Once the group was prepared to leave, they headed out of Floralia and flew to another place high above Dream Land. This place had all sorts of tall buildings, as well as many airships. The buildings themselves were even decorated with flowers. If Dark Matter had to guess, this was probably Grape Garden.

"Wow, there's a lotta ships here!" Gooey said with amusement. "That one's even got a face on it!"

"Which one?" Dark Matter asked. Gooey pointed to a tan blimp with a pink nose on it. After he noticed the ship, Dark Matter gave Gooey a nod. "Yes, I see her now."

"That's Kabula," Meta Knight told them. "She's actually Dedede's airship."

"Dedede has an airship!?" Dark Matter yelled, though he lowered his head as he noticed how loud he was. Regardless, Meta Knight nodded. "She's more than capable of flying by herself, but sometime she'll let Dedede or his servants pilot her instead."

"Oh, that reminds me," Taranza said with his eyes wide open. "Don't you have an airship as well, Meta Knight?"

Despite wearing a mask, it was easy to tell that Meta Knight was smiling. "Of course, you must be thinking of the Halberd! I've used Wheelies in the past to help power it, but nowadays most of its power comes from sunlight. Not to mention that it has all sorts of cannons, should we ever need them"

"You sound rather passionate about it, don't you?" Taranza asked.

"It can't be helped, creating the Halberd was one of our greatest achievements."

"Wow...if only I had such passion for a ship," Dark Matter said sarcastically, which earned him a glare from Gooey. "Be nice!"

"It's fine, Gooey." Meta Knight told the young blob before turned his attention to Dark Matter. "As for you, Swordsman. You may not understand it now, but once you see the Halberd I promise your jaw will drop to the floor."

"Bold of you to assume that I have a jaw...But in any case, I look forward to seeing it!"

Of course, despite his teasing Dark Matter couldn't help but feel happy knowing that there was more to Meta Knight than just swords. His attention turned back towards the air ships that flew by, he honestly couldn't help but wonder how the Halberd would look if it flied with the other ships. It would probably stick out like a sore thumb, but the thought was still amusing to Dark Matter.


Soon, the group made their way to a mountain range, lakes and waterfalls appeared to be very common here. The mountains here weren't as tall as Cloudy Park's, but they were still pretty tall nonetheless.

Taranza sat by one of the lakes, he had a white flower in his hands. Gooey hopped over to him with a curious look on his face.

"What's that?"

"Oh! You startled me, Gooey." Taranza told him. "If you really want to know, it's a water lily."

"Oh, they're the flowers that frogs like!"

"That's...one way to put it," Taranza said quietly. He twirled the flower in his hands before he spoke again.

"You know, I've been thinking about adding a pond somewhere in my garden, though I'm sure I could gather some water lilies from Wild World should I go through with that plan."

"You should get a frog, then." Gooey said encouragingly. "They like to sit on the leaves and eat bugs."

"Hopefully they don't like the Floralian kind," Taranza said jokingly. "But a frog would be a nice pet to have. Why the sudden interest, anyway?"

"Well...I got my tongue after I saw a frog for the first time," Gooey explained. "I can't remember all the details, but I think that's what happened."

"Right...I forget that you didn't always look like this," Taranza said with a thoughtful look on his face. "Is it a common thing for Dark Matter to change their appearance?"

"Kinda," Gooey said with a shrug. "We got three different forms, but sometimes we'll mutate if something'll help us."

"So it's kind of like evolution, then," Taranza said as he put the water lily down. "You know, there's just something so interesting about your kind. I've compared them to wasps before, but I don't think you'd fit that description."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Well, wasps can be harsh on the outside, but very loyal to their queen. You're not very harsh, and though you are loyal, you weren't exactly loyal to Zero."

"Then what sort of wasp would I be?" Gooey asked. Taranza had to think for a moment. "Well...you're the kind of wasp that got banished and made his life better."

"They can do that?" Gooey asked with amusement, Taranza replied with a shrug. "I would think so, the wasps I've met aside from Sectonia were all pretty nice..."

Gooey wasn't sure what kind of wasps Taranza was talking about exactly, but hearing about it made him feel pretty happy. Maybe one day, he'll get to meet these wasps, too.

"Anyway," Taranza said as he stood up, "I think it's about time that we reunited with Meta Knight and Blade. Don't you agree, Gooey?"

"Of course!" Gooey said as he followed Taranza. As nice as it was in Yogurt Yard, They still needed to get to Rainbow Resort as soon as possible.


Eventually, the group made their way to Orange Ocean. It was easy to see how this place got its name. The sky was orange, some of the plants were orange, and even the water itself looked like orange juice with ice cubes floating on its surface.

Dark Matter stared at a large airship, which Meta Knight called the Halberd. Although impressed, he couldn't get past the bat-like wings nor the mask on the ship's nose. Nonetheless, Meta Knight flapped his wings proudly.

"What do you think, Swordsman? Aren't you impressed?"

"...H-honestly, I'm speechless." Dark Matter said as he wrapped his cloak around himself. Normally, he'd do this when he was uncomfortable. But for a sunny beach that bathed in Summer's warmth, Dark Matter couldn't stop shivering.

"What's wrong?" Meta Knight asked as he looked at Dark Matter with concern.

"I-Is it s-supposed to be THIS cold out h-here?" Dark Matter asked bluntly. Meta Knight blinked in response. "I'm not too bothered by it, personally. But now that you mention it, it DOES seem a bit colder than usual."

Despite standing on a beach, it felt like the kind of temperature where most Dark Matter would cuddle for warmth. But if Dark Matter himself could fight Kirby in the cold and STILL survive, then he should be able to handle it for a little while.

"B-brother! Meta!"

The duo turned around, they could see that Gooey was shaking as well. "T-Tanza found s-something, you wanna look?"

"Of course, we may as well," Meta Knight said as he walked along the beach line. Gooey allowed Dark Matter to wrap his cloak around him as they moved. They found Taranza in front of a palm tree. There was a bit of frost forming on the leaves and on the trunk, which was once again an unusual sight.

"This usually doesn't happen in Orange Ocean, does it?" Taranza asked Meta Knight. The puffball tilted his head. "It does...but usually, you'd have to be further towards Rainbow Resort if you wanted to see ice.

"W-was it this b-bad when you left?" Dark Matter asked, Meta Knight shook his head. "There might've been a bit more frost than usual, but even then you'd still have to go pretty far from this point to start seeing it."

Dark Matter gave Gooey a worried look, Gooey gave the same look in response. Whatever happened to Rainbow Resort must've been awful, they could only continue to hope that Kirby and Dedede were fine on their own.