Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.
BGM: Hau'oli City - Day (Pokemon Sun/Moon)
Xena and Umber sat down underneath a palm tree in Alola, looking over the ocean as a few Lumineon breached over the water, the two of them leaning their heads together.
"Hey… so, just to let you know, Dedede invited me to come hang out at his castle for a bit."
"Oh? Dedede, of all people? What does he want?"
Umber chuckled. "Who knows, but I'm guessing he just wants to hang out. I'm guessing he's rather lonely."
Xena snickered. "So what, the amount of Waddle Dees, Escargoon and Meta Knight don't count?"
"That's what I said." He smiled. "He said he just wants to talk to someone else for a change."
"Well, alright then…" Xena chuckled.
The two of them stood up. "I better get going. I'll telepathically call you when I'm there."
"Sounds good." Xena smiled, the two of them embracing and sharing a passionate small make out session. Umber pulled away and looked at her mischieviously.
"Yagami, you wanna kiss me goodbye too?"
"Thought you'd never ask!"
Yagami took over and smiled, the two leaning in and kissed each other for a minute before pulling away. "See you when you get back?"
"Yeah." Umber smiled.
Yagami giggled. "Later babe. Don't give Dedede too much trouble now." She playfully winked, kissing him on the cheek as the both of them walked away while holding each other's hands.
End BGM
Two days later…
"Babe? Babe!" Xena called out to him via telepathy. "Babe!"
"You okay?" A voice asked as Xena looked behind her to see Ruby.
"Yeah, we're trying to communicate with Umber but… he's not responding."
"When did you last see him?"
"Two days ago, we were hanging out in Alola and he told me Dedede invited him to his castle. He said he'd call me up when he got there. Then after that… nothing. When we went to bed, we tried calling him but he didn't respond. We figured he was probably sleeping… but usually our telepathic calls wake him up and we typically chat for an hour before we go to sleep."
"Aaand he didn't respond?"
"It's like after he said he arrived at the castle… it was like dead silence after that." She explained.
"Okay, did you try texting him?"
"We did that too… no response."
"Hmm… well, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. He's probably having a lot of fun with Dedede that it slipped his mind." Ruby shrugged as she walked off. "Later, you two!"
"Right… nothing to worry about. I mean, she's right. This is Umber for crying out loud. He's part of the Koopa Troop! He's fine."
"Yeah, totally."
"...But we can't help but worry, can we?"
Xena frowned. "Yeah… let's just hope nothing bad happened."
In the present…
BGM: Toad Town (Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story plus Bowser Jr's Journey)
"Ooooh…" Xena paced around, levitating as she did so.
"Something on your mind?" Nyx asked. "You don't normally pace around in worry."
"Aaagh! It's Umber!" Xena said. "We've been trying to telepathically calling him and texting him for a few days but we're coming up on empty!"
"I'm sure he's fine." Iris said, munching on some jerky. "He's probably having a great time at Popstar."
"Well, we wouldn't be worrying too much… but then we woke up, we tried texting him and… we were met with this." Xena telekinetically showed them her scroll.
"What, it's just a communication error." Iris said.
"Read it again…"
Nyx looked closely. "Corrupted Interdimensional Error: Failed to send to recipient due to unknown recipient"." Nyx blinked. "...Corrupted interdimensional error? That's a new o-... hang on, unknown recipient?"
"That's… cryptic as hell." Iris said.
"We know! That just filled us with more worry!"
"Then perhaps we ought to investigate this." A voice said as Mewtwo teleported in.
"...You called up Mewtwo?" Nyx asked.
"Well, figured he might know something."
"I had seen the boy enter the Smash Mansion, only to go into the portal leading to Popstar. I didn't think of it much, but as these two were telling me about the situation, I figured I would lend a hand."
Mewtwo telekinetically brought the scroll to him. "Perhaps… we ought to have the computer geek figure this out." He then looked around. "Speaking of technological geeks, where's Jade?"
"Helping Futaba out with the network." Nyx said.
"Hmm, I imagined restoring the world network from scratch would take a long time." Mewtwo mused. "Let's go."
