Here's the next chapter!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 3: Journey to the Ruins
[BGM: Planet Popstar – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Wow… So this is how Popstar looks like seen from space…" Eight awed, as the group was right now flying on a Warp Star over the planet in order to get to their next destination. "It's so pretty!"
"It really is." Solo agreed. "And good thing we can also breathe in space in Kirby's universe, too."
"Oh, so you guys have been to space before?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"Yes. Two times, in fact."
"Heh, good on you." Dedede chuckled.
"According to a certain mouse friend of mine, Popstar is considered to be the brightest star of my universe." Kirby informed. "I guess it's because it emits a glow that can be seen very far, even in the depths of space."
"Well, it does look pretty bright, alright." Arusu replied.
"Anyways, we could have gone over to our destination without flying out in space…but I did it so just to show you guys how my home planet looks like."
"And it was definitely worth it." Eleven smiled.
Kirby giggled. "I knew you guys would like it."
"Even so, let's not waste much time." Meta Knight spoke up. "We got a ship part to find, you know."
"Right. Hold on tight, everyone. We're off to Raisin Ruins!" with that, the Warp Star dove right into Popstar's rightmost point, where Raisin Ruins was located.
[BGM: Raisin Ruins – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Raisin Ruins was your basic desert level, featuring pyramids, an oasis, and a, well, ruins. But going again with the uniqueness of Kirby's world, we have what appears to be sand sculptures that were shaped out like a giant cube, an octahedron, and even a beach ball (or watermelon?) being launched and suspended in the air by sand geysers coming out of several dunes.
"We're here!" Kirby announced once they all landed. "Raisin Ruins!"
"Phew, it's a little hot here…" Eleven said, shielding his eyes from the sun.
"Well, at least it's not as hot as the deserts from Mario's universe." Solo noted. "So I don't think we'll collapse again like last time."
"You guys collapsed in a desert once?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"We have." Eight replied. "The heat from Layer-Cake Desert was too much for us to handle… But at least we were rescued and taken to a camping site to recover, and things went well from then on."
"Oh. That's a relief!"
"Still… We definitely should have gotten some water bottles before arriving here…" Dedede groaned, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"Oh, so NOW you remember?" Arusu rolled his eyes.
"It just slipped off my mind, that's all!"
"Hey, let's not start an argument here. Let's just get a move on." Meta Knight ushered and they all took off to the first stage.
[BGM End]
Stage 2-1: Whip it Good
[BGM: Sandy Wilderness – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
As they walked up a dune, they saw a Whippy minding its own business until it saw the group and attempted to whip them with its tail, only to get immediately squashed under Dedede's hammer and exploded into the Whip hat, in which Eight picked it up.
"Hmm…" he mused before putting it on, and then his bandana had suddenly been magically moved down from his head to his neck where it was wrapped around, becoming a neckerchief, while a whip materialized in place of his sword. "Huh?! Where did this come from?" he wondered as he looked down at the whip on his hand.
"Ooh! Another new Ability!" Kirby chirped. "Looks like we have an actual Whip Ability now!"
Eleven walked up to Eight. "You know, I like how your bandana has turned into a neckerchief to complete the part." he commented with a chuckle. "But too bad that this whip has apparently replaced your sword now…"
"Actually, I could get used to this." Eight replied.
"If you say so." Eleven shrugged, then a thought came to him. "Say, I wonder if you can do whip skills with this just like how I was able to do boomerang skills with the Cutter Ability?"
"Worth a try, I suppose." Eight said upon noticing a Bronto Burt charging at him, and so he readied his whip. "Hypnowhip!" he called out and lashed out his whip at the Bronto Burt in a spiral, making it confused and disoriented after it got hit as it tried to fly off… but slammed headfirst into a tower of three Star Blocks and was knocked out, as another Bronto Burt and a Waddle Dee nearby sweatdropped at this.
"Whoa!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed.
"…Oh, I like this already!" Eight smirked, looking back at his whip. "Jessica won't be the only one who can use a whip now!" he thought as they all walked down and up another dune, where they would see a Pacto right below some ice cold refreshing bottles of water as if it was about to chomp on them at any second.
"Hey, Eighty, do you think you can use your whip to grab these bottles of water?" Kirby requested. "Because I believe that you should be able to grab things from afar with this Ability just like how my Beam Ability can grab enemies in the same way."
"Sure, I can test this out for you." Eight nodded and slowly approached the Pacto, as it began to fly up to the bottles of water to chomp on them, but… "Yoink!" Eight would snatch the water bottles with his whip right under its nose, making it frown… until it got cut down by Kirby's Final Cutter.
