Phew... I've had a VERY busy November and beginning of December mainly because of collage, so I did not have much time to write this chapter.
But now that it's finally done, enjoy! ;)
Chapter 12: Robot Rumble
"This place is so boring!" Arusu complained as they were walking around more of Egg Engines' mechanical wastes. "There's nothing but metal, machines, factories, and mounds of trash! Isn't there anything new we can find in this area?!"
"It's not that simple." Meta Knight told him. "Every place we are in has its own theme with many repetitive elements, whether you like it or not."
"Besides, I'm sure we'll be going somewhere different around these wastes." Kirby added. "We'll just have to keep looking."
"Alright, so where are we going next to find more of Magolor's Energy Spheres?" Eleven asked.
"Hmm…" Bandana Waddle Dee mused until he looked down, seeing a large hole in the ground right next to a factory. "How about we go down this hole?" he suggested while directing to it.
Everyone else looked down at the hole apprehensively. "Um, are you sure this is safe?" Eight asked.
"Well… all I can see is a pipeline down there, so maybe?" Bandana Waddle Dee shrugged.
"…Eh, whatever. I just want a change of scenery already." Arusu said, and with that, everyone dropped down into the pipeline… which would actually lead them to the next stage.
Stage 6-4: Exploring the Sewers
[BGM: Waterworks Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The group would find themselves falling down the pipeline and into a brickwork chute at the bottom…which was filled with murky sewer water and before they all knew it, they were dragged around the chute by currents and barely evading the Glunks and Gordos inhabiting it, then the current continued in a spiraling pattern until the group reached the air pocket.
After everyone got out of the water, they immediately noticed that the area they were all in wasn't very pleasant…and clean too. "Bleugh, are we in the sewers?!" Dedede questioned in disgust.
"That explains all the murky water…" Meta Knight sweatdropped. "And the awful smell."
"Ugh… By wanting a change of scenery, I didn't mean THIS!" Arusu complained.
"Welp, there's no turning back now…" Eleven said with a deadpan look, slashing through a Clayn guarding a door before everyone went in.
[BGM: Eerie Area – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The door led them to a dark tight tunnel. "A dark tunnel in the sewers… Just what we needed…" Bandana Waddle Dee trailed off.
"No worries, because I'm here to be our light source." Solo assured as the Spark Ability on him was indeed shining some light around him, and so they walked forward where they soon encountered a Hot Head that was quickly defeated, then Eight grabbed the Fire crown and put it on. His hair and shirt turned orange while his bandana blazed on, his jacket turned a fiery red with fire painted on it, his boots turned dark red, and his blade ignited into flames, thus illuminating the area around him too.
"Then let me provide some additional light, too!" he said.
"All right!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed as they walked along the rest of the tunnels, finding an Energy Sphere somewhere in the depths and while the Loyal Bodyguards went through the normal exit at the end, the Kirby cast instead found an alternate exit after Dedede smashed through some Cracked Blocks and they went down an underwater channel to reach it.
[Resume "Waterworks Area" BGM]
Back in the illuminated sewers again, this new room was a hallway split in two. The Loyal Bodyguards ended up on the dry upper level while the Kirby cast appeared on lower level, which was filled with more running water. Nevertheless, both paths featured many enemies and hazards that they took care and ran past respectively, where along the way, Kirby found a Fighter Copy Essence and touched it to gain said Ability, while a Chilly was taken out on the upper path and then Eleven picked up the Ice crown. His undershirt turned dark blue while his pants were light blue, his coat changed into an icy blue with white leather, his boots were dark blue with a purple hue, and his hair and blade were covered in frost.
The two teams reached the end of the paths and reunited, as they were next standing in another hallway with running water. Unfortunately, though… they would soon walk into a Kibble Blade ambush.
[BGM: Mid-Boss (Halcandra) – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Let me handle this one." Kirby said as he got in a fighting stance, while the others stayed behind.
