DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kirby or the Kirby's Dreamland 2 storyline—I'm just elaborating on it. Kirby and pals belong to Nintendo, Hal Laboratories, etc., and I am writing this for entertainment, not profit, OK? If it is illegal for me to do this, let me know because I'm not really sure. ^_^;
A/N: After those first three chapters, I had these strange urges to eat apples. I wonder why… ^_~ Yay! Chapter four! Sorry this took so long—it's been a busy week. Personally, I like this level b/c it presented me with some of the toughest challenges—that blinkin' Rainbow Drop was tricky! Stupid dark rooms… and I just love Kine! O_o Uh, anyway, I actually had more reviewers! Thanks to CyborgVampire, abcxyz, and most definitely to DL7381 for the support!
Battle of a Lifetime
Chapter Four: Between a Rocky and a Hard Place
Last time, Kirby and Rick found Coo in Big Forest. While Rick went to Coo's secret nest, Coo and Kirby flew off in search of the Rainbow Drop. After searching the entire island, they didn't find it—until they realized that there was one area that they DIDN'T search. Sure enough, they found it there, and then they were off to fight the next boss, Nruff, along with the Nellies and his bombs. Now they are on their way to Ripple Field for the next part of their adventure…
The Warpstar landed in the center of Ripple Field—of course, there wasn't really anywhere else for it to land since it was the only piece of solid earth on the entire island, which presented our buddy Coo with a problem…
"Kirby! How am I going to be able to help you if we're in water half the time?! I can't swim well with these feathers!"
"Sorry, Coo. Either you're just going to have to do your best…" Kirby began, "…or let me do this on my own," he added sadly.
Coo immediately regretted what he said. He gave Kirby an apologetic look and replied, "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Kirby. It was shameful of me to put myself over the safety of Dreamland. I'll do my very best to assist you in this mission."
^_^ "Thank you, Coo."
Coo took another look at the water all around them and sighed. "No problem, Kirby."
They entered the first door and began their new adventure on a new island. This particular area was relatively dry, so Coo didn't do much complaining. He simply flew over most of the enemies, and the exploding coconuts didn't faze him a bit. They even found another mysterious star behind a block. But he and Kirby spotted yet ANOTHER new enemy down below, and they decided to check it out.
"Look, Coo, I was right! It IS Rocky!"
"Well, what do you say we try out a new ability, hmm?"
Kirby smiled. "Sounds good to me."
Rocky overheard them and decided to roll over (Sorry, bad pun) their plans. He tucked in his feet and started bounding down the hill toward Coo and Kirby. Unfortunately, Rocky's plan blew up in his face when Kirby saw him and inhaled him as he was rolling down. "So much for that plan," Rocky thought before being swallowed and having his ability copied. ^_^
Coo and Kirby tried out their new power. Kirby became a heavy rock in Coo's talons, and Coo was completely unable to fly. But they found that when they fell that way from the sky, every enemy within a five-foot radius was obliterated, and they could easily roll downhill (just as Rocky did) unharmed.
They collected another star on a high cliff before crushing Squishy the squid who was guarding the next door. Now Coo had some trouble.
"Oh dear, it's almost nothing BUT water!" Coo cried as he flapped wings, heavy with water, above the surface.
"But, Coo, we can't continue if we don't go back in—it's the only way to the nex—ow!"
Kirby looked around for the source of the pain he was feeling and saw Sir Kibble once again. "Ah HA!" they both shouted. "It's YOU!"
Sir Kibble laughed. "I know what you did to my second cousin once removed in Big Forest, and it is my duty to avenge him!" he cried as he threw a cutter.
Kirby wasn't impressed. Neither was Coo. Actually, Coo was pretty irritated. First he almost drowned himself trying to get him and Kirby above water, and now this sad excuse for a knight was slinging boomerangs at them. Coo flew over, looked Kibble in the eye, and released the Stone Ability star. "Suck him up, Kirby" was the last thing Sir Kibble heard. ^_^ They also grabbed the star piece he seemed to be guarding.
