In Times of Crisis
Chapter 2
An Artist and Her Friends
(Uploaded on August 18, 2018)
(Updated on April 24, 2022)
Summary: All of Dream Land has become unsafe territory in the wake of the Robobot invasion – leaving an artist and her two friends fighting desperately to keep safe amidst all the chaos.
Notes: This chapter was updated on April 24, 2022 to touch up the writing.
[Adeleine]
Resolution Road
Network Boulevard
These buildings are huge.
Dream Land's never had anything like this before, and it really frightens me. Just a few days ago, Ribbon and Gooey and I were just having fun painting some pictures – Gooey's tongue can really move, seriously! – right before this colossal mothership came down from the sky and crashed onto Pop Star.
I still remember how loud Ribbon yelped (not that I could blame her for it).
A whole bunch of robotic mechs followed afterward, and I do mean a whole bunch. I noticed that one of them seemed to glance over us for a brief second, too. I didn't want to stick around to see what it was going to do, so I grabbed Ribbon and Gooey and made a break for it.
We've been hiding wherever we can since, trying to find any sort of help, anyone who hasn't been affected by… whatever the heck's going on here. We would have gone to Castle Dedede, but we saw two gigantic lasers fire in its direction, so we didn't know how that safe we would be.
I'm kind of regretting that, though, because I haven't seen any lasers fire since—and let's face it, we're not going far the way we're traversing Dream Land. At least Dedede would be able to help us in some way.
Heck, I don't even know where we are anymore—
—which probably explains how we got into this city to begin with.
"Where is this?" Ribbon asked, staring in awe at the skyscrapers above us. "It reminds me of Shiver Star, but… that shouldn't be possible, right?"
She floated over to Gooey, who was walking right beside us. "Gooey, what do you think?"
"Look at all the machines on the road," Gooey noted dreamily, ignoring Ribbon's question through his own oblivious nature. "I wanna try them. Ado, can we try them? I like the revving sounds they make…"
"…maybe some other time, Gooey," I replied, my eyes peering carefully over our surroundings. "Right now, we need to find something here that can help us. Maybe even a resting place."
We've been surviving off my ability to paint us a picnic in an instant, but it's definitely no substitute for real, actual food. Not to mention, we're only three people surviving against an entire brigade of enemies—our choices are either hide or die.
The roads before us seem to have a car with a half-mechanized Waddle Dee travelling over them (and some bridges in the background) every few seconds, and there are a few cyborg guards for the invaders hanging about, too. In the distance, I could see some large and fairly extravagant buildings, one of which looked like a research lab.
It was safe to say that going there probably wasn't a good idea; they're likely to be heavily guarded and extremely unsafe.
So we're better off trying to find something in one of the many buildings scattered about this city. I'm not sure if we'll even find something good, seeing how this place was built very recently – but it's worth a shot.
My paintbrush, Ribbon's Crystal Gun, and Gooey's… gooeyness should be able to hold off some of the bad guys if they come after us, but it's best not to take any chances. Sticking to stealth is better than trying to charge in – we're definitely not Kirby, after all.
"Hey, Adeleine! Look over there!" Ribbon pointed me toward a conspicuously visible tower, a label stating that it was a 'Communications Tower' specifically. It wasn't as big as the gigantic research lab in the distance, but it was big enough. "I think we can get your phone working again over there! Or at the very least, we can get in touch with Dedede!"
Sometime back, Dedede decided to import in his own set of electronics: a phone, a computer, a network; the works. Unfortunately, he was only really able to interact with Kirby and Meta Knight through them, seeing as they were the only other people in Dream Land with that type of technology.
I myself only have a simple phone, like the one Kirby uses to call his Warp Star (and I've been told that that type of phone is outdated now? I don't really get that). Unfortunately, I can't get any cell reception at all, which might have something to do with that giant mothership.
The things in that tower, however, might definitely be able to lend us a hand in that department. Maybe it could connect to Dedede's network thing, or something.
"Good thinking, Ribbon," I complimented. "It's certainly worth a shot!"
"So, does that mean no road machines, Ado?" Gooey inquired, his face looking adorably puzzled.
"…yes, Gooey. No road machines today."
