PART 11: Way of the Ninja

Kirby jumped down to the floor of the tunnel and exited it. He was seriously injured, holes dotted his body, five scars were on his left, other gashes and wounds dotted different parts of his body, and the acid had pretty much ripped his throat in half. Regardless of these injuries, he was alive, so he continued onwards, knowing the chances of finding anything that could heal him on the now desolate planet were slim.

But that worm...and those bats... this planet still had things living on it...and he had to be alert. He aimed his medallion all around him, trying to find any sign of a demon waiting to strike. He turned around and sighed. He still had a long way to go...

His thought process was interrupted by something appearing out of nowhere and stabbing him in the back with a small sword. Kirby turned around quickly, but he didn't see anything. Suddenly, something grabbed him around his waist and jumped high into the air, flying further and further away until the tunnel was out of sight. Kirby struggled to escape the grip of whatever was holding onto him, but to no avail. Weakened by his wounds and his struggles, Kirby blacked out.

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Tuff was the only one who knew where Tiff was, and it was a fact that rattled his conscious. He had noticed the ship hadn't gone anywhere since the fog had struck nine hours ago. This worried him as well, so he decided to ask Dedede when they were leaving. He walked over to the "royal escape ship", which Dedede had connected to the main ship, and pressed the button to open the ship. He entered it and began to search for Dedede, but he instead found Escargoon.

"When are we leaving?" Tuff asked. Escargoon looked at him.

"Never." he replied. "His Majesty believes that the planet will return to normal in a span of three days, and if not, he has a little surprise for the black fog."

"WHAT?" Tuff yelled. "We have to get out of here! That black fog will destroy us!" Escargoon simply whistled, and five hundred armored Waddle Dees, wielding spears, surrounded Tuff.

"Send him away." Escargoon ordered as Tuff ran away from the Waddle Dees.

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Kirby awoke again three hours later... the medallion jumped to life as he did so, revealing stone walls and metal bars and a windowless cell... Kirby was in a dungeon. Kirby pounded on the bars with his fists, furious. Determination to escape pulsed through his veins, although his injuries had not been healed. He charged at the metal bars, shoulder first, and crashed into them, hurting his arm and not even scratching the bars. Still determined, he ran at them again, hurting his arm even more. Just before he charged again, a Biospark walked into the light shining from the medallion. Kirby seized his chance and took a deep breath of air, throwing the Biospark against the bars. He continued to inhale the Biospark until it broke through the metal bars and went right into Kirby's mouth. He swallowed it.

He began to glow, and his skin turned a shade of dark purple. A small sword materialized in his hand and a red samurai helmet, with a dark blue ponytail on the back and a star symbol on the front, appeared on his head. Kirby grinned, hit the medallion (and turned off the beam of light coming from it, although it still protected him from the fog anyways), and squeezed through the bars. He jumped onto a wall and gripped onto it like a ninja, waiting for something to appear.

Another Biospark walked into the room, and Kirby jumped from the wall and stabbed it in the head, killing it. He proceeded to grab the body and throw it into a cell, and then he walked toward the path the Biospark had come from. Quickly, he gripped onto the wall, the darkness camouflaging him. He jumped off the wall and grabbed onto another easily. Another Biospark walked into the stone hallway, and Kirby jumped at it and stabbed it before it could react. He proceeded to pick up it's body and carry it with him into the next hallway. A large group of Biosparks was guarding the hallway around the corner, but Kirby didn't need to go that way yet,

Kirby whistled, and the Biosparks looked around themselves for the source of the noise. He threw the Biospark body into the hallway around the corner, and he quickly jumped onto a wall near the hallway, and jumped off that wall and past the hallway onto another wall. The Biosparks ran into the room as Kirby prepared a few swords to throw at them. They walked around, getting closer and closer to him...

Kirby threw each of the swords at the Biosparks, killing them all one by one. He then jumped from the wall and continued down the hallway, reaching a fork in the "road". There were three different paths he could take... one of them was down the stairs in front of him.. they led to a large gold door with a padlock on it. There were also stairs to his right and left, both leading downwards, possibly into some kind of basement. He went down the stairs to his left carefully, listening for any kind of noise.

Something nearby coughed, and he quickly jumped onto the wall and held on there. A Biospark walked up the stairs, right past Kirby, who quickly jumped down past it and threw a sword into it's back. It fell to the ground and Kirby continued walking, reaching the basement. The first thing he saw was a maze of crates, the maze itself filled with Biosparks. Quickly, Kirby leaped onto one of the crates. He waited until the Biospark in front of him was facing the other way, and then he pulled out a sword and threw it while he flipped onto another crate. He walked down this one carefully, but failed to notice a nearby Biospark turn the corner and see him. As if on cue, every Biospark in the room began to move towards Kirby.

Quickly, Kirby somersaulted onto another crate, closely followed by the small army of Biospark. The Biosparks threw their swords at him, puncturing his skin and knocking him off of the crate. The Biosparks jumped onto the crate as well and jumped towards Kirby, who threw a sword into one and rolled away. The Biosparks leaped at him and Kirby jumped up, grabbed one by it's clothing and jumped fifty feet into the air, then came back down, enemy first, in an enormous seismic toss. Kirby leaped backwards after finishing this attack, and then cut through some of the crates with his sword. The Biosparks gave chase, doing the same, throwing their swords and leaping in all directions. Kirby flipped over a crate and the swords ran into the crate instead, and Kirby continued running. A Biospark leaped at him and pinned him to the ground as he turned the corner, and Kirby wrestled him into a crate and stabbed him in between the eyes with a sword.

