Sorry that this one took so long. I was a little busy with collage stuff.

But now that I finally managed to finish this chapter, enjoy! ;)


Chapter 5: A Day at the Beach

[BGM: Onion Ocean – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

Onion Ocean is your ordinary beach environment, but it also featured several underwater grottos. The group landed near a beach coast, and took a lungful of air to feel the salty smell of the ocean as Eight did a stretch.

"Mmm! Now this place is really making me want to enjoy our vacation more!" he said.

"Too bad we have something more important to do right now." Arusu reminded.

"We know that, but… who's to say that we can't have a little bit of fun now and then?" Solo asked with a smile.

"Lo-Lo is right!" Kirby chimed in. "Look! We're right next to a beach coast! What do you all say we have some fun in the sun over there?"

"Sure thing, Kirby!" Bandana Waddle Dee nodded. "Let's go!" with that, the Kirby cast ran off to the coast.

"We definitely should join them, but…I don't think we're dressed up for the occasion at the moment." Eleven said sheepishly, directing to his clothes.

"Hm? Hey guys, check that out!" Eight said, pointing to a nearby beach-themed cabana as there was a surfboard-shaped sign on the side that said: 'No swimwear? No problem! You can get one here! Comes with human-sized swimwear, too!'.

"Well, how convenient." Solo chuckled.

Eight faced his comrades. "…You all thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Oh, heck yeah!" Eleven exclaimed as the three of them took off running into the cabana, leaving Arusu behind.

"*sigh* Alright, but let's not have too much fun…" he sighed before following them.

[BGM End]


Stage 3-1: Fun at the Beach!

[BGM: Happy Mambo – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

Meanwhile, the Kirby cast had arrived at the beach coastline, which was filled with swirling palm trees and arched cliffsides. "Isn't this place great?" Kirby smiled.

"It sure is!" Bandana Waddle Dee agreed while Dedede and Meta Knight nodded. "Let's go into the water! I even made sure to bring my favorite parasol that I used back at the Cake Royale for this!" he pulled out a blue and white parasol with a yellow star on the tip and a green handle (the same parasol he wields in Kirby Battle Royale).

As Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee went into the water, they realized something. "Wait… where are Ven, Su-Su, Lo-Lo and Eighty?" Kirby wondered as he looked around.

"We're right here!" Eleven's voice said as the duo turned to see the Loyal Bodyguards walking over, only that they were now wearing different swim trunks while their normal clothes were stored in waterproof bags so that they wouldn't get their clothes wet while in the water.

Eleven wore purple swim trunks that was covered in Slimes.

Arusu had blue swim trunks with a metallic gold Mark of Erdrick printed on the right pant leg.

Solo had green trunks with a little teal tinge, and white angel feathers were scattered across his trunks.

Eight had blood-red trunks with a black dragon silhouette printed on the left pant leg, and he wasn't wearing his bandana on his head.

"Whoa, what's with that getup?" Dedede asked.

"Since we're about to have fun in the water, we thought we'd be properly dressed first." Eleven replied.

Without anybody noticing, Bandana Waddle Dee had snuck up to Eight's side and scooped up some water with his parasol before announcing, "Alrighty, then! Let the fun begin!" he then chucks the water at Eight.

"Ahh!" Eight shrieked as he got splashed by the water while shielding his face. "Hey!" he playfully scolded and knelt down to scoop up water with cupped hands, all while Bandana Waddle Dee was busy laughing.

"Eeep!" Bandana Waddle Dee yelped as Eight splashed his face with water.

"Gotcha!" Eight smirked, and it was at this moment that the fun ensued as Kirby and the rest of the Heroes proceeded to join in, splashing each other and laughing together, and all of that fun stuff.

At the coastline, Dedede and Meta Knight watched. "Hey, what do you say we go join them?" Dedede invited.

"Nah, I'm good." Meta Knight shook his head. "You can go on your own, if you want."

"Well, suit yourself." Dedede shrugged and ran off towards the water. "CANNONBALLLLLLL!" he yelled as he jumped up into the air while in a fetal position, and landed in the water with a big splash that wetted everyone… including Meta Knight.

"Mmph!" Meta Knight grunted. There was no point in trying to shake off the water, and so he completely changed his mind, "Oh, what the heck?" he said with a shrug and ran off to join the others.


