Next chapter done!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 2: Playing with Fire
[BGM: Cookie Country (Star Allies Arrange ver.) – Kirby Star Allies]
Cookie Country. Your average grassy area filled with trees and vegetation, but it also featured several caves. But the most eye-catching sights of this place were the cheese-like mountains where waterfalls were cascading down from them, and the large windmill tree with its three spinning leaves working as a windmill's spinning blades. They're truly a sight to behold, especially for our four vacationers, the Loyal Bodyguards, since it's their first time here in Kirby's universe. Alas, due to the adventure they're having together with Kirby and his friends, there was no time for them (and the others) to relax all the time, but they could at least take some breaks now and then.
Speaking of which, let's cut over to the tall wooden bridges atop the trees, where our group was taking a break right now.
"Welp… so much for a relaxing vacation, huh guys?" Eleven spoke up after doing a stretch.
"Yeah…" Arusu nodded while doing a few chuckles. "But at least it's still awesome just for this new adventure we're having!"
"I agree." Solo agreed. "As long as we're having fun, I'm fine with having an adventure in the middle of a vacation."
"Kind of like back what happened to Mario and his friends during their vacation on Isle Delfino…" Eight said amusedly. "And not to mention that by having an adventure alone, we're already exploring some of the places that Kirby's world offers." his comrades nodded in agreement by that.
"Ahem…" Meta Knight's voice came as the Heroes looked back to see him walking up to them. "I just want to say to you that… I've been watching the way you all fight, and from what I saw, it appears that you combat style consists of a combination of basic swordfighting and magic spells. And that, my friends, is rather impressive."
"Is that so?" Solo asked.
"Indeed. Ever since I joined the Smash tournament, Kirby has told me that there has never been a swordfighter Smasher who specializes in swordplay and magic at the same time. Well, we do have Robin…but he's more of a mage than a swordfighter, so you guys would be the first ones in that new category officially."
"That's cool." Arusu smirked.
"Anyways, changing the subject a little…" Eleven interjected. "I've been wondering about something for a long time…"
"Really? What is it?" Meta Knight asked.
"Well…I wanted to ask Kirby about it. It's something that has to do with Dream Land…"
"Oh, but you're free to ask me about it, too. I know almost everything about the kingdom of Dream Land as much as Kirby does. And not to mention that Kirby is a little 'busy' at the moment…" Meta Knight sweatdropped at the last sentence.
"Why's that?"
"Dedede is messing up with him again, much like back earlier when he threw that small cannon thing at Kirby on purpose so it would blow up on him."
"Oh…"
"Yep. So, what's your question?"
"I've been wondering this ever since Kirby mentioned about Dream Land to us… Why is it that it's called 'Dream Land' anyways?"
Meta Knight's eyes perked up, and then did a small chuckle. "Now that is a very good question, my friend. The reason why the kingdom is called Dream Land… is because anyone who falls asleep in there will always be guaranteed to have good dreams."
The Loyal Bodyguards looked intrigued. "Oh, interesting…" Solo mused.
"However… should one sleeping there not dream or have nightmares instead, then it's because something is wrong with the Fountain of Dreams."
"The Fountain of Dreams?" Eight asked.
"It is a mystical fountain that is powered up by a legendary magic wand, the Star Rod, that helps it radiate dream energy out across Dream Land to provide said good dreams. As for its location, it lies at the heart of Rainbow Resort."
"Rainbow Resort, huh? We'll definitely want you guys to take us there once we're done with this adventure!" Eleven said.
"Sure thing. Just be careful not to do anything to the fountain, though."
"Got it."
[BGM End]
Arusu then spoke up, "Hey, I think we rested enough so we should keep going. We still need to find that ship part, after all."
"Ah, you're right." Meta Knight nodded. "I'll go let the others know and then we can continue."
And so, after everyone was ready to move onwards, they found a ladder that would take them back down to ground level. Going down the ladder, they immediately came across another cave and walked in.
Stage 1-3: A Slightly Great Cave Offensive
[BGM: Rocky Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Inside, they went down some more ladders to head down deeper into the cave while coming upon a few Shotzos that were firing cannonballs at them, but they just stood out of harm's way and kept going, and then they encountered a Sparky as Kirby proceeded to discard his Needle Ability and inhale the Sparky, turning into Spark Kirby.
