Chapter 6: Plugg
It was another peaceful day in Dreamland and Kirby wanted to sleep in today. However, those plans were cut short when he heard a loud banging on his door. A bit annoyed, Kirby jumped out of bed and opened the door to reveal Knuckle Joe. Strangely, though, his friend's normally cheerful expression was replaced with a serious one.
"Oh, hey, Joe. Today isn't sparring day, is it?" The puff uttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"No, there's something serious I need help with."
Kirby immediately perked up when he noticed that there was a hint of worry in his friend's voice. "Hm? Did something bad happen?"
"Well, not to me, but yes. It's Plugg. Something's wrong with them and I can't figure out what to do." Hearing this caused Kirby to immediately throw off his nightcap and run out of his house.
"Where's Plugg right now?"
"They're not too far from here! Follow me!"
Knuckle Joe led Kirby to a nearby tree. The moment he arrived there; he witnessed an unusual sight. Sitting at the base of the tree was Plugg, who appeared to be continuously letting electricity out of their body, sending shockwaves through the tree, and making it look somewhat like it was decorated in Christmas lights.
"Ah! Plugg! What's going on? What's wrong?" the puff shouted.
"I don't know! I just was walking around and then I started to discharging electricity!" Kirby scratched his head a bit as he thought. "Well, what have you done to try to stop it?"
"Well, normally, I just need to plug myself into any kind of electric source and it usually sorts itself out, but none of my usual sources have helped!"
The puff continued to scratch his head. "Do you have any other ideas that may work?"
"If I did, I wouldn't need belp-...I mean, help! Oh, sorry I didn't mean to yell like that, please help!"
Kirby thought for a bit more before he finally got an idea. "I think I know a place that might have enough electricity to help. But..."
"But watt!? Spill the beanz...I mean, beans!" Plugg shouted frantically.
"Well... this place is on another planet... and last time I was there, a giant robot tried to kill me."
Plugg gave an irritated look. "Oh, is that all? Then hurry up and tske me...I mean, take me!"
Knuckle Joe punched his fists together. "I'll come too. Sounds like you could use some help if another giant robot comes after you. Plus, you need someone to carry Plugg around." He grabbed Plugg and raised them up. "Come on, Kirby, let's go!"
"Yeah!" Kirby called upon the Warp Star and the group prepared to head out.
"How are you picking me up anyway, Joe?"
"Rubber gloves."
The planet Shiver Star was unchanged from when Kirby last visited it. It was still cold, still full of factories, nothing different. It made the puff shiver a bit to be here. This contrasted to both of his friends, who appeared to be mostly unfazed by the low temperatures.
"Hey, Joe, aren't you cold at all?"
His friend shook his head. "Nope, my burning passion gives me all the warmth I need." Knuckle Joe replied with a completely straight face.
"Well, ok then! How about you Plugg?" Their friend had been shaking as they walked through the snowy wilderness.
"No need to worry, my friend. Our kind doesn't really have a concept of cold."
"Then why are you constantly shivering?"
After the fighter said that, Plugg gained an irritated look in their eyes. "...Joe, why are we here again?"
In response to that, the fighter smacked himself in the forehead. "Oh...duh... ok, I'll shut up now."
"No, you don't have to shut up, Joe. Just be careful not to say anything dumb."
"I'm not sure that's something I have control over, Plugg." Joe said with a sweat.
"Oh really. How shocking... oh, I'm sorry, I did it again." The electric friend uttered with slight embarrassment.
"Eh, no sweat. I'm sure you're just really worried about your problem right now. Besides, I've heard people say worse things to me whenever I beat them at tournaments."
Kirby gave a slight sigh upon hearing that. They continued walking for a bit longer, but all of the buildings they came across were too small to be used. If they wanted to help Plugg, the puff knew they had to find that large, continuously operating factory soon.
"So, Kirby, how much farther is-PZZZZZZZZTTTTT" Suddenly, Plugg started discharging even more electricity than before, causing Joe to jump out of the way in surprise.
"AHHHH! HOLD ON, PLUGG!" Kirby took out a Plasma Ability Item he brought for an emergency and transformed into Plasma Kirby. Working quickly, he started to help contain Plugg's sudden outburst of energy. It took several minutes, but soon, the electrical outburst was put under control again.
