Aside from having a minor writer's block while editing this chapter... I had a lot of fun writing it overall. You'll soon find out why by reading it!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 7: Frozen Wonderland
[BGM: White Wafers – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
White Wafers is a very cold place with lots of snow and ice, having what appears to be snowy volcanoes spewing out ice (or maybe they used to be regular volcanoes that were just frozen over) and trees with pink, yellow and blue snow on their canopies that oddly resembled scoops of ice cream stacked on top of each other.
As you all might expect, the moment the group arrived here, Eight immediately started shivering like crazy, leading the rest – Meta Knight, Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee included after being told by Kirby, Eleven, Arusu and Solo about the half-Dragovian's fear and how he got it – to glance at him pitifully.
"I will say that this place isn't really that cold, but after nearly dying by getting submersed in cold water, I can't blame him for being terrified of any low temperatures." Dedede said with a frown.
"This must've been quite a trauma." Meta Knight added.
"Yeah… And not to mention that he actually fell in cold water two more times after getting this fear, which obviously did not help." Solo threw in.
"Ouch…" Dedede winced.
"H-hey, K-Kirby…" Eight piped up through chattered teeth after being silent until then. "Y-your Ice Ability d-does provide c-c-cold immunity, r-right?"
"Yes, it does." Kirby replied. "Don't worry, though; Chillies are very common in Popstar's cold regions, so I'm sure we'll find one for you quickly!"
Bandana Waddle Dee walked over to Eight and hugged him by the calf. "I'm sorry that you're afraid of the cold." he lamented. "I really wish I could do something to warm you up…"
Eight forced a small smile to the little guy. "I-it's okay, Bandee… I-I appreciate y-your concern." he looked back at his comrades. "S-so… C-can we g-get a m-move on, already?"
The trio gave him an assuring smile. "We thought you'd never ask!" Arusu said with a nod as the others nodded as well, and then they all took off to the first stage.
[BGM End]
Stage 4-1: Fire and Ice
[BGM: Snowball Scuffle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Everyone began walking through the drifts of this frozen landscape (with Eight trying his best to brave the cold despite still shivering) and the first thing they saw was a Knuckle Joe, where Kirby immediately sucked him up to become Fighter Kirby. "Sweet! Fighter Ability!" Kirby smirked.
"I guess this Ability allows you to perform martial arts-based attacks?" Eleven guessed.
"Yep, along with Qi attacks too. How'd you know?"
Eleven smirked. "One of my travelling companions is a martial artist, and that's Jade." he said as they walked ahead, and then they finally came upon a Chilly as Eight's eyes perked up.
"Yes!" he beamed and immediately ran toward the Chilly and took it out, then he put on the Ice crown as he changed almost into his Ice Flower appearance; the differences being his bandana had turned blue like the crown's headpiece while his hair turned into ice like the crown's ice crystals, his jacket was more of an icy blue color and lacked the snowflake patterns, his boots were dark blue with a bit of a purple hue (just like early Ice Kirby's feet color), and his blade had an icy mist covering it. "Ah, much better." he sighed in relief, as even his breath could be seen after exhaling.
"See? I knew we would find a Chilly so quickly!" Kirby winked.
"Well, I'm glad that the problem is solved now." Meta Knight said, smiling under his mask.
They walked ahead, going into a large igloo that had Scarfies in it as Eight had the idea to try and use a breath skill, and successfully unleashed a Cool Breath on the Scarfies where instead of freezing them solid, it lacerated them with ice chunks contained in the breath attack. "Ha! I knew I could do breath skills with this!" he smirked.
Solo's eyes perked up. "Huh! I didn't know that would be possible!" he said. "Might be because Mario's Ice Flower doesn't grant any sort of breath attacks like Kirby's Ice Ability does."
