Chapter 54: The Dream State
"Kirby."
Silence. Darkness was everywhere. There was the horrible feeling that the air was thicker... polluted... dead...
"Kirby, wake up!"
Kirby opened his eyes. Tentacles were wrapped around him and he was being shaken, but as Kirby's vision focused, he saw that the tentacles were pink, not black, and belonging to...
"Chuchu?" said Kirby weakly.
"Don't scare me like that, Kirby!" yelled Chuchu, shaking him harder. "I thought you were dead!"
Kirby felt as though he was about to puke, something about the atmosphere seemed unnaturally sluggish...
Then it hit him.
"Are we underwater?" he managed to ask.
"What does it look like?!" scoffed Chuchu.
"How..."
"When that bullet hit the warpstar, we were blasted away. Then we landed here, in the Fountain of Dreams."
"You mean, we made it?"
"Yeah."
"But what happened to this place?"
The water was dark and murky. The terrible odor of death and decay was everywhere.
"Dark Matter and Nightmare have polluted this fountain and robbed it of power," explained Chuchu, "but this place is still sacred and they cannot capture us if we stay underwater."
"Hey," interrupted Gooey, "that's my line."
Silence. Kirby and Chuchu waited for about a minute to see if Gooey had anything else to say. He didn't.
"So," began Kirby, "what do we do now?"
"I dunno," replied Chuchu.
"Well, I can tell you one thing for sure," said Gooey, "and that is that the final star rod shard is not located in the vicinity of the Fountain of Dreams."
"Just great," said Kirby. "We may as well be captured. We can't leave the water as long as Nightmare is guarding us—"
"Which he is," put in Chuchu.
"—and that means that Dark Matter could win while we're down here and there would be nothing we could do about it!"
"I'll try to devise a plan," said Gooey quickly, "but I can't promise anything. This may be a no-win situation."
King Dedede surveyed the scene. Red Canyon had fallen without a fight. The sky was pitch black; not even the stars were showing. An incredible darkness had flooded the land. Dark Matter now controlled all living organisms in Red Canyon.
A strange monster was flying up to the top of the great boulder where King Dedede stood. It wore a jester's hat and brown shoes. It's main body was squat and made up mostly by its light-purple head, which featured a huge mouth and bulging eyes with pupils like slits. Wiry, featherless, golden wings protruded from either side of the monster's body. Instead of flapping these wings, the monster would stay aloft by continuously shooting streams of glittery particles from the undersides of each one. Each particle would disintegrate as soon as it got a few feet away from the wing it came out of. Clawed hands that were the same color as the monster's body were gripping the wings and the joints.
"Ah, Marx," said King Dedede, speaking Dark Matter's words, "let me have a look at you."
"Yes, master," replied Marx in an evil, wailing screech of a voice.
King Dedede inspected Marx by pulling at his wings, checking his eyes, etc. As King Dedede did this, he said, "I have decided not to put you under complete possession as I did most of my minions. Instead, I have tainted your mind so that you will be my servant, yet still be able to think for yourself. However, I can change my mind at any time and make you into a puppet like the rest. Is that clear?"
"Yes, master."
"Good. Now, I have a mission for you. Go to the volcano called Heat Top. It resides north of Neo City in Rainbow Resort. There you will find a lava monster by the name of Magman. Dispose of him with your ice bombs, he is no longer of any use to me. Then take the star rod shard that he has been guarding and guard it yourself. Locate the Star Warrior that goes by the name of Kirby and make sure you stay as far away from him as possible. However, stay within Rainbow Resort, you will be more easily detectable by protectors' sensors if you don't. Understand?"
"Yes, master."
"Excellent. Now go."
"Yes, master. Right away, master. Whatever you say, master. Of course, master. Very well, master. Your wish is my command, master."
"Shut up and go!"
"Hee, hee. Okay."
Marx flew off to the northwest and King Dedede turned to travel southwest.
"There!" shouted Meta Lance, pointing. "Hovering over the Fountain of Dreams!"
"What is it?" said Meta Chain.
"I can't believe it," said Meta Knight, "we have located Nightmare, Dark Matter's most trusted assistant."
"Should we attack?" asked Meta Blade.
"I think not," answered Meta Knight. "Let's observe him first, check what he's doing. We don't want to interrupt, do we?"
Silence. The Meta Clan exchanged glances and then slowly turned their heads toward Meta Drone.
Meta Knight sighed and said slowly, "Seeing as we can't risk getting any closer, would you, Meta Drone, use your eyepiece to zoom in on Nightmare?"
"Alright, dudes!" said Meta Drone while the rest of the Meta Clan cringed. "C'mon, Nightmare," he continued while focusing his eyepiece, "show me some love."
The Meta Clan waited for about a minute and then Meta Drone finally announced, "Aw, man, dudes. This Nightmare guy is lame. All he does is, like, float there."
Silence.
"He's got a gnarly costume though," continued Meta Drone. "It's, like, all dark... and... and, like, swirly... I mean, it's awesome, dudes. Yeah..."
Meta Drone refocused his eyepiece to its normal setting and stared around at the other members of the Meta Clan. They all seemed to be on the verge of crying.
"Uh, dudes?"
Silence.
Meta Axe seemed to regain his composure.
"So, we attack, right?" he asked. "If Nightmare's not doing anything, then there's no point not to... right?"
"I suppose you're right," answered Meta Knight. "Everyone, back on the warpstars! Nightmare falls today!"
The Meta Clan boarded their warpstars and proceeded to fly off to the Fountain of Dreams, but there was a sudden tremor in the warpstars. The warpstars had been used for too long a time too often. They were out of power.
The air was suddenly filled with the Meta Clan's cries of "Whoa!" "Hey!" "Aaaah!" "What's happening?!" and "Look out!"
Each warpstar in turn made a violent shake that threw their riders off. After each warpstar lost its rider, it sped away, stuck into the ground or some other surface, and then exploded.
The Meta Clan tumbled to the ground and slowly stood up again.
Silence.
"On foot then!" shouted Meta Knight and the Meta Clan ran off toward the Fountain of Dreams to tackle the Nightmare above it.