Chapter 13: Plasma Wisp

One day, Kirby was eating breakfast in his home when he heard a knock on the door.

"Hello?" He said while opening the door.

It was one of his many friends, Plasma Wisp.

"Heya, Kirbster! Wanna go bowling?"

"Sure! Just wait a moment!"

Before anything else could be said, Kirby inhaled the rest of his breakfast quickly, causing his room to become messy in the process.

"Ok! Let's go!" he skipped outside his house and followed his friend.

"So... um... how do you play bowling anyway?"

Wisp did a double take upon hearing that. "Wait, you've seriously never bowled before?"

"Nope!"

"Ah... I guess I can explain everything to you when we get there..."

The child gave a nod in understanding as they continued forth on their trek.

Soon, Plasma Wisp spoke up again. "You know anyone who might be interested in playing with us? Bowling is a lot more fun in a large group."

"Hmm... let me see." Kirby pulled out his cellphone and called the first person that came to mind.

The phone rang for a bit until the call was finally answered.

"Whaddya want, ya dumb pink lump?" Dedede grumbled in annoyance.

"Hiiii Dedede! Wanna go bowling?"

"Huh? Bowling? What's bowling?"

"It's a competitive sport, your majesty." The puff could hear Bandana Dee saying nearby, as if he happened to overhear the conversation.

Upon that explanation, a fire was lit in Dedede's eyes.

"I'll be there in 3 hours!" He then hung up.

Kirby then called his mentor, Meta Knight.

"Hello?"

"Meta-sensei! Me, Dedede, Bandana, and Plasma Wisp are going bowling today! You wanna join us?" he asked in his normal excited voice, hoping his mentor would say yes.

"I appreciate the invitation, Kirby, but I have to decline. I'm not interested in bowling, and even if I was, I have some important work to do today."

The child gave a slight pout, though he knew his mentor couldn't see it. "Ok..."

"Regardless, I hope you four have fun. I'll see you in two days for our next training session."

"Alright..."

"Goodbye." He then quickly hung up as Kirby gave a slight sigh in disappointment.

"Something wrong, Kirby?" Plasma Wisp asked. As if a switch was flipped, the child then became cheery in an instant.

"Oh, it's nothing! Dedede and Bandana said they're gonna join us! I asked Meta Knight, too, but he said he was busy today..." he gave a slight pout. "I just really wish we could spend more time together outside of training and saving the world and stuff..."

His friend gave as much of a shrug as he could as a floating ball with hands could.

"Eh, I'm sure you'll be able to eventually. But for now, let's just focus on having fun."

Kirby nodded happily as he followed along.

Eventually, the duo reached the bowling alley. It wasn't very crowded, so they were easily able to get a lane to use.

"Alright, Kirby, I should probably start by teaching you the rules and mechanics of bowling before those two get here." Plasma Wisp began. "So, the main point of this game is to pick up the ball, throw it at the pins, and hope you hit all of them in one go."

The child nodded in understanding. "Ok, sounds easy enough."

Kirby then inhaled the ball and spit it at the pins, knocking them all over in a single hit.

"Hey, I did it!" he shouted cheerfully.

"While that was impressive, Kirbster, you're supposed to use your hands."

The child gave a pout. "Why didn't you tell me that then?!"

"You should already know that you don't use your mouth when you play sports, that's unsanitary!"

"Oh, you're right!" he exclaimed as his friend gave a sigh.

"Alright, watch how I do it."

Plasma Wisp picked up his own ball, which seemed to be custom made as it had green lighting on it, similar to that of Plasma Wisp himself. He floated forward until he reached the end of the lane and threw it. The ball went straight down the middle and hit the middle pin which in turn created a domino effect, knocking every other pin down.

"You see that? That's called a strike."

"Oh, so it's a bad thing?" Kirby scratched his head in confusion.

"It's the opposite actually. What makes you think that?"

"Well, in other sports I've played... strikes are a bad thing, aren't they?"

Plasma Wisp put a hand to his non-existent chin upon hearing that. "Well, that's true, but this is bowling, so terminology from other sports is meaningless. I guess I should describe how the game itself works before we go back to throwing."

He then pulled out a white board and a green marker.

"Alright, little buddy, ask anything you'd like. I figure you'd rather want to learn about what interests you the most instead of just me telling you things."

