A/N: I hated writing this chapter and I'm going to apologize in advance for it's crappiness... I tried really hard to make a racing mini game work in story form but it's much more harder than I thought. I fought with this chapter for two days and revamped it several times, I even stared in space brainstumped on how to make this damn chapter work. I tried my best, and I hope it's at least readable/entertaining. At least I have huge confidence in chapter eleven not being terrible, it's a chapter I've been looking forward to writing for awhile which made chapter ten even more difficult to write :( I just didn't want to half-ass on you guys and tried my best. I almost gave up, but nope, I managed to push through, but it wore me out...I hope you enjoy D;

In a short matter of time, the town square was built and ready for a race with day light still at it's brightest. The area, including a cavern that lead to the mountain peak was quickly set up by the thousands of Waddle dees. Usually Lololo&Lalala would host major events across the tvs of the people not participating, but Waddle doo was filling their spot for this one. Waddle doo grabbed his microphone and instructed, "Kirby! No inhalin' allowed, got it? And for everybody else watching... the rules of the race is that King Dedede and Kirby have to eat the most as well as reach the finish line! This racks up points to the final total of their score which truly determines who wins! At the check point to the caverns there will be a thirty minute break and then there will be two more races which reaches the top of a mountain!"

Kirby didn't hear the whole instruction of Waddle doo, but he did hear 'no inhaling' and concentrated on that. He was told that the end of the peak there will be a sack with a glorious prize inside. He was incredibly curious on what it was and the mystery bag and the food drove him to win. Clanking armor caught his attention, and when he turned to the crowd, he saw Metaknight mixed into the crowd of cappies. Even a child like Kirby knew that was a rare sight and that Metaknight didn't like the cappies very much, so he took his presence here as a great honor.

"Alright, the race is starting as soon as Waddle Gee manages to pull the darn party cork!" Waddle doo shouted through the microphone. Still, Gee the Waddle dee struggled, but Cappies encouragingly cheered him on to pull that cork with all his might! Waddle doo, however, was his strict captain demanded he pull it. "Come on, Gee! Represent your fellow dees, man!!"

Gee's face reddened as he pulled with his soul. His captain was right, he had to for his hard working fellow dees! With a loud pop, it was finally pulled! He stumbled over from the noise, but luckily he did not pull a muscle or get run over by his large king. When he sat up, he could see that Kirby was in the lead already and sheepishly rubbed his head.

"Damn it, Kirby! How does your stubby little body allow you to move so fast?! Stop cheating!!" Dedede hollered. He panted as he tried to catch up, since eating and running was much harder than he thought it would be. It was all sitting in his chest, shagging down slowly with threat of becoming vicious heart-burn in the future.

As far as Kirby knew, heart burn didn't exist for his kind and very rarely did he ever feel full. His elastic and small body was playing a very huge advantage here as he kept a steady lead. He couldn't jump very high for some foods as much as he tried, so he focused on the foods down below, whilst jumping through hopes that seemed to only be on his side of the race. Food was becoming bleak on his end and it was making him sad as well as his tummy growl for more and disappointment. He kept reminding himself that he could not inhale and that he had to keep running to the finish. Above the line there was a giant tomato in view. Kirby wished it was a watermelon instead, but leaped for the win.

He snagged it into his mouth, and with a satisfying squish against his tongue, he realized just how gloriously juicy tomatoes could be, rivaling his love of watermelons.

"Ooooh, Kirby wins!" Waddle doo exclaimed as he rang a loud bell. To signify the first check point being reached.

Escargon took the bell away and harshly whispered, "You only ring the bell for King Dedede!"

"Well, sorry," Waddle doo snidely replied an leaned on his stubby hand.

Over at the outer cavern check point, some of Kirby's new friends were there, though he didn't know yet. Ado and Chuchu wanted to introduce Pitch to Kirby, since besides Ado's drawings and Chuchu's blabber, he haven't personally met the young hero. The little pink girl blabbered all afternoon about Kirby, Ado illustrated most of Chuchu's babbles, but was strictly more interested in drawing the fight scenes more than the other stuff. She was on the look out for Kirby and finally spotted him walking up to a rock to sit on while rubbing tomato remains off his face on the big screen.