"You know, that's probably the most valid explanation there." Arusu stated as they walked off, encountering an Armor Dee as Kirby broke it down with a Rising Break… which also resulted in him uppercutting another Chilly that was above the Armor Dee on a platform in the process, leaving behind another Ice crown as Solo grabbed it and put it on him. Similar to Eight with the Ice Ability, his hair immediately turned into ice, his tunic was icy blue, his shirt and pants were blue, his boots were dark blue with a purple hue while the tips and soles were white, and his blade was covered in an icy mist.
They would eventually come across another igloo that had Babuts in it this time as Solo defeated them with the same method as Eight did with the Scarfies and then the group moved along, seeing two Waddle Dees that were happily swinging on a rope that are known as Swinging Waddle Dees (yes, that's their actual name), a Totenga in the middle and a Chilly directly above it. They took out the enemies and after that, Arusu went over to grab the Ice crown from the defeated Chilly and put it on, as his hair would gain the appearance of ice crystals like the crown's, his tunic was now a darker shade of blue while his shirt and pants were icy blue, his mantle was blue with a large snowflake depicted on the back in place of the Mark of Erdrick, his gloves and boots were dark blue with a purple hue, and his blade was covered in an icy mist.
"This feels weird…" Arusu commented, looking at his icy hair through his reflection in the ice floor. "Yet, feels good at the same time." he said as they would come upon another igloo, but this one had a blockade of Fire Blocks.
Arusu, Solo and Eight then exchanged glances and nodded before working together to cool down and destroy said blockade with their icy breaths, and after that everyone went into the igloo and found a Galbo on top of a platform. Bandana Waddle Dee then did a Sky Thrust to skewer the Galbo, destroying it as Eleven went to pick up the Fire crown it left behind and put it on. His hair turned fiery, his coat turned red, his shirt turned a darkish yellow while his pants turned orange, his boots turned dark red, and his blade was catching on fire. Additionally, he could feel warmth flowing into his body.
"Hey… I can feel my body getting warm with this!" he exclaimed.
Arusu raised an eyebrow. "Wait, so you're telling me that Kirby's Fire Ability actually provides warmth… but Mario's Fire Flower doesn't?"
"Again, another big difference between both Power-Ups to make them more unique from each other." Solo pointed out.
"Fair point."
They walked over to yet another igloo as it was now filled with Ice Blocks that were instantly melted away by Eleven's Fire Breath (which is also the Dragon Quest series' skill name of the first tier of fire-themed breath attacks, by the way) while also uncovering an Energy Sphere in a hole as he took it before climbing back up, then they all continued along the drifts until eventually coming upon an Auto Cannon.
"Oh, great…" Arusu groaned as they would get into it before blasting off to many other Directional and Auto Cannons, and were launched all over the place while taking out several enemies throughout the area and finding a hidden Energy Sphere somewhere along the way, until they came to a hard stop by slamming into a ceiling and falling down right in front of a door.
"…Ow…" Bandana Waddle Dee groaned.
"Ugh…" Eleven groaned as he held his head. "That one was a bit extreme…"
"I'm with ya there." Dedede agreed as they got up and dusted off the snow on them before going into the door, arriving into an ice tunnel with hazardous icicle spikes on the floor and ceiling and, further ahead, an Energy Sphere over a spike pit. The group got through this area easily and nabbed the Energy Sphere, then they made it to the interior of a larger igloo… where a Gigant Edge would ambush them.
[BGM: Mid-Boss (Planet Popstar) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"This guy again?!" Eight asked.
"Oh, these mid-bosses can actually come back momentarily." Kirby said as Gigant Edge immediately charged at them, but Kirby got in the way and began charging up his hands with Qi energy. "Hah!" he shouted, firing a Mega Force Blast that knocked Gigant Edge back before immediately following up with some Vulcan Jabs and a Smash Punch, until he ended off with a Leg Sweep to topple Gigant Edge to the ground.
