PART 9: Holy Nightmare
"...and that is everything I know about it." Salesguy finished. Dedede stared at him, and quickly changed the subject.
"So, you're back then... how?" he asked.
"Let's just say that the fog has a silver lining." Salesguy replied, smirking.
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Kirby tucked the doll behind the medallion and looked into the sky, looking for a sign..any sign...
Nothing but fog. Pure fog all around him. Not exactly what he had in mind, but he pressed onwards...looking for anything that might help him on this now miserable planet...
He wondered if he was going anywhere...it was impossible to see through the fog, which was already unnerving as it was. Sometimes, red eyes would appear in the fog and stare at him... Eyes that seemed to pierce through his soul, and he knew who they belonged to... but something seemed to keep on pushing him onwards, giving him a boost of confidence that kept him moving... he touched the medallion...
An enormous flare of bright light shot out of it, causing every bit of fog in front of him to scatter. Kirby grinned, and used this newfound power to help him find his way.
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After the fog had passed the ship, Chief Bookum sighed. They still had a lot to do, but right now, he just wanted to go to his room and sleep...and dream of home...
For sleep was the only way he'd ever be home again.
As soon as he got into his room, he went to his computer, which was making a beeping sound. As he turned on on the monitor, a message flashed on his screen.
"SCAN COMPLETE. TWO PEOPLE(S) MISSING.
FIRST NAMES: SAMO AND TIFF.."
He didn't bother to read the rest, for he was out the door in the work of a moment.
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"But that's not the point." Salesguy said. "What can I do for you today?" Dedede looked at him.
"Nothing, unless you can fix this planet." he said.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Salesguy laughed. "Not even if you paid me...which you would. Believe me, I'd rather NOT have that pink traitor banish us to whatever hell we were banished to AGAIN, thanks." Dedede looked around nervously.
"But what if I helped you destroy Kirby? Then could you fix the planet?" he asked. Salesguy put a hand to his chin.
"Now that's an interesting proposition." he said. There was silence for a few minutes. "You've got yourself a deal. So, what will you have?"
"Demons that can survive the black fog AND destroy Kirby. Tons of them." Dedede said. He looked around and said something else, in a whisper that could barely be heard.
"This is interesting. Holy Nightmare gets money, Kirby is destroyed, and you have something to rule without us having anything to worry about." Salesguy responded thoughtfully. "We'll send them immediately." Dedede looked surprised.
"Not here, not here!" he yelled. "Send them right over to Kirby. Block his path." Salesguy simply nodded.
"You've got yourself some demons. And a deal." he replied. Dedede turned off the screen and looked around.
"Kawasaki! I've got a job for you!" he yelled. Kawasaki entered.
"Yes, your majesty?" he said. Dedede grinned (in a way that just barely seemed friendly).
"But before you do it, I want to give you something.." he said. Dedede threw something at him... a soda of some sort. "It's yours. Drink it." Kawasaki looked at Dedede suspiciously, but he did it anyways. Kawasaki felt strange all of a sudden, and collapsed to the ground instantly. Smiling, Dedede walked over to Kawasaki.
"Kirby is your enemy. Always has been...destroy him. Go to Pop Star...find him...kill him." Dedede whispered into his ear. Suddenly, as if under a trance, Kawasaki got up from the ground, pressed the button next to the sliding exit door, and left the room immediately. Dedede smiled.
"Whatever you sent me, it really works." he said confidently, looking at the screen.
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It had been 6 hours since Kirby had begun, but it felt like weeks. The newfound power of the medallion gave him sight, but only a limited amount of it... he could only see so much, and only so far... but it was helping him find his way. That's all that really mattered.
He had found a cave, and hoping it would lead him somewhere, he had entered it. It was very dark, which was why he was glad he had the medallion to guide him. It was also wet, filled with rocks of all sorts, stalactites and stalagmites.. and.. bats?
Kirby aimed the medallion at the ceiling. Tens about hundreds upon thousands upon millions of bats filled the cave. Kirby stared at them in shock... he had never seen this many in one place, much less any at all. The bats screeched in stereo, filling the cave with sound. Kirby covered his ears as the bats flew at him all at once and the cave began to collapse above him. Kirby made a run for it, the bats giving chase.
