Had some problems with internet connection while writing the end of this chapter... but it's all good now!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 8: Under the Aurora
Stage 4-4: Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?
[BGM: Slide Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"You know, I can't help but have a feeling that we're about to stumble into yet another type of ruins in here soon." Arusu said as they were walking.
"Honestly, that's not too surprising." Kirby replied. "Because Popstar is known for having numerous ruins that can be found in every biome possible."
"Oh? And why is that?" Eleven asked.
"Well, I don't really know much about them in detail, but according to Dream Land's elders, some of these ruins were left behind by a long-lost ancient civilization that once lived here in Popstar many years ago. However, no one in Popstar, not even the elders, knows if the ancients left out any descendants after they vanished."
"Hmm, I see…" Solo mused. "So it's still an unsolved mystery, then."
"Pretty much."
"Still, I never knew your world had so much history behind it!" Eight said.
Kirby giggled. "You don't even know the half of it!" he said as everyone kept walking until they came upon an area with a moving snow conveyor filled with many hazards and enemies… plus strong winds.
"…Well, doesn't this give me a sense of déjà vu…" Dedede groaned and they were all swept by the winds while they tried their best to avoid the obstacles, as Kirby at one point spotted an Auto Cannon above him and quickly floated up into it to get launched to a hidden upper chamber that had an Energy Sphere. Kirby took it and went back down to join the others, who managed to make it out alive and well to the end right in front of a frozen grotto entrance, and they all went in.
The interior was loaded with Coldtzos in the background shooting large ice chunks at the group's path, but luckily there were several Prism Shields nearby as they took them and held them above their heads to protect themselves from the chunks, as well as from some enemies that would fall on top of them such as Pluids and Rockies. The grotto also had a few pits with strong upward winds that allowed the group to glide over, and then they went through the door at the end right as their Prism Shields shattered.
Next, they were taken to some tight tunnels where they had to make their way down. Going down a few ladders, they would come across a Key as Dedede went to pick it up, but before he could take it, Meta Knight interfered:
"Hold up." he said, raising a hand to make Dedede stop. "I'm having a feeling that something is following us…"
But Dedede instantly dismissed. "Eh, I don't see anything in here. It's probably your serious cautiousness kicking in as usual whenever we're in an unknow area." he said as he picked up the Key… and the moment he did that, a Key Dee suddenly jumped out in front of him and snatched the Key before immediately running away.
[BGM: Key Challenge – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"What the- HEY!" Dedede shouted.
"I told you…" Meta Knight deadpanned.
"After it!" Arusu hollered as everyone quickly ran off to chase the Key Dee down the tight tunnels, dropping down the platforms and avoiding Gordos on the way until they were soon running along a narrow passageway on the bottom.
"I got it! I GOT IT!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed as he dived for the Key Dee, only to faceplant… and then he got run over by the rest. "I don't got it…" he groaned… and it was at this moment that Solo did the Burn move to ram into the Key Dee, defeating it and claiming the Key.
[BGM End]
"There we go." he said and leapt over the pit that the Key Dee would've fallen down had it not been defeated, then he unlocked the Key Gate ahead to net the Energy Sphere.
"You alright?" Eight asked, helping Bandana Waddle Dee up.
"A little bruised, but yes." Bandana Waddle Dee replied, and then Eight casted Heal on him just in case. "Oh! Thanks!" he chirped.
Eight chuckled. "You're welcome." he said and they all left the area.
The group now found themselves standing on the outskirts of an icy ruins just as Arusu had predicted… and directly in front of them, a Super Chilly appeared. "Oh, baby!" Arusu exclaimed, immediately defeating the Super Chilly and touching the Ability Star, overriding his Ice Copy Ability for the Snow Bowl.
[BGM: Bring on the Super Ability! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
After Arusu transformed, the group would look directly in front of them to see some tall star-printed ice sculptures that were shaped exactly like bowling pins. "Huh, look at these bowling pin-shaped ice sculptures." Dedede commented.
"Hm, what a convenient obstacle shape for a Super Ability that involves rolling a giant snowball." Meta Knight remarked amusedly.
"Knock 'em over, Su-Su!" Kirby said.
"You got it!" Arusu replied and instantly conjured up a giant snowball before chucking it ahead, as it rolled over and knocked down all the ice pins in one throw. "How did Jewel say it again…? …Oh yes…STRIKE!" he fist-pumped the air triumphantly.
"Yay! Great job!" Bandana Waddle Dee praised.