"Ah, there he is, Pitch!" Ado pointed ahead.

Pitch saw the male pink 'blob' and blurted out, "They confused her with him?"

"Well, they did only have a description to go off of," Ado chuckled in reply.

"But he's rounder like a candy ball, while Chuchu...well, she is indescribable..."

"Hey!" Chuchu shouted and whacked the bird off the low leveled tree branch he was parked in. "I'm not 'indescribable'. I'm cute."

"Y-yes...cute, yes. I'll..make sure to use that in the future," Pitch stuttered in fear and flew up a little higher in hope she couldn't stretch her limbs that far.

While the kids' days were average and fine, Metaknight's were worsening. When he thought things were picking up for him, they sadly were not. What should be filled with tranquil and normalcy was still ludicrous and filled with despair. Dedede was black mailing him to talk to the hundreds of people here without reason. He hardly talked to fifty people in a year. He could protest, or even chew out King Dedede after holding it in all of these years...but the immature king had the microphone in hand. Of course it was currently turned off, but with a simple click of a button it would be on to broadcast on large speakers since the tv at the cavern was blown out.

"All I want you to do is just say, 'The D.D.D. TV at the caverns is out so you'll have to bear with us and hope your king wins!' how hard is that?"

The tired knight groaned and opened his hand for the mike. He was just going to get this over with and hide somewhere unnoticed as things should be. Once the mike was in his grasp, he held it towards his mask and said, "The television is out for the time being and the race will resume. But before you get disappointed, my workers Sword and Blade are working on it." Metaknight explained smoothly despite the shyness kicking in. After the explanation he chucked, "If anything, you all should be praying for the dignity of King Dedede lagging behind terribly off screen." The crowd laughed and the knight was satisfied. Before the insulted and enraged penguin could snatch the microphone away, Metaknight crushed it in the might of his fist and walked away.

Kirby was confused as to what exactly had happened, but gave Metaknight and Dedede their space. Obviously, the knight was getting far away from the tantrum and Kirby knew the mere sight of his pinkness alone would disturb Dedede further, so he stayed put until the signal for lap two began. He patted his excited stomach and stared up high at the bell that would ring the next Waddle dee in with the confetti cork over. The bell rang on cue and another Waddle dee scurried over when Dedede and Kirby positioned themselves in their lanes.

The television blinked on, and as Sword and Blade were giving their thumbs up, it immediately switched over to Escargon grinning. The knight brothers were sorely disappointed.

This Waddle dee was much more successful and quicker with pulling the cork, but he was still knocked over by the loud blast. Kirby took the lead yet again, but the food was placed even higher than last race. He had no choice but to puff up and rack points. He was a very slow flyer and he wanted to frown at the sight of Dedede laughing and taking lead. He grabbed as much as his small arms could grab a hold of and landed to eat in one swallow. He resumed pace, a little more frantically and entered the cave. He followed the noise of Dedede's stomping, but the fat King has eaten everything in the way by then. Kirby felt like he made a big mistake by puffing into the air earlier.

He couldn't let that bring him down and kept running.

"Looks like I'm eating more than you, Kirby! Hahaha I'll cross this finish line as well!" Dedede cackled and hammered Kirby to the lower parts of the cavern. It didn't matter to Dedede that this was all being filmed and broadcasted, he wanted to win!

"He's cheating!!" Chuchu hissed angrily.

"I'm sure Kirby's stomach can lead him out!" Ado reassured Chuchu to calm her flaring disapproval . She also had faith in Kirby herself.

Kirby's nose was leading him towards food again. He didn't need to necessarily fly up but he managed to work his way out of the lower areas and back to Dedede.

"Cheater!" Kirby shouted at Dedede in his own disapproval, even though the young child had a feeling this would not break through his thick hat before it went to his thick skull.

