Chapter 85: Warriors Once Again
"The landing on Aqualiss was successful, Dark Matter."
"Excellent. My eye shall first enter the caves and possess everything within them. That way, I will gather the maximum amount of nutrients possible at the beginning of this planet's conquest. Efficiency is key. I've waited in space for too long to wait any longer. I want the dreams of all the organisms in this galaxy as soon as possible. In case any of the locals attack this fortress, I will put all reserve forces within on attack mode. I want no distractions for my eye."
"As you wish, Dark Matter."
"Okay, we're in," announced Gooey, stating the obvious.
"Yeah," agreed Chuchu, "but how are we, like, going to find Kirby in this place?"
"By searching every nook and cranny," answered Gooey.
"But this fortress is huge! Plus, there are probably guards everywhere. If any of them see us, Dark Matter will come to possess us!"
"That is highly unlikely. Dark Matter always begins its conquest of planets by possessing as much of the population as possible. With its mind focused on that alone, it will not react if we are detected. It will, however, return if we use the star rod to free any of its captives from possession. It cannot help but notice that. However, I cannot ingest the star rod, for that would negate the bond it has with Kirby. Kirby assembled the star rod; that is why he knows exactly how to use it. So, I shall hold the star rod in my tongue and you will lead the way, protecting it and me from harm. Also, we must get off our warpstars. Using them is too dangerous in these narrow hallways. We will likely not find them again, but we can just hitch a ride on this fortress back to Pop Star if Kirby defeats Dark Matter."
"And what if we, like, don't find him... by the time Dark Matter's eye comes back?" asked Chuchu, tugging at her ribbon.
"If we don't, then we will have nothing to worry about, for Dark Matter will take care of our possessed bodies for us."
As if on cue, a Waddle Dee rounded a corner, spotting the pair.
Chuchu gave it a quick punch, knocking it out.
"Well, then," said Chuchu resolutely, "let's go. We got this whole place to search and it looks like I'll be the one fighting us through it."
Two hours later...
After wandering long corridors, finding rooms of countless purposes (bedrooms, bathrooms, balconies, offices, closets, gun turrets, etc.) and battling a moderate amount of enemies, Chuchu began to get frustrated.
Without warning, she rounded on Gooey, shouting, "Did Lololo and Lalala purposely make this place maze-like?!"
"Yes, they did," answered Gooey matter-of-factly.
Silence.
"Why would they do such a thing?!" Chuchu demanded to know.
"Lololo and Lalala are, for your information," explained Gooey, "known not only for their company, Royal Shipping, but also for their vastly superior recall abilities. They don't have photographic memory; they have kinetic memory. In other words, once one of them has performed an action, he or she will always remember exactly how they did it. This means that once they have walked to a certain place in this fortress, they will always remember how to get back there. They had this place built so that only they would know how to navigate its corridors."
"Oh."
The corridor they were walking down had led them to a door. Chuchu opened it, revealing... the guestroom! (See Chapter 13 if you don't remember this place.)
However, the guestroom's occupants were about to pose quite a problem. For, standing right there... were the seven remaining Bukisets.
As soon as they saw Chuchu and Gooey, they jumped into action.
Here's a recap of their weapons: spear, club, electricity-firing wand, boomerang, sword, flame-thrower and ice-shooter.
The Bukiset with the flame-thrower torched his surroundings. The one with the ice-shooter froze his surroundings. The ones with a sword, a spear and a club rushed at Chuchu, while the wand-holder shot electricity and the boomerang-carrier threw his weapon.
Chuchu dodged every attack with one maneuver, which was jumping and, by using the suction-cups on two of her tentacles, sticking to the ceiling. The sword-wielding Bukiset's charge, however, flowed right into a jump-attack, which would have sliced Chuchu in half had she not struck him upwards right before he would have brought his blade down.
Chuchu's punch bashed the Bukiset into the ceiling. Chuchu then quickly swiped the sword from his hand used it to impale the hapless creature.
POW! The Bukiset burst into smoke.
The Bukiset with a spear made a sharp thrust up at her, but she swung down and performed a spin-attack, cutting the spear in half. She then grabbed the pointy end and sunk it into the Bukiset's face, while parrying a boomerang and a bolt of electricity with her sword.
POW!
Chuchu quickly about-faced, hurling the spearhead at the club-carrier, who hit it with the club, making it ricochet right back at her! Chuchu just barely managed to dodge.
After blocking another electrical blast and boomerang flight, Chuchu centered all her physical strength into one downward slice with her sword on top of the clubber, who blocked it easily with his club. But, the cut had been a trick, for Chuchu now punched the Bukiset with each of her seven free tentacles, temporarily stunning him, and, in finishing her slice, she chopped him in half.
POW!
Picking up the club, Chuchu used it to block another electrical shot. She was then astonished to see it fly backwards and zap the Bukiset that had fired it! The club must reverse the direction of whatever projectile hits it!
Before the Bukiset could recover, Chuchu threw her club at him, mashing in the front of his body.
POW!
Chuchu dodged the boomerang again and this time threw her sword at the thrower, who dodged, but in doing so caused the returning boomerang to pierce his forehead.
POW!
"YOOOOOOOW!" screamed Chuchu, jumping out of the flames. Half of the guestroom was now alight, yet Chuchu nearly slipped and fell over on the side that was completely frozen.