End BGM
At Sojiro's…
BGM: Beneath the Mask (Persona 5)
Thud
Thud
Thud
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!" Rotty yelled after headdesking on the table. "Who the hell comes up with a spaghetti code this… bad! No wonder you and Eggman were able to crack the code easily!"
"Told ya. It's a headache." Futaba said. "Hell, I constantly see smoke coming out of Chihiro's ears when he tries to look at the spaghetti code."
"Honestly, I've probably short circuited so many times to the point that Jade has to keep rebooting me." Chihiro groaned. "It's happening daily now."
"You guys are overreacting." Coral said as she took a look. "See, this code is easy to understand. All you gotta do… is… uh… hold on… multiply that code with… no, you gotta divide… add? No… it's… it's…"
"Can't figure it out?" Jade asked.
"UUUUUGH!" Coral rubbed her head in annoyance. "Whoever came up with this damn network oughta be shot out of a cannon! Seriously, have you asked the other eggheads?"
"Yeah, went to them for help. All of them couldn't believe how easy it was to hack into. Kazuichi got a headache, Nitori went to Gensokyo to have sake with Suika because she'd rather get drunk then dealing with that. GLaDOS and Cave nearly short circuited, Dr. Light thought Wily would come up with a better network, Pietro immediately went to upgrading Penny and SAPR so they wouldn't get hacked as easily, Engi just simply shook his head and Susie? She said "I'd rather set up ice cream shops than dealing with that kind of nonsense"."
"Wow, it's bad that even the head of Haltmann Industries would rather do anything but this? I don't blame her…" Chihiro mumbled.
"How far are you into it?" Coral asked.
"40%. Getting there but… ugh, I take constant breaks all the time because it's such a headache."
"I don't blame you! Seriously, how do you manage to twist these codes around into an actual knot!" Coral groaned.
Jade sighed. "We all thought this would be easy… but apparently, it's taking a bit longer."
"I even showed this to the Ironwoods and even they were floored on how bad it was. Ironwood admitted that he would've given up a long time ago and Esdeath wondered how it was possible that I'm still sane, let alone watching the code play actual jump rope." Futaba sighed.
Sojiro said nothing, cleaning a mug. "At times like these, I'm glad I'm not a technical genius…"
"Like, look at this line of code! It's literally a pretzel knot!" Rotty complained.
"Ugh, seriously… a Spanish hacker could easily hack into this with just her fingers and say it's not a big deal!" Futaba groaned, leaning her head on Jade's shoulder. "Jade, just… kill me now…"
Jade kissed her on the head. "We'll figure this out."
"I know…" Futaba sighed.
The cafe doors opened. "Hey Jade!"
"Hmm? Oh hey girls and… Mewtwo?" Jade blinked. "What's up?"
"Umber apparently has gone missing." Mewtwo said as Xena handed them the scroll.
"Oh. I'm sure he's fine." Futaba said, taking Xena's scroll. "Where did he-... Corrupted Interdimensional Error? Unknown recipient?" She tilted her head. "That's a new one. Where did he go?"
"Dreamland. Dedede invited him." Xena said. "We tried telepathically calling him, but he's not answering that either."
"So you think I can find his whereabouts?" Futaba smirked. "Now this I can do!" She put the code to the side, hooked up Xena's scroll to her computer and quickly typed it up. "Okay, so… three days ago, you said?"
"Yeah."
Futaba looked through the text messages. "Ah, three days ago. That'll do." She typed up some code as on her screen, it showed the world of Remnant and Popstar. "Okay, so… three days ago, Umber went to Popstar to hang out with the King of Dreamland." Futaba clicked on Popstar and soon found Dedede castle.
"Okay, phone and telekinetic signals are still good." Futaba said, fast forwarding the time. "Hmm? Okay hold up a moment!" Futaba paused it. "Okay, so… around five'o clock in the evening, Umber and Dedede had vanished from existence. Around that time, Meta Knight vanished as well."
"Hmm…" Mewtwo closed his eyes. "I've heard that Palkia's been paying Popstar a visit these days. Something about an interdimensional rift that opened up."
"You think one of them sucked up those three?" Rotty wondered.
"It's a possibility. And you only got this cryptic message today?"
"Yeah." Xena nodded.
