Here we have the next chapter!

Enjoy! ;)


Chapter 9: On Cloud Nine!

[BGM: Nutty Noon – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

Nutty Noon is a general sky area, with lots of clouds to walk on like in many other sky-themed areas in Popstar. However, Nutty Noon differs from most of them by bearing a sort of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' feel, as the group had landed on top of a high hill on ground level, which would then carry them to the skies, and eventually reach a tall tower situated in the air. And speaking of which, shortly upon landing and taking in their surroundings, the group looked up above them and immediately noticed said tower in the distance.

"Weeeell, now that looks interesting!" Dedede grinned.

"That tower looks really tall!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed. And indeed; the tower seemed to stretch up as far as the eye could see. "Are we going to climb that?"

"The Lor part might probably be at the top of that tower, so we have to." Meta Knight replied.

"I just hope it won't be too tall…"

"I climbed several towers in my past adventures, so I can handle it just fine." Kirby said.

"We also have climbed a few towers in each of our individual quests too." Eleven added.

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure this tower won't even compare to the Lightning Chariot Base…" Arusu said, grimacing at the memory. "My legs suffered from fatigue after all that climbing on foot!"

"Mine too, but… This tower seems to stretch all the way up…" Solo mused. "Perhaps even close to space."

"And by using the environment as a reference, we don't really know how high the Lightning Chariot Base was since it was already up in space." Eight pointed out.

"Hey, I'm sure it won't be that bad!" Kirby assured cheerfully. "And besides, since you already ventured into an apparently tiring tower, then you all should be ready to tackle on any tower, isn't that right?"

The Heroes couldn't help but crack a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Eleven replied.

"That's the spirit!" Kirby then summons a Warp Star. "Now, come on! Let's head up and search for the last ship part!" everyone else nodded and they all hopped on the Warp Star, as it led them high into the clouds.

[BGM End]


Stage 5-1: Walking on the Clouds

[BGM: Sky Waltz – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

The Warp Star deposited the group in a high clouded area with vines and floating ground pieces, as well as a nice view of the entirety of Dream Land below in the background. "Wow! Look at this view!" Eight exclaimed as he looked down at it.

"It's so amazing!" Eleven said.

"Absolutely incredible." Solo smiled.

"I know, right?" Kirby chirped. "We can see all of Dream Land from up here!"

"Now you see why I enjoy sky regions in Popstar? It's mainly because of this!" Bandana Waddle Dee said.

"Yeah, that is one of the best things to experience when you're so high up." Arusu agreed. "And what a great first impression!"

They would begin walking ahead, using the vines and ground pieces as platforms to advance as they soon came across a Jackle that was inhaled by Kirby and he gained the Cutter Ability, then he started tossing cutter blades to cut down some Ceruleans cruising by. Further ahead, the group noticed an Owgulf tossing feather needles at them upon spotting them as Kirby quickly cut them all down along with the Owgulf and the Wing headdress appeared, where Solo grabbed it and put it on. Two red parallel lines appeared on his cheeks, and a pair of wings sprang out of his back.

"Huh?" Solo glanced at the wings on his back. "Oh, I feel like I can fly now…" he began flapping his wings and rose a few feet away from the ground… only to nearly lose himself. "Wh-whoa!" he yelped as he tried to keep himself in the air, but had to land back on the ground. "…I never knew flying would be this hard." he said sheepishly with a small laugh.

"It does take some time to master the Wing Ability, but you'll get there eventually!" Kirby said as they continued on, eventually arriving into a tall vertical cloud column with cloud platforms that the Loyal Bodyguards sans Solo would use to go up while the Kirby cast used their floating abilities. As for Solo, he decided to try flying again and flapped his wings, and this time he managed to get the hang of it and was now flying alongside the Kirby cast.

"Hey, I think I'm doing it!" he said.

"Hm, you're a fast learner." Meta Knight complimented. "Good job."