"Where'd you get the whiteboard?" Kirby questioned, raising his hand.

"Not important. Now, first question, please."

The child gave a nod. "Can you explain why a strike is a good thing?"

"Ok, so bowling is point based."

He then drew a stack of pins on the board.

"The more pins you knock over, the more you get for that frame. Now a strike is when you knock over every pin on the first throw."

He then drew a huge X over the pins.

"Does that make sense to you?"

"Yes! It does! But what if you don't knock them over all at once?"

"It depends. If you knock it over in two rolls, it's a spare. If you don't knock them over in two rolls, you receive the number of points for the number of pins you knocked over."

Kirby paused for a moment to think about what he was told. "So, my main goal should be aiming for strikes then? Also, what are frames? You mentioned it earlier and I overheard some of the other people here talking about them!"

"On aiming for strikes, preferably, yes. Getting strikes on each frame will give you a perfect game. As for what frames are..."

He then drew ten squares on the board.

"Frames is basically another term for a round. There are ten frames in a game, and you get two tries per frame. You got all that?"

Kirby nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! I should be ready now."

Plasma Wisp chuckled.

"Well, we still gotta practice a bit first, don't want you accidentally blowing a hole through the wall." He joked.

The practice round went well for the most part. Kirby got a couple of gutterballs at the start, but he soon got to the point where he was able to reliably get spares. Soon, though, King Dedede and Bandana Dee arrived. The king was even wearing a custom-made bowling outfit and carried a bowling ball with his insignia on it.

"I thought you didn't know what bowling was?" Kirby asked, confused.

"That was then, and this is now!"

The king then grabbed the puff by the top of his head and raised him up so their faces could be at eye level.

"Aight, listen 'ere, pinky, 'cuz imma only say this once! You're going down!" he said with a sinister grin.

"Ok!" Kirby said in his usual cheerful manner as the king only gave an annoyed look as he dropped him, and the puff plopped himself next to Bandana.

"Yeah, sorry we're late...he wanted to have an outfit custom-made for him before we left..." The Waddle Dee sighed.

"It's ok! I'm just glad you guys came!" The puff replied with a smile.

"I assume the blueberry didn't wanna come?" Dedede asked, looking around the area.

"Yeah, and he said he wasn't interested and had some important work to do." Kirby explained.

The king only shrugged at that.

"Eh, he'd prolly just ruin the fun of everything anyway, so no loss."

Ignoring that, Plasma Wisp spoke up.

"Now, I think we should decide who goes first. The best way to do so would be..."

Before he could finish, he was cut off by Dedede.

"I'll go first!" He declared while grabbing his bowling ball.

"Wait, who said you get to go first!? We should do rock paper scissors or something to make it more fair!" Kirby said with a pout, only for the king to laugh in his face.

"Oh yeah?! Well, I'm the king 'round here! That means I can do whatever I want! So, if I say I go first, I go first!"

He walked up and, to everyone's confusion, placed the ball on the floor. He then took out his hammer and thwacked the bowling ball as if he was golfing. This resulted in the ball going straight through one of the bowling alley's walls. Plasma Wisp leaned towards Kirby, who was staring in shock with Bandana and everyone else present.

"And this is why we practiced." He whispered.

"Your majesty, I already told you! No hammers in bowling!" Bandana Dee yelled out in panic.

"Well, I say I can use my hammer, so there!" Dedede said in a huff while crossing his arms.

"Does this mean I can inhale and spit the ball?" Kirby asked innocently.

"No." Came the blunt reply from Plasma Wisp.

"Instead, how about you show Dedede how it's done?"

"Hey, it's still my turn, y'know!" The monarch shouted back.

He then took another bowling ball and placed it on the floor before hitting it with his hammer like a golf ball. This time, it drastically curved and thwacked a Cappy at one of the lanes nearby.

"OW MY SPLEEN!"

"How did it curve that badly?" Bandana questioned in complete shock.

"Alright, Dedede, your turn's over now..."

Just as Plasma Wisp said that, the king glared at him.

"Who said my turn's over?! There clearly be someone messin' with my game for it to go that badly! So, fess up!" he pointed at both Kirby and his friend.

"Maybe it's just because you're not bowling the right way?"