He turned another corner, finally reaching the end of the maze, but the door was locked. As the Biosparks got closer, Kirby used his sword and his ability to pick the lock...he managed to do this just before they reached him, and he ran through the doors at the last second, closing them behind him.

Kirby couldn't see in front of him, and didn't want to give himself away by turning the medallion's light on, so he simply kept on walking. As soon as he took a step forward, he heard something moving and bright lights flashed on. He discovered he was in a stadium, surrounded by metal bars. On the other side was Bow Fighter, a huge, strange-looking demon. It was very large, had a dog's face, which was attached to a pair of feet (no legs, and no torso), and it has no arms, just ears that it used like arms, to throw it's enemies around and punch them into dust.

There was a loud ringing, and Kirby began to glow. At first, he had no idea what was going on, until he realized something was changing the ability he had. A bandanna appeared around his forehead and his ninja hat vanished. Kirby's skin turned pink again, and Kirby realized that he was now wielding the Fighter ability. Kirby got ready as Bow immediately charged at him, preparing an energy ball in it's ears/arms. Kirby held his ground, and prepared his own energy ball. Kirby fired it first, but Bow jumped into the air and landed on Kirby, sending him flying. Bow fired it's energy ball at Kirby, knocking him against the metal bars again. Bow then charged at Kirby and grabbed him with it's ears/arms, throwing him into the air and smashing him with it's arms like a cymbal.

Kirby was incredibly shaken and dizzy from this onslaught, but he got ready again as Bow jumped high into the air and tried to crush Kirby again. Kirby began to charge a beam, and then rolled away from Bow and fired the beam at it. Bow winced slightly, shook itself, and charged at Kirby again, ears flapping. Kirby jumped over Bow and began to charge another beam. Bow leaped onto the metal and came back down at Kirby, who attempted to roll out of the way. Bow missed again, but the shockwaves from Bow's weight sent him flying anyways. Kirby was thrown against the metal bars, and as he fell down, Bow grabbed him with it's ears and threw him back against the bars. As Kirby fell again, Bow unleashed a powerful punch which blasted Kirby through the bars of the cage and into a nearby wall. Blood began to flow again from the wounds on Kirby's back, but he stood up and fired a small blast of energy at Bow, who was beginning to bend the cage bars. The blast hit Bow in the face, and Kirby weakly began to walk closer and closer to it. Bow shattered the cage bars and ran at Kirby, who closed his eyes.

As soon as Bow was a foot in front of him, Kirby grabbed it by it's ears and threw it onto the floor. Just as it got up, he then jumped into the air and spun at it with his feet, kicking it over and over in the face. Bow punched Kirby, throwing him against a wall, which Kirby quickly bounced off of, jumping higher and higher into the air. He then flew down at Bow, spinning around wildly, feet first. He drill-kicked Bow over and over rapidly, then he grabbed Bow and threw it into the air, firing blast after blast of energy balls at it.

Bow came back down, and Kirby prepared a punch, ready to strike. Bow came just a foot away from crushing Kirby when Kirby released a powerful uppercut, throwing it into the air. Kirby jumped onto the wall, then jumped off it at Bow, preparing another punch. He reached Bow, and hit him with everything he had knocking him into the cage bars. As Bow fell, Kirby fired more blasts at it and then landed on the ground. Bow suddenly jumped to it's feet and body slammed Kirby, throwing him against a wall. Bow rushed at Kirby, unleashing punch after punch at Kirby, until Bow's very hands started to bleed. Bow didn't grow tired, but Kirby eventually fell to the ground, his face covered with the marks of a thousand punches. Blood trickled from his eyes, which were now covered in black and blue marks, like tears.

Bow prepared to deliver another punch, but Kirby got to his feet and unleashed an uppercut at Bow, knocking him into the sky. Kirby began to charge a blast as Bow landed on the ground and flipped to it's feet. Bow charged at Kirby again, and Kirby unleashed the blast.

The blast smashed into Bow, sending it flying back into the cage and against the bars on the other side. Kirby walked over to the bars, and bent them back into shape, trapping Bow. Kirby then walked to the other side of the stadium, leaned against the wall, and took deep breaths. Blood trickled down his many wounds, some of them barely healed, others now fresh. He had to press onwards though, so he ripped the padlock from the door and opened it, continuing onwards.

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Later...

"Sixty more hours..." Kirby thought, as he walked through the mazelike hallways, trying to find the entrance again. He had already killed all the guards with relative ease, and their bodies were a crude way to find out where he had already been. Eventually, he found a large door and opened it, revealing the hallway he had started at. He walked down it, reached the fork in the "road", and went down the stairs in front of him. He proceeded to break down the door with the Fighter ability. Kirby entered what looked like an enormous dining room, with ten large tables which were decorated with empty plates and spider webs. Kirby turned on the medallion to look around, and the first thing he noticed was a person on the other side of the room, carrying two enormous frying pans like swords. The person turned around, revealing himself to be Kawasaki.

"It's DINNER TIME!" Kawasaki screamed in an unusually deep voice as he charged at Kirby with his frying pans.