Chapter 58: This Marx the First Time

King Dedede surveyed the scene. Ice Cream Island 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 on Ice Cream Island.

A blue-black sphere was flying up to the palm tree where King Dedede stood. The sphere was covered with little grey stars.

"Nightmare?" said King Dedede, speaking Dark Matter's words. "Is that you?"

"Yes, my master," replied Nightmare from the sphere. His voice came out crackly, as if he was speaking from a radio that had bad reception.

"What happened to you, Nightmare?" asked King Dedede.

"My former body was destroyed by Meta Knight," replied Nightmare. "It seems that, for some time, he has wielded the legendary sword Galaxia."

"No."

"Yes. Thankfully, I have retained my memory in the rebirthing. Dark Matter, war is beginning. The Meta Clan will stop at nothing to overthrow your reign and so gain power. As for me, I do not yet have enough power from you to transform into my true self. We must act quickly. Taking Neo City is our only hope of survival. If we do not, the war will take place over that plot of land."

"Then we must move. Rainbow Resort is far north of here. I shall rally the troops. Don't worry, Nightmare. Your death shall be avenged."

"Thank you, Dark Matter. I hope to soon fight at your side again. But, by the way, have you found a better guard for the remaining star rod shard?"

"Yes. Marx is guarding it now, but there is a slight problem in his regard."

"And that is?"

King Dedede looked away. "It is the first time this has happened," he said. "I cannot control Marx fully, as I do the rest of my minions. I have but tainted his mind. He works for me, instead of as me. I have told Marx that it was my choice to put him in this state and not one under complete possession, but I am unable to put him under my total control if I, as I said to him, change my mind. Of course, he is still not himself and will lose all memory of his possession if he ever recovers, but I'm worried. It is not like me to show weakness and I have no idea why that lunatic would be the one to push back."

"I am as perplexed as you," commented Nightmare. "I wonder if Marx's mission is running smoothly."

"I'm sure it is. I gave Marx explicit orders. There's no way that Kirby will ever catch up to him."

"I think I see him!" shouted Kirby. "There! Just ahead of us! He seems to be bigger than he was when we last saw him and using a set of bizarre wiry wings!"

Kirby and Chuchu were on warpstars, racing across the trail of lingering anti-matter particles in the air. Marx had been spotted near the horizon and they were traveling as fast as they possibly could to try to catch up to him.

"You've got him? Excellent," said Gooey from the phone. "Now go get him physically. Let's see why he's polluting our air with anti-matter particles."

"But they aren't harmful are they?" asked Chuchu, looking down at the warpstars, which were presumably following a thick trail of those particles.

"It's a figure of speech, Chuchu," said Gooey. "Marx's real problem is that he's accused of illegally guarding a star rod shard; 'tis a crime punishable by death. Kirby, you know what to do."

"Right," replied Kirby.

Marx was getting closer now. Kirby and Chuchu were going really fast through the open air. The wind tore at their faces, but they couldn't stop now, now that their target was finally in sight.

Earlier on in the flight, Chuchu had been informed about Kirby's encounter with Marx and everything he and Gooey knew about the guy, which wasn't much.

Now Marx slowed, stopped, and turned.

"Oh, no!" they heard him shriek in his new shrill voice. "You're not supposed to be here! Dark Matter told me to stay away from you! Go away!"

As Kirby and Chuchu reached Marx's location, they slowed to a stop. Marx's eyes were bulging and his mouth was a grimace that showed every one of his now-pointed teeth.

"Marx," said Kirby, looking Marx over, "you've changed."

"Yes!" shrieked Marx, cackling. "And I am now superior! Powerful! Now go away, or bow before my awesome abilities!"

Marx's mouth was wide with laughter and his eyes wild, the slit-like pupils overly prominent.

Marx's hands detached themselves from the joints of his wings to float in mid-air like pink versions of Nightmare's claws. He reached into his mouth with his right hand and pulled out a red ribbon of cloth. He swiftly knotted it into a bow tie, which he fastened under his chin. Marx then drew his left hand back over his head and positioned his right in front of his body, pointing at Kirby with all fingers extended.

"Bring it on," said Marx, flipping over his right hand, so that the palm was facing upwards, and making a beckoning movement with his fingers.

Kirby, figuring he could do with a bit of experimentation, summoned High-Jump and Stone abilities to become Meteor Kirby! Kirby became a rock, which then actually jumped into the air and hurled itself at Marx. Marx threw his hardest punch at Kirby, but was flattened when the Meteor crashed into him. Marx and Meteor Kirby plummeted through the air and smashed into the ground. Marx quickly pushed the rock that was Kirby off of him, drew a deep breath, and let a strange metal sphere fall out of his mouth. When the sphere came in contact with the ground, it exploded and coated the entire area with ice. Kirby, still in Meteor form, was frozen under layers of ice from the bomb.