"Dang, now these moves could probably make Jade jealous…" Eleven thought as Gigant Edge got back up and attempted to hit them with a sword wave, but they dodged it as Arusu, Solo and Eight ice skated over to him and stunned him with a Frigid Breath, allowing Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee and Meta Knight to deliver a few strikes at him. Gigant Edge then snapped out of it and broke out of his icy prison before slashing down at the trio, but they jumped back in time as he would get incinerated by Eleven's Scorch, and then Kirby finished him off with a Spin Kick.
[BGM End]
"Bam! That felt good!" Kirby exclaimed while pumping his stubby arms.
"Impressive as always, Kirby!" Bandana Waddle Dee praised before they all exited the igloo and walked up a small slope to reach the tundra region of White Wafers, where the floor eventually transitioned from snowy to icy… in addition to the temperature itself becoming chillier.
Stage 4-2: Slip and Slide Away!
[BGM: Chilly Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Wah!" Dedede yelped as he slipped on the ice and fell on his rump. "When did the entire floor become icy?!"
"Duh, ever since we stepped into this new area." Meta Knight deadpanned. "But this does make walking a bit harder for us."
"Not to mention that it's a bit chilly in here…" Bandana Waddle Dee added, shivering a bit. "Aren't you cold as well, Kirby?"
"Oh, I've been to many other cold places before." Kirby dismissed. "I can handle it."
"Never imagined that Popstar would have a lot of cold places…" Solo remarked. "This could be a major problem for Eight once we start visiting them…"
"Well, as long as I have the Ice Ability on me, I don't mind." Eight said as they walked forward, being careful not to slip and fall (excluding the case for Arusu, Solo and Eight due to them having the Ice Ability on) while they knocked down Mopoos being spat out of fissures in the ice and avoiding snowmen that were prone to fall down on them, until they made it to a grotto at the end with a door as they went in.
Through the door is an ice cavern with lots of falling icicles, and so the Loyal Bodyguards immediately acted and rose their shields up to block everyone from the icicles as they would soon find a Fuse Cannon on the ceiling. Eleven lit it up and everyone quickly followed the fuse to the Cannon up ahead as they hopped in it, and then they were launched up and smashed through a Crystalline Block above that uncovered an Energy Sphere. After taking it, the group exited the tunnel.
Now back out in the open, they walked along a series of perilous icy slopes with spike pits as they would eventually come across a Stomper Boot. "I think I'll try it out this time!" Bandana Waddle Dee offered and hopped in, bouncing his way across the numerous spike pits ahead and uncovering a Round-trip door somewhere along the way by destroying a Crystalline Block, where he would find another Energy Sphere after completing a Stomper Boot challenge inside.
But that wasn't the only thing he would find in there, as once he came back out and hopped off the Stomper Boot, the group noticed that he was holding several bowls of…something.
"What are these you're holding, Bandee?" Kirby wondered.
"They're bowls of ramen!" Bandana Waddle Dee replied. "Except… they're not looking too hot. Literally."
"No worries. I can warm them up in an instant." Eleven smiled.
"Oh, yes! Do that, please!" Bandana Waddle Dee requested as Eleven chuckled and took the bowls, then he gently blew small flames below them as they would start to bubble up within a minute.
"There you all go." Eleven said and offered each a bowl of ramen, as they would happily start eating them up.
"Ah, that's more like it!" Dedede exclaimed. "This really warmed me up!"
"Indeed." Meta Knight nodded.
"This ramen is delicious!" Eight smiled. "Just as delicious as Min Min's!"
"Totally!" Arusu agreed. "And she would definitely love this one as well!"
"You know, maybe one day I could offer some to her!" Kirby said.
"That would be nice." Solo chimed in.
After they finished eating, they tossed their empty bowls away where they shattered instantly when they hit the icy floor, then they all proceeded into a door.
[BGM End]
The door would lead them into another ice cavern… but this one featured a humongous ice slope in front of them. "…Oh, whoa." Eleven blinked while looking down the slope, as Meta Knight noticed a sign nearby and walked up to it.