"Are you alright now, Plugg?" The puff questioned as he was about to drop his Ability Item, but then decided to keep it equipped just in case.
"Not completely. Ow, that really hertz..." His friend groaned.
"Yeah, we really gotta find that factory you were talking about soon, Kirby." Knuckle Joe uttered.
The puff gave a nod. "We should be close by. I'm starting to recognize this area we're in..."
Soon, the group arrived at the large factory. As Kirby had mentioned before, it was continuously operating, producing more and more robots as time passed.
Joe gave an impressed whistle upon seeing the even larger interior. "Man, Kirby, you weren't kidding when you said this place was big. You know where the power source is?"
"Sorry, but that's something we're going to need to find." Kirby uttered, with a bit of embarrassment in his tone.
"Didn't you say you've been here before!? Didn't you pat atejjtion... I mean, pay attention!?"
"It's not my fault! I was busy searching for the Crystal Shards! Plus, a giant robot attacked me!" The puff gave a panicked response as he was snapped at.
"Oh right, zorry. Well... whatever. The fact that this abandoned factory is still running even after the Crystal Shards incident means that the power source should really help."
Joe looked around again, noting how big it was. "Should we split. You know, to cover more ground?"
Kirby shook his head. "I don't think we have to worry about that, Joe. This factory might be huge, but it's pretty easy to navigate. Plus, if another giant robot shows up, we can easily combine our powers!"
"Yeah! You said it!"
"Hopefully, we find it soon..." Plugg seemed to groan.
As the trio were exploring the factor, Kirby suddenly stopped.
"Wait… you two, don't go in that room…at least not yet."
Joe and Plugg, who had been walking ahead of the puff, turned to look back at him. While the fighter gave an understanding nod, Plugg gave an irritated look.
"Kirby, I get that you want to be careful, but I'm in a hurry right now. Besides, wattz the worzt that could happen?"
As soon as Plugg stepped inside the room, a machine with a massive hammer suddenly activated and slammed down at the unsuspecting Plugg. But before Plugg could get flattened, Joe jumped in front of them and stopped the hammer with a well-timed punch.
"Oh boy, that was scary…!" their friend uttered.
"That's exactly why I said to not go in there yet!" Kirby yelled with a pout.
"Oh…sorry, Kirby…" Plugg uttered with guilt.
"It's okay, just be more careful! I don't want either of you to get hurt!"
After Kirby said this, the group then noticed that they were suddenly moving conveniently in the direction they were going towards. There was no doubt that this was a conveyor belt.
"Come on, guys! Let's pick up the pace!" Knuckle Joe shouted with excitement, now giddy off the thought of running on a conveyor belt.
"Wait a second, Joe. I think we should take a small break..." Kirby said.
"What for? I still got plenty of energy left."
"Well, yeah, I know, but..." The puff then pointed towards the clearly exhausted Plugg.
The friend in question shook their head. "Kirby, I appreciate the concern. Truly I do. But blease don't ztop. Joe can carry me if needed."
"See!? Nothing to worry about, now let's go!" Joe said, getting ready to run with Plugg on his back.
"Slow down, Joe, this place is dangerous!" Kirby quickly looked around. There was no doubt that "it" would be arriving soon. The scenario was just like it was back then. However, the puff had no choice but to continue on with the search.
The conveyor belt path eventually led them to a room with several closed gates on all sides, with one gate in the middle that was open. Through that gate was what appeared to be the massive power source they were searching for. It was just as Kirby remembered it. The only thing missing was...well, he didn't want to think about it right now. He needed to focus on helping Plugg for now.
"Finally! Letz hurry up and-"
But before they knew it, the open gate shut tight and closed gates that surrounded the group opened. Then, a swarm of drones entered, as if they were looking to stop them from progressing any farther.
"There's so many of them! Heh! This'll be a nice challenge!" Knuckle Joe got in a fighting stance. "Come on, Kirby! Let's get 'em!"