"Oh, you have an electric Ability?" Eleven asked.
"Technically, it's Spark." Kirby replied. "But the electricity theme still applies. Just watch me." as everyone went down to a split path, Kirby went over to the right path that had an ample amount of Star Blocks below and used Spark Attack to break his way down through them easily. The Loyal Bodyguards were left impressed since they never saw electricity being used that way.
"Thanks for clearing up the path for us, Kirby!" Bandana Waddle Dee thanked as they went down the cleared path where Kirby was waiting for them before going down another ladder that led to a door below, but before going in, they all looked down to see an Energy Sphere underneath the door as Dedede took it, and then they went into the door.
[BGM: Cave Expedition – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The door led them to a deep blue cave adorned with crystals, stalactites and an azure pool in the background. "Well, this is an interesting place." Meta Knight said while taking in the sights.
"Reminds me of my Great Cave Offensive adventure a little… but I doubt there's any treasure in here." Kirby said as they walked off and came across some Bouncys and a Bouncy Sis as Eleven was about to throw a cutter blade at them, but then a thought came to him:
"Hold on, if this can be thrown like a boomerang in the first place… then I wonder if I can…?" he then pulled back his hand that was holding the cutter blade and called out, "Crosscutter Throw!" before throwing the cutter blade at the Bouncy Sis's direction as she was hit by it, then it mowed down the Bouncys nearby… and then it suddenly went back to the Bouncy Sis to strike her again and defeat her. "Yes! It worked!" Eleven exclaimed as the blade returned to him, and then he looked back at his comrades. "Did you see that, guys? I can now perform boomerang skills with this Copy Ability!"
"We did! This is great!" Eight gleamed. "And you didn't even need to gain experience to learn them!"
"Wait, what do you mean by 'boomerang skills'?" Dedede asked. "And what the heck was that kind of move to begin with?"
"In our universe, certain weapons have all sorts of different skills that the wielder can perform as they gain experience by fighting monsters." Eleven explained. "Right now I did Crosscutter Throw, a skill exclusive to boomerangs, and what it does is that the first enemy hit by the boomerang is hit a second time after the other enemies near it are hit."
"That's right!" Eight nodded. "I can do this skill as well, since I'm also able to wield boomerangs."
"Wow… That is so cool!" Bandana Waddle Dee gushed. "You guys are just full of surprises!"
The Heroes chuckled in response before they all continued onwards, jumping across more moving platforms until they reached a blue switch as they pressed it down to open the way to the door to the next section. This next section consisted of a narrow passageway filled with Shotzos, but by hitting the Star Blocks below them, the group was able to make these cannons fall into the bottomless pits and make their progression safer. Then, they came upon a Key Gate that had an Energy Sphere behind it, but the key that would unlock it was up ahead. So they went there to get the key before backtracking right back to the gate and open it up, netting them the second Energy Sphere for this stage.
"I wonder how many of those things are there?" Kirby wondered.
"We don't know for sure yet, but still, let's keep an eye out for them." Solo replied.
"You know, the way we're collecting these things do remind me back of when we had to collect Star Medals in our first adventure together in the Mushroom World." Arusu recalled.
"Now that you said it, it sure does." Eleven threw in as they all went up a wall and down an inclined path where they had to make more Shotzos fall into the bottomless pits, then they made it to another door. It took them to another narrow passageway with numerous pointy spikes on the floor, but all they had to do was jump over these and then they eventually came across a Key Dee carrying a key above its head… but the moment it spotted the group, it immediately began running away.
"After it! Don't let it get away!" Dedede hollered as they chased after the Key Dee while it was running towards a bottomless pit up ahead, and just before it could jump down into it, Kirby managed to defeat it with a Spark Laser and Eight took the key, using it to open another Key Gate concealing an Energy Sphere.
"Good thing we managed to retrieve the key… but how come that creature was so willing to jump down into the abyss in the first place?" Eight wondered as he took the Energy Sphere.
"That creature was a Key Dee." Dedede replied. "Those little guys love to carry stuff, mainly keys as their name suggest, and are crazy enough to willingly kill themselves just so that nobody can retrieve the thing they're carrying."