"Heh, heh, heeeeeeeeehhh," chuckled Marx, grinning and looking at the rock under the ice that had once been a Star Warrior. Then Chuchu slammed her warpstar into the back of Marx's head, causing him to fall, once again, to the ground below.

There was a rumbling under Marx and then some sort of blast threw him back into the air. Kirby had exploded, blowing off his rock shell and all the ice around it. He was regular Kirby again...

...but not for long. Kirby summoned Fighter and Sword abilities to become Samurai Kirby! A tuft of black hair, with a cloth wrap around its base, appeared on Kirby's head and a katana (a special type of sword) appeared in a sheath at his side. As Kirby drew the sword, Marx's wings folded circularly into spirals. Holes then appeared all over the wings and, suddenly, a stream of miniature arrows began to shoot from each one.

Kirby jumped into the air, avoiding the arrows, and then shot at Marx, sword raised for the attack. But just before Kirby got close enough to strike, Marx flew sharply downwards. Kirby made a slice and landed behind Marx with his sword pointing away to the right.

Two white pompoms fell to the ground. Kirby had sliced off those little balls from the ends of Marx's jester's hat.

Marx turned around, teeth clenched and bared, eyes throbbing... and then suffered another blow to the back of the head when Chuchu rammed her warpstar into him again.

"Give up the star rod shard, ya big meanie!" shouted Chuchu as Marx fell to the ground.

"Never!" shrieked Marx as a number of white blades detached themselves from his wings and made arcs towards Kirby. Kirby, however, sliced right through the middle of each blade with his katana. He then raced at Marx, sword held back and ready to be swung.

Marx got up and began to fly away, but fell back to the ground a fourth time as Chuchu hit him, once again, with her warpstar. Marx, however, managed to push himself off the ground, away from the attacking Samurai Kirby.

Kirby swung hard with his katana as Marx lifted off. In a flash of steel, there appeared a red cut on Marx's left cheek. At first, Marx just stared. Then he took one of his floating hands and drew it across the cut, smearing blood all over his face. Marx put his hand to his mouth... and licked off the blood... like a vampire that could no longer use its teeth.

Marx drew a deep breath. Kirby, sensing another ice bomb attack, got ready to jump. But the breath got deeper and deeper. Marx was expanding like a balloon.

Soon he was really puffy and shuddering, trying to keep all that air in. Then, suddenly, he let loose a great scream and from his mouth issued a stream of very fast-moving... orange air.

Kirby jumped to the side just in time. The force of the orange air was so great that it ripped up all the ice it passed over and, when it reached the forest in the distance, the trees were knocked to the side like pins in the way of a well-thrown bowling ball.

Kirby suddenly felt pain under his right foot. Some shards of ice had stuck in it while Kirby was on his side during the blast. With a pain-filled expression on his face, Kirby grasped the shards and pulled them out of his foot. He looked to the side and saw the katana, a few meters away, lying broken on the ground. He reached up and felt an absence of the tuft of hair on his head.

Kirby gingerly stood up, hoping his hurt foot wouldn't hinder his fighting. Then he summoned Spark and High-Jump abilities to become Shock Kirby! For an explanation of this combo ability's hat, think of when Kirby transforms into Fire Kirby: the special headband and flaming head. Then when Kirby transforms into Comet Kirby, Fire + Fire, the headband remains the same, but the flames transfer to his hands. It is the same with Spark and Shock: the electricity remains the same, but it is now in Kirby's hands, rather than his scalp.

In an explosion of green sparks, Kirby launched himself into the air. In another spark flash, he was flying at Marx. Marx dodged and Kirby discharged yet another burst of sparks, changing his course and shooting him towards Marx again.

Kirby landed on Marx's face and then shot away again in a fourth explosion of sparks. Marx howled in pain, clapping his hands to his face. Kirby landed on the ground and prepared to do the same thing again. Marx then removed his hands to reveal a face of crazed fury.

Kirby shot at Marx's face again with a bang from the sparks he was expelling. Marx dodged again. Kirby changed course with more sparks again. Marx dodged again. Kirby kept firing more green sparks and changing direction while Marx dodged him over and over.

Chuchu slammed her warpstar into the back of Marx's head and he came crashing to the ground for the fifth time.

"That's a pretty good strategy you got there," said Shock Kirby, performing another spark explosion and flipping back onto his own warpstar.