The pain of going from a very hot environment into a very cold one gripped Chuchu for a few excruciating seconds.
The Bukiset with an ice-shooter toggled the setting on his weapon, changing it from "crushed" to "cubed". Then he aimed at Chuchu and fired a spray of ice bullets at her.
Chuchu, however, recovered from her temperature shock in time. She quickly darted around the firing Bukiset, picked up her fallen sword and rammed it into him.
POW!
Amidst the flames, the fireproof Bukiset with a flame-thrower also toggled the setting on his weapon, changing it from "incinerate" to "obliterate". Taking aim, he shot a ball of fire in Chuchu's direction.
Chuchu dodged, but the flaming sphere exploded on contact with the ice, blasting her onto her side.
More fireballs were coming her way. Chuchu quickly got up and threw her sword in the direction they were coming from, but they didn't stop coming. She had missed the sniper.
Running back and forth, dodging the explosions, Chuchu managed to make her way back to where she had killed the previous Bukiset. Sure enough, his ice-shooter lay on the ground. As she ran past it, Chuchu grabbed it and started shooting at the final Bukiset, but the ice bullets each melted when they entered the fire!
If only I had that club right now! thought Chuchu. I could whack those fireballs directly back into this annoying psycho's face.
While still running around to evade the onslaught of exploding fireballs, Chuchu had a look at the gun-like ice-shooter, noticing a switch on its side. She flipped it and fired again, making the weapon spew a whirlwind of frost at the flames.
Chuchu ran across the room and back over and over, continuously discharging the endless supply of ice crystals in her weapon. When these crystals came into contact with the fire, they still melted, but they also left behind droplets of water, which slowly put out the fire.
At long last, the barrage of fiery orbs ceased. The side of the room that had one been ablaze was now covered with thick fog.
Chuchu walked through the mist, searching for what was left of the Bukiset. Eventually, she found him, frozen solid.
She reached out with a tentacle and lightly tapped the ice around him.
KABOOM!
The Bukiset exploded, blasting off the shell of ice that had encased him. Chuchu was flung onto the ground. Luckily, no sharp ice shrapnel had hit her.
She got up, picked up the flame-thrower, flipped its switch, and shot a few streams of fire into the air, dissipating the fog.
Chuchu looked around.
"Gooey?" she called. "Gooey! Where are you?!"
Chuchu gathered up the six weapons that had not been destroyed and walked over to the door by which she and Gooey had entered the room.
Gooey yelped in terror when he saw her in the doorway, holding an imposing weapon in almost every tentacle.
"Oh my gosh, Gooey," said Chuchu, sighing. "You are such a scaredy-cat."
"That really scared me!" shouted Gooey back. "I thought you were one of... them!"
"Gooey, I wasn't about to lose to a bunch of maniacs that didn't know the first thing about teamwork. It isn't for nothing that I'm called the greatest fighter in Dreamland."
"You aren't the greatest fighter in Dreamland," retorted Gooey, still mad at her for scaring him. "For one thing, the Bukisets had no coordination because Dark Matter wasn't bothering to coordinate them. For another, if Knuckle Joe were still around, he'd be able to squash you like a bug. And lastly, WE AREN'T IN DREAMLAND ANYMORE!!!"
Chuchu rolled her eyes and restrained her anger as much as she could, which wasn't very much.
"Oh, shut up, Gooey!" she spat back. "You're wasting time! Let's go!"
"Yes! Let's!" finished Gooey, walking past Chuchu and using a segment of his tongue to tug at one of her tentacles.
Bam!
Gooey suddenly found himself soaring across the battle-ravaged room. He hit a wall and slid to the floor, his body flat as a pancake.
"Never..." stammered Chuchu, "touch... me... with... that... again."
"Okay," wheezed Gooey, gasping for breath. His body slowly returned to its normal shape.
Actually, that had improved Chuchu's mood quite a bit. Gooey had been particularly satisfying to punch, Chuchu thought.
Chuchu walked over to him.
"Well," said Gooey, straightening up and using his tongue to brush himself off, "I hope we won't have to do that again. Remember, we're on a mission that must be completed as quickly as possible."
"So," replied Chuchu, "which door do your think we should take?"
There were five doors in the room, including the one they had entered through.
Gooey looked around and noticed a beat-up sign on one of the doors that read "Our room. Please wait for admittance."
"Dark Matter would probably keep something important in Lololo and Lalala's personal quarters," said Gooey. "So I suggest we try looking in there first."
Chuchu went over to the door and opened it.
The room was fairly large, yet there was only a single other door leading out of it. The room's main feature was a not-very-special-looking desk by the far wall. There were many holes in the walls with sparking wires dangling out. Clearly a large amount of machinery had been forcibly removed from this area. Yet these holes were not what Chuchu's eyes immediately snapped to.
There was Kirby. He was standing in the center of the room with a completely blank expression on his face. His eyes, which were normally oval-shaped, were now circular with gaping slits for pupils.
He didn't attack. He didn't move. He didn't even blink. Something was clearly wrong. Had Chuchu and Gooey arrived too late?
NOTE TO THE READER: I am well aware that the weapons the Bukisets carried in this story were not all the same as the ones they carried in Kirby's Dreamland 3.