Star's Allies

Chapter 3 - Round & Risky

As the sun shone upon the three adventurers, breakfast was prepared, courtesy of Dedede. It consisted of bread, butter and some nuts Dedede had in his stash. All three chatted to their heart's content as they ate their meals. With their stomachs filled and minds back to a hundred percent, the trio began discussing, this time trying to figure out which place to go to next.

Taranza raised his hand.

"I vote that we leave this damned forest."

"Denied. I still need to find the last energy sphere, which can help me fix my ship (if only slightly), and it unlocks easier travel for all of us."

Taranza sighed, as Magolor frowned at something as he closed his eyes. "Hold on… there's an energy spike."

Impatiently, Taranza pouted at Magolor. "Can you please find it as quick as you can? I really do not want to be in this maze of a forest anymore…"

Surprised at the attitude change, Magolor stumbled slightly at his words.

"Y-yeah. Got it. I'll try to… do this with, uh... alacrity," the magician said, as he turned into his meek state.

"You better…" Taranza mumbled, as he looked at Magokor's face. To his surprise, Magolor is actually stumbled.

...

"...wait...what…?" Magolor turned into a confused mess.

"Hmm?" the king questioned, half-chewing on his food.

"I see the source, the energy… but it's really, really weird… I really don't know how to describe it… I suppose… it looks like a giant ball?"

The king tilted his head. "A giant ball?" the king did a double take, and tilted his eyebrows. "Wait, why are you confused? You're the one with the visions and special sights and crap!"

"When I got those visions, they were for the black hearts! I don't have any clue what I'm looking at right now!" Magolor explained as he turned to Dedede. He turned back. "Oh. Oh, no." Magolor groaned.

"What? What happened?" Taranza queried as he approached Magolor. "It got bigger. A lot of bigger." Taranza's eyes widened, and he facepalmed a moment after. "This… actually seems to be a trend," Magolor sighed.

" 'mazin'. It'll be like W'ispy again…"

rumble

"Get ready."

A quick second was all the team needed.

"Ready," Taranza confirmed, as Magolor gave a small thumbs up at him and Dedede.

" 'ight, let's roll."

rumble rumble

crack-

crash!

These sounds became louder as whatever is coming moved closer to the trio.

Something was approaching them, destroying whatever they came across, as trees fell in the distance.

Magolor readied himself for a tough fight, setting up a spell with Taranza, who was in turn weaving up a barrage of web. Meanwhile, Dedede fumbled with his new hammer as the being came closer and closer. The suspense was building in all three of them, as the ground shook and the thing came bursting out of the trees.

It was a giant ball, with… a lot of enemies inside. There were a bunch of Waddle Dees— actually, scratch that. The whole thing was Waddle Dees, packed into a sphere.

...

"Is this the apex of how utterly ridiculous this trip has been? I don't think I can handle more..." Taranza stated, bewildered from the unexpected boss.

"No. It'll get a lo' weirde', trus' me."

The king settled on a pose, and readied himself.

The ball began rolling around the team, forcing them apart. In a flash, the ball flung into the air, and crashed to the ground with a lasting impact on the soft ground. Magolor saw this, and quickly scrambled to his feet, as he started his spell. Taranza loaded his web into the magic, preparing for the attack. In that time, Dedede swung at the ball, repelling the roll it used as an attack. With all three in sync for another battle, they've got it handled.

All the attacks didn't do any damage.

Confusion spread.

...

roll roll

crash!

"Uh, guys?" Taranza questioned mid-battle.

"WHAT?"

"It… didn't do any damage. I don't even see a dent, a crack, or any type of damage."

Magolor groaned, shooting his magic to no effect. Neutralised upon impact, the magic dissipated among the Waddle Dees outside the ball. It was like it was absorbing energy.

"Oh boy, this'll be a fun one," Taranza murmured, keeping his voice low as he lobbed another ball of sticky web, hoping to stick it down to the ground.

Kirby was still tied. Thankfully, he was just tied now, so that was a plus. No more awkward pole for him to hang on. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of supervising from the sisters, or Hyness, who kept on cracking awkward jokes about murder.

The blue haired one had started to call Kirby 'Keeby', and as Marx had put it: "You've got a fan, use it well."

She's brought a lot of memorabilia containing Kirby with her, it's a wonder how she managed to get her hands on them, as some of them were sold in public markets (because who doesn't want a figurine about a legendary hero?).

Flamberge had called her "Fran" at one point during her shift; which might be her name. Kirby was not sure, but he rolled with it anyway.