"I knew you could do it!" Kirby beamed, making Solo chuckle in response as they kept flying up, until the Zenithian Hero spotted a Round-trip door and went in, where he just flew across a bridge of Crumbling Blocks while at the same time cutting off the Comos' web strings with his wings to get an Energy Sphere on the other side. Then, after he joined back with the Kirby cast who were all standing next to a door at the top, they proceeded to wait for the rest of the Heroes, and soon enough, said trio came and met up with them.

"What took y'all so long?" Dedede teased.

"We don't have anything that provides flight, you know…" Arusu rolled his eyes.

Dedede let out a hearty laugh. "Heh heh, I know. I'm just teasing you, that's all." he said as they went through the door, leading them to a cloud funnel full of cloud platforms that were hung by vines.

"So, what more can this Ability do besides granting flight, Kirby?" Solo asked as they traversed the funnel.

"Well, you can throw sharp feathers that can cut enemies and ropes, and do charge attacks that consists of dive-bombs." Kirby replied. "And the wings themselves are also sharp enough to cut ropes, too."

"So that explains why I was able to cut down the webs from those Comos earlier." Solo thought as they moved on, but then Meta Knight went up a cloud platform where he would cut down another one above to uncover a Round-trip door and find another Energy Sphere. After that, he caught up with the others and from that point, the funnel was leading them upwards as it would take them deep into the clouds and closer to the tower, and the land below was getting even smaller for them.

In this following area, they would pass through a long winding tunnel filled with Shotzos and enemies, one of them being a Twister that was defeated by Solo before Arusu went over to get the Tornado crown and put it on.

"Hmm… Wonder what I can do with this." Arusu wondered while looking at his sword, whose blade now had a tornado surrounding it, before he gave it a swing in front of him as a small tornado came out of it and traveled upwards, defeating some Waddle Dees that were caught by it. "Whoa!"

"Ooh, tornado projectiles!" Kirby chirped. "I do wish I could do that too, though…" he sweatdropped playfully as they soon managed to get through the rest of the area easily thanks to Arusu launching tornadoes at enemies and even find an Energy Sphere that was hidden among the clouds, and then they went through another door at the top.

The door took them to a cloudy passage where a giant spiky ball would roll downhill. "Eep!" Bandana Waddle Dee yelped as everyone ran to underneath a vine platform to hide from the spiky ball. "I thought sky regions were supposed to be easygoing, not perilous!"

"Um, I think Cloudy Park and Cushy Cloud would like to have a word with you, Bandee…" Kirby thought as they walked up the hill and pressed a blue switch to free another spiky ball, forcing them to run away from it until it fell down the bottomless pit. Next, they went up another hill where they took shelter in a small alcove to avoid more rolling spiky balls, then they managed to bypass two of them and claimed an Energy Sphere at the end of the path.

[BGM End]

"*groan* This world sure loves rolling obstacles, huh?" Arusu groaned.

"Well, at least they're easy to avoid." Solo stated with a shrug, and then they looked ahead to see that they were now at the foot of a long stone bridge leading to the tower. "Oh, we've made it…"

With that, the group took off running along the bridge to get to the tower.


Stage 5-2: Sunset Tower

[BGM: Sky Tower – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

As they were still going up the bridge, they looked around and noticed that the sky had suddenly changed from daytime to dusk without any warning whatsoever. "Wait, did the time of the day just change or is it just me?" Eleven wondered.

"Nope, it did change alright…" Dedede said, looking quite stumped.

"Is this…odd phenomenon natural, Kirby?" Solo asked.

"Um, no…" Kirby replied. "That's a first one to any other sky regions I've been to already…"

"Well, whatever the case… It still provides a beautiful view of the sky, doesn't it?" Eight asked with a smile.

"It sure does." Meta Knight smiled as they soon made it to the top of the bridge, where they would see a Moonja.

"Oh!" Kirby's eyes perked up as he ran towards it and discarded his Cutter Ability before sucking up the Moonja, turning into Ninja Kirby. "I was wondering when Ninja would eventually show up." he said.