"Yep, I was right!" Kirby exclaimed.
"Anyone thirsty?" Eight asked as he held the water bottles, earning a nod from everyone else and so he tossed each of them one water bottle, which conveniently was just the right number for each of them.
"Ahhh, much better!" Dedede said after drinking all the water from his bottle, and after the rest finished up theirs, they would toss away the bottles before they resumed walking over some more dunes along the way until they would come across some Scarfies, making the Kirby cast pale up.
"Oh, not these guys already!" Kirby whined.
"Why? What's wrong with these cute little guys?" Arusu asked.
"These guys are called Scarfies." Meta Knight replied, being the most collected out of the Kirby cast in order to explain. "Don't let their cute appearance fool you, because if provoked, they'll turn into a grotesque form and start chasing after the provoker until they explode. And what's more, Kirby can't inhale them at all."
"Yikes…" Solo trailed off and so they got rid of the Scarfies before they would turn into their Angry forms and then proceeded to the next area via a door, where Eight did a Trammel Lash at two Flamers to paralyze them before Meta Knight finished them off by slashing through them, then Bandana Waddle Dee would throw spears at some Nruffs that were charging at them, with one of them having a Waddle Dee riding on top.
It was then that they soon came across a Fuse Cannon. "Hey, a Fuse Cannon!" Kirby said. "Once I light it up, get ready to run fast." with that, Kirby lit it up with Burning (his Dash Attack in Smash Bros) and the moment the fire began to travel along the fuse, everyone dashed over to the Cannon up ahead and got in. The fire then reached the cannon, and it blasted everyone up to a platform with the first Energy Sphere of this area.
"Mmmph…" Eleven groaned as he held his head, feeling a bit disoriented. "At least this cannon ride was short…"
"What makes you say that?" Dedede asked while taking the Energy Sphere.
"Let's just say that… we encountered some cannons in Mario's world and one in Pit's world that would launch us off at blazing speeds, and the first time this happened to me and Eight, we both felt sick."
"Yep…" Eight nodded, having an unpleasant look on his face just from remembering that moment.
"Oh… Welp, then you better be prepared because Popstar offers a lot of cannons compared to the previous worlds you've been, but thankfully the rides they give are fairly short." Dedede stated.
"It's okay." Solo said. "We should be used to getting launched out of cannons at this point." but he couldn't help but think, "I hope."
"Well, good on you." Meta Knight replied as they got back down to ground level and continued up a higher dune, taking out more Nruffs on the way up to a path leading them into a tunnel… that was lined up with not just enemies, but also with boulders that are primed to roll down the path.
Despite that, the group traversed the tunnel with ease just by keeping pace with the boulders as they are dropped into holes on the ground and destroyed, allowing them to pass through safely. There was even a point where they were sandwiched between two boulders while trying to avoid getting hit by them, but at the end of the tunnel, the boulder on the front broke through a barrier that was blocking the way to an Energy Sphere. Bandana Waddle Dee quickly took the Sphere before he along with the rest escaped into an opening above to avoid the other boulder.
The opening took them to another tunnel, this time leading uphill where they would eventually encounter more boulders now rolling in their direction. They managed to easily avoid the boulders by climbing up the safe platforms in some portions of the tunnel until they reached its exit at the top. Now back out in the open, the group walked into a passageway… and right into a Bonkers ambush.
[BGM: Mid-Boss (Planet Popstar) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Not again…" Arusu groaned.
"We've got a Bonkers ambush now!" Dedede exclaimed while having his hammer at the ready before running over to Bonkers and doing a Dedede Hammer Swing, only for the ape-like creature to counter with his charged Hammer Swing that caused both of them to slide back a few feet away from each other, but Dedede quickly recovered and did a Giant Dedede Swing to hit Bonkers in the gut and knock him right into a triple Hatchet Man from Eleven, Arusu and Solo, hitting him in the back.
Bonkers growled by the heavy blow and responded by performing a Hammer Swing, spinning along the ground with his hammer to try and hit the trio, but they dodged out of the way and then Eight struck him with a Lashings of Love, managing to paralyze him in place and give Kirby, Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee the chance to wail on him until he was knocked out.
[Resume "Sandy Wilderness" BGM]
But before Bonkers could explode, Kirby quickly sucked him up to gain the Hammer Ability to himself. "It's Hammer time!" he smirked.
