PART 18: Phobia
A phobia is quite simply translated as an extreme fear of something. For example, Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders. Altophobia is a fear of heights. Algophobia is a fear of pain. Phobophobia is a fear of fear itself. Aquaphobia is a fear of water.
Asthenophobia is a fear of weakness. Atelophobia is a fear of imperfection. Atephobia is a fear of ruin. Atychiphobia is a fear of failure. Hadeophobia is a fear of Hell.
Homichlophobia is a fear of fog. Sciophobia is a fear of shadow. And Lygophobia...
Is a fear of darkness.
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The ship was having obvious pest problems. Every few minutes, the patter of small feet could be heard through the walls. Every day, more and more cockroaches and spiders would show up. What was odd about all this is that such creatures had not been seen on the ship before, and now there were thousands of them. And allergies were the least of everyone's problems.
People classified to have phobias of certain things would report to Yabui that they were seeing enormous versions of thier worst fears. About one of every older person having the same problem would be found dead of a heart attack a few hours later. So much of this was happening that Yabui set up cameras in some of the rooms of the people who were reporting this.
After a few hours, Dr. Yabui recieved another report from one of the people he had set up cameras for, a chubby middle-aged single man, with black hair and black eyes, who liked to watch cartoons and read comic books.
"IT WAS HUGE!" the person screamed. "I was in my room, reading a book, and suddenly, a spider with a pointy tail larger than my head crawls down the wall from the cieling and looks at me-"
"It's called a scorpion. Continue." Yabui interrupted.
"OK...it stares at me for a second and I get all freaked out, and then it crawls towards the floor and begins to scurry towards me, swinging it's tail around slowly and stuff, and then, it begins to touch me with those thingies on it's mouth-" continued the man.
"Feelers?" Yabui interrupted again.
"Yeah, those things." the man said before continuing. "So, it's all feeling my leg with those feeler thingies, and I get all freaked out again and begin to sweat and I try to hit it, and then I scream and black out. And when I wake up, it's gone!"
"Well, it's obvious you have arachnophobia. But I don't think there are any giant scorpions on this ship." Yabui stated. "But, if you would, bring me the tape from the security camera anyways."
The man left the room, and returned a few minutes later with a black tape.
"Thank you." said Yabui. "Now, please leave."
The man did as such, and Yabui sat on his chair with the tape in his hand for ten full minutes. As soon as he had done so, he put the tape inside a compartment in his desk. A second later, he pulled out what looked like the same tape and walked over to the door. He opened it and stuck his head out.
"Mr. Wozere, you may come in here now." he stated nonchalantly. The man, Mr. Wozere, did so, and Yabui faced him.
"There is no scorpion on this tape. All I see is you reading a comic book, freaking out, screaming, and fainting. You were hallucinating." Dr. Yabui announced.
"What? No, I wasn't. Let me see that!" Wozere demanded. Yabui nodded and put the tape in a VCR player. He hit play and took a step backwards.
Exactly as Yabui had told him, after a few minutes, the Wozere on the tape threw his comic book at something and began to freak out, flailing his arms and attempting to hit something that wasn't there, screaming all the while. The Wozere on the tape then fainted a few minutes later.
"See?" Yabui asked.
"...Yes." admitted Wozere.
"Then, tell me what other fears you have." commanded Yabui.
"Well...let's see...I'm afraid of fire-" Wozere began.
"Then you have pyrophobia." Yabui interrupted with a strange glint in his eye.
"And I'm afraid of the dark..." Wozere continued.
"Then you have Lygophobia as well. You may go now." Yabui interrupted.
"But I'm not finished!" Wozere continued.
"I've got all the information I need!" Yabui yelled, pointing towards the door. Wozere gave up and left the office, slamming the door behind him.
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Kirby jumped from the house's window and burst through the cloud, falling toward the ground below. It was then that he noticed that there wasn't any fog there. Was it possible that the fog had already escaped?
The dead fairies on the ground answered his question for him...that meant he must be on Ripple Star, and that meant he had no way to get back home...he stopped himself in midfall and puffed up his cheeks like a helium balloon. He then began to propel himself upwards slowly, floating back towards the cloud above.