Flamberge held a fiery temper, at least when she's alone. That meant that Kirby had to endure long shouting from Flamberge as she spouted this and that to Kirby, which effectively decreased her stress by putting it on Kirby as he tuned out most of the rant, increasingly annoyed as time goes on.

Partizanne, who has an emotion akin to a rainbow, still managed to make bore Kirby out of his mind. It's like she's electricity; one moment talking about how "Flan" was too immature to another where she complained about her sisters, both in different emotions and tones. It was hard to keep up to, and so Kirby also tuned her out. At least Marx's comment about Partizanne managed to keep him entertained.

'I usually call her the cheese lady. She wears yellow, and she stinks, too. Hence, cheese lady."

Being unable to do anything was tough, but Marx would also visit alone from time to time, as he gave extra food he stole from the 'local' stash (actually, it was Hyness's).

That gave way to an irate Hyness waking up to find a completely pilfered stash, and a note from "Flamberge" talking about how a bonfire was made and the sisters were cooking. Hyness, in an amazing second, managed to smack Flamberge to oblivion once the acolyte the leader ran towards her.

It supposedly escalated to the three sisters glaring at Hyness during breakfast that day, ranting at the cult leader. Of course, Marx was suspected too, as he was "still in his room'' as the situation progressed, as it got out of hand very quickly.

All in all, your usual shenanigans in whatever this place is. Marx still hasn't told him. He was apparently 'getting to it', so Kirby'll have to wait.

…

The door swung open, revealing the one with a name Kirby had yet to know.

"Look at this, Keeby! Look, it's a doll of you!"

The blue haired one came.

"I see, I see," Kirby feigned interest, instead interested in her name. "Hey, what's your name?"

"My name?" She pointed towards herself. "Oh, it's Francisca, silly!" A giggle escaped her mouth. "How did you not know? Have you not learnt of my name from my sister? They've told me that people should always know other people's names…"

It seemed like this one really wanted to be friendly toward him. Feeling better, Kirby relaxed slightly. Only slightly.

"Ah, okay. I just wanted to confirm it…"

"Aha! No worries, no worries! Now we're friends, right, Keeby?"

Kirby hesitated for a moment. What should he do?

Should he say yes?

He wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to make friends, though.

…

"Er… Yes."

"Yaaaay!" Francisca began to pick Kirby up and throw him like a ball. After a few minutes, Kirby was returned to the floor. "I'll bring you some cookies! Wait here, alright?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

Francisca left the room. 'It seemed like there maybe was a good person here, too. Maybe she can help change the minds of the other sisters…'

Marx took a long look at the core of the altar, the Jamba Heart. It was half completed, with multiple things being thrown at it by the Flamberge to help it heal (as per Hyness's instructions). The really big energy sources were the shards of dark energy Hyness somehow accumulated; those really sped up the process.

"Oi, Marx! Hoist yourself up here and help me throw these things!"

Marx was also just standing there.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do it."

Marx flew up using his newly acquired wings that he still had no idea where it came from and landed beside the pile of things. "Alright, throw 'em," Flamberge instructed. So, Marx did. Right at Flamberge's face.

"Marx, I swear to-"

He teleported out, laughing all the way. Marx went back to his room, where multiple things can be seen.

However, his eyes always glanced right to his table.

The piece of clockwork on the table always attracted his attention.

He knew it played a significant part in whatever happened to him in space, but his questions were never answered. However, he had a theory.

Maybe Nova heard his wish of not dying before rocketing towards the celestial computer. Maybe Marx just awoken his innate power back when Nova was there, and his wish to rule Dreamland was instead cast aside by a fatal error from identifying the person who began the question procedure, namely Kirby.

Then again, the theories were bogus, and Marx had accepted his fate by then. He thought that at the end of his fight with Kirby, he would crash into Nova at full speed, annihilating him. Guess fate had other plans.

…

I guess a visit to Kirby wouldn't hurt.

Marx visited Kirby's 'room', which was basically a holding cell. Kirby looked at him as soon as he came in.

"Oh, you're here."

"Yeah, same time as yesterday. So, you wanted to know the name of this place? I finally got the intel I need…"

...

"Jambastion Base?"

"Yeah, Jambastion Base."

"Who on Popstar would name something 'Jambastion'?"

Marx looked at Kirby.

"It's a bastion. Combined with Jamba."

The situation was still confusing.

"Well, what's 'Jamba', then?"

