Double-0-K and Super Spy Kirby
Chapter Eight: Cracks of Fire
Rick took the lead, scampering through the narrow passageway. Behind him was Josh, puffing up a storm with the Fantaray right at hand. Then the newly healed Jacob wielding the Mysticant followed and Kirby lagged behind for most of the time.
"Slow down!" Kirby yelled through the corridor, as if anyone would wait for him. "You're going way too…" Kirby's sentence ended in a mumble as he rejoined the group, staring in awe at the fiery scene.
"That's what I mean by a bridge atop a sea of magma." Josh breathed heavily.
"Now that I look at it, I don't understand how Heavy Mole pulls off something like that!" Jacob stated.
"Wow…" Kirby said, stupidly.
"He's not alone…" Rick explained. "He's got lots of baddies of his own, not including those Dyclops."
"Wow…" Kirby said again.
"I bet the bridge is finished by now!" Josh added. "We must hurry down before everything explodes!"
--KIRBY WAS ABOUT TO SAY SOMETHING REALLY STUPID BUT THE AUTHOR REMOVED IT DUE TO ITS BIZARRE WEIRDNESS--
"Then let's get going!" Rick said.
"But how…?" Jacob asked.
"Uh…just aim for the bridge, and try not to miss."
The four of them hesitantly leaped into the crack, aiming for the bridge. One by one they plopped down onto the bridge, in the same order as they had came, but when Kirby had jumped in he had lost his footing and started to fall towards the fire.
Josh instantly tried out a special power of his Fantaray. He blasted a fire bolt at Kirby, but instead of scorching him to his fiery demise, it brought him back safely to the narrow bridge. He completely forgot about pain that very second.
"Nice save…" Kirby said sarcastically. "I'll send you a thank-you card when this burn wears off."
"Hey, it's better than the other option you had!" Josh laughed in a teasing manner.
"Enough with the joking around, I hear something up ahead." Jacob signaled them to quiet down.
They heard footsteps, slowly moving along a path, than it became running, and abruptly a loud buzzing and a roar was heard from some kind of a machine. After a painful screaming it had ended.
"That buzzing noise – could it be?" Rick questioned, frightened.
"I sure hope not, but either way, I am out of here!" Kirby ran the other direction, but was intercepted by Josh.
"You remember why we are here, right?"
"Sure. Move along, and I'll follow behind all of you."
"Not so fast! This time you'll take the lead."
With a groan, Kirby slowly stepped up to the front of the line. "Now I think I heard the sound coming up that way and to the left a little." Jacob instructed.
The four of them passed under rock archways that the Heavy Mole had carefully built to withstand the heat and pressure of Game Popstar's depths. His weight alone would normally break the rocky bridge, but there was some mysterious power source that kept it afloat.
Finally, they made it to where Jacob thought he had heard the screaming. "Everyone, search this area. There's got to be some evidence or clue to where to find Heavy Mole or his explosive main area. There might be away to shut all of them down from that place."
After searching and searching and when they had nearly given up, they heard a faint cry: "Over…here…" something said in a crackly voice.
Jacob ran up to a cappy that was lying on the ground. He had been chopped in two by some blade and had no longer than a minute to live. He lay in a puddle of blood that leaked into the magma below every second.
"You must…be the ones…who came to…destroy…him!" it said as the rest of the group came up to him. "There is something…you must know…there is a generator…at his explosives center…it holds this network up. Inside it…is a remote…that when the button…is pressed…this place will fall…and this world…will collapse. Whatever you do…grab the remote…it manages both the floating technology…and the explosives. When it comes to fighting Nightmare…and you return to Popstar, press the button…and send this world…back to nothingness."
"We need to get you out of here quickly! There's a…" Josh started but was interrupted by the cappy.
"No…my time…is over." With his last dying breath, he shut his eyes, and a cracking sound was heard below him.
"Get back!" Jacob shouted and everyone immediately did so. The ground beneath the cappy gave way, and it pummeled hopelessly to the fiery abyss.
"Something must be damaging the generator!" Rick exclaimed. Normally that wouldn't happen!"
"And I'm sure it isn't in Heavy Mole's plans…yet." Josh said grimly.
The four of them searched far and wide, as far as they dared, to find any trace of an explosive master control room or Heavy Mole. Occasionally parts of the floor would collapse and they would have to go another way, but once they saw a stray Dyclops floating around.
"Hold your ground!" Jacob whispered. "We could use this Dyclops."
"I'm beginning to catch your drift…" Rick exclaimed. "It will eventually end up somewhere important – to him and to us."
"Sure, just be quiet and all. When one of them is on your tail, you got a whole army coming towards you." Kirby said.
They furtively crept behind the Dyclops with renewed hopes, but that quickly stopped once they reached a gap. The Dyclops just floated past it, unaware of any gaps or people following him. This gap was larger in size than any other thing they had faced before. No tricks they had could get them across this one – without being noticed.
"This is a network of trenches, right?" Jacob recalled. "Then if we just turn this bend over to our right, we should be able to make it back to the Dyclops in no time." There was a silence as they thought about the plan. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's get out of here!"
Running as fast as their legs could go, they took a right along with two more to reach the direction they were aiming for. But instead of a Dyclops in sight or even another long, endless, corridor, they were in a room. It was a wide, room with rocky flooring, just like everything else. It appeared to be untouched by the deadly arm of Heavy Mole. That was generally a good sign.