They then walked along a long gateway, with Kirby dealing with Scarfies by throwing shurikens and kunais at them, and then Solo soon joined him by throwing Feather Guns at Mumbies. The following area had columns moving up and down that was filled with Poppy Bros Jr plus more Mumbies, but Kirby would slash through the grounded Poppy Bros Jr with his katana while Bandana Waddle Dee threw a spear at the ones standing on a Star Block platform, and the Mumbies would get defeated by Solo the same way as before.

Along the way was a barrier made out of Metal Blocks and a Crystalline Block on the ground… which means that they would need a Balloon Bomb to destroy all of these. "Oh, we need that dangerous bomb item, right?" Bandana Waddle Dee guessed. "But… I didn't see any around here."

It was then that Dedede charged up a Jet Hammer and managed to surprisingly destroy the Crystalline Block along with some of the Metal Blocks in one swing, much to the others' amazement. "Who needs a bomb while I can just do this?" he grinned smugly and went through the Round-trip door that was previously blocked by the Crystalline Block, and in the challenge room he managed to hit a faraway Bomb Block with a super-precise Gordo Throw and reward him with an Energy Sphere. Once he left the room, he found that the others were still looking stunned. "Still at it, huh?"

They soon snapped out of it. "…How come you never did that before?!" Arusu questioned.

"Eh, I simply didn't know that would actually work." Dedede shrugged, and then they all made it out of this area and into the next one. From there, the group would start climbing the tower with the use of ladders, leading them to several chambers with Pull Switches as one of them would unlock the way ahead, while others would free some enemies.

Past this area, the group found themselves traversing a long bridge… until they ran into another Moundo ambush.

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

Moundo quickly charged at them, but they leapt to the side as Meta Knight came running in and slashed it repeatedly and Bandana Waddle Dee did a Spear Thrust to knock it away. Moundo recovered and proceeded to slide along the ground to ram into the group, but Dedede countered the move by doing a Giant Dedede Swing as Eleven and Eight casted Swoosh to knock Moundo into the air while being pelted by Feather Guns from Solo, and then Arusu jumped up and Gust Slashed it down.

Moundo would get back up from that and then floated up to crush Kirby, but he suddenly disappeared in a smoke cloud before he got crushed, leaving Moundo utterly confused as it wondered where Kirby went… until he sneakily reappeared behind it and delivered a powerful Quad Shock that was enough to defeat it.

[Resume "Sky Tower" BGM]

"Fear the wrath of the ninja!" Kirby declared while doing a ninja stance, making the others chuckle in amusement.

"Now now, let's not get too excited." Meta Knight said as Kirby rubbed his head sheepishly, then the group moved onwards and encountered a series of Stakes in the following hallway. On instinct, Dedede pounded the first and second Stakes respectively as those cleared out the barriers in a passageway below, then he went down to it to get an Energy Sphere.

Next, the group would traverse through tight hallways until they came across multiple unlit lamps with a star printed on them… and then shortly after, a Super Waddle Doo popped up. With perked up eyes, Eleven immediately rushed in to defeat the Super Waddle Doo and obtain the Flare Beam Super Ability again.

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

"All right!" he grinned. "So what am I doing with it this time?"

Kirby glanced at the lamps around. "I think you need to light all of these up."

"Ah, gotcha." with that, Eleven created the ball of electricity and guided it around to light up the lamps. Once all of them were lit, a barrier opened up ahead and allowed everyone to progress. Then, along the way, Eleven had to light up more of those lamps until he came to one chamber where the lamps were arranged into a face.

After the Hero lit them all up, the 'nose' part of the face slid up as an Another Dimension rift appeared, and then everyone jumped in.


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

In this stretch, the group had to hit Bomb Blocks to proceed. The ones in the beginning were easy, but as the group progressed, the location of the Bomb Blocks started to get noticeable harder, as these were tucked into tight gaps that are sometimes guarded by moving walls.

