

"Hey, Meta Knight! Are you looking for someone?" asked Starry.

Meta Knight turned to Starry, who was above him on a star shaped machine, similar to the warp star, but with a smaller star and a long light blue tail, it was the shooting star.

"So it finally charged up." said the blue knight.

"Well, only enough to keep hovering in the air." said Starry.

"Then let's continue." Meta knight said.

Meanwhile, back to Dedede and Kirby...

After Kirby stated it wasn't a competence, what did you expected, it turned into one. Until now both were tied 6 to 6. Kirby got all four of the red room, and Dedede all four from the purple room. Each got two from the pink room, that lacked of platforms and had strong wind currents.

Now they were heading to the green room. When they entered, they got shocked. The last room contained all those elements from the other three rooms. It was a giant course. Kirby and Dedede searched for the three melons.

They found one on the top of a group of platforms that made a staircase. The second one was on a path filled with cannons and giant stones that fall from the ceiling. Yet those were not part of the main path. The main path was a long broken bridge with cannons firing from different directions, and seem quiet unstable. At the end of that last path was the fruit and some stardust.

Kirby and Dedede dashed towards the first. There both noticed that the platforms were covered in ice, which complicated the things. Both jumped and jumped, but at the end Dedede got the first one. Then they headed for the second one. Kirby got some advantage. There the pink puffball dodged the cannons skillfully, meanwhile Dedede barely managed to do it, but who can blame him, his weight is hard to control. Kirby got the second one.

Now the rivals were heading for the last one. Both were jumping and dodging. They could simply float, yet that will take a while. At the end of the course, both were face to face with the thing they were looking for, but suddenly a wall of lasers appeared in front of them appeared. The only way to make it disappeared was by hitting three switches.

"What should I do?" asked Dedede to himself.

"May be forget the competence rivalry and work together, don't you think?" said Kirby.

"Um, yeah." said the King.

And Dedede stood on one switch as Kirby did in another one. The last one was activated by Dedede's hammer. Then the lasers disappeared. They grabbed the fruit and took the three melons to the giant bowl. When all the sixteen fruits were on it, the door opened. It revealed a hallway with its walls filled with paintings. At the end, there was the light of day.

The duo continued walking. They stared at the paintings. There was a drawing of a pirate ship, a treasure chest and weird curved lines, probably drawings of tentacles.

When they exited they found Starry and Meta Knight already leaving the temple. They were now in the other side of the island. They can saw the beach and a dock.

"Did you found the piece?" asked Kirby.

"No, the piece wasn't inside the temple." said Starry.

"Then, where is it?" asked Dedede.

"The compass says there." said Starry pointing at the dock.

The quartet moved on towards the dock. On the path they found two copy pedestals, spear and yo-yo. Kirby chose also found few golden coins as they got closer.

At the end, they saw a pile of coins, jewels and other kinds of treasures. On top of it was a red stained crystal, the second piece. Starry was about to grab it until a pair of tentacles appeared from the pile and grabbed the red crystal, pushing the girl backwards. Starry got caught by Meta Knight. Then the head that controlled the tentacles appeared.

It was a giant octopus, color orange with weird white markings on the face. It also had blue eyes.

"The Treasure Keeper will not let you take the treasure, it's all mine!" the octopus, may be called The Treasure Keeper, cried.

The gang new that the will must fight him in order to retrieve the piece, so they started to fight.

The octopus started by making his tentacles appear from the ground, yet it was easy to detect as small mountains of coins formed in the ground. All dodged precisely and attacked. Next he sank his head and tentacles in the treasure. He had disappeared for few seconds and then he jumped from the ocean to the treasure, hitting the entire party. Then two tentacles appeared and started to shot ink towards the team. They all dodged it. The two tentacles then smash against the floor and started to spin around. Kirby and Dedede avoid it by floating, Meta Knight by flying and Starry by activating and jumping on the shooting star just in time. The tentacles stop and hide again as the head appeared. Tentacles appeared next to the battlefield, both left and right. All holding blippers, squishies, and gordos. They started to throw them. The team dodged as they attacked the head. The Treasure Keeper seemed very tired, they almost defeat him. Only just one final blow. The octopus hided again, the team expected him repeating his pattern, but they were wrong. Four tentacles appeared and quickly grabbed one team member each. Meta Knight, Dedede and Starry were unable to use their weapons as their arms were unable to move. Kirby tried to move one of his hands free of the tentacle and tried to grab his spear.

Then a spear came flying and hit the octopus, who release the captives and sank in the treasure and then exploded. Coins started to fall as well as the piece. Starry caught it.

"Well done Kirby!" said Starry.

"Um... thanks, but I didn't threw it." said the pink puffball.

"Then, who threw the spear?" asked Dedede.

The gang turned around and saw a Waddle Dee, but not an ordinary one, it was Bandana Waddle Dee.

"Bandana Dee!" exclaimed Dedede and Kirby.

"You aren't suppose to be here, I gave you an order!" said the king.

"I know, but I can't let you be harm by no one. My work is protect you, Great King." said the young waddle dee.

"So you are Bandana Dee. Hi, I'm Starry! Nice to meet you!"

"Hi! The pleasure is mine."

"How do you get here, Bandana?" asked Kirby "Did you followed us?"

"Yes actually."

"So you saved us from Acro, right?" said Meta Knight.

"Yes"

"But how didn't we saw ya?" asked Dedede.

"I threw my spear from a boat."

"Then I should say thanks" said Dedede "For all your help."

"Really? I thought you were mad because I disobeyed you."

"You saved us, how could I be mad?" said the king "But you should get back to the castle, the other waddle dees still need supervision. And I'll not accept no as an answer."

"Why you don't want my help! I can be strong!"

"I know you're, but it's for your own good! I can see you suffer no more, I can still remember that fight against Magolor, I can let you sacrifice yourself for me!"

"Great King..."

"You, Bandana Dee, I can't let you get injured, neither the other waddle dees. You are very important to me."

"OK, Great King, I'll stay on the castle." said Bandana Dee.


After returning to castle Dedede and waving to Bandana Dee.

Starry pointed to the next direction, the southeast corner of Popstar. And the gang followed her.

"I can't believe you still not letting Bandana Dee join us." said Kirby.

"I may be not a good ruler, yet I do take care of my people. And I think its for his own good. Let me tell you something during the events of the adventure you called Return to Dreamland. Even thought Bandana Dee was so calmed, I knew he was suffering, I knew was hiding it. I'll not let that happen again."