"Want to get out of White Wafers' tundra as quickly as possible? Then enjoy yourself by going down this very slippery slide of fun! Don't worry; there's some puffy mounds of snow to cushion your landing… I hope." he read.
"Sliding down this slope and enjoy ourselves? Sounds like fun!" Kirby chirped.
[BGM: Mt. Slide – Kirby's Epic Yarn]
"Wait, are you just going to ignore the fact that the sign said 'I hope'?!" Dedede questioned… only for Kirby to actually straight up ignore him as he leapt onto the slope and started sliding down.
"WAHOOOOO!" Kirby cheered.
"Wait up, Kirby!" Bandana Waddle Dee went after him. "WHEEEEEEEEE!"
"…Are you serious!?" Dedede exclaimed in disbelief.
"Oh, just lighten up and have a little fun." Meta Knight snarked and pat Dedede's back hard enough to make the self-proclaimed king lose his balance.
"ACK! WHOA, WHOA, WHOOO-… YEOW!" Dedede faceplanted on the ice, but still slid. "WOOOOOAAAAAAAH!" he screamed as he was sliding on his belly, and then Meta Knight would go slide down after him.
With only the Loyal Bodyguards remaining, they would just glance at each other and nod with playful smiles. "Heroes coming through!" Eleven shouted as they ran toward the slope and did a baseball slide to start sliding down.
"WOOOOOHOOOOOO!" Kirby cheered, moving back and forth around the slope and having fun, then he noticed a ramp and positioned himself to leap over it. "AWESOOOOOME!" he exclaimed, jumping through and doing a few cartwheels in the air.
"YAHOOOOO!" Bandana Waddle Dee was after him, doing a few side flips.
"GAAAAAAH! I CAN'T GET UP!" Dedede yelled, as he was unfortunately too portly to change from his belly sliding position.
Meta Knight was next, and while he didn't cheer, he was still having fun as he did a few frontflips.
"WOOOOOO!" the Heroes were last to clear the gap, as they did a few spins in perfect synchronization while high fiving each other.
Everyone had landed perfectly after jumping over the ramp and in the same positions as they kept sliding, zooming past more of those falling snowmen from the beginning of the stage that sent Dedede over the edge as he had a 'I CAN'T LOOK!' expression on his face.
It was at this moment that they saw the end of the slope at the bottom where the puffy snow awaited them, as one by one, they came to a slow and gentle stop. However, Dedede wasn't so lucky as he instead went through the snow and kept sliding… and to add insult to injury, he crashed face-first right onto a wall.
[BGM End]
"Oooh, that'll hurt in the morning…" Kirby winced, as did the others.
"Ooooooow…" Dedede groaned with his right foot raised and twitching, as well as having circling birdies (or rather, circling stars) atop his head.
"Your Majesty!" Bandana Waddle Dee ran over to Dedede. "You okay?"
"I am never…going on another slide…for as long as I live…"
"…Maybe he needs some patching up." Eleven said to his comrades as they nodded, and then they proceeded to heal Dedede up. After he managed to get back up on his feet, the group kept going forward… but just then, a Super Bonkers landed on the ground and roared at them.
[BGM: Mid-Boss (Planet Popstar) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Wow, Bonkers have really changed since our last encounter." Dedede remarked. "No matter. You can leave this fella to me, guys!"
"Okay, but I would be careful if I were you." Meta Knight warned. "There's something odd about that Bonkers…"
Dedede and Super Bonkers then charged at each other and proceeded to duke it out, both of them delivering mighty swings with their hammers until Super Bonkers suddenly threw a Coconut at Dedede, knocking him down. "Ooof!"