"…Wow, talk about too dumb to live." Arusu deadpanned as they walked a bit more, and then they finally reached the cave's exit.
[BGM End]
Stage 1-4: On Sugar and Fire High!
[BGM: Over the Hills – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
By exiting the cave, the group arrived at some hills with several towers of rocks as some of them would tumble and fall down on the path. The group had to move rather quickly to avoid being crushed by the rocks as one of them managed to crush a poor Waddle Dee that was just minding his own business, making the group wince at that before they continued on, where Solo found an opening in one of the rocky cliffs that led him to a small grotto with an Energy Sphere.
Once he caught up back to the others, they all had to run across more tight gaps on the floor while avoiding more falling towers of rocks, and soon they went into a door. It took them to an area with more wooden bridges similar to the ones they found at the second stage as they dispatched a Bowby and a Como while walking, and then Eight noticed something glowing up ahead on the floor and ran up to it, as it turned out to be a white lollipop with a red swirl in the middle and a yellow star on the side. You all know well what this is…
"Huh… Who would leave out a lollipop like this?" Eight wondered as he picked it up. "It does look tasty, though." he said and began to put the lollipop into his mouth.
Kirby noticed that and his eyes widened. "Wait, Eighty! That's an Invincible Candy!" he called out while running up to Eight, but it was too late as the Hero had already popped the Invincible Candy in his mouth.
[BGM End]
"Ohhh, boy…" Kirby trailed off.
"Wait, Invincible Candy?" Solo raised an eyebrow. "Is it like the Super Star Power-Up from Mario's universe?"
"Well, yes. Only that the Invincible Candy also triggers an… interesting side effect on the user upon consumption."
Eleven walked up to Eight. "So, how's it taste?" he asked… but then he saw Eight trembling. "Uhh… Eight? You okay there?" Eleven looked at him in concern.
"Wait for it…"
Three.
Two.
One.
[BGM: Invincible – Kirby Star Allies]
"YEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAW!" Eight suddenly yelled as he took off running ahead with his arms spread out, while his body was glowing in a rainbow aura.
The remaining Loyal Bodyguards just stood there in complete stunned silence with mouths agape. "…WHAT." Arusu could only say.
"And there we have the side effect: a Sugar Rush." Kirby told them. "You become invincible, but you behave like you're high on sugar when it's in effect." he then looked back to where Eight has headed. "We better go after him and quick."
Cutting over to Eight…
"EXCUSE ME! MAKE WAY! COMING THROUGH!" Eight shouted while ramming through groups of Waddle Dees, Cappies, Comos, Sir Kibbles, Bowbies, and Bronto Burts along the way and making them all go flying all over the place.
A few feet behind him, the others were running after him as Kirby, knowing well that at this point the effect of the Invincible Candy would wear off, proceeded to call out to him, "Eighty! You need to stop running now!"
"WHY MUST I?! THIS IS FUUUUUUN! WOOOOOO!" Eight cheered wildly like a little kid on a sugar high (which is a very appropriate comparison) and just kept running… buuuut then the Invincible Candy's effect wore off and made him snap out of his hyper state.
[BGM End]
"Whoa-oa-oa!" Eight yelped while comically flailing his arms as his legs buckled, causing him to fall forwards and roll along the ground a few times until he came to a complete stop right in front of a cave entrance with his face on the ground.
"Eight!" Eleven called out as he and his comrades rushed over to their fallen friend. "Are you okay?"
"Uuuuuuugh…" all he got in response from Eight was an agonized groan.
"Just as I predicted… a Sugar Crash." Kirby said. "Those who still aren't used to the Invincible Candy would usually end up with a Sugar Crash once its effect wears off."
"Yikes…" Arusu grimaced. "Now that's even worse than the Super Star's post-use side effect…"
"Good thing I grabbed this on the way." Bandana Waddle Dee said while holding an Energy Drink bottle and ran up to Eight, who slowly lifted his head after some struggling. "Here." he offers the Energy Drink to the half-Dragovian. "It's an Energy Drink. It should patch you right back up in a second."
"Th-thanks…" Eight weakly thanked as he accepted the Energy Drink and drank it all… and in an instant, he got back up feeling all better again. "Hoo! I feel better already!"
"That's a relief." Solo smiled.
"Well, now that that's taken care of, let's move." Meta Knight said and everyone walked into the cave.