15 minutes later…

"You know, as much as we're having fun and all… I think we should probably get going now and find the ship part." Meta Knight said.

"Oh, alright…" Eleven replied. "But I'm keeping these cool swim trunks on!"

Eight smiled. "So are we." next to him, Arusu and Solo nodded in agreement.

They all got out of the water and dried off before walking along the sandy ground, as there weren't too much trouble going on… that is, until they started to walk under some palm trees with Coconuts that would fall and explode when they hit the ground. "Whoa!" the Loyal Bodyguards yelled, while the Kirby cast just flinched in startle.

"What the heck?! Coconuts that explode?!" Arusu questioned.

"Yup. But thankfully, they're only present in Popstar's tropical areas." Kirby said as they kept walking, carefully minding the falling Coconuts and then they saw a Parasol Waddle Dee lazily floating down, until Kirby sucked it up along with the parasol to become Parasol Kirby. "I guess it's fair to have an Ability that fits the environment." Kirby said to himself.

"…Wait, that umbrella is an Ability?" Eleven asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's called Parasol, actually. And don't be fooled by it; this thing is very versatile when it comes to protecting me from various hazards and blocking enemy attacks. Just watch." with that, Kirby stood right under the shadow of a Coconut as it fell down towards him and exploded on contact with the parasol… but despite that, the parasol wasn't damaged by the explosion at all, much to the Heroes' surprise. "See?" Kirby winked at them.

The Heroes blinked. "…Now that is one incredibly durable parasol." Solo lampshaded.

They walked forward and found a long rope above them, as they proceeded to hang on to it and move on while avoiding a few hazards below them such as Shotzos' shots and Glunks' projectiles. Upon making it across, they let go of the rope and immediately encountered a Chilly, in which Kirby decided to discard his Parasol before inhaling the Chilly to gain the Ice Ability.

"You know, I figured that there would be an Ice Ability to contrast with Fire." Solo said. "Does it work almost the same way as Fire?"

"It does." Kirby nodded. "But obviously, this allows you to breathe and encase yourself in ice instead of fire… but you can also ice skate along any type of surface, not just on water or ice!"

"Is that so? Interesting."

They forged ahead, crossing another hanging rope while avoiding more shots from Shotzos, and upon landing down on another beachside, a Foley attempted to blow them up by dropping itself down at them, but Meta Knight took it out first and it exploded into the Bomb party hat, as Solo rushed towards it and grabbed it before putting it on.

"What's the point of using an Ability that simply gives you weaponized explosions while we already can do explosive spells?" Arusu tilted his head.

"Simple; it helps save on said explosive spells since they cost the most of our magic supply compared to our other spells." Solo explained. "And besides, we've already used Power-Ups in Mario's world that granted us several elemental powers that we can already do, and you didn't question due to you finding out that they don't consume our magic supply."

"Oh… right."

They walked along the rest of the beachside, with Kirby skating along the ground while freezing the Coconuts with Ice Storm before they could hit the ground, and Solo summoning bombs to defeat some enemies to allow safer progression for everyone. Next, they made it to some sparser island platforms over bottomless water bodies where they soon came across a Pierce enemy flying by as it tried to stab the group upon spotting them, but Bandana Waddle Dee countered with his own spear before Dedede hammered it to the ground. The Pierce exploded into the Spear headband as Eleven went to pick it up and put it on, immediately causing a spear to appear on his hand.

"Huh, I never fought with a spear before…" he mused. "This could be an interesting experience."

"I could give you some spear lessons, if you'd like." Eight offered kindly.

"Much appreciated, but I think I'll ask Serena and Jade for that."

Further ahead, they would find some wooden platforms for them to ride across the bottomless water bodies, and in one of them, Eleven spotted a Bomb Block being guarded by a Gordo above him as he did a Skyward Thrust to destroy the block, uncovering a Round-trip door beyond the wooden platform ride as he went in, and later came back with an Energy Sphere.

After Eleven quickly caught up with the others, he found them walking over to some large flaming tiki statues and a giant sand castle blocking the way ahead. Kirby then attempted to cool off one of the tiki statues with an Ice Breath, but that didn't provide enough cold. "Well, that didn't work." he remarked.

"But we need to somehow destroy these since they're blocking our path." Meta Knight stated. "The question is: how?"

