Chapter 56: The Marks of Marx
King Dedede surveyed the scene. The battle for Big Forest had ended and Dark Matter had won. 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 Big Forest.
The black ball that housed Dark Matter's eye flew up to the top of the very tall tree where King Dedede was perched.
"What an excellent meal," said King Dedede, speaking Dark Matter's words. "The entire ecosystem of Big Forest is all mine."
Kirby and Chuchu's flight was uneventful. They landed right in the middle of Neo City on Pave Street.
"Kirby, Chuchu," said Gooey, "you are to perform a sweep of Neo City in search of the shard."
"And by sweep, you mean what?" asked Chuchu. "If we're going to search, like, everywhere in Neo City, shouldn't we, like, search all the houses too?"
"Eh... hmm..." replied Gooey, clearly in discomfort with his thoughts. "I suppose we would need to... but we can't just barge in and search everyone's houses."
"But we may have to," said Kirby. "How else are we going to know for sure whether or not the shard is actually hidden in Neo City?"
"We won't." Gooey sighed.
"Then what are we, like, supposed to do?" asked Chuchu.
"Well, you could..." Gooey stopped, then announced, "Kirby, Chuchu, my sensors are picking up a trail of anti-matter particles that seem to be headed for Heat Top, the volcano north of Neo City. I want you two to check it out."
"We're on our way," replied Kirby as he and Chuchu hopped back on their warpstars and flew off in the direction of Heat Top.
Kirby and Chuchu got off their warpstars and entered Heat Top by way of the cave-like entrance at its base. (You thought I was going to go back to Meta Knight, didn't you?) Once inside, Gooey directed them through twisting passageways, following the trail of microscopic anti-matter particles in the air that were being detected by the phone.
Kirby and Chuchu eventually emerged into a huge... room? It was a big space in the middle of the volcano, but that wasn't the weirdest bit. What creeped out the two travelers was the fact that the entire place was coated with...
"Ice!" exclaimed Chuchu. "What happened to this place?!"
"You're in a room covered in ice?" said Gooey. "That's not possible! You should be in the center of Heat Top, dodging Magoos and trying your best to stay on the stepping stones over the flaming lava below you!"
"Flaming lava, eh?" said Kirby. "Well, I don't see any traces of that..." Kirby looked around, "...anywhere!"
"I don't understand it," continued Gooey. "This cannot be a natural disaster. It must have been done by one of King Dedede's minions, or worse, by the Meta Clan."
Silence.
"Oh, and speaking of traces," said Gooey suddenly. "There are enough of those anti-matter particles in the air for you to get me a sample of them. Kirby, stick the phone into the air and press the 'take sample' button. I think it's on the left, near the bottom."
"Got it," said Kirby, following Gooey's instructions.
"Thanks," replied Gooey. "I'll get to work analyzing it. Why don't you and Chuchu have a look around this... ice cavern. Maybe you'll find something interesting."
"I already have," called Chuchu from across the room.
Kirby rushed over.
"What is it?" he said in awe.
It was a stone sculpture, buried in a wall of ice. It was shaped much like a rounded-off obelisk, but it also had eyes and a mouth. Stone tentacles were protruding from its lower body and from the ground around it. Kirby almost summoned an ability to counter some attack. It seemed so lifelike.
Kirby took a picture of it with the phone, which then emitted a spattering, sputtering noise. It sounded as though Gooey had suddenly spit out whatever liquid he might have been drinking.
"That's Magman!" he exclaimed. "And he's dead!"
Silence. Chuchu stared wide-eyed at Magman while Kirby pondered whether to just flat-out ask who Magman was or... well... He couldn't come up with any alternative so...
"Who's Magman?" asked Kirby.
"Magman is, or was, the protector of Heat Top, the only active volcano in Dreamland," explained Gooey. "And, for the past month or so, he's been under the control of Dark Matter."
"And why would an active volcano need protection?"
"Well, uh... I don't know. It must be some political thing. Magman was a good friend of King Dedede."
"'Political'?"
"Oh, never mind what that means, just know there's nothing that can be done about it."
"Nothing until now," interrupted Chuchu. "Who could have done this."
"It must have been the Meta Clan," said Gooey. "They're going to use this ice to compress the lava in this volcano and then threaten Dark Matter with complete destruction of Neo City, because Dark Matter has not yet taken Neo City, and if the Meta Clan break the ice in Heat Top, there will be a rapid expansion of the lava and the volcano will erupt!"
"Are you sure?" asked Kirby.
"Absolutely! I'm always sure," replied Gooey.
"That's a very well-thought-out plan you've devised there," said Chuchu. "But there's one thing I still don't understand."
"What is it?"
"What's with all the anti-matter particles in the air!"
"Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me! Just a moment."
Silence.
"My studies show," said Gooey after a few minutes, "that the particles are actually biological. That means... if I extract some DNA... got it!"
"Do you know who it was?" prompted Chuchu.