"I'm amazed it took you this long to figure that out," replied Chuchu, racing at Marx again.

Marx turned around and saw the warpstar hurtling at his face. In a split-second, he reached out and grabbed onto one of the warpstar's five "points". Chuchu stayed stuck to the warpstar; she was not getting off.

Kirby flew at Marx, but it was too late. Marx spun around using Chuchu as a shield. The two warpstars collided and exploded. Kirby and Chuchu landed on the ice-covered ground. Kirby had lost his Shock ability.

Marx kept spinning and, as Kirby and Chuchu watched, he got faster. He spun like a top in the air, around and around and around. Soon he was spinning really fast. Marx now looked like just a blur of yellow, purple, blue, brown and red. Then, streaming off of Marx's body came showers of little green specks. These specks covered the entire area.

Kirby and Chuchu brushed off all the specks that had landed on their bodies. All the specks on the ground suddenly sunk into it. Kirby and Chuchu looked around, not sure what to do.

Marx had stopped spinning. He looked quite dizzy.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake.

"Gooey," said Kirby slowly, "I think we'll be needing some new warpstars pretty soon."

"How soon?" replied Gooey.

A huge green vine sprung out of the ground in front of Kirby. It was still in the ice at the root, but it grabbed Kirby with its upper part and began to thrash around.

"Now!" yelled Kirby. "Warpstars!"

About two dozen more vines popped out of the ground.

"Now!" screamed Kirby. "Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!"

Kirby heard Chuchu scream, seemingly somewhere far off. The vines were attacking her as well, but Kirby couldn't think about that now; he had his own vines to deal with. More and more were appearing. They were piling on top of him, strangling him. Kirby couldn't see and he was finding it difficult to breathe. He could hear Marx's shrill laughter.

In a rush of sudden energy, Kirby summoned Fire and Bomb abilities to become Firework Kirby! Kirby shot into the air, shooting dazzling explosions in every direction. The vines around him caught fire and burned. Kirby then trashed his ability, landing on a new warpstar and eating the maximum tomato it carried.

Kirby looked around. He saw another warpstar. It was hovering rider-less in the air. Kirby looked down for some sign of Chuchu. He didn't have to look far.

At the edge of the army of vines Chuchu was pinning about ten of them to the ground with six of her tentacles and fighting off more with her remaining two. Kirby pulled the warpstar over beside her.

"Need a lift?" he asked as politely as he could.

"Thanks!" said Chuchu, hopping on the vacant warpstar and flying off above the vines. Kirby followed her.

"That was amazing what you were doing back there," commented Kirby.

"Well, it's not like I haven't fought things like this before," replied Chuchu. "It's standard training for advanced fighters."

"Ah."

"No way!" shrieked Marx suddenly. "You're supposed to be dead! Why are you not dead?! Why?! Why don't you leave me alone?"

"We were led here by the trail of anti-matter particles that you leave behind wherever you go," said Kirby.

"Oh, really?" replied Marx. "I know of no anti-matter particles. You must be mistaken."

"The DNA of the anti-matter particles exactly matches yours," shouted Gooey so that Marx could hear him, "and I have reason to believe that you are using them for jet propulsion to stay aloft."

Sure enough, Kirby could see jets of tiny, glittery particles issuing from the undersides of Marx's wings.

"Marx," continued Kirby, "enough fun and games. I think it's time I bring out 'old reliable'."

Kirby summoned Spark and Sword abilities to become Darth Kirby. His trusty double light saber appeared in his hand again and he shot at Marx, swinging it in circles at his side.

Marx had a blank expression on his face, mouth hanging open.

Kirby flew right up to Marx and sliced him, vertically, all the way through his body.

Kirby trashed his power and waited for the two Marx halves to split and fall to the ground, revealing the location of the final star rod shard. But that wasn't what happened. Instead, the two halves split slowly, staying aloft in the air. As they separated, the wind began to pick up.

Chuchu flew over.

"What's wrong with dead Marx?" she asked.

"I don't know," answered Kirby.

The two halves were now a few feet apart and the wind was blowing fiercely in the direction of the space between them. Then... a dark hole appeared in the air. It was sucking everything into it.

"Let's get out of here!" yelled Kirby above the noise that the wind was making.

"Right!" yelled Chuchu back.

They turned around and started to fly away, but the wind was too strong. It was so strong that the warpstars weren't making any headway.

"C'mon..." grunted Kirby. If he had teeth, he would have gritted them. "Just a little faster..."

Then, suddenly, both warpstars failed.

Kirby and Chuchu were sucked into the black hole between Marx's body halves. Down into blackness they fell. Down into... nothing.