[BGM End]

Then, as if the place itself was answering Meta Knight's question, another Super enemy popped up next to them: a Super Chilly. "Hey, this is a super variant of that snowman-like enemy that granted you this Ability, right Kirby?" Solo guessed, his eyebrows lifted slightly.

"It is. And the snowman is called Chilly, by the way." Kirby replied, and then glanced back at the Super Chilly. "Well, if the normal Ice Ability wouldn't do anything, perhaps its Super version will do! Who wants to try this one out?"

"Allow me!" Arusu volunteered and slashed through the Super Chilly to make it explode into the Snow Bowl Ability Star, then he touched it. The Ability Star flew up and down into Arusu, and he was surrounded in a flash of light.

When it died down, Arusu was now wearing the Snow Bowl hat… well, more like having the hat fused with his hair. Yes, this means that his hair was now made out of ice cream that was swirled to perfectly match his hair's width and height, and his circlet became the Snow Bowl's bowl-shaped headdress with the large crystal pattern and the star in the front. And if that wasn't odd enough, he was somehow back in his normal clothes but with a different appearance: his tunic was white, his mantle was dark blue and appears to have been frozen over by ice, his undershirt and pants were blue, his belt's buckle was a glowing light-yellow star, and his gloves and boots were completely covered in frost.

[BGM: Bring on the Super Ability! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

"Uh… I have NO idea how I changed back into my normal attire…" Arusu blinked, but then shook it off and smirked, "…but that doesn't matter now! Time to wreck these statues!"

With that, he spun around with his hands into the air as icy cold wind gusts gathered and gracefully circled around him. The wind gusts then swirled up to his open hands, creating a cold mass that suddenly increased in size… to become a massive snowball. Despite that, Arusu didn't seem to be struggling while holding it.

"Holy MOLY!" Bandana Waddle Dee shouted with wide eyes, as everyone else had the same reaction.

"Take THIS!" Arusu yelled and threw the giant snowball away, breaking through the tiki statues and the sandcastle while also trapping some enemies in it as it steamrolled along the ground's slopes, until it hit a wall and sent all the gathered enemies flying.

"…That's a new one…" Eleven blinked. "Using a giant snowball to destroy everything."

"Ohohoho, baby! I'm liking this already!" Arusu grinned and walked on ahead, with the others following him.

"Should I tell him that I think he looks ridiculous with that ice cream hair…?" Dedede whispered to the others, and that instantly caused Eleven, Solo and Eight to pale up.

"No!" they whispered yelled while frantically shaking their heads.

"Eh? Why not?"

"Believe us, you do NOT want to say anything negative about his hair no matter if it goes through an odd change…" Eight replied. "We have seen what happened before…and it wasn't pretty."

"What exactly happened?" Meta Knight asked.

"Well…to sum it up, he exploded in anger and beat the crap out of his insulter in mere seconds." Solo summed up.

Now it was the Kirby cast's turn to pale up. "Oh… yikes…" Bandana Waddle Dee grimaced.

"…Okay, remind us to never get on his bad side." Dedede said.

During their talk, Arusu was destroying more tiki statues, sand castles and enemies with the Snow Bowl Ability along the path, as the group eventually came across a larger and wider sand castle that was easily crumbled down to pieces by Arusu's giant snowball, then an Another Dimension rift opened up.

"Welp, it was fun while it lasted." Arusu said and everyone jumped into the rift, as the Legendary Hero lost his Super Ability (which means he was back in his swim trunks) along with Kirby losing his Parasol.


[BGM: Another Dimension – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

As soon as they landed in, they strangely found no sight of the purple wall. "Uh… where's the wall?" Bandana Waddle Dee wondered.

They then looked around to find it… and once Eight looked directly above them, he gasped, "It's coming from above!" he pointed up to the wall, which was slowly coming down towards them.

Everyone else paled. "Agh! We're going to get squashed!" Dedede caterwauled, complete with hilariously wide eyes.

"Not if we hurry!" Arusu ushered as they immediately ran over to the first blue switch, making the platform descend to the lower level.

Basically, this whole stretch involved the group making their way downward via switchback paths that would take them lower, and some of these sections were either filled with Star Blocks and Heave-Ho Blocks, bodies of water, or Gordos. At the very bottom, Kirby quickly used his inhale to suck in the Heave-Ho Blocks to destroy a barrier of Cracked Blocks, and then everyone made a mad dash to the exit just as the wall neared them and nearly squashed them.