[BGM: Rocky Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
As soon as they walked in, they noticed several stalactites on the ceiling that would fall down on them, but they managed to pass through this section with ease and went up to find a Prism Shield. "Uh, what's a French Horn doing in here?" Dedede raised an eyebrow as Bandana Waddle Dee walked over to it and picked it up, causing it to create a sustained rainbow energy shield out of its horn.
"Huh…" Bandana Waddle Dee mused while looking up at it before proceeding to walk over another section with falling stalactites, only that the shield was protecting him from them. "Oh! It's a shield!" he exclaimed. "Shame that there's only one of this thing, though."
"Don't worry, the rest of you can stay next to us." Eleven said as he and his comrades took out their shields. "We can just raise our shields over our heads to block us and you from the stalactites."
"Good idea!" Kirby replied as they walked off, with Bandana Waddle Dee using the Prism Shield while the Loyal Bodyguards used their shields to protect themselves and the rest from the falling stalactites, and soon they reached a portion of the cave where they got another Energy Sphere by clearing away the Puppet Waddle Dees that guarded it in a nook in the wall. After that, Bandana Waddle Dee tossed away the Prism Shield as it broke apart, and then they found the cave's exit.
[BGM End]
Once they made it back to the surface, the group immediately came upon a quite interesting sight: various tall tree stumps sporting glowing stars on them. In addition to those, a new Super enemy soon popped up; that one being a Super Hot Head.
"That Hot Head… it has the same aura as that other Blade Knight that turned Kirby into his Ultra Sword form!" Bandana Waddle Dee observed.
"Oh! Then it must hold another Super Ability!" Kirby's eyes perked up. "It no doubt must hold the Monster Flame Super Ability!" he was about to run up to it in order to get its Super Ability, only for Eight to stop him:
"Hold up."
"What?" Kirby asked as he stopped.
"I've been thinking… If we're already able to use your Copy Abilities, then surely we can use a Super Ability as well? And besides, I haven't used a single one of your Abilities yet, so this could be my opportunity."
"Oh… Okay, we can test that out, but in order for you to get it, I'll need to defeat the enemy first." and so instead of discarding the Spark Ability, Kirby used it to defeat the Super Hot Head, and doing so caused it to leave out the Monster Flame's Ability Star. "Now try touching this Ability Star."
Nodding, Eight walked over to it and touched it… and suddenly, the Ability Star flew up before falling down into him, and then a bright light surrounded him as he transformed. Aside from gaining the Monster Flame crown, his bandana turned gold like the headpiece, his hair turned orange that was as bright as the crown's flames, his jacket turned dark red with fire painted on it while its bottom was in tatters, his shirt turned bright red like the crown's red protrusions, and the buckle of his belt was now a glowing light-yellow star. For one last final touch, his pants and boots gained the appearance of having been discolored from fire, complete with burn marks.
[BGM: Bring on the Super Ability! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Whoa… this feels amazing!" Eight exclaimed.
"Awesome! It worked!" Kirby beamed. "Go on ahead! Unleash the power of Monster Flame!"
With that, Eight amassed the flames in his crown as they soared up into the sky… before becoming a giant fiery dragon that the Hero directed to blaze through the tree stumps, burning them all to a crisp instantly.
The others except for Kirby were left amazed. "Daaaaaaaang…" Arusu awed.
Even Eight was left amazed, then he smirked, "Heh, now that's another one in the list of my dragon-themed stuff!"
"This could easily be something that our universe could have." Solo remarked as they walked off, with Eight making use of Monster Flame to blaze through more tree stumps and lines of enemies that were unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of the fiery dragon. Later on, Eight would destroy a larger and wider tree stump while also burning down four hanging Comos in the process, and eventually, another rift opened up.
"…We're going in there again, aren't we?" Dedede guessed.
"Yup." Meta Knight nodded, and this time, everyone was willing to jump in without letting themselves getting sucked up.
*Another Dimension Fanfare plays*
"Here we go agaiiiiiiin!" Bandana Waddle Dee cried as they fell into the rift, with Kirby and Eight losing their Abilities during that.