Dedede raised an eyebrow. "Wait… Don't you already have your own hammer while you're not using your Abilities?"
"Oh, let him do what he wants." Meta Knight said as they walked off, with Kirby clearing out the way for them by swinging his hammer to knock away some Kabus and destroying several Cracked Blocks as some of them were trapping a few fresh fruits such as grapes and pineapples for them to eat, plus some Metal Blocks that were trapping an Energy Sphere as he took it, then they all made it out of the passageway and into a serene oasis.
[BGM End]
Stage 2-2: Splash and Flare
[BGM: Oasis Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Oh, thank merciful Nova, an oasis!" Dedede exclaimed and excitedly ran ahead of the group until he found a pond of water and dove right in. "Boy, I am so glad it's not a mirage!" he said as he swam around.
The others blinked. "He…sure is excited about water." Meta Knight remarked.
"Tell us about it…" Eleven threw in.
Once Dedede was done and got out of the water, the group resumed walking ahead as they came upon a Water Galbo attacking them by spitting out water, but Meta Knight slashed it away where it exploded and the Water crown appeared in its place. Solo walked over to it and picked it up, first removing his helm before placing the Water crown on his head. After feeling the power of the Water Ability coursing through him, he drew out his sword and saw that its blade was now encased in a water geyser.
"Well now…wielding the power of water should be interesting." he commented.
"Oh, cool! There's even a Water Ability now!" Kirby beamed, and then Solo swung his blade in front of him as a small wave of water shot out of it and traveled along the ground until it slammed into a Broom Hatter, defeating it.
"Wow! It works just like the Water Flower!" Eight exclaimed.
"Ah, so that's how it felt for you when you used it." Solo replied. "Honestly, this does feel nice to use."
"Glad to hear that!"
They continued walking around the oasis as they soon came across a Rocky where Kirby hammered it away and destroyed it, then Arusu ran up and grabbed the Stone crown, putting it on. His hair appeared to have been merged with the crown's rocks, turning dark brown and gaining a rocky texture, his mantle turned brown and had the Stone Ability's symbol on the back, his tunic turned dark grey while his undershirt and pants turned grey, and his gloves and boots turned amber and gained a rocky texture as well. Lastly, the blade of his sword appeared to have stones attached to its sides.
"Well this is interesting." Arusu commented and, seeing another Rocky approaching him, he stabbed the ground on instinct, and suddenly, large inclined stone stalagmites shot out of the ground in front of him and impaled the Rocky while also skewering through some Star Blocks. "…Oh yes, I'm totally digging this!" Arusu grinned. "Now my dark clone isn't the only one who can dish out dirt!"
At Bowser's Castle…
"ACHOO!" Dark Arusu sneezed. "Ugh, why do I have a feeling that my good counterpart just found a way to match my earth powers…?"
Back in Popstar…
"I'm impressed that you guys are finding new ways of using my Abilities even if it's your first time using them." Kirby remarked with a smile. "Because as far as I can remember, not even I can do something like that with the Stone Ability. All I can do with it is turning into a stone statue and attacking enemies with a large stone fist."
"If I have to guess, perhaps your Abilities are able to adapt themselves on the user to better fit their style." Meta Knight guessed. "I mean, Eleven and Eight were able to use skills involving boomerangs and whips from their universe while they were wielding the Abilities that allowed them to perform those."
"Yeah, you might be right." Kirby agreed as they walked off, then they encountered a tunnel with some slopes filled with enemies.
"I wonder…" Solo mused before he took a running start while conjuring up water beneath his feet, allowing him to Surf his way down the slopes while making sure to use Wave Surf to plow over every enemy in the way.
"Wow! Look at him go!" Bandana Waddle Dee chirped.
"I think I could do that as well with the Water Flower." Eight recalled.
"…So basically, this Ability is ripping off the Water Flower." Arusu said.
"Hey, come down here!" Solo's voice called out for them somewhere down in the tunnels. "I just found something!" hearing that, everyone else quickly ran down the slopes until they found Solo, who was standing in front of a Stake over several steel blocks. "See this? There might be something underneath this blockade, but we have to pound this stake first."
"Leave it to me!" Dedede offered and hammered the Stake down, destroying the blocks and revealing a hidden Round-trip door below. This led them to a small challenge where after Dedede pounded another Stake to clear more blocks and set off a chain reaction, they had to run fast to get the Energy Sphere on the other side before a blockade of Barrier Blocks would appear to block off the access to the Sphere. Thankfully, they managed to complete the challenge with Meta Knight taking the Sphere, then they left the challenge room.