Kirby and Kibble Blade lunged at each other, as Kibble Blade suddenly did an upper slash with its cutter blade to knock Kirby into the air and then it removed the blade to slash the puffball away, knocking him back as he quickly recovered and ran over to it, delivering a swift Moon Somersault Kick before grabbing it by the foot and Arm Throwing it to send it crashing to a wall. He then ran over and unleashed Vulcan Jab to punch it repeatedly before grabbing it again and Judo Throwing it away, and that led it to fall in defeat.
[Resume "Waterworks Area" BGM]
"Well… that was quick." Meta Knight remarked as Kirby discarded the Fighter Ability and sucked up the downed Kibble Blade to gain the Cutter Ability, as he would throw a cutter blade through a waterfall to hit an unreachable blue switch and reveal another Energy Sphere, and then everyone went into the water to lead them to the next area.
[BGM: Underworld – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Said area was an underwater maze filled with underwater enemies. The group got past the maze with no problems along with finding an Energy Sphere to top it off, then the current pushed them to the following section… right towards a waiting giant Barbar.
"LOOK OUT!" Bandana Waddle Dee yelled while the others screamed in horror, as they desperately began swimming away from the Barbar's open mouth trying to suck them in. Thankfully, they managed to get away… except for Solo, who actually got swallowed up.
"Solo!" Eleven exclaimed as the Barbar started chewing on Solo only for the Hero to break free after some struggling, but ended up losing the Spark Ability in the process. The group quickly swam away from the Barbar to a safe spot and then the ones who escaped the swallowing would glance at Solo, who was looking visibly shaken.
"*shudder* Arusu was right… getting eaten alive IS scary…" he shuddered, leading Eight to swim over and hug him in comfort.
"Now you know what we felt back when we got swallowed by Hades…" Arusu sweatdropped.
"Anyways…" Dedede spoke up. "There's something that's been bugging me. HOW IN BLAZES is there a Barbar living IN THE SEWERS?! A giant one, even?!"
"No idea… and it looks like it's not alone." Kirby pointed over to even more giant Barbars up ahead.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding…" Dedede muttered as they carefully swam past the giant Barbars until they found a Round-trip door that took them to a dark room with a Sparky in it, in which Solo took it out to obtain the Spark Ability again and fired a Thunderbolt at the ceiling, destroying a Bomb Block barrier that contained a key meant to unlock a key gate and get the last Energy Sphere of this stage. From there, they returned to the underwater area with the giant Barbars as they had to avoid some more of them before they eventually got into a pipeline, with its current guiding them around and out of the sewers at last.
[BGM End]
Stage 6-5: Crushing Ceilings
[BGM: Steel Hometown – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
The group emerged out of the pipeline hole in the floor of yet another factory interior. "Here we go again…" Arusu sighed, wringing his mantle to get some water out.
"Well, I'm just glad we got out of the sewers." Solo said. "The smell of sewer water was killing me… and not to mention those Barbars." he shuddered at the last sentence.
"Agreed." Dedede said as they walked ahead, seeing a bunch of Halcandle Dees minding their own business by operating conveyor belts.
"These guys are always busy, no?" Eight noted.
"And yet we still don't know what they're even making in here…" Bandana Waddle Dee added with a shrug as Kirby traded the Cutter Ability for Beam by sucking up a Waddle Doo before the group continued on, carefully moving past several large pistons that slowly press the floors as the hall continues to the right.
[BGM: Pressure Panic – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
Eventually, they found themselves in a chamber… that had the ceiling suddenly coming down and slamming to the floor. "Whoa! What kind of place is this?!" Eleven exclaimed, as they were luckily standing on the safe spot when the ceiling dropped.
"Definitely one where we're not welcome!" Kirby replied as the ceiling came back up again, but then another one appeared to replace it, and so the group quickly ran to the safe spot just in time as the ceiling came crashing down. After dodging enough crushing ceilings and nabbing an Energy Sphere from one of them, a door popped up in the middle and the group went in.
[Resume "Steel Hometown" BGM]
"Phew… That was way too close!" Bandana Waddle Dee sighed once they arrived in the next area of the factory.