"Awwww…" The blob of Dark Matter momentarily wilted, before going right back to his usual jovial state. "Maybe next time, then."
The three of us got moving, slowly making our way across the sidewalk. The industrial air just didn't really click with me, and something about it felt utterly unnerving. I… think that might have something to do with the fact that this is on Pop Star, but I can't really be sure.
Something caught my eye, and quickly, I ushered Ribbon and Gooey into ducking behind a set of convenient trash cans.
A Waddle Dee came walking over, part of his head patched over with something robotic while also sitting in some sort of tiny orange walking device. He looked around a bit, seemingly trying to find something (us?).
I grit my teeth; Ribbon chattered her own in nervousness.
I didn't want to fight anyone, especially not a little Waddle Dee who hasn't done anything wrong. The sight of him even gave me a little pause – in spite of his lighter color, he reminded me a little bit of my good friend Bandana Dee.
…where is Bandana Dee, anyway? We haven't seen him at all these past few days.
Could… Could he have been caught by the invaders?
Were all our other friends alright too, or…?
…no, I can't think about that right now. I gotta focus on getting to the store.
J-Just don't think about them, don't think about them…
Luckily, the Waddle Dee shrugged after a bit, and continued on his way.
I breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Ribbon.
"That was a close one," she whispered to me.
Gooey looked far more interested and something else.
"Oh, that Waddle Dee has a machine thingy too," he remarked. "If I can't ride in the big machines, can I ride in one of those?"
I sighed. "We'll see, Gooey. We'll see."
We got back to moving, taking care not to be sighted by either the half-robotized sentries or the casual Waddle Dee drivers. Thankfully, I had a handy-dandy giant easel for all of us to hide behind – though it certainly was tedious having to repeatedly keep it up for so long.
I don't get how those Dees can be so casual when everything's like this. Do… Do they just not care?
I also had to make sure Gooey didn't try to lick the poor Waddle Dees off their cars or mechs. He's a good friend and all, but dang if he can't be a bit of a hassle to deal with. That tongue of his really reaches far! He also nearly caught the eye of the overhead sentries—specifically, the ones with those bulky armors.
Boy, didn't that give us a scare.
(Well, me and Ribbon, anyway.)
Those things were flying all about, and it was clear you didn't want to mess with them. They looked like they could hit really, really hard—just look at how big their arms were! Not to mention, they seemed to be scanning around for something. I hoped it wasn't Gooey. I'm sure that, with his status of being made of Dark Matter, the bad guys would definitely try to do something to him. And I didn't like the thought of that any more than Ribbon did.
Finally, we managed to make it right outside the tower. Rather than heading in upfront, we ducked in behind an alleyway.
(I know what you're thinking. No, there weren't any bad guys back there or anything.)
"Alright you two, I'm going to head in first," I said. "I'll call you guys inside when it's absolutely safe. Ribbon, make sure Gooey doesn't wander off before that happens."
Ribbon nodded. "Got it, Adeleine!"
Gooey merely drooled, his tongue still sticking out onto the floor.
"Bring back some food for us, Ado," he said.
Resolution Road
Communications Tower
Waltzing on in, my eyes began to glaze over at how advanced the technology here was.
The color palette was a sleek white with hints of gray and blue – simplistic, yet charming, in a way. All about the lobby, there were loads upon loads of computers, and they were hosting so many people on them—both normal and mechanized.
I didn't want a whole lot of attention, so I walked to a booth that was fairly out of the way.
Of course, that just led to a new problem:
I barely knew how to operate a computer.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know what a computer is – Kirby and Dedede have shown me theirs before – but that didn't mean I knew how to use it like the back of my hand.
We… don't have a lot of them in Dream Land, as you can tell.
"Alright," I muttered, prepping my fingers, "let's get this working."
The numerous icons seemed intimidating at first, and I didn't exactly know what they did, but after 'clicking' around (I think that's what you do?), I managed to stumble onto the built-in phone function.
One inputting Dedede's number later…
A bit of static played out on the screen, before Dedede's glorious face finally greeted my vision.
"Adeleine! Is that you!? Are—Are you there!?" he exclaimed, his visage looking far more worried than I had ever seen it.