So once again Coo and Kirby had the marvelous Cutter ability. Unfortunately, the rigid, razor-sharp feathers wilted underwater, and they didn't do much damage past a few feet. Now Coo was growing exasperated.
"It's OK, Coo. We don't need them to go very far anyway. We only need to break that Star Block wall to keep going," Kirby reassured him.
Coo swam to the wall and destroyed the blocks easily (as long as he was close enough), and they snagged the star piece on the other side before coming upon another potion. This one, however, wasn't going to be as easy to get and soon our heroes found themselves in a bit of a disagreement…
"Kirby, there is a potion sitting on a block between two walls, and the only way to get it is to break the block."
"But if we do that it will fall into the spikes!"
"Well, we'll just have to grab it before it falls, then, huh?"
"We'll never make it!"
"Kirby, are you doubting my flying skills?"
"No, but…"
"OK, then. Now, watch and learn, Young Grasshopper." Kirby just gave him a look.
Coo positioned himself so that the cutter that went up would make a direct hit with the block. He shot out the feathers and flew as swiftly as he could right underneath the potion, snatching it from the clutches of the painful spikes. ^_^
"Wow, Coo. I'm sorry I questioned you."
"It's OK, Kirby. I understand."
They continued and were forced to return to the water and enter another door. This room was filled with Glunks just waiting to hit them with their dangerous bubbles (lol I have NO idea what it is they spit—I just like bubbles ^_^). Coo just slashed them all with the bladed feathers and left the room to reach the final door.
"Hmm, no Rainbow Drop there… I think. Although with that experience in Big Forest, I'm not sure anymore," Kirby said.
"Well, we'll keep going and see what we find," Coo replied as he flew to Warpdoor number two.
"Oh, this is nice," Kirby said, looking down from an extremely high cliff.
"Hmm, it's a good thing I can just fly down."
O_o "Oh yeah! That's right!" Kirby laughed. "I thought I'd have to fall the whole way!"
"But… you can float down, too."
"… All this is REALLY getting to me, Coo. Please take no notice."
Coo laughed as he shot a cutter at the Scarfy watching the scene and snatched the star behind him. They then began their descent, almost flying into a Waddle Dee drifting down with a Floaty the Drifter. They were also almost hit by Bouncy Tys that dropped from the sky out of nowhere.
"Blasted hyperactive springs," Kirby said. Coo got them with Cutter power, but he also broke a Star Block hiding another star piece. They took it before reaching the bottom and proceeding to the next area.
Here, there were pipes that produced a water current that forced swimmers to crash into some very dangerous spikes. "How are we going to get through without being impaled?" Coo wondered.
"I have an idea!" Kirby shouted. "Just swim as closely to the pipes as possible, and by the time it starts pushing you up, you'll be past the spikes!"
Coo tried it, and it worked. But they found more of the pipes that kept them from reaching some star pieces. Oh, and a door, too, which they obviously entered. ^_^
Wouldn't you know it? It was another miniboss room with another wiggling sack on the ceiling. This time, Coo and Kirby had to defeat Master Green, a giant, harpoon throwing, electric shocking jellyfish. He had a reputation to intimidate and discourage enemies with his eloquent taunting.
"Ah, I was wondering how long it would take you to reach me, my friends," Master Green said in a slithery voice. "I expected you much sooner. Have you lost your touch, Kirby?"
"You don't scare me, Green. Coo and I will defeat you, no matter what you say!"
*Tsk* "You need a friend to help you now? You ARE losing it, aren't you, you pink powder puff!" He laughed maniacally and began to spin as Jumpershoot did. Only Master Green didn't charge at Kirby; he spun into such a frenzy, sparks began flying everywhere, and one of them hit our heroes, shocking the Cutter star (and everything else ^_~) out of them.
"YIPES!!!"
"Ugh… Kirby! The Cutter star! Suck up the Cutter star!" But it was too late. With a low, guttural laugh, Master Green held up the Cutter star.