"Interesting…" Futaba mused. "Something tells me that whatever happened is messing with Umber's phone. I've never seen this type of message before. Well… might as well check it out." She closed her laptop and unplugged Xena's scroll. "I'll contact the Phantom Thieves. We gotta get to the bottom of this."
At that moment, the door opened up again as they turned to see Dante and Vergil walking in. "Sojiro! Your finest coffee!"
"You got it." Sojiro nodded.
"Oh, you two are out and about?" Jade asked. "Where's the rest of the crew?"
"It's… a long story." Vergil admitted.
Pause BGM
Earlier…
"Yaaaah!" Dante slashed Vergil, where he blocked with his sword as the two proceeded to slash at each other.
"They're at it again…" Lady said in annoyance.
"Alright, that's it!" Trish got between them. "Boys, that's enough!"
"Come on, Trish. Lighten up. We're on friendlier terms these days."
"But you constantly fight!" Trish pointed out. "It's gotten to the point where you pretty much destroy Devil May Cry all the time!"
"So?" Vergil shrugged.
Trish pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright… you two better start getting along or so help me, I'm going straight to Ibuki and have her make a "This is our "get along" shirt"."
Dante rolled his eyes. "Come on, we're just roughhousing!" He said, pulling Vergil to him and giving him a noogie.
An anime tic mark appeared on Trish's forehead. "Out! Out with the two of you!" She pushed them out. "And don't come back until you two learn how to get along!" She slammed the door on them.
In the present…
Everyone sweatdropped. "They act like they've never had a friendly sibling rivalry before." Dante said. "Besides, we got along in that Phazon War."
"We battled with Lightsabers at that theme park." Vergil pointed out.
"Come on, it was fun and you know it!"
"Guess we can take them to Dreamland." Nyx said with them nodding. "You guys want to come to Popstar?"
"Eh, we got nothing better to do. Sure." Dante nodded.
"Let's go. Umber and Dedede could be in serious danger!" Jade said as JINXY, Futaba, Mewtwo, Dante, and Vergil ran out the door, leaving behind Chihiro, Rotty and Coral.
"So… got anything stronger than coffee? I think I'm gonna need it." Rotty mumbled.
Futaba pulled out her phone, texting her fellow Phantom Thieves. "Meet us at the portal to Popstar. It's an emergency."
"You got it." - Akira
"Hey! Where's the fire?" A voice asked as they turned to see the Badland Mercs approaching them.
"Umber's gone missing." Xena explained.
"Umber? …Who was that again?" Soldier wondered.
"Our boyfriend. Ya know…" Xena pulled up a picture of him. "This guy!"
"Oh hey, he was at that Siren Island place." Scout said.
"Ah, that guy… WAIT! The boy's gone missing?!" Soldier exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Xena nodded. "Last time I talked to him, he was in Dreamland."
"BOYS! WE ARE GOING TO DREAMLAND!" Soldier said, pulling out his Market Gardener. "CHAAAAAAARGE!" He smacked Scout over the head.
"OOOOF!" Scout was immediately knocked down.
"Not that kind of Dreamland! Planet Popstar, ya idiot!" Futaba said.
"Ooooh." Soldier nodded. "...Do we get there by knocking each other out?"
"No."
"Ah, we're going to the dream realm physically… mwahahaha! Good, we get to strangle nightmares!" Soldier rubbed his hands gleefully.
"Oi… dummkoff…" Medic mumbled.
"Just for the record… I'm okay…!" Scout groaned, painfully raising his hand.
"What's going on here?" A voice asked as they saw the Thunder Legion approaching.
"Dreamland. Umber's gone missing." Iris said.
"...Remind me who that is again?" Mercury asked as Xena showed them the picture. "Ah, right, the boy with the Keyblade."
Laxus chuckled. "Well… might as well help you guys out. We got nothing better to do."
"Let's go find him." Hazel said.
"Yeah!" Zapple nodded.
Once at the Smash Mansion…
"Yo!" Ryuji waved them over. "...What's with the party?"