After that, they moved onwards where they would encounter more bowling pins that were immediately knocked down by Arusu's Snow Bowl, and soon they would come across a giant headless snowman near the end. "Huh… I guess it's my job to give this snowman a new head." Arusu said and placed a snowball on the snowman's body as a makeshift head, but then Kirby looked at it for a bit.
"Hmm, it still looks incomplete…" he mused as he reached into his hammerspace… where he suddenly pulled out a massive carrot, much to everyone else's surprise, and inserted it into the snowman's nose region, then he would place some rocks around the carrot to make a pair of eyes and a smiling mouth. "There we go! One happy snowman!" Kirby chirped.
"…I can kind of understand the rocks, but where the heck did you get that huge carrot from?!" Dedede questioned.
"Oh, I've been saving it for a later snack ever since I went to grab the pizza in my house."
"…I'm surprised that this carrot didn't rot since then." Solo remarked… and then the whole snowman suddenly burst apart, causing an Another Dimension rift to appear.
"Aaaaand it just crumbled." Eleven said.
"Aww…" Kirby frowned, and then they all went into the rift.
[BGM: Another Dimension – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The wall in this stretch was coming from above again, thus forcing the group to venture downwards. It mostly consisted of them breaking Cracked Blocks, hitting blue switches to make icy platforms fall while they crushed a few Broom Hatters, and avoiding icicles and all sorts of spiky hazards.
Once they made it to the door at the very bottom, they quickly left this area of the dimension and stepped on the elevators that took them down to another Green Sphere Doomer encounter.
[BGM: Sphere Doomer – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The Sphere Doomer began by raining green orbs at them that detonated into bursts of electricity once they hit the floor, but thankfully the group stayed away from them as the Sphere Doomer would then fly to the background to charge at them, only to get hit by a thrown hammer and spear from Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee respectively and leave it dazed, then Arusu would cast Swoosh to blow it back to the arena where Eleven and Solo would both Scorch it, and then Kirby delivered a charged Hammer Flip to it for good measure.
The Sphere Doomer recovered and next flew up to the right while charging up electric energy, before raining bolts of electricity down at the group as it cruised to the left, with the bolts managing to strike Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee while the others dodged. Then, with the Sphere Doomer now vulnerable after the attack, Eight quickly ice skated over to it and froze it solid with a Kacrackle Slash, and Meta Knight followed up by flying up and shattering the icy prison before unleashing an Upper Calibur, doing a quick series of aerial slashes to the beast and finishing it off by slamming it onto the ground.
[BGM: Silence of Another Sky – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Sweet finishing move there, Meta." Dedede complimented.
"My sincerest thanks." Meta Knight simply replied while taking the Energy Spheres. "I call it Upper Calibur. I only managed to pull this one off after months of training." then, a thought came to him, "Hmm… Perhaps I should upgrade my Galaxia Darkness into a move similar to Upper Calibur for a new Final Smash…?"
[BGM End]
After leaving the dimension, they would all walk forward and get out of the outskirts of this icy ruin and reach the actual ruin now, where a beautiful rainbow aurora was shining in the skies above it.
Stage 4-5: Frozen Ruins
[BGM: Aurora Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Whoa… Now that's an ice ruin." Arusu awed, as they looked at the ruin in front of them.
"I don't know why, but I'm feeling a bit creeped out by this place…" Bandana Waddle Dee trailed off.
Dedede raised an eyebrow. "Why would you be creeped out? I don't see anything creepy here."
"Well, we won't find out unless we go inside." Solo said.
They looked directly in front of them to see a Chilly that was guarding the entrance, and so it was immediately taken out as Arusu then went to put on the crown to gain the Ice Ability again, before they would all go down the ladder to enter the ruin.
Once inside, they immediately encountered several vases where Wapods would rise out. "Are those… ghost Waddle Dees?" Eight asked.
"Not quite." Kirby replied. "They're called Wapods…although I'm preeetty sure they had arms the last time I encountered them…" he pondered as he looked at the Wapods closely, noticing that they lacked arms.
As they walked around and finding a Key while Kirby would find another Knuckle Joe and suck it up to get the Fighter Ability again, Dedede looked over at Bandana Waddle Dee to see him looking a little uncomfortable while he was glancing at the Wapods. "Okay, I can see why you're a little creeped out by this…" Dedede said sincerely.
"The Wapods do look like ghosts, so I can see why Eight mistook them for ghosts." Meta Knight pointed out as they used the Key on a Key Gate to leave the room and arrive into the following one, where they were now met with platforms that would slide back and forth across a long hallway. As the group traversed this sliding floor hallway, Dedede would later spot a Round-trip door on the floor between two sliding blocks and went in, where he simply needed to smash his way through some Metal Blocks to access an Energy Sphere.