Was… Was he that worried for me?
"Yeah, I'm here," I answered, a warm smile coming onto my face for the first time since this all began.
"Thank goodness!" Dedede visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "When I heard you were missing, I… I assumed the worst. I'm—I'm glad to see that I was wrong. Is Ribbon and Gooey with you?"
"Yeah, they're just outside." I pointed a thumb toward the nearby entrance. "I haven't brought them in yet, but they're safe with me. What's going on here, anyway? Why's everything so… patched over? And what did that giant ship thing do?"
"That ship belongs to the Haltmann Works Company," Dedede replied, his face turning stony serious. "My Dees have reported that they want to harvest our resources for something, and to that end, they're mechanizing everything in search of that goal." He grimaced. "I've seen the effects on everyone; it's not pleasant at all."
"I can tell."
I can't imagine being half-human and half-robot – that just sounds like a recipe for disaster.
"They're ruining everything that made Dream Land… well, Dream Land. It just feels so… so… so wrong. And that's not evening mentioning all the sentries on patrol."
"Wait… Sentries?" Dedede probed.
"There's a lot of robot guys flying around in the sky—some Capsule J2s, half-robot Scarfies, and also these guys in weird armor. They looked really bulky, but also really strong."
"Oh, dear NOVA," he muttered. "You haven't had to deal with any of them, right?"
"No, thankfully. I've managed to keep us hidden well enough, and we've kept ourselves sustained on my paint picnics these past few days. We've been trying to find any help for a while, but we haven't had any sort of luck. We can't haven't even seen Kirby or Bandana Dee anywhere."
"That's weird. I thought Bandana Dee would have gotten to you guys by now? He's been out and about trying to save as many people as he can from our invaders."
My smile grew a little warmer. "That sounds just like him."
Bandana Dee's always been a good friend; I'm glad to hear he's still the same as ever.
"Maybe he's just not in our currently region – we're in Resolution Road right now."
"Resolution Road? I haven't seen much of that place yet. Then again, I haven't gone beyond the Patched Plains because of my duties. Hopefully, that's not too far from here…"
"What have you been doing, anyway? I know you wouldn't just let yourself be cooped up in your castle without a good reason."
"Heh heh… I've actually been housing refugees from the invasion!" he proudly proclaimed. Wait, seriously!? "You wouldn't believe how many of them there are. I haven't been doing a whole lot outside because of 'em."
I blinked a little in surprise.
"Wow. That's… That's really nice of you."
Dedede smiled. "It's a King's duty to care for his people, after all. What kind of King would I be if I didn't?"
"I guess you have a point."
Man, and to think this is the same guy that used to fight Kirby all the time. It's still almost surreal, actually.
"Say, I wanna see how Ribbon's doing! It's been a while since I got to catch up with her, what with the Robobot crisis and all. Come on, bring her in!"
"Alright, alright," I laughed. "Ribbon and Gooey hopefully haven't wandered off, it should be fine to—"
That was as far as I got before I heard a scream coming from outside. It—It sounded like… Ribbon!?
"Hey, that's—that's Ribbon! What's going on!?" Dedede's face shot back up to being anxious, and so was mine.
They should have been safe, these robot guys are too dumb to look in alleyways!
"Something's happened," I quickly stated. "I gotta go help them!"
Dedede nodded. "Alright. Try and get back to my castle—or the Squeak Squad, if you can!"
He looked directly into my eyes – I could see his own sprinkled with concern for me.
"…please stay safe, Adeleine. I don't want to see you or anyone else captured."
"I'll try my best, Dedede. You can count on it."
Resolution Road
Alleyway
I ran out of the tower, rushing straight toward where I knew Ribbon and Gooey had been hiding in. I heard several Dees and Doos yelp as I passed them by, but I paid them no matter.
I had to make sure my friends were safe, no matter what! I'd be a terrible friend if I didn't!
By the time I made it, one of those armored patrollers had descended in front of Ribbon and Gooey. My fairy friend had whipped out her Crystal Gun, but it was clear that she was really scared, from the way her hands were shaking while pointing it at the bad guy.
"D-Don't come any c-closer!" she stammered. "I—I know h-how to use t-this! It—It'll hurt!"