"He has Coconuts?!" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"Urgh, now that's not fair!" Dedede groaned as he got back up to see Super Bonkers throwing another Coconut at him, but he would swing a Gordo at it to send it back at Super Bonkers. The Coconut blew up in Super Bonkers' face and left him dazed, thus allowing Dedede to deliver a massive Jet Hammer attack that sent Super Bonkers flying before falling to the ground in defeat.
[BGM End]
"Heh, and that's what you get for messing with the perfect king!" Dedede smirked, and then the Super Bonkers exploded… into the Grand Hammer Ability Star that made everyone's eyes perk up. "Huh? Is that a…?" Dedede began.
"Yep! It's the last Super Ability!" Kirby exclaimed. "The Grand Hammer, to be exact."
Solo then began walking up to the Ability Star. "Well, I guess it's my turn now." he said and touched it, as it flew up and went into him. After a flash of light, the Super Ability had overridden Solo's Ice Ability and thus his clothing was back to its normal colors… but now he was wearing the Grand Hammer's large hachimaki (a Japanese headband) on his head in place of his helm, his belt's buckle was a light-yellow glowing star like the one on the hachimaki's forehead, and he held a hammer on his hand.
[BGM: Bring on the Super Ability! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Nice!" Solo grinned, looking at his hammer.
"No fair! How come he gets a hammer that's much fancier than mine?!" Dedede questioned with a clear hint of jealously in his tone.
"Jealous, much?" Meta Knight teased as they walked off until they came across a Super Stake, which was perfect for Solo to try out the Super Ability as he held his hammer up… and all of a sudden, it enlarged itself into an extremely large magnificent golden hammer with jewels on the rims and large star emblems that pointed out.
"HOLY CRAP!" Bandana Waddle Dee and the rest of the Loyal Bodyguards yelled as Solo effortlessly pounded the Super Stake with the massive hammer, and not only did it cause the entire place to shake, but it also made large shockwaves emit on both sides that traveled along the ground.
"Well now… I like this already." Solo smirked.
Dedede's eye twitched, jealously kicking in ever further. "…Now I wish my hammer could do that too."
They then kept going forward where Solo would use the Grand Hammer to pound more Super Stakes, as well as destroying Strike Boxes by hammering the owl-like statue that would come out from one of those boxes in a Jack-in-the-Box style, and after he destroyed a bigger Strike Box that was near the ice cavern's exit, an Another Dimension rift appeared as the group immediately hopped on in.
[BGM: Another Dimension – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
This stretch featured many Keys needed to unlock several Key Gates along the way while a few Waddle Dees patrolled the area. After that, on the second half of the stretch was a Crackler that Kirby used to clear out barriers of Bomb Blocks and Cracked Blocks that contained Puppet Waddle Dees in them.
Once they easily made it to the exit, the group then ran down an icy slope to encounter the Sphere Doomer… and this one was colored green this time.
[BGM: Sphere Doomer – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Another new Sphere Doomer variant!" Kirby exclaimed. "Let's get it!"
The Sphere Doomer started by spitting out green orbs at them, but Meta Knight did a Mach Tornado to scatter the orbs away as Solo would launch a Zap at the beast. Unfortunately, the Sphere Doomer shrugged off the attack easily due to having electricity as its main element and charged at Solo, but he backflipped away right as Eleven slammed into it as a living fireball, then Arusu and Eight flung it into the air with a Cold Fission, which is slash attack that unleashes a swirling tornado of frozen air, and then Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee brought it back down to the ground with a Final Cutter and a Moon Drop respectively.
The Sphere Doomer recovered from that and teleported away, glaring irritatingly as it proceeded to try and suck in Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee with a black hole, but they managed to run away from it as Dedede did a Super Dedede Jump to leap over the black hole and squash the Sphere Doomer… which inadvertently defeated it and it released the two Energy Spheres.
[BGM: Silence of Another Sky – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Um…" Eight blinked. "That was a…weird way to defeat a Sphere Doomer." he lampshaded as Dedede grabbed the Energy Spheres.