Now back in the tunnel, they continued down and came upon a pool of water as they all dove in, with the Kirby cast suddenly gaining swimming goggles as soon as they were underwater. Solo then noticed that they would all be going down in a wider pool, so he conjured up water bubbles over his comrades' heads for them to breathe inside, while as for himself, he was already able to breathe normally thanks to the Water Ability.
"Oh thanks, Solo!" Eleven thanked.
"You're welcome." Solo smiled as they swam around past several Glunks on guard and soon emerged on the other side back into the open air and they had to deal with some inhabiting Water Galbos and Totengas first before diving into another large pool of water, where Kirby found another Round-trip door somewhere in the deep and he went in. Meanwhile, the rest of the group kept swimming ahead until they were back on land, and by the time they made it there, Kirby returned to them while holding an Energy Sphere he got from completing the challenge back in the Round-trip door he found.
"Where did you get that, Kirby?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"In a Round-trip door I found in the deep." Kirby answered while directing back to the pool. "I had to complete a challenge as usual to obtain this Energy Sphere here."
"Ah, great!" Bandana Waddle Dee said as they walked off, and then they would come across a Shutter Gate leading to an old ruin, where they first had to open said gate by pulling down a Pull Switch on the ceiling before going in.
[BGM: Mine Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The interior of this ruin was filled with Moai Statues, some of them being red and would momentarily shoot out a flamethrower from their mouths. The group began to climb up the ruin via ladders while minding the red Moai Statues' flamethrowers, and then eventually, another Super enemy appeared on their way up: a Super Waddle Doo.
Seeing it, Kirby's eyes perked up and quickly defeated it with a Giant Swing, as it then exploded into the Flare Beam Ability Star. "So, which one of you guys want to try out the Flare Beam?" Kirby asked the Loyal Bodyguards.
"I'll do it!" Eleven volunteered and touched the Ability Star, as it flew up and down into him. After the bright light died down, Eleven was now wearing the Flare Beam's incredibly long jester hat complete with the wand, but his coat had also changed to match the hat: the right side being orangish-yellow with white stars printed on it and the left side being red, while the bottom of the coat also became a little longer that went now down to his ankles. The leather in the tunic also changed to white as well as his shirt, which now had its long sleeves being puffier, his pants turned yellow, and his boots turned orange.
[BGM: Bring on the Super Ability! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Sweet!" Eleven smirked as he looked at himself. "Time to see what this can do!"
With that, he rose his wand into the air as particles of electricity materialized around and near him, and then, as Eleven thrusted his wand upwards into the sky, the particles all gathered together into a single large ball of electricity now being under the Hero's control, allowing him to move it around freely by waving his wand and easily destroying all the Moai Statues in this room.
"Whooooa…" Dedede awed, and then Eleven disengaged the electric ball.
"Now this is something that could very well be a Luminary skill." Eleven remarked with a chuckle as they all proceeded to climb more of the ruins and got to a room with more Moai Statues as Eleven bust them again with the Flare Beam Super Ability, and once all of them were destroyed, an Another Dimension rift opened up.
"Come on! Time to get more Energy Spheres in there!" Kirby hollered and they all jumped into the rift, as Kirby and Eleven lost their Abilities by doing so.
[BGM: Another Dimension – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
This Another Dimension stretch was filled with suspended cubes of water that the group had to swim through, with some of them having Blippers inside and not to mention Bronto Burts flying in between these cubes. Due to the Loyal Bodyguards' limited jumping, Arusu had to deal with some of these Bronto Burts by swinging his sword to launch the stones attached to the blade at them, easily clearing out the path for them until everyone eventually reached the exit.
"Thanks for taking care of those Bronto Burts for us, Arusu." Eight said once they stepped into the safe area of the dimension. "You basically did a much better version of Stone's Throw to take them out."
"Yeah, you could say that." Arusu chuckled. "You're welcome, by the way." they then walked ahead in order to encounter the Sphere Doomer, and they did… except that this one was colored a bright red and had a fierier appearance.
[BGM: Sphere Doomer – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Huh, that Sphere Doomer looks different…" Dedede noted. "Eh, who cares? Let's get it!"
The Sphere Doomer cackled before suddenly surrounding itself in flames and charged at the group, forcing them to dodge. "It appears this one has fire attributes. That's why it looks different." Meta Knight surmised as they rushed in to attack the beast until it teleported away from them, then it proceeded to release red orbs that would explode into flames once they hit the ground.