"Okay, so… a few days ago, Umber mentioned to Xena that Dedede invited him to his castle… and then they apparently dropped off of the face of Popstar just like that." Futaba explained. "Xena and Yagami's been worried sick and, apparently, they got this text message." She showed them.
"...Interdimensional… what?" Ann wondered.
"That's a new one." Haru said.
"Hmm… come to think of it… I haven't seen Dedede or Meta Knight around." Akira mused.
"Sounds like we ought to get to the bottom of this." Makoto said.
"Right." Akechi nodded. "Because this message is concerning."
"Let's go pay Castle Dedede a visit." Yusuke said as they went into the portal.
End BGM
Meanwhile…
BGM: Taking It Easy (Kirby Squeak Squad)
"Ah… this is definitely a nice place for a picnic." Sonia said, a gentle breeze flowing through her hair as Gundham was happily feeding his devas.
"Agreed." Hajime nodded as Chiaki was resting her head on his lap while BB-8 was rolling around and scanning the area, while Kirby was happily looking at the clouds while taking a bite out of his strawberry shortcake.
BB-8 spotted JINXY's group heading toward them. He let out a few chirps to get their attention.
"Hmm…?" Chiaki woke up from her nap and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Hello~!" Sonia waved as they came over. "You seem to be in a rush."
"Yeah, that's because Umber's missing." Nyx said.
"Umber?" Chiaki yawned. "You haven't seen him in a while? He's probably lost track of time in Alola…"
"According to the psychic twins, Umber came to Dreamland because Dedede invited him. Then they vanished without a trace." Futaba explained.
"Hmm… sounds like it's serious." Gundham stood up, looking directly at Castle Dedede from afar. "Could an eldritch abomination have taken Umber and Dedede? We must find out at once, and then beat the hell out of it for daring to intrude upon Popstar's peaceful land! Perhaps we can make friends with it after we beat it to a pulp!"
"I like that idea!" Sonia grinned.
"Poyo poyo…" Kirby spoke up.
"Yeah, come to think of it… Meta Knight's been missing too." Chiaki folded her arms.
"That's concerning." Hajime said.
"Indeed." Chiaki sprang up, stretching. "Let's go find 'em."
"Yes, let's!" Gundham agreed as they all got up and headed straight for Castle Dedede, but then storm clouds rolled right in.
End BGM
"Seems like a storm is approaching." Akira said.
"...I don't think those are normal storm clouds." Mewtwo said.
Sonia immediately looked serious. "Chiaki?"
"Yeah?"
"When was the last Kirby game you've played?"
"Oh… I've been playing a lot of RPGs and Elden Ring that I haven't gotten around to playing the other Kirby games… though the last one I played was Planet Robobot. That was pretty fun."
Sonia smiled. "I think you're about to live through this one." She chuckled as the storm clouds rolled overhead, and then suddenly a spacial rift opened up as it started to suck in Star Blocks, trees, Waddle Dees, a butterfly… nothing was spared against the pull.
Even Bandana Dee tried to stab the ground and hold on, but his spear was uprooted and pulled him up into the rift.
"Poyo poyo!" Kirby tried to run away as did everyone else, although Sonia and Gundham stood still.
"Bring on the eldritch abomination! Let us see who is superior! The abomination or my devas!" Gundham cackled as everyone was sucked into the rift.
Everything went dark for everyone as they were pulled into the void, Kirby morphing into various objects in his malleable body before they were enveloped in a bright light.
The sound of crashing waves were heard as Kirby was the first one to come around. "Poyo…?" Kirby wondered, shaking the sand off of his body as one by one, everyone woke up, rubbing their heads.
"Ugh… that could've gone better…" Mercury said, pounding his head to get sand out of his ears.
"Where are we?" Zapple wondered.
"Some kind of jungle, I think." Chiaki said, staring at the woods in front of them.
Mewtwo dusted himself off. "Is everyone alright?"
"I'm fine. Wait a minute, where's Morgana?" Ryuji asked.
"Come to think of it, BB-8's missing too." Hajime added.
They heard beeping a moment later as they turned to see BB-8 emerging from the water and dragging Morgana out. "Oh! Mona!" Ann quickly got over to them and picked him up. "Are you okay?!"