"Somehow, I'm having a feeling that this will become a recurring theme in this factory…" Meta Knight suspected as they took off and found many conveyor belts on elevated platforms as well as having enemies standing on them, but they were taken care of. Past this portion, on a large super-fast conveyor that occasionally yields enemies flying past, there was an Armor Dee guarding a Round-trip door as Eleven froze the Armor Dee before going into the door and came back out holding an Energy Sphere, then the group went off to the exit.
That led them to another crushing chamber, but they easily cleared it in the same way as before and also nabbed another Energy Sphere, then they arrived at a series of passages with lines of enemies and Gordos in the way. Down below were eight Invisibility Stones, in which the group happily picked them up each to nullify probably the most dangerous obstacle in this passage level; those being Gigatzo shots, as well as getting an Energy Sphere past a crystalline barrier before eventually reaching the door at the very bottom.
[BGM End]
Yet another crushing chamber awaited them beyond this door, although thankfully it was the last one, and so after nabbing one more Energy Sphere, they were able to exit this chamber.
Stage 6-6: Metal-Head General
[BGM: Omen of Battle – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"You know, I think you might be on to something, Arusu…" Meta Knight spoke up as they were riding up an elevator. "Egg Engines does seem to lack originality overall…"
"…Now you see what I mean?" Arusu deadpanned.
"Well… at the very least, this place seems somewhat livelier than planet Mekkai." Kirby said. "To me, that place looked rather dull compared to this."
"I guess that's a plus…" Meta Knight shrugged and at this moment, the elevator stopped as they got out and emerged back out in the wastes on top of a narrow metallic platform, where they would spot a stationary blue and white robot up ahead.
[BGM End]
"A robot…?" Bandana Waddle Dee wondered as everyone looked curiously at it… when all of a sudden, a yellow signal enters the robot, immediately sparking it to life. "Uh oh…"
"INTRUDERS DETECTED." the robot, Metal General, spoke. "ACTIVATING COMBAT PROTOCOL."
"Oh, great…" Dedede muttered, and they all got ready to fight it.
[BGM: White-Hot! Boss Battle – Super Kirby Clash]
"NO ONE SHALL PASS THROUGH HERE." Metal General said, taking out a laser sword. "EN GARDE." it then lunged towards the group to slash at them, only to clash with Meta Knight's blade as they both started slashing each other repeatedly.
"You sure fight a lot like me…" Meta Knight noted as they were clashing, until he jumped back. "But I won't allow myself to be beaten by some imposter!" he declared and fired a sword beam at Metal General, but it flew into the air and put up a protective shield right as Kirby unleashed a Beam Blast, whose shots were obviously blocked by the shield and then Metal General made it fire out zig-zagging spark bolts in various directions, hoping to hit the group.
"Everyone, get behind me!" Solo called out while he was charging up a Spark Barrier, as the others instantly complied and were all shielded from the bolts, and once Metal General landed back on the floor with its barrier deactivated, Solo immediately fired out a Spark Wave from the Spark Barrier, hitting Metal General at point-blank range and knocking it back.
Arusu took advantage of that to launch a barrage of needle missiles at Metal General while it was still down, only for it to recover and, using its sword, it proceeded to spin it in front of it like a fan fast enough to block and charge forward through the needle missiles as Arusu's eyes widened before he got knocked away by the attack. Meanwhile, the rest jumped away to avoid the attack while Meta Knight used Dimensional Cape to warp behind Metal General and slash it, followed up with a Shuttle Loop to send it up in the air and slashing it down, but Metal General blocked his attack and activated its shield again before rocket diving into Meta Knight to send him away, then it turned around to fire wandering missiles at the rest of the group, but were all frozen by Eleven and he used Cold Fission at it, knocking Metal General away.
