Phazon: We have finally arrived at the end of Neo Star. I've always enjoyed this boss battle and I'm hoping to expand on it as much as possible without making people get uninterested, but nothing is certain. Enjoy the chapter.

And…to Master Lumine Omega: Chill out. Nothing happened to her in the chapter that involved that, and 'bondage boy?' If that's an insult that you come up with based on how you feel about a fan fiction…based on a video game…then I'm at a loss for words for you.

Disclaimer: The characters, storyline, setting and all of that in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards belong and are the sole property of Nintendo and HAL Laboratories only, and I don't have them locked away in chains anywhere. Best to get the legalities out of the way before someone tries to sue. I aim to give the readers something to enjoy, but not have my story deleted by an NOA executive.

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Liquid Hot Magman

Kirby stood firmly on the rickety platform as he waited for the oozing lava blob creature to attack after it had threatened to steal the shards from him. The pink puffball surveyed his surroundings, seeing if he could gain any advantage over the creature.

"Well, it's a given that these platforms aren't going to move by themselves," he muttered, "and as long as he remains far in the back, I can't reach him from the foreground. If only a-"

The puffball's sentence was never finished; the lava creature suddenly shot up near the magma ceiling before bringing itself down into the lava with a crash. As a result, three lava tentacles were surging forward; one of them towards the very same platform Kirby was standing on.

"Great," he sighed as he began puffing into the air to the platform not in danger of being attacked; "now I have to jump for my life."

When Kirby reached the platform, he looked over and saw the three free platforms suddenly engulfed by lava tentacles. They remained stationary for some time with the occasional spurts of fire bouncing off and landing on the platform. Kirby figured that the longer he dawdled, judging from how sticky the platform was becoming, the fight would become virtually impossible to finish and he'd probably collapse from heat exhaustion than perishing at the hands…erm…tentacles, of this beast.

"Transform!" Kirby yelled as he jumped into the air and experimented with the bomb and needle combination. Suddenly, his body began to morph, mold, and shape until it became the perfect copy of a Gordo: the black ball creatures with spikes protruding from every angle. The problem is that Kirby's movement was no where near that of a Gordo; not to say that Gordos moved very fast to begin with.

Though it was far in the background, the lava creature took note of the little puffball's change of appearance and began to call its tentacles back to the sea of lava.

Kirby inwardly swore as he saw the pillars beginning to descend into the lava. Realizing that he had missed an opportunity for an attack and systematically prolonging his battle, he grew angry and just had to burst!

And that's just what happened: the spikes on Kirby's body suddenly shot out in various directions; one of them nailing the tentacle at the far left just as it descended completely and revealed the platform. The creature wailed and moaned in agony at being attacked. This only added to the monster's rage as it began thrashing about in the lava, causing bits and chunks of rock to fall from the ceiling.

None of them connected with Kirby, who was taking the time to catch his breath and regain some of his strength while the creature wasn't attacking. He took a quick glance at his team, who was anxiously waiting on the sidelines for the battle to come to an end. The momentary peace ended as Kirby felt a violent vibration.

Behind the pink puffball, a lava tentacle rose from the everlasting river. It wasn't until Kirby saw the tentacle's shadow did he jump to the next platform, nearly avoiding the tentacle crashing down on him when it bent over on the platform. Because the process was so quick, Kirby didn't have time to score any more hits. He got his chance, however, when he moved back to the center platform and another tentacle rose out of the molten liquid.

As it bent over in the opposite direction, Kirby jumped into the air and became an imitation Gordo once again. He was able to detonate quickly enough and sent two needles straight into the magma tentacle before it could retreat completely.

Once again, the magma monster groaned in pain as it felt its life force leaving it. Still, there were a few trump cards left to be played.

The creature expanded vertically and came crashing down in the lava, but this time, only one lava tentacle emerged. The exception is that it was coming at a much faster rate than before and the tentacle, once under the platform, shot it towards the ceiling where the would-be occupant would end up getting burned.

"Time to end this battle already!" Kirby concluded as he came up with a plan. There was free space between the platforms that the tentacles couldn't reach; this would be where he launched his attack.

Kirby jumped into the air and transformed just as a tentacle launched the platform he was standing on into the ceiling. The platform shattered from the excessive force, but the tentacle soon felt pain itself when Kirby's transformed form detonated, sending spikes in its direction. When the other two tentacles emerged, Kirby repeated the process until all of the tentacles suddenly retreated to the lava with a bang.

Looking to his left, Kirby saw that the lava creature had vanished, but felt the vibrations getting worse. Taking a quick glance behind him, Kirby's eyes widened upon seeing the very same beast now before him. It let out a loud, vocal, exaggerated yell and began to give chase.

Waddle's eyes darted in Kirby's direction and he stood on her feet. "Wait, don't come this way!"

Too late; Kirby was on solid ground once again and the creature followed him. For seconds, the huge lava blob with black eyes remained stationary and Kirby was just about to attack when he saw the creature begin to inhale a great amount of hot air. Kirby jumped a bit too close to the creature and ducked as a heavy stream of fire suddenly protruded from the beast's mouth. The fiery stream went in all directions, taking nice care of the ceiling fixtures that looked better in a shade of charcoal and soot.