"Jamba is a sort of name for whatever magic or religion these nutcases are praying to… other than that, I have no idea… Hyness said some weird things, like…"

A memory flashed.

"Butterfly bad. It's must die! I must kill some butterflies! Haiyah!" Hyness swung at an invisible enemy up in the air.

…

"Ah."

The door swung open that instant, as Marx jumped from the noise. He was tense. What if someone heard their entire conversation…?

"I brought some cookies, Keeby! Oh, Marxie!"

"Marxie? Are you serious?"

Marx glared at the pink puffball.

"Oi, shut up," he told him bluntly.

He forgot Francisca was even in the room.

Francisca gasped as soon as Marx finished his sentence, dropping her cookies as she did so.

"Hey, Marxie, you said a bad word! Oi, Flam! Marxie just said a bad word to Keeby here!" Francisca ran off, trying to find her sister.

The door was left unlocked as Francisca ran out to find Flamberge.

…

"Ah, shit. I'm going to get pummeled…"

Kirby leaned back at the wall behind him. "Relaaaax. It's won't be that harsh."

"...I might've pissed off Flamberge earlier…"

…

"Okay, it'll be harsh, then. You might want to run."

"Yeah, I think I'll start right now."

Marx ran for his life, as a shouting Flamberge came soon after with what looked like a rocket engine spewing out fire all over the base.

…

"Come back here, you-!"

Marx was currently dodging the flames he had fanned earlier. He tried to go into rooms and hide as best as he could. Too bad Flamberge won't let him. Luckily, Marx was blessed with the power of teleportation. So, he teleported into the best room he knew to hide in: the closet. It was a very, very cramped room, full of things like cleaning materials, a box full of items, spare acolyte robes, and multiple sets of hoods and cloaks. Marx chose the bright idea of diving into the clothing.

Whilst hiding, he stole a glance at the box. It was half open, and he was able to peek its contents inside.

The box was filled to the brim with packaging material, stamped with a Dedede seal of approval as it contained a lot of rations. Marx grinned; that was it. The escape plan. The problem was getting rid of it. While the box would fit both Marx and Kirby along with several items, it would be hard to convince the sisters or Hyness to get rid of the box, as they had no complaints with the box being there. It was a pretty nice box.

Clack…!

The door was unlocked. That meant that he needed to picklock the door, too… hold on, the door was unlocked?

His attention turned back to the door, as Flamberge came in. Marx tried to be as static as he could, as he waited for the door to close again.

Flamberge searched the room for a bit, completely missing the jester as he breathed slowly and evenly, masking his breathing with hers. Eventually, Flamberge headed out, closing and locking the door behind her. Marx went out of his hiding place and stood there for much longer; he wasn't going to get caught as soon as he left; he'd rather delay it as long as possible.

So, the waiting game began.

Kirby starkly remembered his second day conversation with Marx. He once asked why the jester couldn't just teleport out. "There's a barrier around this place, prevents me from being able to teleport out. Inside though; it's free game."

So, the plan was that Marx would try and find some way to send them both out without raising suspicion, while Kirby formed bonds with the sisters. In short, Marx was basically teaching Kirby to abuse the sisters trust on him.

"No," was his natural response. Kirby did not want to manipulate the sisters, which was obvious to Marx. So, a new plan was formed. Kirby will just get on good terms with the sisters, so that whatever he did would not raise as much suspicion.

Kirby agreed to that, and wanted to talk more, but Marx had already left by then.

Now though, the situation was different; Marx was forced to leave, and Kirby was genuinely worried for his safety, despite the dodgy past Marx had.

Francisca had left, chasing Marx around. The door was still open. Kirby supposed he should wait. Escape didn't need to be done in a quick pace as of now, anyway. Daylight was running out, Kirby noted. A full two days of not being able to help gnawed at Kirby. At least he could still place hope at his friends. He knew he could count on them. He had to.

"This thing is not falling apart!" Magolor yelled, as the fight continued. They had spent most of the day trying to break the ball apart with no progress. The most they had been able to do was to part in half via Taranza's web, but it quickly repaired itself.

The group was tired as they tried to fend off the massive congregation of Waddle Dees, from sunrise to sunset, without lunch in between. The fight needed to end soon; but it didn't look like it was going to. All they had to do was to send it off some distance to catch their breaths, before going back into smacking the spherical mass.

"I don't think I can stand anymore of this…" Taranza exclaimed, as he went around a tree for cover. Dedede was also similarly by a tree, swinging his hammer at the thrown acorns to hit the monstrosity.