[BGM: Another Dimension – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
This new Another Dimension stretch featured Comos of various sizes. Since the group was now familiar with how this place works, they wasted no time in running off and away from the advancing wall behind them while systematically dealing with the Comos. At one point, they were stopped by a blockade of Heave-Ho Blocks as Kirby used a super inhale to take off all that in one swoop, before spitting out a large Star Bullet that destroyed some Star Blocks and a giant Como that was blocking the way to the exit as the group rushed over to it.
After making it out, they walked ahead a bit, expecting another Sphere Doomer to show up for them to battle… and it did.
[BGM: Sphere Doomer – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Immediately, the Kirby cast went running in and started attacking the flying beast and after Kirby struck it with a charged Hammer Flip, the Sphere Doomer roared and began unleashing its new trick: conjuring up a black hole that easily managed to suck the Kirby cast in as they screamed.
The Loyal Bodyguards gasped at that and were prompted to take action, first dodging the Sphere Doomer's zig-zag charge after it flew to the background before Arusu attacked it with Burn, turning himself into a living fireball and ramming into the beast, followed up by Solo using Leaf Uppercut to create a vertical line of large leaves to damage it from below, then Eleven and Eight nodded to each other as they took out their cutter blade and boomerang respectively and unleashed a Gigathrow together on it.
The Sphere Doomer growled and fired out purple orbs in large numbers at them, but they reflected them all back at it by casting Bounce and by then, the Kirby cast was thrown out of the black hole and so they, together with the Heroes, resumed in attacking the Sphere Doomer as it tried to fly away from them, but Meta Knight flew up to it and slashed it down, where Eleven proceeded to finish it off with a Final Cutter.
[BGM: Silence of Another Sky – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"That was it? I was expecting this one to put up more of a fight." Arusu said as he took the two Energy Spheres the Sphere Doomer left out upon its defeat, and then they walked over to the rift that would take them out of this realm and jumped in.
[BGM End]
Upon making it back, they would proceed to walk ahead until Bandana Waddle Dee spotted four bright red tomatoes with a black 'M' on them on top of a bush. "Hey, look what we have here!" he exclaimed as he took the tomatoes.
"Oh, goody! A Maxim Tomato for each of us to recover our stamina from that black hole blow!" Kirby chirped as he and the rest of the Kirby cast started to eat the Maxim Tomatoes.
"A what tomato?" Eleven asked.
"Maxim Tomato. It's the best out of all food items in which it will always recover your stamina up to full when consumed. And not to mention that it's my favorite food!"
"Oh, I see."
Then, after the Kirby cast finished eating the Maxim Tomatoes, the group resumed walking as they would soon come upon a thick forest area of Cookie Country.
Stage 1-5: Bullying a Tree
[BGM: Omen of Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The group found themselves standing on top on a series of wooden decks. "Hmm… I'm sensing danger up ahead." Meta Knight stated suspiciously. "Be on your guard as we head down, everybody."
"Right." Solo nodded as they began to slowly make their way down the wooden decks, while Kirby was having a feeling that he had seen these before…
"Those wooden decks…leading down to a grove in the forest… Why does that sound so familiar?" Kirby thought.
Once they made it to the grove, they cautiously walked up ahead… and soon came upon a large tree with a branch sticking out in front, which strangely looked like a nose of sorts.
[BGM End]
"Oh, it's just a tree." Arusu said… and all of a sudden, the tree began to shake before a pair of hollow eyes and a mouth popped up from it. The tree then frowned at his trespassers standing right in front of him, catching them all but Kirby by surprise.
"It's alive?!" Eight exclaimed.
"I should've known…" Kirby glared up at the tree. "The guardian of the forest… Whispy Woods!"
[BGM: White-Hot! Boss Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Whispy Woods began by shaking his own canopy to make apples fall down on them. "Careful! Those apples might look tasty, but they can seriously hurt you!" Bandana Waddle Dee warned the Loyal Bodyguards, and so they quickly rose their shields above their heads to block the falling apples, while Kirby sucked some of them up and spat them back as a Star Bullet at Whispy, hitting him in the face.
Next, Whispy proceeded to blow out air bullets at the group, but they easily avoided them as Bandana Waddle Dee ran up to him and attacked him with a Multispear Attack and then jumped back as Meta Knight and Eight slashed at him repeatedly while Eleven used a Firebird Throw and Arusu breathed fire. Whispy let out a roar and then the ground underneath them shook violently, leading them to quickly run away right as roots shot out of the spot they were previously on. Then, Whispy shook his canopy again, this time making Waddle Dees and Bronto Burts fall off of it and Comos to hang down from it.