Gooey, on the other hand, was staring perplexed at the guy's presence. "Are you food? You don't look like it…"
I don't think he really understood just how bad this was for him or Ribbon.
"Scanning lifeforms…" the patroller intoned.
Huh. This guy's voice was… pretty robotic. And loud, too.
Then again, with the way this 'Haltmann Works Company' has been mechanizing everything, it stands to reason their employees would also be made up of robots.
"Lifeforms have been confirmed as a Ripple Star fairy and Dark Matter. The Ripple Star fairy is carrying a weapon of interest to the Mother Computer. New objectives: capture the Ripple Star fairy and Dark Matter for the Haltmann Works Company."
The armor stepped forward toward Ribbon and Gooey, with Ribbon making a frightened squeak at its actions. Gooey finally seemed to recognize the threat, and began to whip around his tongue in a fighting manner.
It didn't stop the armor from approaching, though—
—but that's what I'm here for.
"Hey! Get away from my friends!" I yelled, pulling out my paintbrush and aiming it right toward the mech, my other hand holding my palette out to paint.
The pilot in response turned around.
"Scanning new lifeform… Human lifeform detected to have an unknown semblance of magical abilities. Additional objective: capture new human."
The armor started trudging toward me, and subsequently began to wind up a punch.
The minute it dashed toward me, I dove outta the way, swiping my brush in its general direction. A splash of paint let loose and splattered onto the armor and the grunt's visor.
"Error! Error!" he exclaimed. "Unknown substance detected! Vitality of Invader Armor has decreased!"
As it tried to shake it off, I followed up by getting up close and splashing even more paint on its face, leaving it unable to attack.
I took this opportunity to run past it.
"Are you guys alright!?" I ran to my friends, hurriedly checking them over for any sort of bruise or injury.
"Adeleine! W-We're—We're fine!" Ribbon said, looking fairly ruffled. "We just didn't see that guy coming."
"He didn't look nice," Gooey remarked. "We should give him food. People always become friends when you give them food."
Behind us, the Invader Armor thing (finally, an actual name to give it!) regained its previous composure. It hadn't managed to wipe off all of the paint, but it got enough off to get its sight back.
It performed the closest thing to a glare at me.
"Threat level of human lifeform increased!" it declared. "New priority: subdue the lifeforms at any cost!"
Once more, it rocketed toward us, but this time all of us were ready. Ribbon grabbed my back and we flew away, Gooey following through his Mock Matter form.
The Invader Armor prematurely ended his dash and proceeded to hop high after us, propelled by its jets.
Wordlessly, Ribbon handed me her Crystal Gun, and I proceeded to fire it repeatedly at the mech as we swerved out of its way. At the same time, Gooey was unleashing his own waves of purple lightning at it.
The mech couldn't do much more than aimlessly try to grab at us, seeing as we were much more maneuverable—
—so instead, it did a cheap trick and targeted Gooey instead.
The poor blob hadn't seen this change of events and tanked the hit, the two of them descending back into the alleyway.
"Oh no, Gooey!" Ribbon panicked.
We flew in after them.
The Invader Armor rushed toward him again, and he responded by fire dashing through its form. Once he was behind the mech, he lashed out with a series of tongue strikes, but it didn't take the thing long before it yanked his tongue and slammed him onto the floor.
It tried to squish him flat afterward, and Gooey went into his Stone form to nullify the damage. But no matter how invulnerable Stone was, it was still a rock—and even Gooey has to come out of there at some point.
As Ribbon and I landed back onto the ground, I went and plopped my easel into a standing position.
"What do we paint, Adeleine, what do we paint!?" Ribbon exclaimed. "We have to help Gooey out somehow!"
"Don't worry, Ribbon—I've got an idea!"
The first creature that came to my mind was the Ice Dragon from the Rainbow Islands, so I decided it would do.
I began painting, and before long, a paper-thin recreation of the Ice Dragon had come to life.
"Hey, you jerk!" I called out to our enemy, hopping onto my animated creation. "You should fight something your own size!"
The Invader Armor turned around to face us, and the pilot's eyes widened at the sight.
"Impossible!" it declared. "Scan visors indicate the appearance of an Ice Dragon… This information contradicts the known data of this creature!"