"Whatever, Kirby! I ate more food this round and—Argh!!" Dedede shouted mid-sentence when Kirby ran ahead of him again regardless of being pretty far behind last time. The child caught the second tomato and rolled into the finish line just like before. He was low in score, but the finish line and tomato catch brought him up to a safe score. "You're still in last place!!" Dedede panted angrily an stormed away from his kid rival.

Kirby was a little off put himself, but despite being the baby of the two, he was strangely able to keep his attitude in check...Or it was just the juicy tomato calming his nerves.

Waddle doo was excited about the race whether Dedede was winning or not. Life in Pupuland was boring without demon beasts around, and he had to stay put in the castle during Kirby day, so this ridiculous race was entertainment godsend. He exclaimed through his microphone, "Okay, everyone! The score's tight and the final race is a really long one! It's to the very top of the mountain! They have to run through slopes, swim through water, and find a way to the top by climbing or even flying! Good luck!!"

Escargon nudged Waddle doo to the side and added to Doo's sentence, "To Kirby because King Dedede is going to blow him away!!!"

Some brave, or possibly humorous Cappies, booed Dedede's name just to rile him up.

Dedede shook his fist at the crowd while it took several Waddle dees to calm the raging King down. Finally, when things were settled down, the third Waddle dee pulled the party confetti and ran.

Dedede hopped into the air and landed with a heavy stomp that not only startled Kirby, it literally stunned him. The little pink hero was helplessly dazed on his back while Dedede ran away cackling.

"Come on, Kirby! You can do it!!" Ado cheered with a drawn megaphone.

Chuchu took Ado's megaphone and shouted, "Gooo, Kirby! I—we believe in you!!"

Kirby heard the cheers of his new friends, as well as familiar old ones and was brought back to his senses. Even though Dedede was in the lead yet again, he was sure to catch up. He didn't know he was very far behind, though...

Dedede had secret roller skates on.

Ado saw such trickery on the large television and rubbed her chin as she pondered. She wondered if there was anything her magic art tools could do... She looked up at her green friend dozing off in the tree and said, "Pitch! I need you to fly up with me!"

"With you?" Both Pitch and Chuchu questioned.

"That's right," she answered and quickly began to scribble a helmet with rockets on it.

"You're not going to imitate Kirby with those hats are you??" Chuchu asked in concern and nearly yanked the pencil away from Ado.

"As much as I want to, no, I'm going to drop this to him and hope it works, though. And don't ask me how, you'll see how! Just follow me, Pitch!" Ado said as she scribbled a large cluster of balloons with red chalk next. When those peeled off of the rocky ground, she grabbed a hold of them and lifted up into the air. "Okay, follow me, Pitch!!" She signaled as she flew higher into the air.

"For all of that, you could've drew a rocket that goes onto your back than unreliable balloons..." Pitch murmured as he soared beside Ado.

Ado's face soured at the realization, especially how when she looked down she kept flying even higher. "Pitch, keep using your brain, okay!!"

Pitch caught on and popped two balloons with his pointy young beak then asked, "Is that better??"

"No, pop more of them!" She shrieked while trying to keep a firm hold of the helmet.

"I mean if you want you can fall into the water!"

"POP!!!"

"Okay! Okay!" Pitch chirped nervously and popped several more. He then noticed, "Now you're drifting out of the sky!!"

"T-that's okay! Kirby's getting out of the water! Just pop them all—please!!" Pitch did as requested and popped the remaining balloons. She fell out of the sky and onto her rump right in front of Kirby and yelped in pain.

Kirby on the other hand, yelped in surprise, "Ado?!"

"H-hi, Kirby...I wanted to deliver this to you, put it on, eat it, which ever..." She replied and gave the helmet to Kirby. She resumed rubbing her hide because it would be an awful long while before she got back up again.

"Thank you!" Kirby said and ate the helmet. He transformed into 'Jet Kirby' and ran on ahead a safe distance from Ado before he blasted off at fiery high speeds.

"Gosh I hope Pitch flew off to get someone to help me...ow..."