Bandana Waddle Dee then did his Waddle Copter attack to cut off the Comos' webs and kill them, while Solo spun around in place to perform a Leaf Swirl, drawing in the Waddle Dees and Bronto Burts into the tornado of leaves before doing Leaf Scatter, hitting Whispy with the enemies and scattered leaves. This made Whispy irritated… and then he suddenly grew larger.
"Oh, that's a new one…" Kirby trailed off as they all braced themselves for what was about to come next… but they weren't expecting Whispy to open his mouth wide open to inhale a huge amount of air that was strong enough to draw them all towards his mouth.
"Ack! He's trying to suck us in!" Dedede yelped and they quickly ran away from Whispy to avoid being sucked into his mouth, until he got tired out from that and allowing the group to strike him back freely.
After snapping out of it, Whispy glared at the group again and shook his canopy to drop Gordos at them. Dedede immediately took action and hit the Gordos back at Whispy, dazing him for a bit as Meta Knight came in and Drill Rushed him while Arusu swung his sword as fireballs shot out of its blade and hit Whispy in the face, and then Solo hit him with a Kaswoosh, as the tornadoes that came out had leaves in them thanks to the Leaf ability. Whispy let out a growl and proceeded to do his suction attack again and forcing the group to run away, but then an idea sparked into Arusu's mind as he stopped and instead ran… right towards Whispy and into his mouth.
"Arusu, NO!" Eleven cried out while the others gasped after they witnessed Arusu going into Whispy's mouth as he was ready to chew on the Legendary Hero… until smoke started to come out of his eyes and mouth, before he suddenly burst into flames that came from inside of him as he started howling in agonizing pain.
[BGM End]
Eventually, it came to a point where Whispy couldn't take it anymore, and so he began to shrink back to normal before spitting out Arusu and shedding a tear like always.
"Heh, that worked out great." Arusu smirked as he got back up.
"Arusu!" Eight exclaimed, running up to hug him. "We thought you were a goner!"
Arusu chuckled. "You kidding? I let myself get swallowed on purpose… so I could give him a good explosive indigestion!"
Dedede sweatdropped. "I guess that's one way to put in…"
"That was great thinking, Su-Su!" Kirby beamed. "Not even I would think of doing that!"
"You're welcome." Arusu smiled.
"Hmm? Hey, guys! Look!" Bandana Waddle Dee pointed up at Whispy's canopy. "There's something attached to his branches!"
Meta Knight then flew up to investigate. "…Huh! Would you look at this!" he said and removed the object out of the canopy… which turned out to be the ship's oars that were encased in a sphere of energy.
Everyone else's faces brightened. "All right! We found the oars!" Kirby cheered. "Let's take them back to Magolor's ship!"
"Yeah!" Eight nodded… but as they proceeded to walk off, Eight couldn't help but look back at Whispy in remorse. "Poor thing… I feel awful that we had to beat him up just to get the ship part…"
"Same… even if I was the one who dealt the final blow on him." Arusu threw in as they all stopped walking, and the Heroes turned to face Whispy. "Should we…?" Arusu asked his comrades.
"Yes." Eleven nodded, and then the Kirby cast watched as the Loyal Bodyguards thrusted their hands towards Whispy and casted Heal on him. Immediately, Whispy's charred wood was back to normal and all the wounds he received from battle were healed. Whispy checked himself in awe before looking at the Heroes and smiling at them, as he gently shook his canopy to give them each free apples in gratitude.
"For us?" Eight asked as each of them caught an apple. Whispy nodded in response. "Aww, thanks big guy!"
"That's his way of showing gratitude!" Kirby smiled. "Whispy is usually a little cranky towards any trespassers he comes across, but he won't even hesitate to share his apples with anybody he's grateful to!"
"Good on him." Solo said and the four then took a bite out of their apples.
"Wow! This has to be the best apple I've ever tasted!" Arusu exclaimed.
"I know, right?!" Eleven chimed in. "This is really good!"