With a nod in response, they began their attack. Kirby and Joe immediately started fighting off the incoming threat, but for every drone that was destroyed, five new ones took its place. Soon, the trio were backed into a corner. During this, Plugg noticed that there was simply too many enemies surrounding them. There was no way that even Joe and Kirby would be able to take them all down alone.
"This is all my fault we're in this mess... if only I was able to do something. Wait..." Plugg suddenly shouted. "Kirby, how much electricity do you have left?"
"Enough for one big blast, why?"
"On the count of three, let's combine our powers to blow them all up."
"Are you crazy!? You can't do that in your condition!" Kirby said, simultaneously shocked and concerned.
"We'll never know if I don't try. Besides, you know there's no way we're going to get through this number of enemies otherwise..."
Kirby pursed his lips in irritation, knowing that truth in the back of his mind. "...ok, fine. But only because the power source is so close. Joe, get to the closed gate!"
The fighter nearly stumbled when he heard that. "What!? Why?"
"Trust me. "
He could only nod in understanding. As soon as Joe got to the gate, Kirby and Plugg started gathering all the energy they could.
"1... 2... 3... NOW!"
At that moment, a giant ball of electrical energy was released, destroying all the drones that had begun to attack the group. After that, the closed gates began to open.
"Joe, catch!"
As soon as Kirby said that, he threw the barely conscious Plugg at Knuckle Joe, who easily caught them and sprinted towards the factory's power source as fast as he could.
"Plugg, come on! Stay with me!" he shouted.
"Ughhhhh...no more airplane peanuts for me, mam'..."
That only made the fighter run even faster.
It didn't take long for Plugg to regain full power.
"How ya feeling, buddy?" Joe asked.
"I... FEEL GREAT! Look, no leaking! No random discharges! I'm cured!" Plugg shouted happily while jumping around all over the place. Kirby and Joe just looked on with satisfied smiles on their faces. Though one big question came to mind the longer they stood there.
"Hey, Plugg. Now that you're feeling better, do you think you can tell us how you got like that in the first place?" Kirby asked in his usual innocently curious way.
"Well, I think I know why but…it's embarrassing…" Their friend averted their eyes while saying that.
"Oh, come on, Plugg! How bad could it be?" Joe responded with a grin.
"Well fine...I ate an expired bag of potato chips..." After Plugg said that, only silence remained. Then came the confusion.
"Wait… just... wait... how do you eat?" Joe asked, incredibly confused. Not that anyone could particularly blame him, considering Plugg's seemingly lack of a mouth.
"What kind of question is that? I eat like everyone else, with my mouth." Plugg said in aggravation.
"What mouth!?"
"The one on my face!"
"What face!?"
"What do you mean "what face"!? I have a face!"
But before this comedic back and forth could continue, Plugg noticed that Kirby, who was oddly silent the whole time, was shaking.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Kirby suddenly started laughing.
"Oh, come on… it's not that funny…" Plugg mumbled, a bit irritated at that reaction. But before long, they started laughing with the pink puff. Soon Joe followed with his own big laugh.
After taking a moment to get their laughter under control, Plugg looked directly at Kirby and Joe, a serious expression apparent to all.
"Be honezt. Are you two upzet with me for dragging you both into this mess?"
"Of course not! We're friends after all!" Kirby said in his usual optimistic tone.
"Yeah, besides this was fun. Kinda wish I got the chance to fight that giant robot Kirby kept bringing up." Joe said. Suddenly, as if the world itself heard Joe's statement, the wall behind the trio was destroyed, revealing the same type of giant robot Kirby fought so long ago.
"...Joe, I blame you for thiz." The giant robot slammed one of its arms down, which the group was able to dodge.
"Ahhh! Run for your lives!" Plugg screamed while running away at lightning-fast speed. As Kirby was getting ready to attack, he noticed that Joe was in a fighting stance instead of running away.
"Joe, what are you doing!? We gotta go!"
"What and miss this chance? Go on ahead I'll catch up." he gave a few small jumps to warm himself up as he punched his fists together.
Kirby hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "...fine, but as soon as I catch up to Plugg, I'm coming back!"
After Kirby left, Joe got in his fighting stance.