Upon reaching the safe area, the group was now panting heavily. "I think…I just saw…my life flashing before my eyes…" Eleven said in between breaths.

"True, but I'm afraid we can't stop now." Meta Knight replied. "We have a Sphere Doomer to battle." and so, they all went down the ladder and encountered yet another Fire Sphere Doomer waiting for them below.

[BGM: Sphere Doomer – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

"This flamin' one again?" Dedede said. "We can handle it no probs!"

They first dodged the Sphere Doomer's swooping attack before attacking it back, until it flew over to the background to spit out red orbs at them. They would quickly avoid these, then the Sphere Doomer spotted Solo doing a Bomb Prep and proceeded to charge directly at him.

"Let's see if this works…" Solo mused as he pulled back his hand with the bomb, as runes of magic suddenly surrounded it. "Compressed Boom Bomb!" he called out as he threw the now supercharged bomb at the Sphere Doomer and it exploded spectacularly on the beast, damaging it severely. "Nice!" Solo grinned, pumping his fist.

Arusu followed up by throwing a Bang spell to the Sphere Doomer's face, then Eight and Bandana Waddle Dee nodded to each other before running up to the beast and both did a multithrust spear attack together, and then Eleven charged up another spear attack.

"Here goes… Crushed Ice!" he called out as his spear was encased in ice before he unleashed a flurry of graceful strikes at the Sphere Doomer, finishing it off.

[BGM: Silence of Another Sky – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

The Sphere Doomer exploded into two Energy Spheres, and Eleven took them. "I just know I made Serena and Jade proud with that skill." he said.

"Oh yes, definitely!" Eight nodded. "Now I kinda wish I could do this skill too, though…" he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I can see why. It looked really cool!" Bandana Waddle Dee chimed in, making both Eleven and Eight laugh.

"I swear, it's either Kirby or Bandee that would always make any of us laugh." Arusu said meekly.

"So true…" Solo agreed with a playful sweatdrop, and then everyone walked over to the dimension's exit.

[BGM End]

Immediately after the group made it back to the beach, all they had to do was walk up some slopes to reach the next stage.


Stage 3-2: Just Keep Swimming!

[BGM: Reef Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

Everyone was now standing on top of a reef made out of actual coral (do you get where I was going there?) and looked down to see that a deep body of water awaited them below, meaning that this stage was going to be a mostly water adventure. "Looks like we'll have to traverse underwater from here." Solo said. "Except…none of us has the Water Ability this time."

"Does this mean we'll have to hold our breaths?" Arusu asked.

"Actually, I have a better idea." Kirby said as he began to reach into his hammerspace, and after some searching, he pulled out four swimming goggles similar to the one he wears. "Have some of my spare goggles! These'll allow you to breathe underwater with no problems!"

The Heroes took the swimming goggles each and put them on. "Wow, you were keeping these all this time, Kirby?" Eight asked.

Kirby nodded in response. "I never leave my home without them in case there's a massive lake or body of water that I need to explore in my adventures, you see."

"Then you must have explored a lot of lakes during your past adventures, haven't you?" Eleven asked.

"Yup! Now come on, let's all dive in!"

Everyone else nodded and dove into the water below, swimming through a channel while the Loyal Bodyguards were looking at all the aquatic life, including at some Blippers, Walves and Squishies who simply waved at them before going back to swimming.

"Aw, the sea creatures in Kirby's world are actually friendly!" Eight smiled.

"Well…not all of them." Meta Knight said, directing to a few Glunks and Crabies attacking them as Kirby, Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee took care of them. "But aside from these Glunks and Crabies, yeah. Most of Popstar's sea creatures are friendly and peaceful as long as no one is disturbing them." the Heroes nodded in understanding after hearing this.

The group soon made it out of the channel and out of the water by climbing up a ladder, taking them to a series of boardwalks over the ocean. They would then spot a Sparky on top of a Star Block suspended in the air as Bandana Waddle Dee did a Waddle Spear Throw, impaling the creature and destroying it where Arusu jumped up and grabbed the Spark crown, putting it on as his hair turned bluish-teal and was crackling with electric energy, and his blade had bluish-teal electricity surging out of it.