"One of the best aspects about my home world is that every food here is of the best quality possible!" Kirby said. "In fact, the main reason why some Smashers want to come to my world is so that they could feast on the best food in here… especially if those Smashers just so happen to have a big appetite, such as Pac-Man, Yoshi or Pit." he sweatdropped playfully at the last sentence.
The Loyal Bodyguards laughed at that. "Figures that Pit would be among the gluttonous ones…" Solo playfully rolled his eyes.
"Considering how much he ate back at the party after we defeated the Aurum, I can tell." Eleven added, and after that they resumed eating their apples.
Soon…
[BGM: Green Greens/Kirby Wii ver. – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Once the Loyal Bodyguards finished eating, the group made it back to the countryside, where the ship still stood. Kirby was holding the oars above his head, before he chucked them right onto the ship.
[BGM: Lor Part Restored! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The group watched as the oars glowed brightly before splitting into two lights, which then danced around each other as they headed down to the ship… that was somehow floating into the air just so it could receive its part back. The lights attached themselves to both sides of the ship, becoming the oars as they were first displayed in all their glory… before the ship slowly descended back into the crash site.
[BGM End]
"Awesome! We did it!" Bandana Waddle Dee cheered, jumping up and down.
"Come on! Let's go tell Magolor the good news!" Kirby said and they all went into the ship.
[BGM: Magolor, the Distant Traveler – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"You did it, everybody!" Magolor beamed after everyone told him the good news. "My ship has its oars back! Thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome!" Kirby replied.
"I'm counting on you all to find the other missing parts of my Lor Starcutter, which is the name of my ship, by the way. Keep up the good work! And don't forget to keep an eye out for my Energy Spheres!"
"Energy Spheres?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked, until it hit him, "Oh, you mean these things we've been collecting?" he wondered as he showed Magolor one of them.
"Yes, those are the ones! See, it's not only my ship parts you all have to find… I also lost all 120 of my Energy Spheres. They're used to power up the Lor, sort of like fuel. So without those, my ship can't even fly!"
"Ah, got it."
"Can I see how many Energy Spheres you've got so far?" Magolor requested, and the group showed him the rest of the Energy Spheres they got. "Let's see… You've found 13 of my Energy Spheres. You still have a long way to go… but I know you can find the rest!"
"You can leave it to us." Meta Knight nodded.
"We also have something to ask that perhaps you might know, Magolor…" Eight interfered.
"Oh? What is it?" Magolor asked.
"During our journey, we came across those strange rifts that took us to an entirely different realm. From what I remember, everything in there was black and white, there was a wall of matter that seemed to eat the place away, and some sort of purple winged creature that always had two Energy Spheres with it would always show up to attack us. Do you know anything about these?"
"Hmm…" Magolor pondered. "I think I know what you might be talking about. Have any of you heard of Another Dimension?"
The group raised an eyebrow. "Another Dimension?" they asked in unison.
"It's the place where I came from and live, so I know everything about it. As its name suggests, it is an alternate dimension that parallels this one. Accessing it is very hard, as it usually requires usage of advanced ancient technology such as the Lor and its Energy Spheres, or anything or anyone that holds a sufficient amount of power, though the latter options only lead to small portions of the dimension that are depicted in a monochrome fashion and even resembling an area from this dimension where its rift was opened. But there's also the fact that it's not entirely possible to stay in these small portions for too long due to a lack of sufficient energy for the dimension to remain intact and so it will begin to quickly erase itself, hence the wall of matter."
"Anything holding a sufficient amount of power, you say?" Solo repeated. "Perhaps the Super Abilities we found along the way could be powerful enough for opening rifts."
"And that did actually happen, so it's basically confirmed already." Dedede pointed out.
"Right, anyways…" Magolor continued. "Another Dimension is also home to the Doomers, but mainly to the Sphere Doomers, which might be the winged creature you mentioned."
"Oh…" Eight said.
"I heard that these guys are attracted to anything holding a great amount of energy, and my Energy Spheres are no different. So if you guys ever encounter these Sphere Doomers again, they're always guaranteed to hold two Energy Spheres, so be sure to take them down!"
"You got it!" Arusu grinned.
"Well, I guess we have everything answered." Eleven said. "Could you show us where the next part is located, Magolor?"