"Uuuugh… I'm fine… just… a bit water logged." Morgana mumbled while BB-8 opened up a hatch and poured water out of his system.
"I guess we're all accounted for." Sonia said.
"Yeah… although, it's weird." Xena said. "We feel kinda… empty for some reason." She levitated off the ground. "Okay, we still have that."
"Hmm… this could be where Umber and Dedede might be located." Futaba said. "We'll just have to take a look."
"Considering we have no idea where the hell we are, we might as well take a look." Laxus said.
"I know where we are! We're in the physical manifestation of the dream world! Let's clobber these nightmares!" Soldier smirked.
"I seriously doubt that's where we are, lad." Demoman said.
"Alright, JINXY. Let's rock!" Jade said.
"Let's go, Yagami!" Xena smirked as they walked through the woods. "...Yagami?"
"Something the matter?" Mewtwo asked.
"Strange, lost communication with Yagami. Maybe she's just knocked out." Xena said as they walked through the forest, having their guards up just in case of an ambush. Once they walked past a wooden bridge, they would immediately hear rustling in the grass… and then a Awoofy sprung out.
"Whoa!" Chiaki exclaimed. "...It's so cute!"
"So furry and so… animal-like." Gundham mused. I wonder if I can tame such a creature!
The Awoofy growled as it kicked back its paw and lunged at the group… only for a hand to reach out and telekinetically grabbed a hold of the creature, then tossed it toward a tree branch to knock it out, stars circling around the KO'd creature.
They turned to the source of the one who knocked out the Awoofy. "We realize you guys could've handled it, but we thought you could lend a ha-"
"Yagami?!" Xena said in surprise.
"Huh?" Yagami stared at Xena. "...Xena?"
The two of them walked closer, looking at each other in the eyes. "...WHAT THE HELL?!" They both yelled.
BGM: Funny Goings-On (Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam)
"This is peculiar…" Mewtwo mused. "Did you happen to eat a Double Cherry?"
Both of them reached into their pockets, pulling out two Double Cherries. "Nope. Not really." Xena said as they put them away.
"Astral Projection? No… that can't be it. We would be able to see through one of them." Chiaki said.
"I did feel like something was pulling me apart through that void…"
"You too?" Yagami rubbed her head. "Okay, what the hell is going on, then?"
"Perhaps that was a side effect of going through that void." Mewtwo pointed out. "Can you two merge?"
An aura surrounded Yagami as she immediately went back inside of Xena. "Yeah, the merge is still a thing. Thank Oum." She said as Yagami hopped back out.
"Hmm… ya know, it kinda feels like our magic isn't depleting kinda fast." Xena said. "Like, we could've been separated for more than fifteen minutes when we woke up."
"Perhaps the void might have extended the time period between you ladies." Engi guessed.
End BGM
"That's what I was thinking. We definitely need to look into this soon." Futaba said. "For now, we ought to find a way out of this forest."
"I think I saw some light up ahead." Yagami said as she guided them out of the forest, and once they did…
BGM: Running Through the New World (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
"Whoooooa, suddenly there's a city!" Ryuji exclaimed.
"...An abandoned one at that." Mercury said.
"Poyo…" Kirby said in awe.
"Holy crap… did Shiver Star thaw out or something?" Chiaki wondered.
"I don't think this is Shiver Star…" Hajime said.
Chiaki's eyes sparkled. "Oooh, this looks too exciting!" She said enthusiastically.
Sonia giggled. "Let's see where this city takes us~!" She smiled as they walked through the road, Chiaki completely in awe of her surroundings.
"Seems post apocalyptic by the looks of it…" Spy said.
"...Please tell me America survived the apocalypse. It's the only country that matters!" Soldier said.
"I think it was destroyed too." Vergil said.
"Noooooo!"
"Eh, it had a good run." Scout shrugged as they turned the corner where they saw a Blade Knight ready to attack, but Kirby immediately sucked him up and gained the Sword ability.
"Poyo~!"
"Eh?" Demoman blinked, looking at his bottle of alcohol in his hand. He shrugged it off and went back to drinking.
"Oh, what the heck." Chiaki looked through her screens and summoned the Stygian Blade. "Might as well cut through the grass too!" She giggled as they walked ahead, cutting through the grass as they cut down a few Kabu and Bronto Burts that were ready to attack them.