"Honestly, I didn't mean to take it down like this… but hey, I'll take it!" Dedede grinned.
"Anyways, it seems that the Sphere Doomer was electric-themed this time." Meta Knight surmised as they were walking to the exit.
"Oh, so that explains why it didn't flinch from my Zap spell." Solo realized. "Well, at least we know now." they then jumped into the rift to leave Another Dimension.
[BGM End]
Upon making it back to the regular dimension, the group immediately exited the ice cavern as doing this would lead them into an icy passage… where a pool of water awaited them as that made the Heroes tense up a bit, thinking that it would be cold, but Kirby assured them that it's perfectly fine and so they all dove in.
Stage 4-3: Tunnel of Oddly Unfreezing Waters
[BGM: Rocky Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Much to the Heroes' surprise, the water wasn't actually cold at all which was very odd, but they just shrugged it off as another nonsense logic that Kirby's world offered them and proceeded to swim through the underwater passage with the others. Unfortunately, this underwater adventure would once again not be smooth sailing for them since they soon encountered the same huge spiky ammonite shells they encountered back at Onion Ocean gliding around the passage.
"Seriously?! These things are even here?!" Dedede questioned.
"I didn't expect that we would encounter these in here too…" Kirby remarked.
"Oh, boy… What's next, we'll encounter Barbars in here too?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked… but that only made everyone shudder.
"Please no." Dedede groaned as they kept swimming, carefully avoiding the spiky ammonites along the way until they spotted an unreachable blue switch into the floor, leading Bandana Waddle Dee to hit it with a spear thrust to make a part of the floor lower down and reveal a hidden Energy Sphere. Bandana Waddle Dee took it, and then they all looked up to see an opening above the passage leading to the water's surface as they swam up to it.
[BGM: Ice Cave Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Upon resurfacing, they got out of the water and dried off before they looked around to find themselves standing into a half-flooded tunnel that appeared to be inside of an icy grotto, and immediately after they took a few steps forward along the slope, the first thing they came upon was an ice boulder rolling down towards them.
"Incoming!" Bandana Waddle Dee shouted as they quickly climbed up a ladder and got on the platform above to avoid the ice boulder.
"First we had falling snowmen, then spiky shells, and now we have ice boulders… Ugh, can't Popstar just chill out with its hazards?!" Arusu complained.
"Eh, you'll get used to it." Dedede said. "And…nice unintentional pun there."
They then kept going up the slope, making sure to switch between the floor and the platform to avoid the ice boulders until they made it to a ladder. They climbed it up to the upper level, only to be met with more ice boulders as they proceeded to do the same method again, and at the end they encountered a Galbo in an alcove on the wall as it proceeded to breathe fire at them, but Eleven countered back with a stronger fire breath that defeated it, then Solo picked up the Fire crown and put it on. He would notice that his hair turned orange, his tunic turned red while his shirt and pants turned orangish-red, his boots turned dark red, and his blade blazed on.
"Hey, look at that! There's now two of you guys with Fire, and two of you with Ice!" Kirby noted.
"True. And now that Solo has Fire as well, I don't feel left out anymore." Eleven chuckled, with his comrades also chuckling in response as they all went up the ladder where they would find an Invisibility Stone that was taken by Eight, then Eleven and Solo would melt the Ice Blocks on the following ladder as they all climbed it and Eight went through the crystal wall. He eventually came upon a barrier with a Bomb Block, and so he tossed away the Invisibility Stone before destroying the barrier to get an Energy Sphere on the other side.
After that he went up to join back with the others, who then walked through a door to arrive into another portion of the tunnel with a multitude of waterfalls and waterrises hanging over a lengthy bottomless pit. Much like the pool of water they swam into, the water from the waterfalls and waterrises weren't cold either and so they swam through them with no problems, then they would soon find an Energy Sphere that was on a Rope Platform from above just past a waterfall.