"Hmm, are you looking for this? OK, then you can have it. But it won't give you your precious ability now!" he cried as he sparked it into the shape of a harpoon. "HERE!" He threw the harpoon directly at them. Coo flew up to avoid it, but it knicked Kirby as it whizzed by.
"Kirby!"
"I'm OK, Coo. It's just a scratch. Look out!"
Coo looked up and saw another star coming directly at him from Master Green. Kirby instinctively inhaled it and spit it back at the jellyfish before anyone knew what was going on.
"Whoa! What just happened?"
"HA! Coo, I know how to destroy Green!"
"Ow! Oh, you FOOL! You will not get away with that!" Stubbornly, he threw another star, determined to hit Kirby without getting hit himself. Of course, Kirby just sucked it up and spit it back at him.
"Sheesh, you'd think he wouldn't send out the means of his own destruction," Coo whispered.
"SH! If he gets the idea, he won't send them out anymore and we'll have nothing to work with!"
Recovering from his injury, Master Green created yet another star. "I SHALL hit you with a star, Kirby, if it's the last thing I do!" He threw it and Kirby just inhaled and spat. Master Green was down.
"Hmm, what do you know? It WAS the last thing he did… well, almost. He didn't quite hit us," Coo slyly mused. Kirby swallowed Master Green and gained a new ability: Spark. Kirby became a ball of energy that sent a single lightning bolt straight down to the ground.
The bag fell down and with more difficulty than Coo and Rick combined (he only has those little fins, after all), Kine wriggled himself free of the sack.
"Oh! Kirby! Coo! It's you!" Kine cried. "Hey, that rhymes," he giggled to himself.
Kirby overheard him and giggled as well. "Oh, Kine, it's good to see you! Coo and I were having a bit of… trouble… in the water."
"More like a catastrophe!" Coo corrected. "I can't swim well underwater with these feathers, and any abilities I had were almost useless."
"Well, I can help you, Kirby. With me, any powers you have will be more useful underwater, and you'll be able to inhale enemies underwater without turning yourself into a water balloon," Kine said.
Coo and Kirby both chuckled this time. "Good idea, Kine," replied Coo. "Since you'll probably be more useful on this island of water, I'll let you and Kirby go while I check out what's going on and unearth my skills in espionage."
"Es-spinach?"
"No, Kine—spying. I'm going to go spying on the enemy and try to help you guys out."
"Oh, I knew that."
Coo laughed before going on his way.
"Wait! Coo! Don't forget about the water pipes!" But Coo had already gone.
"I hope Coo doesn't get hurt," Kine fretted.
"Don't worry, he'll be OK," Kirby assured him as he went into Kine's mouth (A/N to non-KDL2-players: Kine's a fish with itty-bitty fins and a big mouth. Where else is Kirby gonna go? ^_~).
Kine and Kirby left the room and continued on their way, but not before going back to those pipes and grabbing those four star pieces.
"Wow, Kine, you can swim against the current!" Kine just blushed and beamed.
Using Spark power light bulbs to blast away the Blippers, Sir Slippys, and Glunks trying to block them, our heroes entered the next door.
They entered pitch-blackness. But Kirby had an idea. "Kine! Use Spark power and create a light bulb to light this place up."
"Oh, good idea Kirby!"
Kine did just that and they were able to see everything in this once dark room—including a secret door. They went inside and found five more star pieces—and seven stars again began to glow and give Kine and Kirby the strange rejuvenation once again.
"Cool! Another life!"
"Huh? Kine, what are you talking about? Do you know what the stars are doing?"
"Sure! I heard Master Green talking about it to Jumpershoot after they trapped Rick at Grassland and Coo at Big Forest. They were trying to figure out what the stars were for, so I told them about a legend I heard. It says that whenever the Rainbow Drops are in trouble, tiny stars appear to aid those who are determined to save the Drops. After seven are collected, they become another chance at life—like a guardian." Kine's face fell. "But they just laughed at me and said I was nothing but a dumb, naive fish with a three-minute memory span."
"That's not true, Kine. Your memory span is at least ten minutes."
"Kirby!"