Then, when the group left the hallway and to the next room, they came across a number of Ice Blocks stacks that were immediately melted away by the two Fire Ability-wielding Heroes, while also burning down some Shelts that were unfortunately caught in this literal crossfire. One of those Ice Block stacks had an Energy Sphere hidden inside as the group took it, then they would climb up a ladder to reach the next area.
This next area was set up much the same as the one with the Wapods, having a Key and a Key Gate at the end and all… only that this room was filled with a new Scarfy variant: Hunter Scarfies. Much like their normal counterparts, the Hunter Scarfies started off as looking cute and innocent… that is, until Kirby picked up the Key and they would then change into their grotesque forms, much to the group's appalment.
"Yikes… And I thought Scarfies couldn't get any scarier…" Kirby trailed off as he ran off with the Key while the Hunter Scarfies were chasing him, and the moment he unlocked the Key Gate… the Hunter Scarfies would just change back to their cute appearances and let him be, as if nothing had happened.
"Yeah, stay looking cute as much as you want, because we won't forget what you were just doing before…" Dedede glared at the Hunter Scarfies, but they didn't seem to care as the group then proceeded into the door that was behind the Key Gate.
[BGM: Eerie Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Oh great, another dark area…" Arusu groaned, as the door had led them to a very dark hallway.
"Wait, what are these lights coming from behind us?" Eight wondered upon noticing said lights, and everyone turned around to see that the lights were coming from Eleven and Solo, in which thanks to their Fire Ability's crowns and their blazing swords, they were providing some light around them.
"Oh…" Eleven awed, before smiling. "Well, looks like we'll be our light source for this area!"
"Then we'll stick closer to you!" Bandana Waddle Dee said, and then they walked through the hallway as they had to do some tricky jumps and avoid more falling snowmen, and further on they would find a barricade of Ice Blocks. The Fire-wielding Heroes once again immediately destroyed the barricade, uncovering an Energy Sphere underneath as they took it, then the group would continue onwards by doing more jumps across gaps until they reached the exit.
[Resume "Aurora Area" BGM]
Now back out in the open, the group was again met with more Hunter Scarfies and there was yet another Key in front of them. So they picked up the Key and made a mad dash ahead while being chased by the Angry Hunter Scarfies, and after unlocking the Key Gate and taking the last Energy Sphere, the group could take a much needed breather.
"Man, those Scarfies are relentless." Arusu sighed, shaking his head. "One from the ceiling almost came close to touching me." he said as they walked off… which in turn would actually lead them out of the ruins and into another portion of its outskirts.
[BGM End]
Stage 4-6: Super Saiyan Ape
[BGM: Omen of Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Huh… For once, we're not finding the guardian inside a ruin this time." Dedede remarked as they walked up a drift.
"I wonder who we'll be encountering this time." Eleven wondered.
"Hmm… A giant living snowman, maybe?" Bandana Waddle Dee guessed.
"What made you guess that?" Solo asked.
"Well, we have encountered many snowmen through the entirety of White Wafers, so…"
"That's a bit of a stretch, if you ask me." Meta Knight stated. "But let's keep going and see it for ourselves." everyone else nodded and kept walking.
[BGM End]
Eventually, the group would step on a thin snow bridge… and just then, an ape-like creature suddenly landed in front of them and pounded his chest before roaring loudly at them. This ape had white fur with red accents near the hands, tan skin, baboon-like red marks on his cheeks and a long beard and tuft of hair, both gray in color.
That was Goriath.
"Nope, it's a large ape." Arusu said.
"I thought he was a yeti at first…" Kirby mused. "…But no matter! Let's get him!" everyone stood ready to fight.
[BGM: White-Hot! Boss Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
But before the group could do anything, Goriath began slamming the ground repeatedly with his hands, which caused the bridge to crumble beneath their feet as they fell down to a lower level of the arena, where it had another thin snow bridge situated between two walls.
"Hey! What was that for!?" Arusu complained as the group looked up and watched as Goriath climbed and clung to the wall on the right to throw snowballs at them, but they rolled out of the way as Bandana Waddle Dee threw spears at him, only for the ape to leap over to the opposite wall to avoid the spears… where he would instead get Double Kicked in the face by Kirby, making him lose his grip on the wall and was knocked back down on the bridge.