"Neat!" Arusu smirked as he immediately began charging energy around his body, before firing out a Spark Wave to destroy the enemies and Star Blocks ahead… but after the group took a few steps forward, a Kibble Blade soon ambushed them.

[BGM: Mid-Boss (Planet Popstar) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

"Ugh, of course there would be an ambush here…" Arusu groaned.

"This is a Kibble Blade!" Kirby said. "He fights much like a normal Sir Kibble, so watch out for his cutter blade!"

Kibble Blade immediately started by throwing his cutter blade at them, but they quickly ducked underneath as Arusu retaliated by firing a Zapple…only that thanks to the Spark Ability, the lighting that shot out of his blade was colored bluish-teal instead of yellow and electrocuted Kibble Blade, then Solo threw bombs at him while Bandana Waddle Dee threw spears. Kibble Blade then launched a Hyper Boomerang, but Dedede hammered it away and gave the chance for Eleven to run in and strike Kibble Blade with a Thunder Thrust.

Kibble Blade shook it off and next charged headfirst at Eleven like an angry bull, only for the Luminary Hero to activate Counter Wait and suddenly evaded the attack before immediately counterattacking him on the back, as Meta Knight followed up with a Drill Rush on that same spot along with Kirby's Final Cutter, and then Eight finished him off with a Metal Slash.

[Resume "Reef Area" BGM]

"Huh, he wasn't actually very tough." Solo remarked.

"Well, he mostly relied on his cutter boomerang, so…yeah." Dedede pointed out as they walked ahead, encountering a large platform being held by a rope that Meta Knight cut it down, opening a passage down into the water below leading to an Energy Sphere on the left. Meta Knight went there to take it, then came out of the water so that everyone could proceed and go into a door at the end.

It led them into a deep reef section, with another body of water directly in front of the group. But before they dove in, Kirby sucked up a Pierce that was flying by to gain the Spear Ability as well. Now swimming underwater again, the group had to break their way through barriers of Cracked Blocks and deal with some Barracus that attempted to hungrily chomp them, and somewhere down below, Bandana Waddle Dee found a blue switch through a wall and prompted him to thrust his spear to hit it, uncovering a Round-trip door that allowed him to obtain another Energy Sphere after going in.

After that, the group exited the deep reef and back out in the open air as they next came upon… a boot. "Is that a…giant boot?" Eleven raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm…" Kirby mused and hopped into the Stomper Boot, causing it to start hopping in place on its own. "Oh! It works just like Mar-Mar's Goomba's Shoe! I've always wanted to try one!" he then began hopping ahead with it, while the rest followed.

"Goomba's Shoe… I think Jewel mentioned that when she told me about more of Mario's Power-Ups." Eight recalled. "Of course, I haven't seen one yet."

"Woohoo! Look at me hopping around!" Kirby cheered as they looked over to see him stomping his way over several enemies along the path, making them blink in surprise.

"…I guess that's one way to traverse this section." Meta Knight broke the silence.

They then kept following Kirby, watching him using the enemies as stepping stones to clear gaps. A Water Galbo was in the way and got obviously crushed by the Stomper Boot as it left out the Water crown, where Eight quickly grabbed it and put it on. Further ahead, Kirby ends up destroying a Crystalline Block that uncovered a hidden door, and since the Stomper Boot was flashing red at this point, Kirby decided to hop out of it before going into the door with the others.

[BGM: Rocky Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

They were taken to a side narrow chamber in another underwater section, and since Eight had the Water Ability, he didn't need to put on the goggles unlike his comrades. Everyone then swam up to find an Energy Sphere as Kirby took it, then he pulled down a Pull Switch to get rid of the barrier so that they could all exit the narrow chamber. As they were all swimming deeper down another narrow chamber while destroying more blockades of Cracked Blocks, Eight began to say with a smile:

"You know, I have to say… Compared to what Mario's world offered, this underwater journey is going quite smoothly." but not too long after he said that, they all exited the chamber to find themselves… into Barbar-infested waters. "Ooooor not…" Eight trailed off as everyone paled up.

"Uh-oh… We're now into Barbar territory." Kirby gulped. "These large eels are always hungry for any nearby preys, so whatever you do, do not let yourselves get eaten by them!"

With that, they carefully swam around and away from the Barbars as they were trying to inhale them into their mouths, while also finding an Energy Sphere behind a barrier of Cracked Blocks while quickly escaping a Barbar's suction, until they finally reached the surface and thus out of Barbar territory.