"Amazing. One with the chaos magic and she chooses a sword from Hades." Gundham then smirked. "Truly, the most chaotic of them all."
"Nah, that'd be Soul Edge." Sonia said as they started climbing up platforms, although Soldier preferred rocket jumping over them.
"How the hell are you not destroying your feet?" Iris asked.
"They're rocket resistant! They grew an immunity to being blown off my legs!" Soldier said.
"Healing also works…" Medic quietly said with a chuckle, secretly healing him up with Heavy laughing with him.
"...Okaaaay." Iris shrugged as they climbed up the ladders as Kirby spotted a Poppy Bro and proceeded to suck him up, immediately donning the Bomb power up and proceeded to lay explosive hell on unsuspecting Bronto Burts and Kabus, while also walking through a girder before making their way down a ramp and into a garage.
Pause BGM
BGM: Mysterious Mouthful Mode (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
Everyone walked in, looking around inside the abandoned area… before three Awoofies emerged from the car. "Ah, it appears that we have company!" Gundham said as he was about to prepare to tame them, but then Kirby jumped in and proceeded to suck them in.
However, his suction power also managed to accidentally suck in the abandoned car and the car went inside the puffball, where he attempted to try to eat it up before it was fully eaten… before it sprung back as Kirby proceeded to be one with the car.
Carby, if you will.
End BGM
"...He… didn't fully eat the car. That's a first." Ann said while Chiaki stared at Kirby.
"Kirby…?"
Kirby turned to Chiaki. "Poy-mmph!" He waved his stubby little arms.
Chiaki snorted, before she started laughing. "Oh! Hahahahaha!" She laughed, doubling over in laughter. "I can't breathe…! That's hilarious!"
Resume Running Through the New World BGM
"Quite adorable, if I have to say!" Futaba said, immediately snapping a photo.
"Isn't that uncomfortable?" Akechi wondered as Kirby shook the car "no" in response.
"HE'S EVEN MOVING THE WHOLE CAR! THAT'S EVEN BETTER!" Chiaki cackled, wiping the tears from her eyes as she laughed uncontrollably at this point.
"Hmm…!" Soldier rubbed his chin. "By any chance can you take over a tank? Imagine the damage you can do with that!"
"Nyet! Terrible idea!" Heavy said.
"I'd rather see him eat a semi truck first before we tackle a tank." Engineer admitted.
"Seriously, you're not uncomfortable at all?"
"Poy-mmph!"
"Hmm…" Mewtwo folded his arms. "The twins have split and are staying out for longer periods of time. Kirby's body became more malleable than usual. Hmm…" He turned to the others. "Did anyone else feel any strange effects when they crossed the void?"
"Nope, I don't feel any different." Nyx said.
"I feel fine." Ryuji said.
"Still chipper as ever~!" Haru smiled.
"Still the same badass princess~!" Sonia smiled, flexing her arm.
"I feel the same." Gundham nodded.
"Yeah. Same here." Hajime said.
"Oh… oh gods… I needed that…" Chiaki giggled, wiping her tears with a smile while BB-8 simply booped in response.
"I still feel plenty drunk, lad!" Demoman said.
"Yeah. I still feel the same." Dante said.
"Nope. Don't feel any different." Zapple said.
"Same ol' cyborg." Mercury said.
"I don't feel any different either." Hazel responded.
"I guess it only affected those three." Laxus said.
"I do not feel different either. Strange." Mewtwo mused. "Perhaps we should keep an eye on any abnormal changes for the time being."
"Poy-mmph~!" Kirby moved around, completely content in his car form.
"How the hell is he driving?" Makoto wondered.
"Probably with his tongue." Ryuji said.
"...Okay, then how is he reading the gas pedal?"
"Maybe he has a forked tongue?" Ryuji guessed.
"Yeah right! He doesn't have that! …Hopefully." Makoto looked at Kirby strangely. …I'm gonna have to look at that later.
"Well… only one thing we can do to keep up with the little guy." Chiaki went into her screens and summoned Warthogs, Troop Transport Warthogs, Mongeese, Dante's bike, and Sniper's camper van while Morgana went into his car form.