Nevertheless, they all made it to the end and walked off until they found themselves facing another Green Sphere Doomer.

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

The Sphere Doomer quickly fired green orbs at the group, but they avoided the attack as Solo flew up and charged headfirst at it with a Condor Head, knocking it back where Meta Knight would fly up and slash it from behind, then Dedede hammered it to the ground in which Eleven and Eight would strike it with a Hatchet Man.

The Sphere Doomer recovered and flew off to the background, where it spat out dozens of green orbs as they rained down into the foreground and they exploded into electricity, but then the oddest thing happened: Eleven managed to attack one of the orbs before it exploded, and by doing so, it suddenly turned into the Spark crown.

"…Huh! Don't mind if I do!" he said and put on the Spark crown right as the Sphere Doomer was charging at them, but a strong whirlwind would slam into it due to Arusu casting Woosh Cyclone. The Sphere Doomer growled and fired more green orbs but Kirby sucked them up and spat them back out at it, before it got impaled by Bandana Waddle Dee's spear and met its demise.

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

After Bandana Waddle Dee took the Energy Spheres, he would then glance at Eleven to find out that he suddenly has the Spark Ability on. "Hey, how were you able to gain an Ability in the middle of the fight?" he asked the Hero.

"Well, I don't really know why." Eleven shrugged. "I just struck one of the green orbs it launched, and then it suddenly turned into this hat."

"Hmm…" Kirby pondered for a bit until he came with a conclusion, "Oh, I guess that reflects how I am also able to gain Copy Abilities by just sucking in an elemental projectile, kind of like back what I did for one of those fiery Sphere Doomers."

"Huh, so there are other ways to obtain your Abilities then." Solo said, and then they all left the dimension.

[BGM End]

Once they made it back, they climbed up a ladder nearby that led them directly into some Auto Cannons, getting shot all the way to a new portion of this tower.


Stage 5-3: Peaceful Skies… Kinda

[BGM: A Dream of Clouds – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]

After recovering from the cannon blast, the group took their time to look at their surroundings. "You know, something about this area feels…peaceful for some reason." Eight said.

"How so?" Arusu asked.

"Oh, I think it's because of this soothing music!" Kirby thought with a smile, before he addressed the Heroes, "I could tell you guys why, but you wouldn't understand."

"…Okay, then." Eleven shrugged as they all jumped up and grabbed on to the ropes above to start climbing, where they got into a chamber with blowing winds and loads of spikes along the walls and gaps on the floor, and not to mention Gordos were moving back and forth between the next set of ropes above.

"…Yeah, right. Peaceful, you say." Dedede deadpanned, shooting Eight an unamused glare.

Eight nervously rose his hands in defense. "Hey, I wasn't exactly talking about the layout of the area being peaceful! I was referring to something else that I can't really fathom!"

"It might be what Kirby was talking about earlier." Meta Knight interfered.

Dedede paused. "Huh… I guess you're right there, Meta."

"I know, right?" Bandana Waddle Dee smiled. "It's so nice to listen to!"

The Heroes, meanwhile, looked dumbfounded. "Someday, I wish we could know what subject is that they're talking about…" Solo said as his comrades nodded in agreement by that, then everyone resumed their climb while jumping past the moving Gordo and got to another chamber where a Waddle Doo was wandering about on a platform, until Kirby floated up to it and sucked it up to obtain the Beam Ability for himself.

Then, they kept on climbing via hanging on ropes as usual while dealing with some enemies along the way, until they finally made it to the top where a door awaited them. It took them to the tower's outer wall as they proceeded to jump up and against another continuous breeze while avoiding Shotzo fire from the tower's nooks, and later on Kirby would pick up a Crackler to clear out a bunch of Scarfies and drop down Shotzos that were placed on stacks of Star Blocks, and at the top, he ended up destroying some Metal Blocks on a cloud ceiling, uncovering various desserts.

"Ooooh!" Kirby's mouth watered, quickly tossing the Crackler down before floating up to grab the desserts. "Anyone up for a dessert break?" Kirby asked.