He jumped over a stalagmite, avoiding rocks which fell behind him and the bats, which were giving endless chase, easily avoiding the rocks and obstacles and easily moving twice as fast as Kirby. The bats reached Kirby, flying around him as he ran. They screeched constantly, distracting Kirby and making him run into a rock wall. At least ten of the bats swooped at Kirby, and bit him wherever they could, so he flapped his arms wildly, trying to shake them off, but they held tight. He kept on running, but for some reason, found himself getting weaker, as if something was sapping his strangth...
Realizing what was happening, he threw himself against a wall, knocking the bats off of him. They flew at him again as the rest of the million bats turned the corner after him, followed closely by the collapsing cavern. Kirby jumped against the wall and jumped off it onto another wall a second later. While he was on this wall, he took an enormous breath of air and swallowed one of the bats.
Time seemed to slow down as Kirby flipped into the air three times and began to glow. A bunch of bats flew around him as a pair of huge purple wings and white fangs appeared on him. His skin turned purple and his eyes turned red...
"VAMPIRE!" Kirby shouted, spreading his wings and flying away. He found himself flying twice as fast, and he discovered he could shoot waves of supersonic sound at objects, allowing him to fly easier. This was a new ability to him, but he had never needed one more. He found himself almost out flying the bats, when he discovered that they could move just as fast as he could. Turning through the many twists of the cave, and almost running into walls in the process (as he couldn't use the medallion while flying, it was around his waist), he flew faster, the bats giving constant chase. Kirby couldn't risk turning around to fight them, so he flew onwards. The cave was beginning to fall apart even faster, and Kirby wondered just how much longer he could keep this up.
Kirby ran right into a rock wall. He looked around. There wasn't any other way! He had flown into a dead end! The cave rumbled again, as loud shrieking continued to fill it. The bats had found him again...there was no escape now.
He flew at them, and they flew at him. Kirby fired a wave of supersonic at some of the bats... his voice was louder than theirs, which may explain why the waves knocked quite a few of them out. He flew into the living cloud of bats, firing waves of supersonic and avoiding their sharp fangs. Since he was flying, he couldn't use the medallion's light to see, so he was forced to use the supersonic to see if there was a rock wall in his path. He shrieked and the sound returned to him quickly, so he turned around immediately, scraping one of his wings against a rock wall in the process. He fired another blast of supersonic at the bats, knocking some of them out, flew through the gap he left in them, and turned a corner quickly as the sound of the supersonic returned to him.
Rocks fell all around him. Remembering the asteroid field, he flew left and right to avoid them. The entire cave was almost buried. He went into a path he hadn't visited yet, and the walls in the tunnels behind him collapsed. Huge rocks rained from the ceiling, and Kirby dodged them left and right.. until one of them landed on him, knocking him out of the sky and smashing him against the ground.
With a flash, the vampire ability was lost. Kirby struggled with the rock...he couldn't breath under the weight. It sunk lower and lower onto him, crushing him... he couldn't breathe or move...the rock was twice his size... furiously, he pushed up against it with all his strength...
The image of the doll app. Kirby's expression turned into one of vengeful determination. He screamed, pushing against the rock harder and harder, until it began to move slowly...
The faces of every person he had ever known appeared in his mind. Screaming, Kirby threw the rock off of his body like it was nothing.
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Kawasaki walked past Chief Bookum, who was desperately searching for Tiff, Samo, and Kirby. Bookum took no notice of Kawasaki, with ditto to Kawasaki. Kawasaki walked toward the exit of the ship and pressed the button next to the large silver sliding door. As the door slid open, Kawasaki walked out of the ship like space didn't exist, and in a flash of green light, he vanished.
The doors slid closed.
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Kirby reached the end of the tunnel. The exit was right in front of him. Slowly, he walked toward it, determined to reach whatever was on the other side.
The cave rumbled again, throwing Kirby off his feet. The rest of the tunnel collapsed behind him as the head of an enormous, 50-foot long, poisonous, black and red, eyeless, spiked worm (Or was it a snake? Kirby couldn't tell, but it looked more like a mutant worm...) broke through the wall in front of him. It bared it's black, venomous fangs and struck at Kirby suddenly, who quickly jumped out of the way.