"Oh, sure!" Magolor then went to his console as the map of Popstar appeared on the monitor. "I think you should go for one of the wings now, starting with the right one." he zooms in on the right wing's location: an arid desert region. "Looks like you can find it somewhere in a place called Raisin Ruins."
"Alright, then our next destination is settled!" Kirby exclaimed.
"I'm going to stay here and try to repair the Lor as best as I can. Best of luck to you all!"
The group waved back at Magolor and exited the ship.
[BGM End]
When the group was back outside, they were surprised to find out that it was already sunset in Dream Land. "Wow, it's sunset already?" Solo asked. "Time sure does fly…"
"Maybe it's best if we head off to Raisin Ruins tomorrow." Meta Knight suggested. "After all, nobody would want to get cold in a desert at night."
"Not at all…" Eight thought fearfully due to his fear of the cold.
"Then we can head over to my house to spend the night." Kirby said, then he turned to the Loyal Bodyguards. "But I'll have to get human-sized sleeping bags for you guys since as I said before, you're too tall to fit into my house and so you'll have to sleep outside."
"No problem, Kirby. We can take it." Eleven replied.
"Okay! Let's go to my house and get everything set up!"
Later in the night…
[BGM: Popstar – Hoshi no Kaabii]
"I have to say… it's a little weird that we're sleeping on an entirely different planet." Solo remarked as the Loyal Bodyguards were sitting just outside of Kirby's house, looking up at the stars.
"It might be, but hey; as I said before, we can get used to it." Eleven said. "Reminds me back when we came to the Mushroom Kingdom for the first time."
"Heh, you said it." Arusu chimed in. "Man, the stars are really pretty in this world."
"They sure are." Eight agreed. "Especially those five rainbow-colored stars over there!" he pointed up to the five Sparkling Stars in a portion of the sky.
Kirby, having overheard their conversation, walked over to the Heroes. "What you're looking at are the five Sparkling Stars." he told them. "They're the power source for the people of Dream Land to gather food, and they are also said to hold a great amount of power. In my first adventure in Dream Land, Dedede stole the Sparkling Stars along with all the food and made the citizens starve, but I managed to put a stop to him and retrieve the two things he stole."
"Talk about a greedy king. But we're glad you taught him a lesson in the end." Arusu replied with a smirk.
Kirby chuckled. "Yep." but then he crestfalled sadly, making the Heroes worry.
"Something wrong, Kirby?" Solo asked.
"It's just that… I'm sorry that this vacation didn't turn out the way I wanted for you. And not to mention dragging you guys into an incident right in the middle of your vacation…"
"Kirby…" Eight spoke up before smiling, "You don't have to apologize. In fact, we're actually having a lot of fun in this adventure, so we don't mind being dragged along at all."
Kirby then smiled again. "If you say so." he lets out a yawn. "Well… I'm off to hit the hay now."
"Alright. Good night, Kirby." Eleven said.
"Good night." Kirby replied and walked back into his house, leaving the Heroes outside alone as they resumed looking at the stars.
To be continued…
Since I already gave the idea of having the Heroes use Kirby's Copy Abilities, I thought, "Why not have them use the Super Abilities as well?" and the rest is history! However, much like the 'Sole Hero Power-Ups', each Super Ability will be limited to one character, and thus Ultra Sword will be usable only by Kirby, while Monster Flame will be usable by Eight only and so on. Speaking of Monster Flame, the main reason I gave it to Eight is to keep up with his motif of dragons (he's part dragon himself, has a skill literally named 'Dragon Soul', is equipped with dragon-themed weapons... you get the gist).
Off to Raisin Ruins next! See you next time!
Trivia for this chapter:
1. The Sphere Doomer's black hole attack is an attack that's exclusive to its EX version, who's only found in the game's Extra Mode and The True Arena.
2. It was admittedly an unintentional coincidence, but the mention of having Maxim Tomatoes on top of a bush is similar to how the narrator of Kirby's Epic Yarn narrates about how Kirby found the Metamato (which is similar in appearance to the Maxim Tomato) in the intro cutscene.
3. Whispy Woods being set on fire is something you can actually do to him in Kirby Star Allies by damaging him with only fire attacks. That game marks the first (and perhaps the only) time in the series where Whispy is depicted as being highly flammable due to being, well, a tree.