"Cool it!" Solo said as he doused the flames before he and the others ducked under another charge from the Sphere Doomer, then they just proceeded to attack it again until Eight finished it off with a Twin Dragon Lash.
[BGM: Silence of Another Sky – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The Sphere Doomer exploded into two Energy Spheres that were taken by Eight. "You know, I think I just realized something…" he spoke up. "Magolor said that when a rift leading to Another Dimension opens up, there has to be something in it that provides sufficient energy so that it remains intact or it will begin to erase itself. And since Energy Spheres contain a lot of energy and are always found in this area of the dimension, then that must be the reason why it never erases itself unlike the previous one we've been."
"Hm, now that is a very good and valid point there." Meta Knight chimed in. "It is likely that this is indeed the case."
"This universe sure holds a lot of mysteries…" Solo mused, and then they went over to the dimension's exit up ahead.
[BGM End]
They were taken back in the ruins, where they just proceeded to head up to the opening above to go back outside and into the next stage.
Stage 2-3: Climbing and More Climbing
[BGM: Exotic Pyramid – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The group found themselves at the base of a steep series of ruins steps, augmented by Waddle Dees and later on ladders that would lead to the very top. They proceeded to go up the steps, where near the top, a Waddle Doo charged at them but was solely defeated and then Eleven took a look at the Beam hat it dropped, seeing that it was similar to its Super Ability form.
"I guess I'll try out the Flare Beam's original downgraded version, then." he said as he picked up the hat and put it on, as his clothing changed into the exact same appearance he had as Flare Beam Eleven, with the differences being that the bottom of his coat retained its original length, and the sleeves didn't become puffy. "So, how does this one work?" Eleven asked Kirby.
"The Beam Ability allows you to attack enemies by conjuring a whip of electricity from your wand, or you can charge it up to fire electric orbs instead." Kirby explained.
"Ah, got it." Eleven nodded as they went up a ladder to reach the top of the steps but a Bouncy Sis was guarding the door, and so Eleven took this opportunity to try out the Ability by successfully executing a Wave Beam attack to defeat the Bouncy Sis. "Oh, this is great!" he exclaimed, and then they all went into the door.
Through the door was another set of ruins steps, but this time they had Shotzos and Gigatzos and some of the steps were moving up and down. After the group made it past the first set of Shotzos and the first Gigatzo, they would come upon a Heave-Ho Block that was sucked up by Kirby and uncovered a hidden chamber filled with Cracked Blocks as the group proceeded to destroy them and find an Energy Sphere. Then, they left the chamber and next encountered a Twister enemy as Kirby sucked it up to gain the Tornado Ability.
"You have a tornado Ability too?" Eight asked.
"I do." Kirby replied. "With this, I can turn myself into a tornado and breeze through any enemies and obstacles with ease. The only downside is that it's a bit hard to control myself once I execute the move."
"Oh…"
"…Honestly, at this point I prefer using Kirby's Abilities than Mario's Power-Ups." Arusu admitted. "Not that I don't like using Mario's Power-Ups, of course, it's just that Kirby's Abilities have way more variety and utilities."
"I actually agree with you." Solo threw in as they soon made it to the top of the steps, where Kirby used his tornado move to break through a blockade of Star Blocks and Cracked Blocks, the latter uncovering some fresh drinks – those being four Juice Tumblers and four Orange Juices with a lemon slice and a straw – for each of them, with the Kirby cast choosing to drink from the Juice Tumblers and the Loyal Bodyguards going for the Orange Juices.
"Ahhh… We sure needed that!" Bandana Waddle Dee said as they were enjoying their drinks, immediately feeling refreshed.
"We sure did." Eleven chimed in. "I mean, we just climbed up two sets of steps in a row, and my legs are hurting a bit."
"Yep." Eight nodded. "And this orange juice is so good!"
"Once again, my world offers the best food quality possible!" Kirby exclaimed cheerfully, making the Loyal Bodyguards chuckle at the puffball's adorable cheerfulness.
Once they all finished their drinks, they went into the door and were taken to a vertical passage. A Starman enemy was waddling towards them, and so Kirby discarded the Tornado Ability to suck up the new enemy and net the Hi-Jump Ability. "I guess there's going to be some blockades for me to break with the Hi-Jump, it seems." Kirby surmised.
"Hi-Jump?" Eleven asked.
"The name of this Ability. It lets me take off very high into the air while damaging enemies and breaking through blocks. However, this Ability is not very common since it's very situational… and not to mention a bit pointless for me since I can already float. Even so, I can demonstrate it to you." and with that, Kirby squatted his body low while energy gathered within him, before taking off in a Mega Hi-Jump and destroying several Star Blocks above.