The grunt's head spun in confusion, and I took the opportunity to bathe the guy in ice breath.
In just a few seconds, the Invader Armor had been blown to smithereens. The pilot went flying out of its cockpit, landing onto the street.
For a moment, the two of us and Gooey just stared at the mech's remains.
Then, I began to laugh.
"We… We did it!" I shouted, pumping my arms into the air.
Ribbon grabbed my hands and we began to do a happy little fairy dance in relief. Gooey stuck his tongue back out and licked himself clean, sounding just as happy as us.
Unfortunately, our little celebration didn't last very long. The guy that had lost his armor got back up and pulled out some sort of device from somewhere.
"Attention, all units in the vicinity," he talked into it, "this is Haltworker Unit #14146. We have a case of three rogue lifeforms, consisting of a human, a Ripple Star fairy, and a piece of Dark Matter. This unit is requesting assistance to capture these lifeforms. Their functions must be studied!"
"I-I don't like t-the sound of t-that," Ribbon whimpered, hovering close to my side.
Looking up, I saw a bunch more Invader Armors, just like the one we fought, hovering right toward our general area.
"I think that means it's time to go!" I whispered back.
I grabbed Gooey and made a run to the closest car. Sadly, we had to steal it from a poor Waddle Dee, but now wasn't the time to get hung up on that.
"Hey! That's my ride!"
"Sorry, little Dee!" I called to him as we drove off, "I'll pay you back later!"
Indeed, we were just in time, for the Invader Armies had just touched the ground.
Much like computers, I hadn't spent a lot of time using vehicles—but I've handled a few Warp Stars in my spare time. That would have to be good enough!
"Ooh, look at all the pretty machines," Gooey dreamily stated.
Briefly, I tore my gaze to the rear-view mirror. Lo and behold, there were several mechs rocketing toward our position.
"Ribbon! Try to blast them out!" I spoke. "I gotta handle getting us outta here!"
"On it, Adeleine!"
I heard the telltale signs of Ribbon's Crystal Gun firing as fast as it could, with Gooey staring in awe, but I couldn't exactly focus on that. Right now, I had to deal with traffic.
"Oops! Sorry! 'Scuse me, passing through!"
I drove and swerved all about in an attempt to escape the army at our backs. I didn't exactly know where I was going, or what was my end goal—
—but to be honest, anywhere was better than right now!
Go, go, go, go, go!
Resolution Road
Outskirts
Eventually, we managed to pull out of the city.
Normally, this'd be a good thing—I mean, it's one step closer to escape!
But then I noticed something important: on the gauge labeled 'Gas', the marker was pointing closer to E rather than F.
It didn't take me long to figure out what that meant.
"Guys, we're running out of gas!" I yelled to the two in the backseat.
In the mirror, I could see Ribbon swivel her head to face me in shock. (Gooey just drooled.)
"What!?" she shouted. "But there's still so many guys chasing after us!"
"We're gonna have to make our way without the car!" I liked this just as much as she did, but we didn't really have a choice. I'm pretty sure I can't paint up more fuel.
"On the count of three, we jump out and run," I told them. "One… two… three!"
At my word, the three of us hopped out. Quickly, I grabbed my easel and painted Kracko in record time. After handily landing on its fluffy top, we made a break for it.
Luckily for us, there was a forest in view—somewhat patched over, as with the rest of Dream Land, but it would do! It's really easy to hide in forests, believe me; all our hide-and-seek games have proven that to me.
"We're almost there!" Ribbon pointed out. "Just a little bit more…!"
But to our horror, a set of three Invader Armies descended to the entrance of the forest we were heading in.
"Wait, what!?" we both exclaimed.
And then my Kracko drawing ran out of steam, leaving us falling to the floor.
We plopped face-first onto the patched-over grass, a disconcerting feeling quickly filling our senses.
"Oof!"
As I got up, I noticed we were now fully surrounded by Invader Armies, making an impenetrable circle around us.
No way through; no room to safely fly out.
"Oh, no," I muttered, my eyes looking back and forth between the fleet of mechs. "We're surrounded."
One of the mechs took a step toward us, a megaphone in the pilot's hand.