"Haha, just kidding, Kine. You have an awesome memory, obviously, to remember that legend. And it's a good thing, too, because now I know what the stars are doing for us."
"You mean you believe me?"
"Of course, Kine." Kine blushed and beamed again.
"One question, though."
"Shoot."
"How come you knew that, but you didn't know about the Rainbow Sword?"
"Hmm, I must've fallen asleep when Grampa told me that one—I was just a little fry." Kirby just sighed.
They went back out and used Kine's light bulbs to see their way to the end, and they found themselves back out in the open. They Sparked their way past the Sir Slippys and exploding coconuts (A/N: I HATE THOSE THINGS!!) to the final door.
Well, it's off to door number three—I sure hope the Rainbow Drop is here, Kirby thought to himself.
This area didn't start off too strangely—more water, more land bars, and more enemies than they wanted to deal with. But they easily shocked their way through and went to the next stage.
They found themselves in a pool of water, a Flamer looming ominously above them. But, in Flamer's eagerness to attack them, he went into the water and soaked himself, rendering him harmless. Kirby and Kine laughed as they jumped out of the water onto dry land.
In front of them were several pipes embedded into the ground. The weird thing, though, was that these pipes were inhabited by snakelike creatures called Elieels. Fortunately, all they did was pop out and wiggle their fins, so Kine just sent light bulbs through them whenever they appeared.
"Hey, what's that up ahead?" Kirby suddenly asked.
Kine looked and saw what looked like another pool of water. But a closer look told our heroes that it was much deeper than that.
"Hey! Maybe the Rainbow Drop is down there!" Kine excitedly suggested.
They jumped in and were shocked to find more of the water pipes trying to push them along in a ring. Kine fought the current, finding two more stars along the sides past some Star Blocks and Blippers, but began fighting even more when Kirby noticed a door right in the path of more pipes that were out of the current of the ring.
Kine finally managed to get to the door and they went inside. This room was similar to the other secret room they had found; it was dark and contained five star pieces. (A/N: I'm not going to say whenever they get more star pieces or lives unless it's in an unusual place that someone might not know about because it's getting too hard to keep track. Just keep in mind that they're always finding stars and by the time they reach the end of Dark Castle, they'll have about 60 or 70 lives. Thanks! ^_^;;) This time, however, there was yet another secret door to their left (right to a player) as they lit up the room! They leaped up into it (since it was a little off the ground) and lo and behold, it was the Rainbow Drop!
They excitedly jumped up and over to the platform where it was sitting, but it was again blocked by Power Blocks… that weren't broken with Spark power.
"Oh, the humanity…" Kirby whined dejectedly.
"Well, we'll just have to find another power, then, Kirby."
*Sigh* "OK, we'll leave and see what we can find."
They left and returned to the area with the Elieel, continuing toward the door to the next stage. But here they found another Rocky, just sitting on a Star Block above the door.
Kine immediately released the Spark star and Kirby swallowed Rocky before he could jump off and kill himself in the water. Kirby became a stone inside of Kine, so Kine was unable to go anywhere. But, like before, Kine could easily roll downhill unharmed. They returned to the Rainbow Drop room—although they had a bit of difficulty going through the door since they couldn't see anything… ^_^;
They returned to the Power Blocks, and crashed through them with Stone power, retrieving the Rainbow Drop trapped inside.
"Yes! Three down, four to go," Kirby shouted.
Once again and for the last time (thank goodness), they left the room and went on their way to the next door.
They met up with their worst nightmare. The whole stage was nothing but the water pipes that had nothing better to do than to push our heroes into Sir Slippys waiting at every turn of the path!
"Um, Kirby? I think now would be a good time to turn to stone," Kine urgently suggested as he fought the current.
"What good'll that do?"
"Well, I think as long as these pipes keep us moving you won't change back and we'll just destroy the Slippys along the way," Kine explained.
"Will the pipes keep us moving?"
"Um, I… well, I don't really know."
"Oh, great. *Sigh* OK, I'll try."