Metal General soon got back up. "ACTIVATING DEPLOY PROTOCOL." it said as it then deployed three mines on the ground as they exploded into an unsuspecting Bandana Waddle Dee, covering him in soot where Metal General would charge at him and slash him repeatedly, sending him back. Bandana Waddle Dee quickly recovered and delivered a Multispear Attack to skewer Metal General along with Dedede hitting it with Gordos, and then the Loyal Bodyguards rushed in to quickly attack Metal General, only for it to deploy small drones that exploded on them and sent them flying back, and then it flew up while deploying more drones, but these ones were hovering in the air and proceeded to shoot blasts alongside Metal General at the group, forcing them to dodge as Meta Knight conjured up a Mach Tornado to suck in the drones before blowing them away, then he quickly drilled through Metal General with a Drill Rush.
That attack was strong enough to tear through the metal of Metal General's forehead, now sporting a visible hole as a few sparks of electricity were surging out of it. "DAMAGE DETECTED." Metal General spoke. "NOW DEPLOYING ROCKET." and with that, it suddenly brought out a large rocket from who knows where.
"It has a rocket?!" Bandana Waddle Dee exclaimed in surprise.
"I WILL SMASH YOU WITH ROCKET." Metal General proclaimed as it lifted up the rocket.
It was then that Eight glanced at the rocket's fuse, and then he retorted, "Oh no, you won't!" before breathing fire at the fuse, igniting it.
[BGM ends abruptly]
And then… the very moment Metal General heard the hissing of the fuse's ignition, it instantly froze. "WAIT A MINUTE." it began… and if it was able to express itself, that expression would be of an 'oh crap!' one right now. "HE JUST LIT A ROCKET. ROCKETS EXPLO-"
*KABOOOOOOOM!*
And indeed, the rocket exploded on Metal General before it could even finish its sentence. The group thankfully shielded their faces from the explosion, and then they looked back to see a large cloud of smoke in front of them. When it cleared, it revealed that Metal General was surprisingly still standing, only that now it was sparking and stuttering in place, and it was… colored red?
"Uh… when did it get a new paint job?" Bandana Waddle Dee tilted his head.
"INTRUDERS CONFIRMED BIG THREAT." it spoke. "TIME TO TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES. SENDING OUT: HR-D3." it flies off.
"HR-D3… Why does that sound familiar…?" Dedede thought.
And just then, Metal General came back while piloting a giant robot with a drill for its right hand, a logo of Metal General's head painted on the chest, and… was oddly shaped just like Dedede.
[BGM: Grand Doomer – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"What the?!" Dedede exclaimed in shock. "That thing just stole my mech!"
"This mech is yours?" Kirby asked.
"Yeah, but this is just a prototype that I built before coming up with the Dededestroyer Z that I used back at the Cake Royale. I called this HR-D3… but I never thought that robot would take it and give it a new paint job like it owns it!"
"Well, it's just a prototype, so we can destroy it easily." Meta Knight said. "Get ready for round two!"
"Right!" Eleven nodded as they all got ready.
"BEGONE." Metal General said as it made HR-D3 slam its fist down at the group, but they quickly avoided it as Solo casted Spark to strike HR-D3 with an electric shock, then Meta Knight slashed the fist repeatedly before rolling out of the way as HR-D3 next slammed its drill hand at him.
HR-D3's headpiece opened up, revealing to be a cockpit where Metal General was piloting it as it proceeded to fire missiles at them, but Arusu casted Bounce to reflect one of the missiles back at HR-D3 and hit it and then Eleven stabbed the ground, making large icicles pop out and impale the mech who retaliated by firing a sweeping laser at the Hero, but he rolled out of the way and Bandana Waddle Dee came over to throw a few spears at HR-D3's eyes to impale them and almost skewer Metal General from inside.
"CLOSE ONE." it said and then pounded Bandana Waddle Dee, but he jumped back to avoid the attack while Dedede floated up and swung his hammer down on top of HR-D3's head hard enough to knock out its headpiece, exposing its robotic skeleton and the cockpit where Metal General was.
"One piece is down! Let's keep at it!" Dedede encouraged as HR-D3 started spinning around with its arms stretched out to try and hit everyone as they tried their best to dodge, and during that, Eight got to the corner of the arena and stabbed the ground to create a volcanic eruption in front of him, then he channeled its power into a large fireball that he held on his hands.