"Attention, lifeforms," it stated. "We, of the Haltmann Works Company, politely ask that you surrender yourself to our care so that we may be one step closer to achieving infinite prosperity. In return, we promise that we will compensate you greatly—especially for the piece of Dark Matter you are carrying."
"His name is Gooey," I snapped, "and he's my friend. And there's no way any of us would willingly give ourselves up for you guys!"
"Such a shame," the unit sighed (supposedly). "But I suppose you can't expect all natives to see a good business opportunity for what it is."
Man, these guys are really getting on my nerves…!
"All units, prepare for battle!"
The mechs began to slowly step toward us. Ribbon looked at me, several levels of fright etched deep into her eyes.
"Adeleine, you… You won't let them take us, right?" she asked me, a hint desperation lining her voice.
"Of course I won't!" I declared, clutching my paintbrush tightly. "You two are my friends! If they want you, they're gonna have to fight me for the privilege. And that's something I'll never let them have."
"Too bad we couldn't be friends with them," Gooey said. "But you're a good friend already, Ado. I guess that's alright too."
"You know it."
I glared defiantly at the crowd of Invader Armors steadily getting closer.
If this was to be our last stand, then at least we'd go out with one heck of a bang.
As I was getting prepped to fight for as long as possible, though, something totally unexpected happened: a giant curling rock, straight from the forest, slammed into the back of one of the mechs and took it down.
Ribbon and I both blinked in unison.
"Huh?" we dumbly pronounced.
The curling rock slowly began to decelerate after it struck the mech, slowly sliding to right where we were. Our eyes carefully followed both its trajectory and its appearance.
If I'm seeing this right, the stone kind of looked like…
"Rick?" I tentatively asked, staring at the suspiciously hamster-like face on the stone's side.
The curling rock disappeared in a puff of smoke—and there was Rick, in all his hamster-y glory.
"Phew, ramming stuff that fast always gives me too much of a rush!" he breathed, wiping some sweat off his forehead.
He turned to meet our bewildered gazes.
"G'day, Adeleine, Ribbon, Gooey. Heard you needed a little hand?"
"Rick! It is you!" I couldn't believe it! Even Gooey was drooling out an 'Ooooooh…' in response. "But… But how?"
"It's kind of hard to miss all the robot stuff coming toward here," he idly drawled. "Don't worry—we've got a great welcoming party for them!"
The Invader Armors turned their attention toward the entrance of the forest, where they came face to face with the rest of Kirby's Animal Buddies: Kine, Coo, Chuchu, Nago, and Pitch.
"Hey there, you three!" Coo called out to us. "It's been a while!"
"I don't like what these intruders done to our home," Kine added. "Let's go take it back together!"
I could have cried beautiful tears of joy at the sight. Gooey, to his credit, ecstatically said, "Ooh, a party? I like parties! I wanna join in too! Can I join, Rick?"
"Of course!" the hamster answered. "We've got plenty of room for nine in this house!"
"That's great!" Ribbon said, cocking her Crystal Gun in the most adorable way. "Come on, Adeleine—let's show 'em who's boss!"
Rejuvenated by the support of the Animal Buddies, we charged on through and attacked the Invader Armors with all our might. Against the nine of us combined, they couldn't even hope to get a scratch on us!
Ribbon and I happily laughed through the entirety of the skirmish.
Now this is what I call a fair fight!
Finally, we managed to send each and every one of them packing with their tails between their legs.
"And don't come back!" Chuchu shouted.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
We did it! We won! We survived! We weren't captured!
Hallelujah!
"What time is it?" Gooey suddenly asked out of nowhere. It was so abrupt, I think I got whiplash. "I'm getting hungry now."
"Oh my gosh, Adeleine! Ribbon! Gooey!" Chuchu barreled right into us with a tight hug, her face practically filled with a gigantic smile. "You're here! You guys are really here! I told Nago that you guys would be fine, and it turns out I was right!"
"Well, to be fair," Nago said, his features becoming rather furled, "it wasn't like we exactly knew they'd be alright. This whole place has been thrown out of whack by these invaders, and—"
"Ah, you know what I mean," Chuchu interrupted him, letting go of us. "Just be happy that our friends are here!"