"Alright, you walking junkyard, get ready! RISING BREAK!" Joe unleashed one of his strongest attacks on the giant machine...only for it to do nothing outside of making a couple of scratches.
"...well, crap." He then gave a slight grin.
"Ah…well, I like a good challenge! And I can tell that you're gonna give me one!"
As expected, the robot gave no response outside of the whir of an engine.
Eventually, Kirby finally caught up to the frightened Plugg, who was running faster than usual. Whether it was due to fear-induced adrenaline or the recent surge in power, Kirby wasn't quite sure. However, that question can wait.
"Plugg, wait! Please, stop!" he shouted out to his friend.
"Are you kidding!? That thingz scarier than that expired bag of chips!"
"Well, I don't care about that, but…anyway, there's no need for us to run!" Kirby replied back calmly, clearly used to these kinds of situations by now.
"Watt?! Do you expect me to fight that thing!? That thing could crush me in a second! I mean, sure I'm super strong and cunning, as you already know… but what if it's resistant to electricity? Or it has heat-seeking missiles? Or what if it's made of metal that's indestructible? Or what if we defeat it and there's actually an even stronger and deadlier security robot behind it! Or what if it calls even more drones that are more powerful than the drones we fought before! Or what if it instead calls more security robots! Or… or… or… or what if-!"
While Plugg was in the middle of their paranoid rant, Kirby pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number to make an important call. In a few seconds, the Warp Star came by. Kirby jumped onto it first and then pulled his panicking friend onto it.
"Oh, thiz iz watt you meant. Heh heh… sorry…" His friend uttered in embarrassment.
"It's fine, Plugg! Now we just gotta pick up Joe and then we can go home."
While Kirby and Plugg were heading towards Joe, the fiery fighter was currently in the process of getting smacked into a wall. It was then somehow that he was able to break loose from its grip and skid across the ground.
"Darn it! Kirby beat this thing before! What gives?" he grumbled under his breath, struggling to keep himself standing.
Just then, the machine stopped moving for a moment and began charging up to fire a laser beam. The beam fired but right as Joe was about to be hit, the Warp Star made it just in time and Kirby was able to grab Joe and escape.
"Hey! Let me go! I can still fight!" Joe shouted, despite being clearly exhausted. He was thrown straight onto the star next to Plugg.
"Joe, how many fingerz am I holding up?"
"Uhh…four?"
"…Joe I don't have handz."
"Oh yeah, that's right. Wait, then how do you eat without hands?"
"We've been over thiz already, I eat things with my mouth."
"Again, what mouth!?"
"Do you two want me to turn this star around?" Kirby suddenly mumbled in irritation.
"No, no, we'll be good!" Joe and Plugg both frantically said together.
Soon enough, the Warp Star sped up enough to completely leave the giant machine in its dust, allowing the trio to escape from Shiver Star unscathed… except for Joe's bruised body and ego.
"Kirby." Joe said, clearly annoyed that he couldn't do anything to that robot. "When we get back, we're sparring."
The puff turned to him in surprise. "What!? But you said today's not sparring day!"
"Well, it is now! So, you better prepare yourself when we get back!"
Kirby gave a slight sigh in response. It was likely just an attempt to train himself to become stronger and repair what was left of his competitive friend's broken ego. It was then that he noticed that Plugg was being surprisingly quiet.
"Hey, Plugg, is something wrong? Are you feeling ok?" The puff asked.
Plugg jumped a bit in response. "Well... um..." they began to speak up.
"Um...I'm sorry, again. You know, for making you both go through all that trouble just for me." Plugg finally said, a bit sadly.
Unexpected to them, Plugg was enveloped in a hug by their pink friend. "You don't need to worry about anything, Plugg! Sure, things got really dangerous, but you're cured and that's all that matters to me!"
The puff's friend paused for a moment. "Yeah, but..."
"Plugg, you were in trouble and we helped you because we wanted to. You don't need to dwell on it." Joe gave a reassuring grin in response.
"Then... thank you both." Plugg uttered happily.
The rest of the trip to Popstar was spent in comfortable silence.
While this was a fun chapter to write, I still think that Saber Blade's was my favorite so far.
But, that's bound to change, as always.