"That was pretty cool, but… is that all it can do?" Arusu asked.
"Yup."
"…Now I know why you meant by that being pointless to you." Arusu sweatdropped as they started climbing the rest of this passageway while Kirby was continuously taking off with the Hi-Jump Ability, as in one point he broke through some Cracked Blocks in the middle split path to find an Energy Sphere, and at the top they left this area via a door.
Through this door lied a ruin passageway that they progressed through… but they wouldn't get so far due to being ambushed this time by a King Doo.
[BGM: Mid-Boss (Planet Popstar) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Okay, who do we have this time?" Eight asked.
"A King Doo!" Bandana Waddle Dee replied. "His eye is the obvious weak spot, so you all try to leave him vulnerable so I can stab him in it!"
"Right!" Meta Knight said as King Doo walked over to attack them with a Beam Whip, but they jumped out of the way as Kirby did a Rocket Dive to hit him on the head along with Dedede swinging his hammer on it in hopes of knocking King Doo down, but he managed to hold his ground and next aimed his eye at them to fire out three Wave Beams at them, but Eight reflected the orbs back with Bounce while Eleven, Meta Knight and Solo were pelting the creature with energy orbs, sword beams and waves of water respectively, but that didn't seem to do much damage as King Doo responded by charging directly at them all.
"I wonder if I can…" Arusu thought and then rings of magic surrounded him. "Boulderbringer!" he called out while planting his hands on the ground, and just as King Doo neared the group, a large rock stalagmite suddenly shot out of the ground and knocked the surprised creature in the air before crashing back to the ground on his back, thus giving Bandana Waddle Dee the chance to jump up and do a Moon Drop to stab King Doo in the eye for the mortal blow.
[Resume "Exotic Pyramid" BGM]
"Yay, I did it!" Bandana Waddle Dee cheered after King Doo exploded. "Thanks for helping me out in that, guys! But especially you, Arusu!"
"Heh, you're welcome!" Arusu replied.
"By the way… did I just see you do a Boulderbringer spell?!" Eleven asked his comrade in surprise.
"I did! I believe it's all thanks to the Stone Ability that I'm able to do earth-themed spells!"
"Wow… If that's the case, then you'll be able to evenly match your dark clone easily with it." Solo said with a smirk as Arusu nodded in agreement, and then the group resumed going up the passageway as they would come across a barrier of blocks surrounding a Bomb Block that Eleven destroyed it with a Beam Whip, uncovering another Energy Sphere as he took it.
After that, they left the area through a door as they next saw a Directional Cannon ready to launch them up. "Oh, what's this?" Eight wondered and jumped inside it… and then it blasted him off towards other Directional Cannons. "WAAAAAAH!"
"Oh, it's the Directional Cannons…" Kirby trailed off before turning to the rest of the Loyal Bodyguards. "Let's just say that…we're about to go through a wild ride."
"…Oh boy…" Eleven sweatdropped.
[BGM End]
Several cannon shots and one Energy Sphere snag later…
While the Kirby cast landed perfectly on the ground after the ride… the Loyal Bodyguards had instead landed on top of each other in a pile. "Oh, that doesn't look good…" Bandana Waddle Dee winced as the Heroes soon got off of each other.
"Well that was… something." Solo said.
"The place is still spinning…" Eight groaned a bit, but the four quickly shook it off.
"Say, if I may ask…" Meta Knight interfered as he walked up to Arusu. "You and Solo have been mentioning about you having a 'dark clone' of sorts? What exactly did you mean by that?"
"Oh…well…" Arusu began, but then said, "I and my comrades will tell you about that on the way."
"Well, alright." Meta Knight nodded as they walked off.
To be continued…
Looks like Eleven was the one who was chosen to use the Flare Beam Super Ability! I picked this one for him since most of his Luminary powers revolve around light and electricity, and the Flare Beam encompasses both of these elements when it's in use. Plus, Eleven was the only one out of the four Heroes whom I could imagine wearing the Beam hat...so there's also that.
Next up, the rest of Raisin Ruins! Until then!
Trivia for this chapter:
1. The 'mouse friend' mentioned by Kirby is referring to Daroach, the leader of the Squeak Squad who later makes friendly amends with Kirby starting from Kirby Mass Attack. Additionally, Daroach mentioning about Popstar being the brightest star in space also comes from that game in one of his quotes.