"I am. I'm just making a point."
Pitch waddled up to us too, looking as delightfully inquisitive as when I saw him last.
"Hi, Adeleine," he greeted me. "You too, Ribbon."
I smiled. "Hi, Pitch," I greeted him back.
"You're going to be able to play with us now, right?" he asked me. "Mom said it's alright if you babysat me again."
"Of course we will!" Ribbon perked up. She's always enjoyed playing with Pitch. "We're gonna have a lot of fun together, just as always!"
Gooey slithered onto the scene.
"Can I go see your mother, Pitch?" he requested of our little bird. "She always has the best food."
"Of course, Gooey!"
Pitch hopped onto Gooey's head, riding him like Kirby rides Rick.
"C'mon, everybody," he called out to Chuchu and Nago, "let's go see her together!"
"Ooh, I hope she has Kirby cookies again!" Chuchu said, her eyes twinkling. "Those are always the best!"
"Does it have to be cookies again?" Nago groaned. "I think I'm getting sick of 'em."
As the four of them left, I turned my attention to Rick.
"So, Rick," I said, "what's been going on with you guys?"
"Those annoying invaders have been trying to dig into our forests," Rick explained. "The six of us, with our other friends, have been hard at work making sure they don't get into our territory. It's been pretty difficult, particularly because none of them know the meaning of the word 'quit'. We've been fine so far, but it'd be nice if we had your help, too. Your painting prowess might give us the edge we need."
"We'd be glad to help!" I cheerfully replied. "Those invaders won't know what'll hit them!"
"Yeah!" Ribbon shouted with glee. "Our Crystal Gun will be able to blast those guys all the way to Rock Star!"
"That settles it, then!" Coo declared, ruffling my and Ribbon's heads. "Glad to have you two and Gooey back on board!"
"It feels great to have all the gang back together. It makes me feel a little parched," Kine chimed in. "Let's go take a nice, relaxing dip in the lake to celebrate."
I thought it over a bit.
It has been a while since we got a chance to relax.
Soooooo…
"You know what? Yeah, let's go for it!" I exclaimed with a wide grin.
It's been a pretty tough last few days, but we've finally managed to make it into the homestretch (relatively speaking, anyway). So long as our friends have our backs… I know we'll get through this crisis with our heads held high and our world still intact.
And hey—at the very least, I've got plenty of material for paintings now!
"If you really want to," Coo said, "then I suppose now as good a time as any."
"Is everyone in agreement?" Rick quizzed all of us. "Going once… Going twice…"
…
"Alrighty, then!" He dramatically pointed a finger to the sky. It was pretty cute, actually. "To the lake we go!"
"Yeah!" Ribbon cheered. "To the lake!"
Here's the second part of this three-shot, featuring everyone's favorite artist, Adeleine! (And Gooey, too!)
As we know with all invasions, there are those who won't be able to immediately get to safety upon fleeing – and I feel that, of the pre-Star Allies Dream Friends, Adeleine and Ribbon would be a good fit for showcasing that kind of thing. I mean, their moveset isn't very varied, and they're not exactly the strongest of Kirby's friends.
I decided to add Gooey in with them because of his status as blob made out of Dark Matter. If you've gotten to the end of Meta Knightmare Returns, then you know that's kind of significant. The Haltmann Works Company would gladly take the chance to analyze and experiment on the only trace of Dark Matter left in the galaxy—a trace of Dark Matter that's friendly, at that.
Pairing him up with Adeleine isn't too out of place either, considering they did encounter each other during Kirby's Dream Land 3. (Hence, Gooey's nickname for her.)
I know that the Invader Armor isn't exactly the hardest of bosses, but theoretically it could still give the less-battle experienced a decent enough fight. Besides, there are very few people who'd be able to charge through an army of mooks coming their way, no matter how basic they may be.
It also gave me a good opportunity to write in Dream Land 3's Animal Buddies. Since I basically skimped out on writing in previous fics, now was as good as time as ever to throw them in. After all, they wouldn't take well to the Haltmann Works Company trying to ruin their friends and homes!
Well, that's all for now – tune in next time for the finale, proudly featuring the return of Bandana Dee!