"Thank you kindly." Dante said, hopping on with Vergil climbing in.
"I'm not gonna question it. Thanks!" Sniper climbed in.
"With all due respect, Chiaki… we got our own modes of transportation!" Jade smiled, summoning her Shadow Star while Iris and Nyx got on their Jet Stars. The psychics simply levitated off of the ground while BB-8 settled for hopping in the back of Morgana.
Hajime got on one of the Mongoose. "Mind if I take the wheel, babe? You seem to be enamored by this new world that you might accidentally drive off a cliff." He teased.
"Hey! …Oh, who am I kidding, you're probably right." Chiaki giggled as she climbed on the back as Hazel got in one of the Troop Transport Warthogs with Mercury in the passenger seat and Laxus reluctantly getting in the back.
"You gonna be okay?" Zapple asked.
"Oh… hopefully." Laxus nodded as they all drove off, where he immediately felt sick.
That's a no. Zapple thought.
"Wait a minute… he's gonna drive straight through that wall!" Iris exclaimed.
"Poooooy-mmmph!" Kirby burst through the wall and landed on all four wheels as everyone did the same.
"You okay?" Chiaki asked with some concern.
Kirby turned around, showing no sign of bruises. "Poy-mmph!"
"Huh, sturdy little guy." Sonia said as she was also on a Mongoose as they proceeded to drive off, as some Cappy's were unfortunately ran over by Kirby taking his car form for a spin as they drove around the road, leaping off of small ramps and making a small left turn as they drove straight for a bridge while Kirby casually plowed through boulders like they were nothing.
End BGM
Once he hit the boulder on the bridge, the bridge proceeded to lower back down, giving them access to town.
BGM: Welcome to the New World! (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
"Woooow!" Chiaki's eyes sparkled.
Hajime revved up. "Let's rock." He said as they all drove off, all of them looking around town, seemingly exploring the large abandoned city.
They turned to the right, all of them looking at the damaged abandoned buildings as a few Awoofies chased after them. One in particular woke up from its nap on a bench before resuming its nap.
Kirby stopped at a crosswalk, which signaled the others to stop as a mother duck and her ducklings waddled across the street. Once they crossed, they drove off while Chiaki pulled out her phone and took pictures at every opportunity.
However… they would hear cawing as they looked up to see crow-like creatures flying with cages in their grasp.
"Are those… crows holding cages?" Jade asked.
"Huh, they must be really strong here." Nyx mused.
"Wait a second… look!" Yagami pointed as they saw them slamming them down on helpless Waddle Dees and then hauling them away.
"They're kidnapping Waddle Dees?!" Chiaki said in surprise.
"That's not good!" Morgana said as Makoto picked up the pace by flooring it as did the others, but they would soon reach a cliff side, forcing them to stop driving.
End BGM
"Heeeeeeeelp!" A voice cried as Kirby spat out the car, becoming his round shape again as they ran ahead, and saw a light blue mouse creature being tormented by Awoofies before being caged.
"That little mouse is in trouble!" Gundham said as they ran ahead, but were ambushed by several Awoofies, forcing them to fight them off.
However, several spears came down in front of them as Bandana Dee swooped in, grabbed his spear and swung around, kicking the Awoofies away to knock them down as he picked his spear back up.
"Poyo!" Kirby smiled as he ran up and hugged Bandana Dee as he returned the favor, then Gundham walked over and freed the little creature.
"You are free, little guy!" Gundham said as the creature hugged him.
"Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!" He said happily as he turned to the others. "Thank you so much for saving me!"
"Ah, it's nothing. Who are you?" Jade asked.
"Oh, me? My name is Elfilin." He explained. "And what are yours?"
One introduction later…
"Nice names! Those creatures came out of nowhere and started capturing the Waddle Dees! I tried to save a few of them, but they managed to snag me too! I need your help to save those cute guys!"
"You can count on us!" Akira said.
"Poyo!" Kirby smiled.