[BGM End]

They all sighed in relief. "I'll admit; while these Barbars weren't really scary in appearance, the thought of being eaten alive by them definitely is." Arusu said.

"Agreed." Solo agreed. "It's a good thing they prefer to stay in their nests…"

"Yeah, instead of going out and roam the waters looking for food." Dedede added, causing the entire group to shudder.

"Well… I can see another beach coastline over there." Eleven pointed to it. "I think it's probably best for us to clear our minds out of what we just experienced by taking a break over there now."

"I actually agree." Meta Knight chimed in. "Let us go."


A little bit later…

[BGM: Whimsical Vacation – Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana]

Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee were sitting under the shadow of a palm tree, each of them enjoying a cold and refreshing food: Dedede was eating his signature Dedede Ice Cream Cone (a food item exclusive to Kirby Triple Deluxe's Dededetour!), Meta Knight was drinking a blue punch, and Bandana Waddle Dee was happily chowing down a watermelon slice.

Meanwhile, Kirby and the Loyal Bodyguards were sitting at the shore, looking at the ocean in front of them while having some ice cream, though Eleven was having a grape-flavored popsicle instead. As for the others having ice cream, Arusu had gotten himself a mint chocolate ice cream cone, Solo had gotten himself a soft-serve blue moon ice cream cone, Eight had gotten himself a soft-serve vanilla ice cream cone, and Kirby had gotten himself a soft-serve strawberry ice cream cone.

"Now this is some really good ice cream!" Eight's eyes sparkled when he took a bite. "I'd even say it's better than the ones I tasted in Isle Delfino!"

"I know!" Kirby giggled. "What's even better is that this ice cream came directly from Ice Cream Island, which is known for offering the best ice cream in all of Popstar!"

"We can definitely see that." Solo smiled.

"Say, how come you didn't choose ice cream like we did, Eleven?" Arusu asked.

"Well…I don't really know, actually. I just found this popsicle more refreshing for me to cool down in the sun." Eleven replied with a shrug.

Then, when Kirby looked back down at his ice cream cone before shooting a glance at Dedede with the others… a mischievous smirk began to form on the puffball's face as he thought, "Hmm… I think I just thought of a perfect way to get back at Dedede after all the playful antics he pulled off on me during this adventure…" after that, he looked up at Arusu. "Hey, Su-Su?"

"What?" Arusu asked.

"There's something I've been meaning to get off my chest that involves you…"

Arusu blinked. "Me? About what?"

"You know back when you acquired the Snow Bowl Super Ability?"

The moment Eleven, Solo and Eight heard Kirby mention that, they immediately tensed up. "Oh no… Is he actually going to say it?!" they thought in horror.

"Turns out that your hair happened to merge with the hat, which was a bowl of white soft-serve ice cream… so you know what that means?"

Arusu immediately knew the answer. "…My hair turned into actual ice cream?...Well, if it is just a cosmetic change, I guess it's not that big of a deal so I'm fine with that."

"Yep, but there's more. Once Dedede saw the new state of your hair… he thought you looked ridiculous with it."

[BGM End]

In an instant response to that, Arusu froze. His comrades still looked tensed up, until after a few moments of silence, worry began to wash over them as Eight cautiously asked, "Um, Arusu… Are you okay?"

Arusu said nothing, but he had his fists clenched in anger as he suddenly shoved his ice cream onto Eleven's free hand, making him flinch in surprise by that, then the Legendary Hero stood up and walked off to where the others were.

[BGM: Hit the Switch? – Kirby and the Rainbow Curse]

"Oh boy…" Solo trailed off. "It's actually happening."

"Kirby… why would you do that?!" Eleven questioned.

Kirby looked back at them with a smug smirk. "Oh, I decided to set this up ever since Dedede mentioned about the ridiculousness of Su-Su's hair… And considering the number of times Dedede screwed me up with his antics, having Su-Su beat him up should be a good way for me to get back at him!"

The trio sweatdropped in response. "We understand where you're going with, but I think you might be taking this too far…" Eight said.

"Eh, let's see how it will turn out."

With the rest of the Kirby cast, they were just enjoying each other's company and laughing together… until Arusu literally put his foot down hard on the sand once he was in front of them, but mainly in front of Dedede, causing them to immediately go silent.