Dedede was cackling at how close sweet victory was in front of him. He wasn't even running anymore. He had eaten more food for sure and was a few meters from the finish line. He turned to the camera in view and expressed a victory sign to brag and gloat in his childish glee... but dust clouds covered the view.

"Hey! What is that!!"

Waddle doo slammed his hands down on the desk and shouted, "Slow mo! Come on, slow mo!!!" Even with slow-mo it was hard to see, but a finalized still shot showed Kirby happily colliding with a large watermelon hanging above the finish line. Even at super speed he was able to eat the watermelon whole than smash into it. Pure adrenaline rush, Waddle doo shouted, "And Kirby wins!! Unlike last race when he was wheel Kirby and somehow ended up second! I don't remember the details but holy cow!!"

"Stop cheering for the wrong person!" Escargon growled and strangled Waddle doo before the television went off air.

Kirby's helmet had already disappeared, and he didn't care for anything else but that mystery sack! The sack was also high up in the air until a Waddle dee high up cut the string so that the sack would fall. Upon landing, a weird deep blue blob rolled out of it. Everyone was confused, but Kirby was more so curious. He leaned in and tilted his body at the blob that was twitching in front of him. He poked it and was startled when it suddenly turned over and showed its goofy face. When Kirby stared at him a little longer, he laughed at his face, and the blob strangely laughed shortly after. When Kirby stopped, it stopped and when Kirby tilted, so did it. Kirby poked him once again and exclaimed, "Gooey!"

The blob couldn't talk, but it sure pulled off a heck of a grin in reply and licked Kirby with his elastic tongue like a happy puppy.

"Gooey!" Kirby repeated and picked him up.

He liked this prize.

Even though it wasn't the real prize. The real prize was a sack of watermelons from the farmers...but it appeared the blob had eaten them.

.-.-.-.

Back at the castle, Kirby was giving the blob he dubbed as Gooey just about everything he could find in the castle. He even gave it a chair and watched it consume that in a single gulp. Despite how different the weird creature looked, it sure could eat like he could. Sword and Blade were admittedly entertained by this, but after watching a kid and his newfound pet be chaotic for so long he couldn't help but wonder...

"Where's Sir Metaknight?"

Right on cue, Metaknight came slugging through the door covered in tree leaves and branches stuck in his cloak. He didn't speak to any of them, neither did he notice the newcomer on the ground eating a golden statue, he only noticed his bed.

"Sir! What happened??" Blade asked and frantically plucked the mess off of his lord.

"I fell asleep in a tree," Metaknight admitted and lied in his bed with his back turned to everyone.

Sword quietly walked out of the room, because it was far too hard to keep his laughter in, and Blade was staring at Metaknight flabbergasted.

.-.-.-.

Dedede was intently looking around for a star with a telescope that wasn't his.

"I'm aiming for change, damn it," he grumbled and fumbled with the telescope until he found a peculiar star in the scope. "And you're the star that's going to grant me that change! I want love, fame, and power! And Escargon doesn't count!!" Just as he finished his wish, the star had disappeared. He peeled himself away from the telescope confused, feeling a very heavy headache coming over him. "Staring through that tiny hole and messing with the volume must've hurt my head. How does that nerdy Fumu and old-Curio do this all day?" he mumbled and wandered to his bedroom for sleep.

The headache intensifying with closed eyes.

A/N: I need a minor break after this back breaking chapter. Expect Chapter eleven by wednesday C: Oh, right. Chapter 9 was a parody of the Japanese-only game "Kaabii no kirakira kizzu". In translation it's: Kirby's sparkling kids (No I don't get it either) but commonly referred to as Super star stacker since it's the sequel of the gameboy puzzle game Star stacker but on the super nintendo. It stars a game about Mr Star trying to get his stars back from Dedede who trolled him gloriously so.

Another note is that in this chapter a new chaacter was introduced: Gooey. Gooey is famously known in Dreamland 3 because he's player 2 and has a shinier role in it, but he first appeared in Dreamland 2, popping out of a sack and healing you in thanks.