"Hmm…" Chiaki folded her arms. A cute cuddly creature appearing out of nowhere and wanting our help? Where have I seen this before? She thought, closing her eyes and picturing what had happened in Milky Way Wishes and Return to Dreamland. Yup, just as I thought, this is a Marx and Magolor situation. Don't think I'm not onto you, you little fiend.
BGM: Waddle Dee Town (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
"This whole place is a wreck… needs a little fixer upper." Laxus said.
"I was thinking the same thing." Zapple agreed.
"Have you two tried to contact Umber in this world?" Mewtwo asked. "Perhaps your telepathy could work."
"It's worth a shot." Xena nodded as she and Yagami closed their eyes.
End BGM
However… as they tried to telepathically talk to him, images flashed into their head nonstop, seemingly an unknown creature.
"Nnnngh! AAAGH!" Xena yelled, falling on her knees.
"Mmmph!" Yagami winced.
"Guys?" Nyx's voice echoed in their heads.
"Become… with me… ultimate… form… slaves!"
"Gah!" Xena yelped, forcibly getting out of the communication. "Hah… hah…"
"Rrrgh…" Yagami grunted, doing the same thing as her eyes flashed red for a split second before they went back to normal.
"You two okay?" Akira asked as he was by their sides.
"Uuugh… yeah… we should be…" Xena grunted. "Ugh, now I got a headache…"
"You too?" Yagami groaned.
"What happened?" Mewtwo asked.
"I… I think something blocked us and… tried to… talk to us…" Xena said, sitting down and holding on to her head.
"That's concerning…" Mewtwo mused. "Someone disrupting you two? This doesn't sound pleasant."
"Here, let me try." Chiaki said as she tried it. "Umber, can you-"
The same thing happened to her.
"AAAAAGH!" She cried, falling on her knees and punched the ground while cringing.
"Chiaki!" Hajime was right by her side as Sonia and Gundham were near her as well.
"Hah… hah… what the fudgesicle was that…?"
Mewtwo closed his eyes. "Umber, can you…"
He was interrupted, but unlike them, he merely grunted and clenched his fists. He opened his eyes. "It's no good. Someone is willingly blocking our communication with Umber."
"Whatever it is… it said something about… Ultimate Form or… whatever…" Chiaki said, holding on to her head.
"This could mean trouble…" Mewtwo said with his arms folded.
"Heeeeey!" A voice called out as they turned to see Reimu flying in, and was joined by another.
"Reimu?" Jade asked. "You came here too?"
"Way-moo!" Kirby smiled and ran to him.
Reimu landed on the ground. "Hey little bud!" She smiled as he jumped into his arms. She rubbed his head and then looked at the others. "Well, considering spacial rifts are popping up everywhere in Popstar and considering we're close to the planet, we might as well get to the bottom of this before it starts affecting Gensokyo."
"Correction, she was sleeping on the roof and I chewed her out for it. She's the shrine maiden, after all."
"Always have to be such a nag…" Reimu mumbled.
"Who's this?" Iris asked.
"Oh, pardon me. I am Kasen Ibaraki, a hermit from Gensokyo and one of the sages. I saw these spacial rifts infesting our neighboring planet, so we decided to come investigate."
"You literally drug me out of bed." She said in annoyance. "By the ankle, no less!"
Kasen chuckled. "Someone had to."
"I suppose…" Reimu mumbled. "So… what'd we miss?"
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the world…
"Geez… you visit Popstar and you get sucked into a portal of some kind." Carmen said as she looked around. "...Wonder if any of my new friends were in Dreamland too?" She wondered.
Unaware by her, a purplish hole popped into existence as a hooded figure came out.
"Agh… Well lost that weapon…" The figure said as he spotted Carmen in the distance. "Is that Carmen? Fancy seeing her here! I wonder if she has any friends… and I wonder if they have any weapons as strong as the strongest of all swords… which I am pretty sure I found this time! Come Enkidu, my faithful companion! Let us run around this world and duel anyone at the most opportune of times!"
"SQUWAAK!"
"Hmm…" Carmen stopped walking. "I can't help but feel a certain idiot is nearby… eh, I'm probably just paranoid."
Time in one story, space in the next... it's almost poetic!
Ibuki: "Almost"?
Okay, it's poetic.
Ibuki: There we go~!