They used the Stone ability and, luckily, the pipes did move them along (although very slowly when they were going up), crashing into every Sir Slippy in their path. They also managed to snag a potion at the halfway point. Eventually the currents shoved them to the end of the current—and the final door.
"Oh man, THAT was more trouble than it was worth!" Kirby yelled.
"We DO still have to beat the boss, though, Kirby."
O_o "Oh good Gordo…" Kirby sighed as they left the stage and approached the Boss door. They both took a deep breath and gulped before entering. They appeared in a narrow but long underwater cavern.
¬_O "Oh… my…"
They were face to face with the ugliest fish that ever seemed to exist. It had spikes covering its body, little spiky fins, two HUGE eyes, sharp teeth, and what looked like a blinking fishing pole on top of its head. Kine released the Stone star and Kirby inhaled it, just in case. They knew Stone wouldn't do much good here.
"Glup… well, here you are," Sweet Stuff said in his deep, gargly voice. "I was hoping I'd have the pleasure of annihilating you." With that, he sent out two dagger-like stars.
Kirby shot out the Stone star at Sweet Stuff, hitting him, but the sharp stars also hit Kirby and Kine.
"Ouch! Oh, those hurt," Kine said as Kirby saw his bleeding fin.
"Don't give up, Kine! We'll beat him."
Sweet Stuff's angler glowed and the biggest cutters either of them had ever seen came speeding toward them. Kine dodged them as best as he could with his injury, and they went past without causing harm. Out of nowhere, a pair of Squishys also came pumping toward them, but Kirby simply inhaled them and spat them back out at Sweet Stuff.
"Glurp… Ha! It will take more than that to defeat me! Gulerp," he told them, and sent out more cutter stars.
This time, Kine had an idea. "Kirby, try sucking them up!"
"Are you nuts? I'll be sliced inside out!"
"No you won't! You have a stomach of steel, remember?"
^_^; "Oh yeah."
Kirby inhaled a star, still slightly expecting to be cut in half, but Kine was right; the stars didn't hurt him. He shot it back out at Sweet Stuff, who was getting ready for another cutter attack.
"You will not defeat me that easily!" he cried, and he started a continuous assault that Kine JUST BARELY avoided.
"Oh, he nicked me again!"
"It's OK, Kine, I think we only need to hit him a couple more times." He sucked up another star and spat it back at the giant fish. But now, instead of Squishys or stars, they were attacked by Gordos!
"AAH! We DEFINITELY can't inhale those!" Kine did his best to avoid them again, but he was growing weary.
"Hold on, Kine, just one more hit!"
"Take… gloop…THIS!" Sweet Stuff cried as more cutter stars were sent out. Kirby inhaled one and hit the boss with it, and Sweet Stuff would fight no more. He was finally out of Dark Matter's spell.
"Oh, we did it, Kine!"
"Thank goodness—I'm pretty sure I need a Band-Aid!!"
Kirby laughed. "Don't worry, Kine, I'm sure we'll find a potion on Iceberg," he told Kine as the Warpstar appeared from the depths of the cavern. They swam to the Warpstar and proceeded on their quest to save Dreamland.
"I hope we dry off before we get there," Kine told Kirby.
"Why's that?"
"Well, if we're still wet, then we'll probably freeze or catch pneumonia or something."
Kirby giggled again as they soared off to the next destination: Iceberg, the Island of Ice.
Next chapter: The mission continues on Iceberg. What new surprises await our friends? Will they meet up with Coo and see what he has discovered? Will we ever see Rick again? And WILL they freeze or catch pneumonia? (Kine: Hey! I was being serious! Me: So was I. Kine: O_o) You have to read and review to find out!
A/N: lol I would like to apologize for the feeble attempts at humor and length of this chapter, which is… 25 pages!? Oh gosh! And Iceberg has FOUR stages! This is gonna be one long story, folks. I hope I don't bore you to death. ~ Please feel free to e-mail me or tell me in a review how to make these chapters shorter—and better! ^_^;; Flames are also welcome—I'll use them to train my baby Grass-types to be resistant against fire. ^_^ And remember, Venus loves you! {VEnusaur! (^o__o^)}