Goriath responded by pulling his fists back to throw punches at the group as his arms extended in an impressive feat of flexibility, but they dodged the punches as Solo swung his blade to hit Goriath with fireballs, then Dedede ran over with a Jet Hammer at the ready and swung it at the ape, knocking him back a few. Goriath then attempted to squash Dedede by jumping up and doing a ground pound, but he side-rolled away as Meta Knight would teleport in front of Goriath with Dimensional Cape and slashed him in the face, making him cover his face in pain before getting slammed on the chest by Eleven's Burn and Arusu's Ice Ball moves and knocked into the wall.
However, Goriath soon recovered and pounded his chest again… and as he roared at the group, his beard and hair suddenly turned golden while his eyes turned red, making him almost resemble a Super Saiyan.
"Whoa! That's new!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed.
"Huh, now that's something you guys can relate with." Dedede said to the Loyal Bodyguards, but he would just earn looks of confusion from them.
"Um… what's that supposed to mean?" Solo questioned… but before Dedede could reply, Goriath again destroyed the bridge they were on and they fell onto another one below. As soon as Goriath landed after the group, he would rise into the air and charge up a gigantic ball of Qi energy.
"Look out!" Meta Knight warned right as Goriath released the attack where the energy ball passed through the center of the arena, and created a shockwave that launched Dedede, Eleven, Arusu and Solo into the air before slamming back onto the ground hard enough to knock off the three Heroes' Copy Abilities, while the rest of the Kirby cast managed to avoid the attack by floating up… but what about Eight? After landing, Goriath would look over to see an ice statue of Eight, who had done this by outright freezing himself over, before he broke free.
"Phew… didn't think that was possible." Eight remarked as Goriath once again destroyed the bridge and made everyone fall to the lower level, then the ape climbed the wall again but this time he proceeded to ricochet all over the arena before diving down straight for Eight, but he quickly jumped back at the last second and attacked Goriath with a Blizzard Slash along with Bandana Waddle Dee doing a Spear Thrust, sending the ape back a bit.
Goriath held his ground by the two blows and proceeded to yet again force everyone down to another lower bridge, where he next pounded the ground to materialize several icicles from above…somehow, before making them fall down on the group. The Loyal Bodyguards quickly took action and rose their shields to shield everyone from the falling icicles as Goriath would then pull back his hands while charging up Qi energy from them, much like how one would charge up a Kamehameha, and fired several energy blasts at them. Acting quickly, Eight stabbed the ground to make a giant wall of ice shoot up in front of everyone and block the energy blasts, then after the attack ended, Eleven, Arusu and Solo would counterattack Goriath's previous attack in a similar fashion by firing a Kafrizz each at him, and then Kirby rushed in to deliver a Spin Kick to knock Goriath to the wall before finishing him off with a Smash Punch and Rising Break combo.
[BGM End]
Goriath was knocked to the air while roaring in agony by the attack and then he would bounce off the bridge to the background, where he stood comically floating in the air while doing an 'oh crap!' face, until gravity finally kicked in and he fell to his doom. Immediately afterwards, the bridge crumbled and sent the group falling down to the lowest level of this area, where the emblem part of the Lor awaited them.
"You see it now?! Even you three did that hand-motion thing the ape did before! How come you guys still don't get it?!" Dedede questioned, addressing the Loyal Bodyguards… but he would be met with confusion from them again.
"…We still have no idea what you're talking about…" Eight awkwardly replied as he went to take the Lor part.
"Oh, just ignore him. He's just into a lot of pop culture lately." Meta Knight dismissed, causing Dedede to shoot an annoyed glare at him.
"Gee, thanks a lot…" Dedede grumbled, and then everyone proceeded to leave White Wafers.
Soon…
[BGM: Lor Part Restored! – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Once the group tossed the emblem part into the air, the part glowed and zoomed its way towards the Lor that was magically lifted off the ground again, then it attached itself to the front of the ship. The emblem shimmered in front of the camera in all its glory, and the Lor floated back to its spot.
[BGM: Magolor, the Distant Traveler – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Everybody, you've done it! My Starcutter finally has its emblem back. Oh joyous, glorious day!" Magolor celebrated. "Now there's only one missing part left to find!"
"And that would be the mast, right?" Dedede guessed.
"That's correct! And remember, once the Lor is up and running, I'll take you all to visit my home! Crashing here on this planet, meeting you… Somehow, despite what an ordeal this has turned into…it's been worth it. Thank you yet again for all your help. And for being such cool dudes!"
The group laughed in response. "We're glad that we were able to help you throughout this whole time, Magolor." Meta Knight said with a smile.