He landed on Ribbon's doorstep safely and sat there for a minute, trying to think of a way to get back. If he was correct, he had 48 hours before the fog left Pop Star. That wasn't much time...he didn't have his warpstar, and there was no way to get an ability that could fly him there fast enough.
Ribbon stuck her head out of a window and looked at Kirby. She wasn't wearing her ribbon, so her hair fell down past her shoulders.
"So you decided to come back then?" she asked, flying out of the window and landing on her own doorstep, next to Kirby.
"I don't think deciding it is the proper word." Kirby replied honestly. Ribbon snorted.
"Then why did you? Why are you even on Ripple Star?" Ribbon asked him.
I have no idea. One second, I'm a teenager jumping into the Black Fog's clutches, the next second I'm an adult in a dream of one of my alternate personalities." Kirby explained. "I jumped through a void in the dream and sailed out of your mirror. Almost immediately, I thought I was still in Dreamland and jumped right out the window."
"Oh." Ribbon said, a bit sad.
"Sorry." Kirby admitted. "I only came back up to your house because I realized I'm-"
Kirby stopped and clutched his head in his hands as if he had a murderous migraine.
"Gah...something's wrong with my head..." he muttered. The pain ceased, and he let go and continued. "...on Ripple Star, on the other side of the solar system."
Ribbon was staring at him thoughtfully.
"Oh dear..." she said, worried. "I think I know a way you can get home." Kirby was beggining to relax.
"Oh. If you would, can you tell me how?" he asked politely. Ribbon bit her lip.
"In all honesty, Kirby, I'd rather you not go. I want you to stay here, with me." she admitted, sighing.
"Why?" Kirby asked her. Ribbon did not answer.
"It's...uh...err..um..because I...I..." she began, losing her composure. Kirby stared at her blankly with one eye opened wide.
"Nevermind." Ribbon said, stopping. "I'll show you how to get back home." She opened the front door and flew into her house, flew up the stairs, and flew into her room, with Kirby following. Kirby walked into her room just as she looked into her mirror and shouted something.
The reflections in the mirror began to spin around wildly, faster and faster and faster until an image of Kabu appeared. Kirby gaped at it.
"Inconcievable!" he shouted. "He can survive the black fog?"
"Yes, but that doesn't matter. To get home, you need to jump through that mirror. Once you do so, you'll be closer to your destination than ever." Ribbon explained. Kirby noticed she wasn't looking straight at him, but he didn't have time to wonder why. He started towards the mirror, and Ribbon grabbed onto his hand.
"Wait...before you go..." she said, looking straight into his eyes, a tear welling down her cheek. Without a single word, she closed her eyes and kissed him. The moment was completely impossible to describe in words. A second later, Ribbon stopped and took a step backwards.
"Promise me you'll find some way...to come back and see me again." Ribbon asked, one hand against Kirby's cheek.
"I promise." he said, taking one more look at Ribbon before jumping into the mirror, which turned back into a reflection as he did so.
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"I should just get some sleep..." Wozere decided as soon as he had walked into his room. He cleared his bed (large enough for three people, himself included) of all his comic books with a sweep of his hand. After that, he climbed into his bed and laid on the plain blue sheets and closed his eyes, waiting to fall asleep.
Only half a minute later, he heard his door slide open. Quickly, he opened his eyes and rolled around so he could see the source of the noise.
But there was nothing there except a floating video tape. He stopped.
"Wait, what?" he thought, staring at the floating video tape in shock. He got to his feet and jumped off his bed, and then he ran as fast as his legs would carry him and squeezed under his computer desk, cowering with his hands covering his neck and his head between his legs. After a few minutes, he dared himself to peek a look at the... whatever it was.
Next to the floating video tape was a floating lighter. And it was ignited. Wozere's eyes opened wide and he began to breathe deeply and sweat. His breathing became difficult, and his heart was beating like a drummer on steroids.
"Oh my..." he whispered as the floating lighter set the floating tape ablaze and threw it at the desk, which immediately set on fire. Smoke began to cloud the room as flames leaped all around the desk, which began to fall apart. The flames reached his computer's hardrive, which then exploded in a shower of sparks, setting more things ablaze. The sounds of the fire crackling were joined by sounds of electric sparks from the computer's remains. Flames leaped onto the floor, setting it ablaze and surrounding Wozere in a wall of orange, yellow, and red death.