"Hmm, I don't think any of us who has cutting weapons will be able to cut that rope due to that waterfall." Meta Knight observed.
Hearing this, Kirby would glance ahead to see a Sir Kibble, and immediately got an idea. "Then in that case…" he said and inhaled the Sir Kibble to turn into Cutter Kirby. "Maybe a cutter blade will do it!" taking out the cutter blade from his hat, he tossed it into the waterfall above as everyone watched it going up the waterfall's current unharmed and cutting the rope, making the Rope Platform fall and crush a poor Chilly that was right underneath. "Oops… Sorry." Kirby apologized even if the Chilly was dead already, and then he floated up to obtain the Energy Sphere.
Then, the group proceeded ahead by swimming through more waterfalls and waterrises… oooonly to be met with what they were dreading to encounter back when they were swimming in the underwater passage: Barbars.
"Bandana Dee…" Dedede slowly glanced at Bandana Waddle Dee.
"I…I-I didn't know I w-would jinx it! I-I swear, Your Majesty!" Bandana Waddle Dee protested frantically.
"Hey, there's no need to overreact like that. They're not that hard to avoid." Meta Knight stated and they proceeded to swim away from the Barbars' hungry maws, albeit with a little difficulty due to the currents.
But nevertheless, they managed to avoid being on the Barbars' menu and escaped, and went through another door. It took them into a wide cavern full of Coldtzos in the background that would fire large chunks of ice at them, and there was a Key lying directly in front of them. They took it and proceeded carefully up the platforms that would only move up by pressing red switches and then they used the Key to open up a Key Gate further ahead, as behind it was an alcove containing the last Energy Sphere for this stage. But after they nabbed the Sphere and exited the alcove by going back up, a Water Galboros suddenly ambushed them.
[BGM: Mid-Boss (Planet Popstar) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Oh, come on! Three ambushes in a row?!" Arusu complained.
"You know… you might be on to something, pal. These ambushes are getting annoying…" Dedede threw in. "Well, whatevs. Let's just get this done with."
But before they could get ready to fight, Eight soon spoke up, "Uh, wait a second… Where is Kirby?"
[BGM comes to a halt]
In an instant, everyone else stopped and looked amongst them. And sure indeed; Kirby was not with them, and all they could see was a blinking white outline of his shape on where he would usually be standing. "That's odd… Did he lose us on the way?" Solo wondered.
[BGM: Kirby Panics – Hoshi no Kaabii]
"MAKE WAY! MAKE WAAAAAAAAY!" they suddenly heard Kirby yelling from behind them and turned around… to see him running in a panic towards them while carrying a Balloon Bomb that was already on the verge of exploding.
The rest of the group gave a short scream as their eyes shot wide in horror and quickly dove behind Kirby for cover just as the puffball chucked the massive and flashing Balloon Bomb… directly towards the Water Galboros, who had his eyes open wide upon seeing the bomb coming down to him, and just as it was inches away from his face, he gave a quick glance at the fourth wall to let the audience know that he's pretty much screwed… right before getting blown up.
[BGM End]
When the explosions ceased, everyone relaxed and sighed in relief. "Close one…" Bandana Waddle Dee breathed, as they all looked back to the Water Galboros and saw him knocked out before exploding. "Where did you find that bomb, Kirby?"
"In another gate back there after I used another key to open it." Kirby replied. "But I never knew I would be using it for that, obviously."
"Well, I guess that's one way to take out a mid-boss." Meta Knight remarked and then they proceeded onwards until they found a door that would take them out of this tunnel.
To be continued…
Honestly, I never thought I'd have that idea of turning the final stretch of White Wafers' second stage into a slide level. It just came out at the last second while I was writing the rest of the stage's progression, and I thought this could work well so I put it in, along with adding the perfect BGM for that! And Dedede, being the series' comic relief character, of course had to get the short end of the stick there.
The rest of White Wafers' stages are next! Stay tuned!