"SHUT UP!"

"Let me handle this." Bandana Dee said before turning to the king. "Your majesty, how can you beat Kirby if you don't let him play? The game can't continue if everyone doesn't get a turn."

It only took a moment for his words to kick in.

"Ok, fine! I get it, I get it! Just don't you go embarrassin' yourself up there, you pink lump! I rather beat ya fair an' square!" Dedede said towards Kirby as he pushed him up towards the lane.

The child didn't say it but, he had a vague feeling that beating the king wouldn't be hard at all. All he would have to do it hit the pins, right?

Kirby slowly walked up to the lane with a standard pink bowling ball in his hands. He was slightly nervous now that it was an actual game instead of practice, but he managed to calm himself quickly. With a strong throw the ball went straight down the middle and knocked over every pin except for the two furthest ones on either side, giving him a split.

"Hey! How comes you was able to hit 'em! There's gotta be some cheatin' going on here!" Dedede grumbled loudly as Bandana attempted to calm him down.

"Oh... that..." Plasma Wisp uttered.

"Hm? What's wrong with it?" Kirby questioned with a tilt of his head.

"It's a 7-10 split. It's almost impossible to recover from." Bandana commented, to the surprise of everyone else.

"Is it really impossible?!"

"Well, you have to hit one of the pins at just the right speed and angle to send it into the other pin if you want to get a spare."

"He really did mess up that one! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

As the king continued to laugh, Kirby only grew a bit worried. That was, until Plasma Wisp spoke to him.

"Hey, Bandana said it was almost impossible. "Almost" means it's still possible. That means you still have a chance of making it! Besides, we all know that you've done other things that were considered impossible before and succeeded, so this should be nothing to you!"

Hearing those words of encouragement, Kirby smiled. "You're right! Thanks!"

Now filled with confidence, the child got ready to throw, though this time he was planning on putting a little bit of a curve on it. As soon as he threw it, time seemed to slow down and the entire world fell silent, as if this moment were the most important event in the universe and everyone else at the bowling alley was even watching it. With each moment that passed, Kirby's nerves continued to rise, all while Dedede was chanting for it to miss. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as the ball slammed into one of the pins, which flew across the gap to knock the other one over. With a burst of applause and cheers, Kirby received a spare.

"Ah! It worked!"

"Great job, Kirby! You did it!"

However, not everyone was happy with this result.

"BAH! WHAT WAS THAT!? HE'S GOTTA BE CHEATIN'! AIN'T THAT RIGHT, BANDANA?!" Dedede shouted in fury.

"Your highness, I checked the ball beforehand, there was nothing of that sort..."

"THEN CHECK IT AGAIN!"

"Kirby wasn't cheating. You're just bowling incorrectly." Plasma Wisp replied with a sigh. He then received a glare from the king.

"Oh yeah!? Then how 'bout you show me how to bowl "correctly" then!?"

With that said, Plasma Wisp proceeded to grab his ball and rolled a strike.

"Great job!" Kirby exclaimed.

"Now do you see how to do it, Dedede?" His friend replied.

The king only seemed to puff his cheeks in anger, as if he knew he was wrong and didn't want to admit it. It was usual behavior for the king if anyone were to be completely honest.

Finally, it was Bandana's turn. Without a single word, likely due to how internally tired he was at all the bickering, he took a blue bowling ball and went up to do his throw. Greatly surprising the others, he rolled a strike before sitting back down.

"Ah... so Bandana's going to be a difficult opponent..." Plasma Wisp uttered to Kirby.

The child could only shrug in response. As usual, he was just focused on having fun.

Before anyone could say anything else, Dedede rushed up to start the next frame, intent on actually hitting a pin this time.

"That last turn was just a warmup! Now, I'm serious!" With that he tossed the ball, straight into the gutter.

"My fingers slipped! This time for sure!"

Another throw and another gutter ball.

"This is going to be a short game." Plasma Wisp deadpanned.

Plasma Wisp was soon proven right, as the game progressed relatively quickly. The only hold up they had was frame 5, mainly due to Dedede leaving to get nachos from the kitchen during his turn. Plasma Wisp was so far bowling a perfect game. Bandana Dee wasn't too far behind as he had also gotten all strikes except for frame 5, where he got a spare instead, though that was probably due to him getting fed up with Dedede's antics. Kirby was doing better than he thought would. While he hadn't gotten a single strike yet, he kept getting nine of the pins knocked down on his first throw, while getting the remaining pin on his second. As for Dedede, well. By the end of frame seven, he had five points total.

