Chapter 52: Nightmare + Machine = Evil

For the rest of the exploration of Ice Passage, Kirby used Ice-Skater ability. He found that it gave him much more control than Fan. After wandering through more tunnels than can be described, Kirby and Chuchu finally made it to the peak of the tallest mountain in Rainbow Resort. It was nowhere near the height of the tallest mountain in the Frozen Hillside mountain range where Mr. Frosty lives, but it was still pretty high.

Every time Kirby and Chuchu entered a snow-covered environment, Chuchu would erect a snowman. Kirby was unsure as to what these cairns of snow signified, but he just let Chuchu do whatever she was doing without questioning her.

Well, without questioning until now.

"Why do you keep making those?" asked Kirby as Chuchu made another one on the very peak of the mountain.

"I, like, told you," replied Chuchu. "They're called snowmen."

"But, why do you keep making them?"

Chuchu hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with some explanation. Then she replied, "'Cause they're, like, fun."

"'Like fun'?"

"Uh-huh." Chuchu gouged out the mouth and eyes of her snowman with one of her tentacles and stood back to admire her work against the sunrise.

"Excellent work," announced Gooey from the phone. "Your excavation of Ice Passage has proved that the star rod shard does not reside there."

"Where to next?" replied Kirby, to the point as usual.

"Ooh! Ooh!" interrupted Chuchu. "Let's go to the Fountain of Dreams! That's got to be, like, the most obvious place for a shard to be."

"Very well," agreed Gooey. "I shall send you each a warpstar to the Fountain of Dreams."

Deep in the dungeons of Castle Dedede there lies mountains of strange machinery. These were built long ago by the ancient Dreamlanders, who were trying to see how many different things they could do with technology. Hopefully, it would aid them in some way.

It did.

After ages of horrific gene-splicing, those early Dreamlanders created "super-crops" that grew themselves and spread quickly. However, when released into the wild, all non-super-crops were deprived of room to grow and it seemed as though those plants would eventually become extinct. Before the Dreamlanders could rectify the situation, however, the growth genes of the super-crops ended up infesting all plants.

Now food is so bountiful that Dreamlanders do not need to work at all.

The machines were no longer needed. They were abandoned.

Then came King Dedede. He found the machines and built a castle on top of them. The dungeons of his castle are their home now. Since their abandonment by the early Dreamlanders, the machines have only been used twice... and one of those times, as this story goes, is about to occur.

Marx was flung onto one of the machines and strapped to a conveyor belt that led into it. Dark Matter had not yet given him back the ability to speak.

Marx had been brought there in the dark tentacles that stretched from the huge dark ball that housed Dark Matter's eye.

A random blue Dreamlander of the name Tytyty had accompanied them into the dungeons. This Dreamlander was, like all Dreamlanders except for Kirby, possessed by Dark Matter.

"Any last words?" said Tytyty, placing his hand on the lever connected to the conveyor belt.

Dark electricity surged through one of the tentacles, which touched Marx, allowing him to speak again.

Marx filled his lungs.

"Don't scream," interrupted Tytyty. "If you do, you shall go in that much sooner. You should try to make the most of your last moments of free will."

"Why doesn't that thing talk?" said Marx angrily, jerking his head towards Dark Matter's eye.

"I cannot," said Tytyty. "My minions can."

"C'mon, Eye!" taunted Marx. "Speak to me!"

"Stop that," replied Tytyty.

"Know what?" hissed Marx. "I've thought up my last words!"

"And they are?"

"Dark Matter," screamed Marx, "YOU SUCK!"

Tytyty, with a look of utmost fury on his face, pulled the lever all the way down and Marx shot into the center of the great machine.

"Kirby," said Gooey suddenly as Kirby and Chuchu were en route to the Fountain of Dreams, "my sensors are picking up a strange sort of anomaly following you. What is it?"

Kirby looked around. Sure enough, something was tailing him and Chuchu.

"I don't know," replied Kirby.

"Me neither," put in Chuchu.

"Well, you'll find out soon enough," continued Gooey. "It's gaining on you."