"What the..." replied Gooey. "This doesn't make sense!"
"Who was it?!" shouted Kirby and Chuchu together.
"The DNA in the particles matches that of..."
Silence. Kirby and Chuchu almost held their breaths as Gooey paused for a few dramatic seconds.
"...Marx," he finished.
"What?!" exclaimed Kirby and Chuchu.
"I know! It doesn't make sense at all! Marx is one of Dark Matter's army! Why would Dark Matter kill off one of his own?"
"I guess you were wrong about that whole 'Meta Knight's gonna threaten Dark Matter' theory," said Chuchu. "You may always be sure, but you sometimes are wrong."
"But I can't be wrong!" retorted Gooey. "When I'm sure I'm right, I'm right. And I'm always sure, so I sure am never wrong... right?"
"Wrong."
"But that theory was flawless. If I was on Meta Knight's side, I would be due for a raise."
"But, Gooey," said Kirby, "you're already on the top. You're the big boss of big business, the only manufacturer of warpstars."
"Well..." mumbled Gooey. "That may be true, but haven't you wondered why Dreamlanders aren't all flying around on warpstars as we speak?"
Silence. This hadn't occurred to Kirby.
"Its because warptars actually aren't that reliable, for a transportation unit," explained Gooey. "They lose power quickly and there's no way to charge them back up. When they're fully out of power, they will fail mid-flight and explode. Not only that, they have a habit of spontaneously disintegrating when their riders disembark. I imagine you thought they were just disappearing, but no. The disintegrated pieces have a half-life of point zero, zero, one, four seconds. Pretty soon there's no trace of them left. 'Business' hasn't been going too well, as the warpstars aren't currently all that marketable."
Kirby's eyes had widened considerably when Gooey had told him that a powerless warpstar would "fail mid-flight and explode".
"But don't worry," finished Gooey. "You'll know when a warpstar is getting low on power. I always send you a new one way before the one you have gets even close to being dangerous to ride on."
"Oh," said Kirby. "You had me worried for a sec."
Silence.
"Okay!" shouted Gooey suddenly. "I got a new theory! Magman must have been guarding the shard! But then Dark Matter decided to have Marx handle it. It told, or possessed, Marx to come here and take the shard from Magman. Magman turned out to be a better guard than Dark Matter had thought and Marx was forced to destroy the lava beast."
"But how could someone as puny as Marx beat this thing?" said Kirby, looking at the frozen Magman.
"I'm not sure, but that's the only logical explanation I can come up with. Maybe Marx has some hidden power that he didn't show us during our encounter with him."
"I guess it's possible..."
"Oh, come on, Gooey," interrupted Chuchu. "That's got to be, like, the worst theory I've ever heard. I mean, Marx has got to be the least likely person to—"
Chuchu stopped. It seemed as though something had just occurred to her.
"Wait a minute," she said. "Who the heck is Marx?"
"We'll tell you later," said Gooey. "Right now you two should get out of there. We've got an anti-matter particle trail to follow. Once you're outside Heat Top, I'll send two warpstars that are programmed to detect and follow it."
"Okay!" said Kirby, making his way back to the tunnel they had come in by. "Let's go, Chuchu!"
"I'm coming," replied Chuchu without moving. She was gazing at Magman. "Uh, guys," she said, "you wouldn't be able to, maybe, conduct some sort of funeral ceremony for Magman, would you?"
"No time for that," said Gooey hurriedly. "Marx is probably miles away by now. You've got to catch up to him if you want that shard."
Chuchu stayed looking sadly at Magman. Kirby felt they should do something about this, but time was not something they had a whole lot of at the moment and this was a situation that would take a while to fix properly.
"Kirby!" shouted Gooey. "You and Chuchu are wasting time! Suck her away from that stone-cold statue!"
Kirby did as he was told. He drew a deep breath and Chuchu screamed as she flew toward him. Kirby quickly stopped inhaling. Chuchu landed in front of him in a heap.
Kirby couldn't believe what he had done.
"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
"What was that for?!" yelled Chuchu, getting up and rubbing her head.
"Consider that a warning from me," said Gooey. "It is becoming increasingly important that this mission be completed quickly. We don't want a full-scale war on our hands between the Meta Army and Dark Matter's possessed forces. The star rod must be completed now, before it is too late!"
Kirby felt used. He was disgusted with himself. He had followed Gooey's instructions so far as to terrify his newest friend. He attempted to dump those emotions into his emotion hole. He just barely succeeded.
That hole of his had been through a lot of stress lately. Kirby hoped using it again wouldn't increase the problems he had with anger management.
"Fine. Let's go," grumbled Chuchu.
Kirby and Chuchu exited Heat Top, boarded the new warpstars that were waiting for them and flew off over Neo City, letting their warpstars follow the trail of lingering anti-matter particles.
"Good-bye, Magman," said Chuchu softly as Heat Top disappeared into the distance.