"Hellfire!" he yelled, throwing the fireball at HR-D3 that hit it on the chest piece and knocking out its upper half, and then Arusu attacked the lower half with a Maulstrom to knock it out as well. HR-D3 then jumped into the air and body slammed onto the ground near Solo and tried to backhand him, but he rolled out of the way and Thunder Slashed its bottom piece to knock it out right as it was getting back up, and then Solo jumped over to Kirby after dodging its bounce attack.
"Hey, Kirby! You want to do a double electric wave attack?" Solo suggested.
"Oh, yeah!" Kirby nodded, but then HR-D3, now reduced into a barely functioning skeleton at this point, bounced to the corner and started opening up its mouth.
"UNLEASHING MEGA LASER CANNON." Metal General spoke as the cannon inside HR-D3's mouth started charging up, and so the group quickly got away just in time as the cannon fired a massive diagonal beam. When it stopped, that's where Kirby and Solo found the perfect moment to strike.
"Now!" Solo hollered, and with that, he and Kirby charged up their electric attacks and joined together as Kirby would fire a Wave Beam while Solo fired a Spark Wave to combine into the Wave Beam to create a Green Wave Beam, and when that hit HR-D3, it was severely electrocuted along with Metal General as the mech sparked and stuttered along with smoke coming out.
[BGM End]
"WARNING. HEAVY…DAMAGE…RECEIVED." Metal General stuttered. "NO. CAN'T…GIVE UP…UNTIL…INTRUDERS…ARE…REPELLED." it slowly reached for a button on the cockpit. "NOW…ACTIVATING…LAST…RESORT…ATTACK." cue button press.
Everyone watched as HR-D3 began to reach out to its back with its left hand for something. "Wait, it's not down yet?!" Arusu questioned.
"Oh, crap…" Dedede's eyes widened, knowing exactly what's going to happen. "I just remembered… I gave this prototype a hammer too."
And indeed; HR-D3 pulled out a large hammer with orange lights (think of Robo Dedede's hammer from the Scope Shot minigame) and started flailing its arms around wildly. "INITIATING…CLOBBERING…OF…INTRUDERS. CHARGE POWER…CURRENTLY AT…1%" Metal General said, still with stutters as it made HR-D3 raise up the hammer and start charging it up.
"Oh no, oh no! What do we do?!" Bandana Waddle Dee panicked.
"…I've got it!" Kirby suddenly spoke and quickly reached into his hammerspace before pulling out four Super Scope-like weapons (the same ones from, again, Scope Shot) and tossed one each to the rest of the Kirby cast. "Let's all aim for the hammer, and shoot, shoot, shoot nonstop!"
"If that's the way to take it down, then let's do it." Meta Knight said.
Hearing this, the Loyal Bodyguards stepped in next to the Kirby cast while taking out their Kid Icarus weapons. "We'll join in too!" Eleven said. "We also got shooting weapons right here!"
"Oh, wow! They look awesome!" Bandana Waddle Dee gushed. "Where'd you get them?!"
[BGM: VS. Robo Dedede/Heavy Lobster – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"CHARGE POWER…CURRENTLY AT…50%" Metal General said, causing everyone's eyes to widen in alarm.
"Uh-oh! We better hurry! We can leave the talking after this!" Kirby ushered as the others nodded, and then they aimed their weapons directly at the charging hammer and started firing a barrage of shots at it repeatedly, with each shot making HR-D3 recoil back a bit.
"CH-CHARGE P-POWER…C-CURRENTLY A-AT…6-62%..." Metal General stuttered more prominently this time due to HR-D3's recoils by the shots, but it still didn't give up and tried its best to power through them. "CH-CHA-A-ARGE PO-O-WER…CUR-R-RENTLY A-AT…7-76%..." it kept struggling to say, not noticing that the hammer was on the verge of denting and so its head would fall off. "8-89%...92%...I-I…W-WILL…NO-O-T…L-L-LOSE…"
"Oh, put a sock in it!" Dedede yelled, firing a charged energy blast from his weapon at the dented part of the hammer… where it finally gave in and its head smacked right onto HR-D3's head, squishing it flat.