Wozere didn't know what to do. Instead of staying under the desk (which was beggining to collapse), he leaped into the flames, hoping he'd go right through the wall of fire and land safely on the other side.
He did. He leaped through the foot-thick wall of flames and was burned, but he managed to get onto his bed just before the flames made the desk collapse. The flames spread across the floor, strengthened by all the flammable junk that he had laying around it. For someone so afraid of the flames, Wozere had never realized just how unsafe his room was from them.
The bed was the next thing to catch on fire. The wooden frame was incinerated in seconds as the flames climbed it and leaped onto his sheets. Everything was lit shades of orange and yellow now, including Wozere. Wozere backed away from the flames and crawled up against the corner of the room (the bed was located in the corner), and then he put his hands over his head and tried to avoid looking at the flames.
He felt a smelly liquid being poured down on him from above. It smelled like...gasoline? He dared himself to look up and what he saw was a floating gasoline tank just above him, pouring it's contents all over his head. Knowing what this meant, Wozere screamed as the flames leaped onto him.
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In a flash of light, Kirby fell from an enormous spinning, multi-colored warp that was twenty feet off the ground, and landed safely in Kabu's valley. Kabu's eyes were wide open, covered in spider webs, and the entire canopy was as dark as ink. Kirby turned towards Kabu and yelled out.
"KABU!" he shouted. "ARE YOU ALIVE?"
No answer. Kabu did not stir, and Kirby could not waste any more precious seconds, no matter how many questions he wanted answered. Kirby left the valley and reentered the black fog, his cape surrounding him and the medallion lighting his path.
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A horrific explosion rocked the entire ship, throwing everyone off thier feet and knocking picture frames off the walls. Before anyone could get back up on thier feet, the ship was rocked again by another series of terrible explosions, one after the other, each one louder than a sonicboom. The explosions continued for about thirty seconds, throwing people, objects, and everything else around like rag dolls in a car crusher.
As soon as the explosions were finished, everything was silent, except for the cries of a baby echoing throughout the building. It wasn't until a few minutes later that someone, a man named Sam, braved to exit his room and look for the source of the explosion.
Everything looked normal enough...except for the strange sucking sound coming from Wozere's room. Blinking, Sam tried to open the door. In an enormous burst of smoke and steam, the door flew open and Sam started to walk into the room, but stopped.
"Oh my god..." he muttered as he looked through the door.
There was no room at all. Just an enormous hole where it used to be, an enormous hole with no walls around it, filled with the wonders, lack of gravity, and lack of oxygen of space. There were absolutely no remains. It could only be described as nothing at all.
Quickly, he backed away from the door and shut it.
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Kirby ran through the fog, leaping over things in his way and flipping over whatever obstacles got in his path. He knew where he needed to go from here, and he knew he needed to get there as quickly as possible.
As he raced through the fog, an icy voice split the impenetrable silence like a knife through string.
"It's nice to see you again." it said, devoid of any emotion at all. "But do you really think I'm going to let you just rush right through me? You are comprimising my existence, and I can not let you pass." Kirby continued running, ignoring the voice.
"Why do you run? Are you afraid of shadow?" it asked.
"Fear is not part of the equation of my mind." Kirby said smugly.
"Then allow me to add another variable to the equation." it said. The entire fog began to swirl around and around, turning a dark red color as it did so. Kirby stopped and covered himself with his cape as a piece of the fog split from the rest of it and formed itself into a familiar shape.
First, it took the form of a grinning Ribbon, only a single shade of black with red, pupiless eyes. Then, it began to mutate into a fifty foot tall vaguely humanoid black fog creature, thousands of tentacles bursting from it's back, sharp fangs growing in it's jaws, and smoke pouring out of it's mouth.
As Kirby covered the rest of himself with his cape, the newly dubbed Nightmare Ribbon roared and shot a jet of fire into the air.
"Part fog...part dragon...part dinosaur...part fairy...part tentacle monster thing. This is going to be a very difficult fight." Kirby thought.