I'm so exited for Kirby and the forgotten land to be released on switch this march. enjoy the chapter
The next morning, a very tired Kirby walked into the castle gates and saw Dedede and Meta Knight standing by the main entrance. The duo in question turned to Kirby and had a surprised look on their faces (despite meta knight having a mask on.).
"Whoa Kirby, you look terrible." Dedede exclaimed at the sight of his friend's state.
"I feel terrible too." Kirby added as he rubbed his eyes.
"Man, that thunderstorm from last night must've kept you up all night long." Dedede said and meta knight agreed.
"It wasn't the storm that kept me up." Kirby said, making the duo confused.
"Then what kept you up then?" Meta knight asked.
"Can we talk about this after breakfast? I want bandana dee and zan to know too." Kirby said tiredly before yawning.
After Kirby had some breakfast later and a little nap, bandana dee and zan were called into the king's throne room. Kirby then told everyone about the dream he had last night. Meta knight and zan began to discuss something after Kirby finished his story.
"You said the girl, Eleanor, looked different, like how different?" Bandana dee asked as he tilted his head.
"She looked like a normal girl but she had glowing yellow eyes and her voice was layered and echoey. And that woman with the glasses, I took one look at her and I immediately knew she was not a good person. And whoever eyes I looked through was some kind of monster but Eleanor addressed him as 'daddy' and loved him like he was her father. And that look on Eleanor's face when the woman made the monster put the gun to his head and pull the trigger. I couldn't get it out of my head. It was a dream, yes but it all felt so real I was actually there." Kirby replied before meta knight and zan finished their discussion and nodded before turning to Kirby. Kirby, dedede and bandana dee turned to the duo.
"Kirby, the dream you had wasn't actually a dream." Zan said, making the three confused.
"Kirby, you had a vision." Meta knight told the puffball.
"I did?" Kirby exclaimed and meta knight and zan nodded.
"Kirby, you were reliving someone else's memory and by judging from what you saw, the last memory." Zan explained to Kirby.
"So that means that girl is in trouble! I have to help her" Kirby said with determination and before anybody could say anything, Kirby ran out of the room and out of the castle to his warp star which is at his house. Kirby took some time to pack supplies and a sword before he made his way to his warp star. Kirby notices shadows of his friends and sighed.
"Look, I know you guys are trying to stop me but that girl needs help and I am not going to ignore-" Kirby said as he turned around and suddenly stopped talking when he saw meta knight, dedede, bandana dee and zan with their weapons and backpacks full of supplies.
"Who said we were gonna stop ya? We were hoping you didn't leave without us." Dedede said as he gave Kirby a thumbs up. Bandana dee nodded in agreement.
"The great king is right, we won't just let you go without us. So what are we waiting for? We better get going." Bandana dee said with excitement of going on another adventure. Just then, zan had a thought.
"Wait, we don't know how far away the girl could be. We might be travelling on the warp star for hours, days, even." Zan said and right on que, magolor came into the scene.
"I can help with that." He said, gaining everyone's attention. He made a 'follow me' gesture and the group followed. They soon make it to Magolor's dimension travelling ship, the lor starcutter, then they all walk inside.
"Me and Susie have been working on this for months now." Magolor said as he walked to the control unit. Kirby notices a large star-shaped hole in front of the controls.
"Kirby, this is a new navigation system built to show my ship where to go where the warp star knows where to go. All you need to do is insert the warp star." Magolor explained. Kirby pulled out the warp star before it began to float in the air and grow. The warp star places itself in the system before the ship's giant computer begins to show 'location: locked. Ready for departure.'. Kirby looked over to magolor and gave him a determined look.
"Do it." He said before magolor pressed a button and the ship began to take to the air before flying in a direction. A portal appears in front of the ship and the ship enters. Inside the ship, zan gets a good look around the ship's interior before turning to magolor.
"I must say, you have the most interesting technology." She complimented the captain of the ship.
"Well when you travel a lot, you find the most interesting things." magolor chuckled in response. The ship exits the portal to reveal a vast ocean. The monitor shows the ocean to the group.
"An ocean?" bandana dee questioned in confusion. The group look over to magolor who is just as confused as they were.
"That's weird, why would the lor send us here?" magolor asked himself.
"Guys, look." Dedede said as he pointed to the screen. A lighthouse could be seen on screen.
"A lighthouse in the middle of nowhere?" Meta knight thought aloud.
"That must be where we should go." Kirby said before turning to magolor.
"Take us down." Kirby commanded the lor's pilot who obeyed. The lor hovers down and the side hatch opens up. The group walked out before magolor called to Kirby. Kirby turns and receives a communication device from his friend. Magolor explained that when Kirby and the gang decided to return, they could call Magolor and he'll be there. After that, the lor's entrance closes and begins to fly away, leaving the group to the lighthouse.
The group of four walked up the stairs to see a door. Meta knight and zan had their weapons ready as Meta Knight cautiously opened the door. Seeing it was clear, Meta knight gave a 'clear' sign and the group entered the lighthouse. They were greeted by a statue of a man with a banner that said 'no gods. no kings. only man'.