[BGM End]
Immediately, HR-D3 began emitting out explosions as it wobbled in place. "D-DANGER… E-ESSENTIAL C-COMPONENTS…F-FAILING…I-IMMINENT…EXPLOSION…C-CONFIRMED." Metal General said, as HR-D3's hands fell off. "I…F-FAILED…TO…R-REPEL…INTR-UDERS…" HR-D3 then topples over on the ground, and finally exploded along with Metal General.
"Whew…" Dedede sighed. "Finally, it's over."
"I have to say… That robot sure showed some serious dedication and determination just to try to prevent us from advancing." Meta Knight remarked.
"Yeah, let alone siccing a giant robot at us." Arusu threw in. "But anyways…" he looked at Eleven with a smirk. "That was some good thinking about using our newest weapons to help Kirby and his friends out there, Eleven."
"Heh, I know." Eleven smirked back.
"Honestly, I kind of forgot we had these to begin with." Eight said sheepishly. "We could've used them a while back, but I guess we just didn't think about it."
"Hey, it happens all the time, yes?" Solo asked with a smile.
"Yep."
"Speaking of which, now can you guys tell us where did you get these cool weapons?" Bandana Waddle Dee requested.
"Ah, sure." Eleven nodded. "We got these back from Pit's world, and we used them in order to help Pit in his adventure before we were given the freedom to use them whenever and wherever we like. Oh, and it was Palutena who made them for us."
"Oh, dang…" Dedede awed. "I knew she's a powerful goddess who can do almost anything, but I never knew she could craft weapons!"
"So… what kind of weapons do you guys have?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.
"Well, I have a club." Eleven said, holding his Yggdrasil Club out in front so the Kirby cast could see it.
"I have a staff." Solo said, showing off his Angel Staff.
"Mine's a blade." Arusu grinned, activating his Roto Blade's laser beam sword for a demonstration.
"And I have a palm!" Eight smiled, extending his left arm out to activate his Dragon Palm, showing off the tattoo and the circling dragon scales.
"Woooow!" Bandana Waddle Dee's eyes sparkled, while Kirby, Dedede, and Meta Knight looked on in amazement.
"My word…" Meta Knight awed. "I've never seen anything like them…"
The Loyal Bodyguards then put away their weapons. "Well, now… I think we all deserve some rest before going over to Landia." Eleven said. "What do you say we head back to Magolor's ship?"
"Oh, sure thing, Ven!" Kirby agreed, with the others nodding in agreement as Kirby summoned a Warp Star. "Let's get out of here!" everyone then hopped into the Warp Star and it took off with them right out of Egg Engines.
Soon…
[BGM: Magolor, the Distant Traveler – Kirby's Return to Dream Land]
"Welcome back, everybody!" Magolor greeted. "From here, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to Landia's mountain lair!"
"Exactly." Eleven nodded. "But first… we need a good rest right now, since we just took out two robots back at Egg Engines."
"Ah, yes! I understand! Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable in here!"
"Hmm, you know… I have an idea." Kirby said. "How about for this rest, we all just lie down and chat?"
"Oh! Good idea, Kirby!" Bandana Waddle Dee agreed.
"Sure, why not?" Dedede chuckled, and then they all sat on the floor in a circle.
"Well, since our next goal is to take out Landia, why don't you tell us more about him, Magolor?" Solo requested. "You did say that you were going to gather more information of him while we were gone."
"Oh, of course!" Magolor replied. "From what I've gathered, that fearsome dragon lives at the far edge of Halcandra, on the very peak of a volcano, surrounded by intense flames. And that place is called… Dangerous Dinner."
"Ohh, I don't like the sound of this…" Bandana Waddle Dee trailed off.