"Dedede… can I have a word with you?" the Hero spoke in a dangerous angry voice. The trio froze with eyes open wide, knowing exactly that the one who spoke was someone none of them would want to cross the line with after being informed of that. They slowly looked up at Arusu, whose face was darkened with some cross-popping veins on the top of his head while his body was trembling in rage, and due to still having the Spark Ability on, sparks of electricity were surging out of him.

Dedede swallowed hard, dripping nervous sweat all over his face, before gaining some courage to reply, "Uh… y-yes…?"

"Kirby just told me that you thought my hair looked ridiculous when it turned into ice cream… Is that true?"

Realization quickly hit Dedede as he remembered what he said before, and his face went pale. "I-I… u-um…" he stuttered.

"Don't try to hide it. Kirby never lied to me or any of us."

"He's got you there…" Meta Knight trailed off.

"Not helping…!" Dedede silently lashed out, before looking up back at Arusu. "I…er…heh heh… Yes, I d-did think it was… but I-I wasn't meaning to o-offend you… S-So…keep cool, will ya…?"

The sparks around Arusu's body only intensified. "Well…I would keep myself cool nice and easy as you said…" then, he rose his head a bit…

[BGM End]

…revealing a very pissed off face, complete with a death glare. "…IF ONLY I WASN'T SO SENSITIVE ABOUT MY HAIR!" he screamed.

Now both Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee were shivering in fear as they recoiled back, while Meta Knight looked appalled. The fact that Arusu's shadow was looming over them also didn't help the slightest. "B…Bandana Dee…" Dedede's lips trembled. "H-hold my ice cream…" without taking his eyes off of Arusu, he hands his ice cream to Bandana Waddle Dee, who was hugging his king by the arm in complete fear.

"Y-yes, G-Great K-K-King…" Bandana Waddle Dee stuttered and took the ice cream… and the moment the ice cream was on Bandana Waddle Dee's hand, Dedede instantly flash stepped off while screaming.

[BGM: Move Aside! Move Aside! – Hoshi no Kaabii]

"GET OVER HERE!" Arusu yelled and chased after Dedede.

"H-HEY, LISTEN! I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU WERE THAT SENSITIVE ABOUT YOUR HAIR!" Dedede panicked.

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!" Arusu then fired a Spark Laser at Dedede.

"YOOOOOWCH! WHEN WILL YOU EVER CALM DOWN?!"

"ONCE I BEAT YOU UP UNTIL I'M SATISFIED!" Arusu fired another Spark Laser.

"YAAAAARGH! THAT'S NOT FAIR!"

"Ha! Serves you right, Dedede!" Kirby exclaimed.

"IS THIS PAYBACK FOR ME MESSING WITH YOU A LOT DURING OUR JOURNEY, KIRBY?"

"Maaaaaybe…" Kirby replied innocently while playfully rolling his eyes, and then Dedede was hit by another Spark Laser.

"GAAAAAAH! I SWEAR, I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS, KIRBY!"

"Heh, good luck with that. I don't think anything else you do will top this."

Eleven, Solo and Eight, meanwhile, all looked down at Kirby with disapproving looks before looking back at the chase happening in front of them. "Oh, that poor soul." Eleven said, referring to Dedede.

"Welp, I guess we'll just have to wait until Arusu calms down… again." Eight replied, as they could do nothing but watch as poor Dedede was getting shocked again and again by a pissed off Arusu while both were running around the beach.

To be continued…


Can't let a story where the Loyal Bodyguards appear in go on without having at least one angry Arusu moment, am I right? This is starting to become a running gag now...

Fun fact, I actually first had the idea of having the Heroes dress up in swimwear way back in Super Heroes 3D Land, where they would do that upon arriving at Lagoona Waters. However, because of 3D Land's levels not exactly matching the World's theme, I had to scrap that idea since it wouldn't make any sense... until I realized that I could just implement it here instead!

And back to that moment at the end... this was basically the main primary reason why I gave the Snow Bowl Super Ability to Arusu, to be completely honest... I just couldn't resist. But when it came to me conceptualizing how this Super Ability would work when it's not Kirby using it, obviously I wasn't going to make Arusu turn into a giant snowball like Kirby does as that won't make sense in context, sooo... conjuring up and chucking giant snowballs it is!

The rest of Onion Ocean is next! Until then!