"Enjoying a dessert up in the clouds? Absolutely!" Bandana Waddle Dee gleamed as the others nodded, and so they each took a dessert and sat down to eat.

For the Kirby cast, Kirby had gotten himself his favorite dessert; a slice of strawberry shortcake, Dedede got himself a doughnut with strawberry icing, Meta Knight got himself a slice of chocolate cake with icing on top, and Bandana Waddle Dee had gotten himself a plate of pancakes with butter and syrup on top. As for the Loyal Bodyguards, Eleven had gotten himself a strawberry cupcake, Arusu had gotten himself a doughnut with chocolate icing, Solo had gotten himself a strawberry parfait, and Eight had gotten himself a flan.

"Mmm! So good as always!" Eight said after taking a spoonful bite of his flan.

"No kidding." Solo agreed. "I'm still amazed at how we can find food pretty much anywhere in this world."

"You said it." Eleven chimed in. "And having a lunch break above the clouds is such a great experience I never thought I wanted!"

"Heh, same." Arusu chuckled, but then noticed something, "Hold on… where did Meta Knight go?" he wondered while looking around.

"Oh, he's right over there." Dedede said as he directed them to a corner a few feet away from them, where Meta Knight was sitting with his back turned to them and making sure that no one is seeing him eating his chocolate cake slice… and also the fact that he was without his mask on.

"Um, what's he doing there?" Eight raised an eyebrow. "He doesn't like eating with others?"

"Nah, he's just a little embarrassed on demonstrating the fact that he actually enjoys sweets, and also that he doesn't want to show his true face to anyone. Guy tries so hard to keep his shady and mysterious persona to anyone around him while keeping his unmanly secrets hidden, heh heh."

"…I heard that, you know." Meta Knight spoke back with a grumble, making Dedede chuckle while the Heroes just sweatdropped.

"Honestly… I'm actually quite curious about how Meta Knight looks like without his mask on." Arusu whispered to his comrades.

"Same here." Eleven whispered back as he, Solo and Eight nodded. "Makes me wonder if one day we'll get to find out."

"Maybe, but I know it's not going to be easy." Solo stated.

"I have seen Meta Knight's face multiple times before…but since he's all ears now, I can't tell these guys about it unfortunately." Kirby thought while glancing over at the Loyal Bodyguards still chatting with Dedede, before he shook the thoughts off and resumed eating happily with Bandana Waddle Dee.

Later, after they all finished eating (with Meta Knight immediately putting his mask back on before he turned to face the others), they continued on by going to the interior of the tower where they would race another Key Dee on the way down. They managed to retrieve the Key from it before it fell down into the abyss, and unlocked the Key Gate next to them to obtain an Energy Sphere.

After that, they left via a door and found themselves on the other side of the tower from outside, where they had to climb several ladders past electrical shots from Volttzos on the side, and further up, some hungry Paclouds that would try to chomp on them. During this Pacloud section, Bandana Waddle Dee looked over to the side and found a Bomb Block barrier that he easily destroyed with a Spear Thrust, and went into the uncovered Round-trip door to net another Energy Sphere.

He then caught up with the others soon after, avoiding more Volttzo fire and Paclouds as they kept going up the ladder until they made it to the door at the end. The door led them back into the tower, where Kirby noticed a Hi-Jump Copy Essence nearby.

"Oh… welp, so much for sticking with Beam." he said and touched the Copy Essence, immediately becoming Hi-Jump Kirby.

"What's that thing you just touched, Kirby?" Eleven asked.

"It's a Copy Essence. Basically, they provide me the Copy Ability presented in them without me having to suck up anything."

"Hm, interesting."

Using the Hi-Jump, Kirby rocketed his way up through several flying enemies while the rest followed by using the available platforms, and at one point, Kirby did a switch and gate challenge to get the third Energy Sphere for this stage, then everyone went up an alcove in the top and walked through the door. The following room featured more climbing, this time featuring ladders and barriers in chambers that had to get destroyed by stepping on blue switches or hitting Bomb Blocks… while also making several enemies fall on top of the group but Eleven quickly took care of them by firing Thunderbolts at them.