"Indeed…" Magolor chuckled. "You know, I've really taken a shine to this planet. I mean, I'm glad I am close to getting back home, but I'm sure going to miss it here. I guess I'll just have to buy a vacation home here!" he said with a laugh.
"Well, how ironic." Eleven replied amused. "Because I and my comrades right here already came here first to have a vacation, remember?"
Magolor's eyes perked up. "Oh yeah, right! But…if you guys are from a different universe, then how were you able to travel to this one anyways?"
"Oh, that was due to Kirby using the power of this Crystal Shard he has right here." Eight said, directing to Kirby who pulled out said Crystal Shard to show it to Magolor. "This thing created a portal leading directly to Kirby's world, so we were easily able to travel to this universe just like that!"
"Oh, wow… I already knew that it was possible to cross different dimensions, but I never knew it could be possible to cross different universes!"
"Yeah, and none of us even knew that multiple universes existed in the first place until now." Arusu chuckled.
"Then I guess that 'multiple dimensions' is now going to get added to your list of new discoveries." Magolor replied. "Of course, Another Dimension is only going to get added once I take you all to it, but my ship needs its last part back for that to be possible."
"You're right." Solo nodded. "So, where is it located?"
"Searching for it right now…" Magolor typed on his console, zooming in on the mast's location. "Aha! Found it!" the location displayed a vast sky region with many clouds. "The final part is located somewhere high up in the sky, in a portion known as Nutty Noon."
"Ah, I was wondering when we were going to experience walking on clouds again."
"Ooh, yes!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed in excitement. "Sky regions are my favorite places in Popstar! You guys are going to love it!"
The Heroes chuckled. "We're definitely looking forward to it." Eleven smiled.
"Alright, then to the skies we go!" Kirby declared, but before the group could exit the Lor…
[BGM End]
"Wait!" Magolor called. "Let me tell you guys something important…" they nodded and listened. "I'm sure you all fought many of those crazy Sphere Doomers that show up from time to time in Another Dimension rifts, right? Hear me out… They happen to have a leader."
The group's eyes perked up. "A leader?" Eight asked.
"Yes. The Grand Doomer. He's way more powerful and much bigger than his smaller kin, and I fear that he might have already come to this dimension to wreak havoc!"
"Oh no… but how did he come to Kirby's dimension?!" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"You know my lost Energy Spheres? Turns out that they, too, can create rifts leading to Another Dimension after doing some research during my repairs. So Grand Doomer no doubt has emerged from one of them, so if you guys happen to run into him, be sure to put a stop to it at once!"
"You got it, Magolor!" Kirby nodded. "Right, guys?"
"Yeah!" the others said.
"Goodness, you're all so determined!" Magolor exclaimed. "Man, I just can't say it enough, everybody. It's really been such a pleasure meeting you. You're all such stand-up dudes. I'm honored to call you all my friends. Whew… finally got that out of my chest."
"Magolor…" Kirby awed, his heart feeling warm inside as he let that warmness out with the warmest smile ever on his face. "You were already a friend to all of us. I'm so happy that you feel the same too."
Magolor blushed. "R-right… Friends until the end?"
"Friends until the end." he and Magolor then shook hands, and then Kirby turned to face the others. "Let's be off now, everyone!"
They nodded in response, and left the Lor's interior. But shortly after they were gone, Magolor would place a hand on his chest and crestfall solemnly.
"I'm glad that I confessed to Kirby and the others how I feel about them…" he thought. "…but at the same time, I'm not. How exactly would they react once I put my plan into motion…? I just hope that what I'm doing to accomplish what I want will be worth it, even if it costs a harsh sacrifice to make…"
Doesn't that sound a little suspicious…? …Nah, probably not.
To be continued…
Thanks to Goriath's concept, I just couldn't resist throwing in another Dragon Ball reference towards the Dragon Quest Heroes. Bonus points for being a call-back to a similar reference I did near the end of chapter 10 from Prince Trifle Galaxy.
We're taking off to the skies next! See you then!
Edit: I just realized that the Heroes already mentioned to Magolor that they were not from this world before in a previous chapter. Whoops! So I fixed some stuff near the end.
Trivia for this chapter:
1. The title given to stage 4-4 is named after one of the songs of the same name from Disney's Frozen.
2. Wapods did originally have arms in their debut game, Kirby's Dream Land 3. For some reason, when they returned in Return to Dream Land, their arms are absent.
3. Hunter Scarfies are similar in concept to the Mario series' Phantos, where they would chase anyone who's holding a key.