"Well if there are no kings then why am I here?" Dedede jokes, making Kirby and bandana dee laugh before dedede starts laughing himself. Zan and meta knight chuckles as Well. Zan then noticed words on a pedestal so she approached it and read the words.
"It says' on this pedestal 'in what country is there a place for people like me?'. And the person who said this is someone named Andrew Ryan." Zen told the group. The group then goes deeper into the lighthouse after meta knight says it's safe. The group kept going downstairs but the only thing down there was a pool and a bobbing…Meta knight blinked.
"Is that a bathysphere?"
Dedede gave him a confused look. "A what?"
"It's like a primitive submarine," explained meta knight. He climbed in. There was a switch that he suspected started the bathysphere up. Some more inspection revealed a computer that used tubes of liquid metal instead of copper wires, which seemed kind of silly to him. There was also a CO2 scrubber. So this bathysphere was meant to stay in the water for a somewhat extended amount of time. It also had seats with red velvet upholstery and a projector for some reason.
"This is surprisingly high tech. It's still workable even if it's old."
"You think it's safe?" Zan asked
"I am not sure. Let me give it a look over to see if it's safe to use." After examining the top and closing the door a few times, he decided the bathysphere was watertight and the CO2 scrubber was sealed tight. Meta knight nodded and went to give zan her answer.
"It's safe." He told the group.
Kirby examined the sphere. "Can you tell where it goes?"
Meta knight shook his head. "It goes down, and it's built to withstand a lot of pressure, so a long way down. Maybe even the ocean floor."
"Do you have any idea why something like this is here?"
"Bathyspheres are usually for research purposes, but that wouldn't make a lot of sense in this case. This place lacks the equipment…" Meta Knight wasn't familiar with the studies that used bathyspheres, but he knew that they required certain machines and tended to move around. He couldn't figure out what was going on here.
"Well, standing here won't just tell us where it goes. C'mon." Kirby said as he climbed in with dedede and bandana dee following behind. Meta knight and zan looked at each other before they climbed in as well. After meta knight made one last double check, Kirby threw the switch.
The bathysphere door immediately closed and the vessel started to descend. It was extremely claustrophobic. This wasn't helped when a screen suddenly covered the one window and the lights dimmed so the projector could play.
Some sort of advertisement for cigarettes appeared on the screen for a brief moment before switching to 'From the Desk of Andrew Ryan'. Then it switched to a man sitting at a desk
"I am Andrew Ryan and I'm here to ask you a question: is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" the projection of Andrew asked, showing a man wiping off sweat from his forehead as there is a barn in the background.
"Uh, yes?" Dedede answers guessed.
"No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor." answered Andrew as the projection shows a frightened man being chased by an eagle.
"No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God." Andrew continued as the next image shows a giant hand reaching towards the still frightened man from a shining light.
"No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone." Andrew said yet again as the third image shows a giant hammer and sickle above the still frightened man. The projection once again shows Andrew Ryan in the chair.
"I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible."
"Don't leave us in suspense, man! Tell us what you chose?!" Dedede demanded as he, Kirby and bandana dee desperately wanted to know what Andrew Ryan chose.
"I chose…" The screen retracted, revealing the dark sea outside, mostly some rock.
Then the bathysphere crested the rock.
"Rapture!"
Everyone's mouths (despite bandana dee and zan not having visible mouths) fell open as they caught sight of a city on the bottom of the ocean. It looked like a stylized version of 1920's New York City…but it also looked to be in disrepair. One of the buildings had even fallen into another one.
"A city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."
Meta knight broke out of his stupor.
"This is amazing! I mean Susie knew it was possible, but this uses completely different architecture! They figured out how to compensate for the movement of the seafloor without encapsulating the city in a dome and the pressure of the deep sea-" They passed under a glass tunnel. There was a man in a diving suit welding a crack on the inside. Meta knight blinked up at him in surprise.
"There are still people in there."
"Good. It is far too small in here," muttered zan.
The bathysphere slid through some hoops and into a building. It rose out of the water, but the door didn't disengage.
Dedede eventually managed to get the door open with his trusty hammer. They appeared to be in some sort of welcome area. There was a body right in front of the bathysphere that had rotted almost to the bone. Zan knelt down and examined the body.
"He was eviscerated." She said as she stood up.
"It is not a good thing that no one ever bothered to move him." dedede said, standing next to zan.
"Neither is this." Kirby held up a picket sign proclaiming Rapture to be dead.
Bandana dee picked up another one.
"Riot?"
Meta knight frowned under his mask.
"It's possible."
Dedede made a nervous sound. "This is a bad place. We should find that girl and leave."
Zan looked out the windows and saw the city.
"How?" she asked. Kirby looked out the window as well and had one thought in mind.
'This is going to be a challenge.'
Meanwhile, a man in a divine suit was laying down on a puddle of water but this wasn't a man, not anymore: it is an armoured golem which the locals of Rapture call him and his kind "big daddys". The big daddy begins to gain consciousness as he hears static and the voice of a German woman.
'Hello? Hello- -can you hear me? Your-your signal, it is very faint…' the woman tried contacting the big daddy before the static disappeared. The big daddy gets up as he lets out monstrous groans. Soon, this big daddy will meet new allies who have the same objective as he does right now: find and rescue Eleanor.