However, at the top of this tower, there was a certain sleeping enemy… that one being a Noddy. And when Eight dispatched it, he saw that it left out the Sleep cap as he looked at it in curiosity. "Huh… what kind of Ability does this provide?" he wondered as he picked it up.

The Kirby cast's eyes shot wide. "Eighty, don't-!" Kirby began to warn, but it was in vain as Eight put the cap on… aaaaaand he immediately collapsed to the floor while falling asleep, much to his comrades' befuddlement.

"Did he just…fall asleep?" Solo blinked.

Annoyed, Arusu walked up to the sleeping Eight. "Hey, Eight! This is no time for napping! Get up!" he ushered… but when he realized that Eight wouldn't wake up, he started to look concerned. "Um…Eight?"

"He can't wake up because he's under the effect of the Sleep Ability." Meta Knight replied. "As its name says, this Ability makes you…well, sleep."

"…You're joking, right? Why is this even an Ability?!" Arusu questioned.

"Well, from experience, it purposefully exists just to hinder me in several instances." Kirby said. "You guys always thought my adventures were that easy?"

"Oh… So, how are we going to wake him up?" Eleven asked.

"Simple; for the way my Copy Abilities work on you guys, we just need to take the cap off." Kirby walked over to Eight and removed the Sleep cap from his head before tossing it away. Immediately after, Eight snapped awake.

"Huh? Wha?" he wondered. "Oh, right… I fell asleep, didn't I?"

"You did. But I woke you back up by taking the hat off." Kirby smiled.

Eight stood back up. "Well, that's definitely something I'm never doing again."

"By the way, this doesn't just apply to the Sleep Ability. You guys should be able to discard any Ability just like I can by taking off the hat and putting on another."

"Oh, we never thought about that… We'll keep that in mind." Solo replied with a nod, his comrades doing the same before everyone continued their climbing as they jumped over platforms while minding the Paclouds and the strong breezes, then they got into an Auto Cannon that launched them straight up higher into the bright orange clouds.

"Goodness, just how high up are we now?" Bandana Waddle Dee wondered after they all landed in the middle of the clouds.

"I can't see any more land below… so we must be incredibly high up now." Eleven replied as they were walking, eventually finding the last Energy Sphere of this stage somewhere above them and so Eleven used a Swoosh spell to propel himself up to take it.

"You know, if we keep this up, we might end up finding a series of floating islands that make up a whole kingdom once we breach through the clouds." Dedede blurted out.

The rest of the Kirby cast glanced at Dedede weirdly. "That's…oddly specific." Meta Knight said.

Dedede shrugged. "Eh, don't really know what came over me." he said as they walked off.

To be continued…


As a highly dedicated Kirby fan, I'm making sure to showcase every Copy Ability from the game...including Sleep! And I have to say, Nutty Noon is probably my favorite area of the game, mostly because of the beautiful scenery (I even made sure to emphasize that for this chapter) and how the time of day changes as you progress through the stages.

If you played the original game, you know exactly who's the boss of Nutty Noon and how it plays out... and I have something special planned for it! Until next time!

Trivia for this chapter:

1. The markings on Wing Kirby's cheeks are often associated with various Plains Indian tribes. This aspect was removed for later Kirby titles, likely to appease concerns that they along with the Wing headdress were appropriating said cultures.

2. Dedede talking about Meta Knight enjoying sweets is a reference to how in the official Japanese Kirby site, named Kirby Portal, Meta Knight actually loves sweet food. Of course, much like the situation with his face hidden behind his mask, he makes sure that no one sees this aspect of him.

3. The series of floating islands mentioned by Dedede are referring to the kingdom of Floralia, the location where the entirety of Kirby: Triple Deluxe takes place in.