After a few minutes, Kirby and Chuchu could discern what the thing looked like. For its full description, go back to chapter 40. If you don't want to do that, then I hope the following 3-word sentence will be enough for you.

It was Nightmare.

Kirby took a picture of Nightmare using the phone.

"Uh-oh," replied Gooey. "His name is Nightmare and he's a by-product of Dark Matter."

"By-product?" repeated Kirby, confused.

"Let's just say that..." Gooey faltered. "Hmm... how to put this..."

Kirby didn't quite understand Gooey's problem, but Chuchu did. Here's why: When Dreamlanders eat, they actually consume all of what goes in, no waste. It seems to defy logic. It's as if there was a black hole inside every Dreamlander. Strange I know, but no explanation of this has been made and that means I can't give you one.

All other creatures... well... something has to come out the other end... the waste product, to put it lightly. Dark Matter is no exception.

For now, let's just leave it at this: As Dark Matter feeds, Nightmare becomes stronger. This will all be explained in a subsequent chapter.

"Oh, I get it..." said Chuchu. She then looked behind her and shuddered.

"Is there any way for these warpstars to go faster?" she asked.

"You're currently traveling at maximum speed," replied Gooey. "I can't help you."

"Who's Nightmare?" said Kirby more loudly than before.

"He's bad," finished Gooey. "All you need to know is that he works for Dark Matter, yet is not controlled by it. By the way, you're nearly to your destination."

Kirby looked at Nightmare again and then—

"Watch out!" he yelled, turning sharply to avoid a dark star-shaped bullet. Nightmare had shot it.

Suddenly, more dark stars flew past Kirby and Chuchu. Kirby dodged as best he could and managed to evade all of them. Chuchu, however, took a hit that destroyed her warpstar.

Kirby turned his warpstar sharply around and raced down toward Chuchu's falling body. He just barely got under her and she landed on his head.

Another warpstar flew over to Kirby and Chuchu climbed onto it.

"Thanks!" she said to Kirby.

"No time to talk," interrupted Kirby, flying over to Nightmare.

Kirby summoned Spark and Sword abilities to become Darth Kirby! Nightmare loomed in front of him. Kirby and the warpstar, together, were just about the size of Nightmare's face.

Nightmare grinned, revealing vampire-like fangs.

"I'm not sure who you are," shouted Kirby, "but I know you work for Dark Matter and a friend of that is an enemy of mine!"

"Just try to hurt me," jeered Nightmare, looking at Darth Kirby's double light saber. "This is a duel you cannot win."

"That's what they all say," retorted Kirby. "You're goin' down, Nightmare!"

Kirby flew his warpstar right at the "cloak-covered" part of Nightmare and gave it a couple dozen slices with his light saber.

Nightmare laughed and swatted Kirby away with one of his floating hands.

Kirby righted himself and flew his warpstar back at Nightmare, this time aiming for the face.

Chuchu, meanwhile, flew around to the back of Nightmare, grabbed hold of his horns and pulled as hard as she could, but even using the force of the warpstar, Nightmare didn't budge.

Kirby plunged half his light saber into Nightmare's left eye.

Nightmare swiped at Kirby with his hand, but Kirby flew away again, evading the attack. Chuchu flew over to Kirby.

"How do we hurt this guy?" said Chuchu. "We need to come up with a plan."

"Here's one," interrupted Nightmare as he opened up his "cloak".

Beneath the "cloak" was a shimmering spike of energy, the same energy in Nightmare's eyes. But Kirby and Chuchu only had a second to gaze at it, for shooting out of it came a barrage of dark star bullets.

Kirby, thinking fast, pulled Chuchu off her warpstar, which was instantly destroyed by a dark star, put her on his head and proceeded to dodge like he had never dodged before.

Kirby finally managed to get out of the line of fire. He summoned Fire and Needle abilities to become Fire Arrow Kirby. He then shot one flaming arrow into the shimmering spike of Nightmare energy.

The arrow was disintegrated. Nightmare laughed. A dark star bullet hit Kirby's warpstar... and it was all over.