"The road from there gets a little bit rougher, but I'm sure you'll be just fine! In fact… I've already been to the mountain where Landia lives before. In this very ship even. But that sucker attacks out of nowhere! It's super scary. The Lor got dinged up that time too! I'm really getting fed up with all of this." he then let out a sigh. "If only I was just a little bit stronger, braver, tougher… Like you, guys! I would have blasted that crazy old dragon back to late last week back then."
"Well, it's still not too late to try and be brave yourself. You just need to believe in yourself." Arusu advised.
"…Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Magolor smiled. "Since we still got some more time to spare, I think I'll let you all on a little secret about this ship. You see, the Lor is a legendary vessel crafted by the ancients."
The Kirby cast's eyes perked up by that. "The ancients?!" they thought.
Magolor continued. "It's said that an incredible power was used to construct it. And that the ancients used that same power to give rise to clockwork stars that soar the cosmos… mysterious items that can bring dreams to life… and countless other legendary creations. I excavated this ship from the volcano where Landia dwells and repaired it. And I couldn't help but make a few upgrades before taking it for a spin. Legend also says that this ship has a mind of its own, but I'm not so sure."
"How interesting…" Meta Knight mused. "Not even the Halberd has something like that…" he thought before asking Magolor, "So this ship could also be sentient?"
"As I said before, I'm not so sure. But I'm hoping it will speak to me someday, if I take good care of it!"
"I'm sure it will!" Kirby chirped.
"Heh, always the optimistic, eh?" Magolor chuckled. "By the way, I knew about you long before our fateful meeting."
"Oh, really?"
"Indeed! The great happy-go-lucky hero, Kirby, with a bottomless stomach and hailing from Dream Land on Planet Popstar. He travels the cosmos, fighting foes and helping those in need. You're a real celebrity, you know. I even know somebody who knows you quite well!"
"Oh, wow!" Eight exclaimed. "I never knew you were incredibly popular everywhere, Kirby!"
Kirby blushed. "Heh heh heh… I'm quite flattered just from hearing that…" he said while rubbing the back of his head.
"I'm so lucky to have met you. Me, friends with the legendary Kirby!" Magolor said. "There may even be some folks here who have fought you before. If everybody would just get along, it would make things so much easier. Nothing good comes of fighting. Let's always stay friends, Kirby! And maybe later you can give me your autograph."
"*giggle* Sure!" Kirby giggled, but then he paused, "…Um, wait… do I even have an autograph…?"
Everyone else paused too as awkward silence filled the room… and then everyone burst into laughter.
[BGM End]
Some minutes later…
[BGM: Strategy – Sonic Adventure 2]
Everyone was standing back up, with the group now feeling ready to set off with their main objective. "Everybody, it's finally time. Time for the final showdown." Magolor told them with a serious tone. "Landia is a truly fearsome foe. Super fearsome, even. So team up, and use your combined powers to fell the beast! Hurry up and smash that dragon to smithereens!"
"Right!" Kirby nodded, and then turned to his friends. "We can do this, guys! For Magolor, for Halcandra… and for this universe!"
"Yeah!" the others exclaimed.
"Good luck, my friends. May the spirit of the ancients watch over you." Magolor blessed as the group nodded to him and left the ship.
[BGM End]
But once the group was gone and Magolor was left alone again, he turned around and thought, "Well, I guess my plan has been put into motion… These guys will defeat Landia for me, and I shall finally obtain that other ancient artifact…one that lets anyone rule the universe! Now I just need to wait…" he then let out a saddened sigh. "Kirby… everybody… I'm so sorry that I'm doing this, but it's for my own goal to become the most powerful magician in the universe… I hope you can forgive me afterwards."
…Hoo, boy…
To be continued…
Given that in boss battles I was already including attacks that are only exclusive to the Extra Mode, obviously I wasn't going to leave out HR-D3 for this! And I even managed to throw in a Scope Shot reference for the final blow of the match!
On to Dangerous Dinner! But how dangerous are we talking? Well, find out next time!
Trivia for this chapter:
1. Metal General's lines from before the rocket blew up are based of from the lines said by Woody in Toy Story, after he just lights up a rocket that was attached to Buzz Lightyear's back.