Magolor collapsed first, and was immediately added to the pile of Dees. Not a second later, the trees fell, and Taranza joined him. Dedede gasped for air as he too, was taken by the giant ball.

…

"Why is this hollow?"

It turned out that the ball had a shell. The floor kept on moving, but Taranza and Dedede managed. Magolor crawled, albeit with some attempts to levitate up. Inside, was a core made out of two distinct things: A waddle dee wearing a bandana inside of a hardened shell of glass, surrounded by a spiralling Energy Sphere as suddenly gravity turned-

All three combatants were sent hurtling to the core.

Another turn of gravity, and the three were back at the ground, with a few new bruises on their bodies.

This repeated a few times, as all three were thrown into the core and back with multiple failures to stay on the ground.

Eventually, however, it stopped.

"Ahaha...fun…" Taranza cried out, with less enthusiasm than what his comment suggested.

Magolor attempted to stand up again, and flopped back down.

"We can't catch a break…"

Dedede smacked the glass, and no cracks or dents formed. "This thin' is too dam' strong! Bandana is in there, and I can't get 'im outta here!"

whoosh

Harsh wind flew. A loud noise formed around the ball. Soon, a 'bonk' was heard. And the next moment, a giant apple smashed right through the outer shell of the 'Dee Ball. It was Whispy, who had not taken the intruder nicely, taking both his forest down as well as the people who freed him from the curse.

A rain of apples crashed to the ball, as Magolor, Dedede and Taranza hid under the main core. As the shell dissipated into blue energy, the core started to gain speed and decided to fling itself around. All three who were still using the core as cover, suddenly found no cover to stand under. It was raining apples, and Dedede hit them all away, sending the apples up and away from them.

"Come on, one of them is bound to hit the core…"

The core circled a tree, and Taranza took his chance. He attached his web at the tree and the core, connecting them both together. Another web was formed, as the increasing number of webs traps the core in place. It was stationary now.

Magolor created a solid spike, and gave it to Dedede to send hurtling to the core and pierce it.

Dedede swung his hammer at full power, with projectile well on its way to its target.

A sickening crack rang through the air as the glass cracked under the pressure. That was enough for one of Whispy's apples to smash through the glass, releasing Bandana Waddle Dee out of the sphere prison. As Magolor quickly pocketed the Energy Sphere, Bandana talked. "Agh...my king…...what happened…?"

"Well, you see, I actually don't kno'."

Magolor took notice and gave Dee his answer. "So, you see, the Energy Sphere can manifest into a defensive position if it hits something. I suspect that it was dealt with so much potential damage that the sphere caught you in it as you wandered about."

"Ah, alright…"

Magolor took that as understanding and crashed down for good this time. The king similarly also slept on the ground. Taranza stood awoke for another moment as he saw Whispy turn back into the forest, and fell asleep himself. Bandana simply stood here as he sat down, trying to figure out what had happened during his time in the sphere.

…

Taranza awoke at the crack of dawn. The sun barely peaked at the horizon, giving Popstar it's light.

Their fight had gone successfully, with Whispy's root blades. They've managed to crack the egg that was the 'Dee Ball. "Sometime after this all ends, I want to rest…" Taranza's head turned to the Dreamstalk beyond the plains, and smiled at that. He tried to look at Sectonia in a new light, remembering her in her past. Thoughts raced across, and a singular one stuck in Taranza's head. He imagined that Sectonia was beside him. He knew that she would be supporting him from the grave. Most people who've fought Kirby has regained sense, the same must've happened to her as well.

'Look, Secty. I've been helping this group to try and fight whoever kidnapped Kirby. We've beaten foes. I'm doing good. I'm advancing to closure. I'm not there yet, but maybe this journey will help me find that closure." Taranza sat down as he experienced the sunrise, basking in its warmth.

A few minutes later, and Magolor woke up from the beating he received yesterday, to see a spider laying on the grass, facing the sun. "Calming moments, ain't it?"

"Sometimes, moments like these are what make our fights worth it. I just know that we're going to save Kirby," Magolor returned.

The two mages sit together. Soon, Kirby became the topic of conversation, as the two talked about their experiences with Kirby.

"I tricked him into getting the Master Crown… I still feel bad, actually… heh...uh…"

"Really? You tricked him? At least you had the chance; I genuinely thought the King was the hero I was supposed to find."

"Who knew by doing that, I've somehow managed to not doom the planet?" Taranza continued, laughing slightly.

Magolor smiled along with Taranza, though his smile wasn't actually visible, covered under his scarf.