Kirby wasn't quick enough to dodge the few rocks that landed on his head. He looked and saw that the stream of fire had subsided and was ready to make his move when the beast suddenly began to decrease in size until it became…

"A puddle?" Adeleine asked, scratching her head.

A puddle of lava, indeed. What was stranger was the puddle of bubbling lava began to move at a very quick rate across the terrain. Once it reached the other side, the violent vibrations continued once again, but now Burnis birds were spewing forth from the lava pool. Discarding his combo, Kirby grabbed two rogue birds and created the double fire elemental crystal. Once the lava creature reformed, the pink puffball became a rocketing fireball that surged into the beast's body until it moaned in the utmost distaste. The monstrosity banged its top against the ceiling and caused a large amount of rocks to fall suddenly. None made their mark, but it was enough to keep this star warrior from executing what could be the final blow.

Kirby stood on one end trying to get his thoughts back together and catch his breath. The heat was starting to get to him, as he had been breathing hot air in for the past seven minutes. His lungs were slowly filling with hot air and if he wanted to live to rescue Ripple Star from darkness, he had to get out of Neo Star alive, first.

The lava creature, on the other hand, appeared powerful based on its external features, but it was just a giant blob of lava that had little threat to it if one could figure out its patterns. It began to spit up blobs of lava violently, since that was what it fed off of, but because it was no longer in lava anymore, but on solid ground, it had no external source to feed off of. As a result, any lava used from hereon would be it- it wouldn't come back.

The creature inhaled with all of its might and prepared to give this puffball a fiery scorching it would never forget. It hoped that it could suck up the pink bowling ball with feet in the process, but Kirby held his ground by planting his feet in the terrain.

Kirby jumped into the air and shot forward, his body becoming a furious, mighty fireball. Before the lava creature could spew out its fiery breath, something shot in its mouth before it noticed. It soughed and moaned gravely from this entity and before it had noticed, its stomach was suddenly rumbling ferociously.

On the sidelines, Dedede clicked his tongue. "Gotta admire that kid, he's got guts for trying that."

Suddenly, the beast's stomach burst wide open and Kirby shot forward, still in his fireball form. He'd been able to retain the fireball shape the entire time as he launched out of the beast's mouth, clutching a very shiny object in his hand. The beast bellowed and yelled, warbling around as it began spurting lava from any orifice it had.

At long last, there was a final explosion that took place as the beast's life came to a dramatic close. Whatever was left of it faded into the terrain.

Ribbon quickly flew to Kirby's side as she eyed the brilliant, marvelous Crystal Shard that had been rescued from the bowels of the beast.

"Kirby!," she exclaimed, "I can't believe you held that form for so long! How did you do it?"

"Well," Kirby explained, "his insides were mostly fire anyway, and I just had to keep pushing unless I wanted to get burned."

"Enough with the chit-chat," Dedede said as he saw a pathway leading to an exit shaft, "let's get out of here while the getting's good, got it?"

Got it.

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Back in the mountains above the clouds, Kirby and his entourage stared anxiously at the shard, wondering when it would reveal their next location. Before that happened, however, there was a violent rumbling.

Adeleine stumbled into Dedede and nearly dropped her messy easel. "You guys, the volcano's erupting!!"

"I guess that since that magma creature is gone, the volcano has become unstable and will just keep erupting until it becomes dormant again," Waddle concluded.

The normal blue sky became an evil blackish-red as great balls of fire and ash began raining down upon the heroes. Not knowing what to do since the shard hadn't revealed anything, they simply ran forward in an attempt to find safe ground.

As they ran, the shard flew before them and began flashing profoundly. The shard slowly morphed into a star that showed an image of the next planet. Ribbon quickly flew into the star first, followed by Dedede. He poked back out of the star to help the screaming and wailing Adeleine.

Kirby followed suit and jumped after the artist, leaving poor little Waddle, who still hadn't caught up.

"WAIT!!!" He shrieked. "YOU GUYS CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE WITH THE PLANET!!!"

Kirby stuck his head out and saw that the road Waddle was traveling on would soon come to an end, meaning he would go up in flames, unless…

Well, he thought to himself, shrugging, it's worth a shot.

The pink puffball took a deep breath, getting Waddle Dee stuck in his mouth in the process. Luckily, Kirby was able to secure Waddle in his mouth and retreat back into the star before the sector of Neo Star that they were on went down in flames.

The star reverted back to its Crystal Shard form and shot into the stratosphere, away from Neo Star and towards the next planet.

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Within the safe haven of the Crystal Shard, Ribbon winched as she heard the compelling explosion coming from the area of Neo Star they were on. Apparently, it had been destroyed due to the destructive force of the erupting volcanoes, but thankfully, it hadn't spread to the entire planet.

She let out a quiet sigh as she lay her head against the sleeping Kirby as they headed towards their next location: Shiver Star.

Just one more planet, she thought to herself, one more planet…before I return to my home.

Soon enough, she fell asleep just like the others as the mystical Crystal Shard protected them in the far galaxy.

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Phazon: This has always been one of my favorite boss battles and sequences in general. I know, technically, once you defeated Magman and were preparing to go to Shiver Star, all that happened was that volcanoes erupted and that was it. Nothing serious took place, but in here, I'm making it seem as if that section of the planet was destroyed as a result of the uncontrollable eruptions. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you next time when the gang begins the quest for Crystal Shards…on Shiver Star.