It was now the tenth and final frame and everyone was in high spirits. Everyone except for Dedede, whose constant attempts at showing his pink rival up have constantly backfired.

"It's the last frame, your majesty. After this, you can leave." Bandana said.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." The king said while rolling his eyes.

He got up and barely put any energy into this throw, not caring what happens after the ball leaves his hand. To the shock of everyone, he got a strike. It took a minute for Dedede to register what just happened, but when he did, he started dancing with joy.

"HAHAHA! I finally beat ya, Kirby!"

Kirby looked confused.

"But I still have more points than you..." He pointed to the scoreboard.

"So what? I got a strike, and you didn't!" The king said with pride.

In usual Dedede fashion, if he couldn't win the actual game, he'd at least try to make himself out to be a winner of some kind. As a result, Kirby, Plasma Wisp and even Bandana just looked unimpressed by this.

"Well, are you going to roll again or not?" Plasma Wisp asked.

"Huh? What'cha talking 'bout?"

"If you get a strike on the last frame, you get to go again."

Dedede's eyes went wide with excitement. It was another chance to show up Kirby! He went and threw his ball one more time and got another gutter ball. After that, Kirby could swear he saw a mini Kracko above Dedede's head, raining on him.

Then, it was the puff's turn. With a single solid throw, he managed to get a strike, followed by him being applauded by the other two participants.

"What?! How?!" The king shouted, seemingly coming out of his depression.

"Um...I just did what I normally did." Kirby scratched his head in confusion.

"Hmph... must be beginner's luck!"

"Is that why you kept throwing it in the gutter, Dedede?" Plasma Wisp grumbled.

"Y-yes! I was just going easy on 'im! No way he ain't gonna get another one of them strikes!" The king said with an abnormal amount of confidence.

Kirby tossed the ball again and landed, to the shock and awe of everyone, another strike! However, this only served to make Dedede furious, as he went into a near-incomprehensible rage about the action, getting many questioning stares in response.

While Dedede was busy with his ranting, Plasma Wisp went up to Kirby.

"Alright, you get another chance to throw, Kirbster. Make it count."

Nodding in understanding at his friend's words, Kirby for the final time threw his ball and received a third strike. The applause returned but this time even louder, completely drowning out the jealous rantings of King Dedede.

After that, Plasma Wisp took his turn and got all strikes, bowling a perfect game as evidence of his skill and experience. Bandana also got all strikes, but thanks to the one spare from earlier it wasn't a perfect game. Not that he really minded since he only cared about having fun. All the while, the king was continuing to rant and rave about his rival.

Soon, the group walked out of the bowling alley, though Dedede continued to have a pout on his face.

"I had a lot of fun today! Thanks for inviting me, Plasma!" Kirby exclaimed happily.

"It's not a problem, Kirby, I'm glad you had fun."

"Yeah, despite some problems, I had a lot of fun. Thanks for the invite." Bandana said before turning to the king. "What about you, your highness? Did you have fun?"

Dedede seemed to jump a bit upon hearing that.

"Don't ask such dumb questions, dummy!" He said while seemingly blushing and averting his eyes. He intended to come off as angry, but he wasn't fooling anyone.

"I'm glad you had fun, Dedede!"

"I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHIN' 'BOUT HAVING FUN, PINKY!" He then stuttered a bit.

"But...thanks for the... invite..." He mumbled, which Kirby was barely able to hear.

Hearing that, the group parted ways.

Kirby then returned home and went to sleep, happily dreaming about all the fun he had today.

The next morning, Kirby heard knocking on his door. It was Plasma Wisp again.

"Hey Kirbster, wanna go golfing?"

A simple and short chapter, not that that's a bad thing. It took a bit to write this chapter, but I'm overall happy with the result.

Hope you guys enjoy it as well.

Omake (Bonus)

MK: I'm not interested in bowling, and even if I was, I have some important work to do today. (Hangs up)

(MK looks at his desk to reveal a bowling championship trophy)

MK: They must never know...