"In one way or another, I suppose Kirby was always the hero."

"He always was. He has a righteous heart," Taranza commented.

The topic shifted into something else.

"Actually...the Lor can travel long distances…"

"So this was why you wanted to repair your ship quickly?"

"Yeah, it'll make traversing much easier, when we're storming whatever place Kirby's in."

Taranza questioned the magician on the plan. "What are we actually going to do once we track down the root of the problem?"

"Well… Meta Knight has an airship, I have Lor, and Dedede has a lot of troops to storm the place."

"Hmm." Taranza yawned, and continued.

"Well, I might be able to convince the People of the Sky to send the king to the castle with their cannon…"

"..." Magolor was silent at his suggestion.

"So yeah, I'm using the king as a cannonball. Maybe. He's still got the round shape; it'll work out fine!"

"What's this with me bein' thro'n aroun' like a cann'nball?"

Dedede has awoken from his slumber.

He was also unamused at Taranza's plan.

The king was not happy at Taranza's proposal to shoot him using a cannon (He did use it during the breaking of Sectonia's barrier, he knew it well enough).

"Yeah. Uh… right. So, I'm gonna shoot you out from a cannon. It's a valid strategy!"

"I am not bein' sho' out from a cann'n," the king told Taranza, tired with his antics, especially in the morning.

"C'mon, it'll be fun! I'll give you some practice; hold still," Taranza instructed.

"Hey wait hold on no stop-" Dedede was getting dragged.

Taranza quickly created a massive slingshot by webbing up two trees, and with his hands, he held the bound king to one side of the catapult using a weaker version of his web.

He then turned to the other side and pulled until the web won't stretch anymore, and released his hands. The king went flying to the distance, a lot of meters away from his original position, yelling all the way.

Taranza snickered, which then turned into a cackle as he laughed at the king's predicament.

A dust cloud formed somewhere over the lands, as Dedede sprinted, planning to tackle the spider for his practical joke.

An hour and a punched spider later, Dedede returned on a much more serious attitude.

"Kingly priorities. I can't trav'l until I sort 'em out."

"Are you serious?"

Dedede was also being held back by his status as king.

"Y'ah, I'm seri'us. I'll sen' carepackag's though."

"Well, I feel kinda bad now that you're leaving on a sour note," Taranza noted.

"My king still has an army to attend to, now that I'm actually available. We can organise a meeting time sooner or later; just that Dedede might be too busy to actually attend," Bandana Dee mentioned.

"I'll need to roun' up the Dees again, aren't I?"

"Yes, my liege," Bandana responded, as he turned to Magolor and Taranza, "We'll meet up someday; just wait for it."

Taranza scratched his head, as he dropped his farewell.

"Bummer. Well, see you until next time, I suppose."

"Sorry for his attitude the past few days…" Magolor apologised, feeling slightly responsible for Taranza's attitude.

The magic duo left, leaving Dedede and Bandana Dee alone.

Dedede picked up his hammer, and began to walk back to his castle.

"Right, let's get started."

Miniboss #1

Katamari, Deadly Sphere

An incredibly mini-sized planet, one might say; this monstrosity was made using an Energy Sphere as its core. It takes in energy as a means to replenish its battery, as the energy is being used to empower Bandana Dee's self into multiple Dees, all around him, surrounding him into a ball. It draws attention that it picks up items and either stores them for energy or brings them inside, to deal damage via gravity flips and an inconsistent ground. Bandana had found the core by accident, which triggered the creation of this doomed sphere.

AN:

Another chapter! Here, we have a deeper look into Kirby's situation, as well as Dedede's departure (he is a king, after all).

Dedede's accent was taken from the anime. I tried to copy that kind of speech, but I'm so sure if I succeeded or not.

Dedede need to take care of some issues in his country, mainly gathering back his Dee army, but he'll stay in contact with our main team.

As for Marx, well, he's Marx.

Magolor didn't do any funny business, trust me.

icanwrite13: Marx is an interesting person. His ability to lie (or rather, his penchant for lying, tricking, and the likes) makes him a fun character to write.

Kirbzarmon: Well, the way I view Taranza is like this: he's sorta the extroverted type and a bit of a prankster when surrounded by others, but keeps to himself when he's alone. Taranza is still affected by Sectonia's death, but he hides this from everyone else. He is still depressed, but that depression is alleviated slightly by his search for closure. He laughs as a way to stay optimistic, actually. That's why we have these moments with Taranza, and then a clearly different personality once he meets other people.

Rate and review, if you'd like.