"Where are we?" Kirby familiarized himself to the emptiness of the room.
"Somewhere Heavy Mole hasn't been." Rick shuddered.
"I got a bad feeling about this place…" Josh said loud enough to hear it echo in the dark part of the room.
"Search the area," Jacob said. "We could find a trace of the…"
A low, rumble shook the area, interrupting Jacob. The ground quaked beneath their feet and pebbles and small stones fell from the ceiling. Louder, and louder, the source of the rumble drew near.
"Not another earthquake! I don't think this ground can withstand another one of those." Rick yelled in terror.
"Not an earthquake…" an unknown voice sounded from the corridor they had entered from. "You shouldn't be sticking your nose where it doesn't belong…" the thing laughed evilly. "Especially you five…I was instructed personally by the Dark Lord himself to do his bidding." The figure slowly stepped into view.
"It's the Heavy Mole!" Kirby exclaimed. "But somehow he looks different…"
Sure enough, Heavy Mole had gone under a revamp in one of Nightmare's hidden factories. His armor plating was of more advanced technology, shiny new durasteel to be exact. His mace arms were coated in adamant material, making the spikes more devastating.
"Hehehe…" Heavy Mole laughed again. "Prepare to be exterminated!"
Heavy Mole swung his mechanical arms at Jacob, knocking him through the rock hard wall with deadly force and accuracy. Two Dyclops that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere raced over to Jacob. One put him on his feet, and the other activated portable laser cage technology.
Instantly lasers shot up and trapped Jacob into a bizarre force field. Mysticant was still in hand, so he tried to call upon Mysticant Laser to get out, but it bounced of the laser wall and fried him in return. The blow had temporarily knocked him out of his state-of-being.
Josh furiously shot fiery projectiles at Heavy Mole, some were knocked off back at him, and the ones that weren't dodged were absorbed in the durasteel. Josh, now more enraged than ever, he jumped at Heavy Mole himself. His sword was no match for the futuristic technology of Heavy Mole, and as soon as Josh had made that mistake, Heavy Mole whacked him with his arm, sending him flying through the catacombs.
The Dyclops were starting to follow Josh, but realizing Heavy Mole's plan, Kirby inhaled both of them at the same time and swallowed each one. Kirby had swallowed one Dyclops with the sleep ability and one Dyclops with the hammer ability. Something strange was bound to happen. First Kirby fell to the floor in what would be a deep sleep, but then a hammer appeared in the middle of the air. It started to spin wildly then fended off all the other Dyclops in the area. Then the hammer went towards Heavy Mole. It smashed and smashed until it shattered his left flank of armor and his left arm. Then it all disappeared and Kirby returned to his deep sleep.
Rick knew that Kirby had created a weak spot for him to take advantage of, but he had no idea what to use. He avoided blows by climbing up the walls and hurling huge stones at Heavy Mole's weak point. This did nothing except for slightly scratch him. Then Rick's energy had run out, and he was down on the ground, and Heavy Mole was about to strike him. Suddenly Heavy Mole stopped in his tracks.
About a minute earlier…
Josh slowly rose from his position. He had crashed through many walls and landed in another empty room where Heavy Mole hadn't reached. It looked pretty blank, except for a few shiny rocks in the corner. As Jacob stepped closer, he noticed it wasn't any ordinary rock; it was iron. He inhaled the precious metal and transformed in to none other than…Iron Kirby! He had become larger and coated with a thick coat of what seemed to be gold. He rolled on over back to the battle scene.
Now, at this very moment…
Josh jumped on to Heavy Mole with full force. He flew back on to the ground. Using this moment, Josh started to suck the iron armor of Heavy Mole. He drained and drained and drained until there was nothing left except for a big fat Mole.
"That looks like…Wow! It is! So Moley was behind all this!" Rick exclaimed. Sure enough, under all that heavy armor was Moley, who apparently left the Cabbage Caverns and started to work in the Yogurt Yard.
"Now, return to your home in the Cabbage Caverns and never return!" Josh shouted in victory and sent Moley a blow so powerful that he may have well landed in the Cabbage Caverns.
With the defeat of Moley, all the effects wore off that he had placed on Anti-Dreamland. The catacombs that had been dug under the earth were being run over with dry earth as if Moley had never tried to dig them. All the Dyclops vanished into thin air, and the generators involved in the plot to blow Anti-Dreamland to the underworld and beyond were destroyed. Or at least, all except for the one that the remote that the cappy had talked about controlled. The laser gate cage disappeared and Jacob and Kirby had returned to full health. Out of thin air, a remote appeared in the middle of the room.
"This must be the remote that the cappy had told us about." Jacob said and picked it up. I'll store it for later when we actually will need it.
"How do you think we'll be able to use it?" Josh asked.
"If we ever get out of this place we can destroy all traces of the evil here. Hopefully that will affect the evil in the real world." Jacob explained.
"Huh…maybe it could! Maybe some of the evil here was sucked in like us. It's a wide possibility." Rick added.
"That just gave me an idea! We don't even have to defeat Nightmare by ourselves! As soon as we rescue Nick we can get out of there and blow the place back to where it came from!" Jacob spoke with a sense of accomplishment.
"Not so fast…haven't you noticed? When we travel from one level to the next, we can only get there by portal or warpstar, and sometimes by getting there ourselves. But the passageway, portal, or warpstar only appears after the boss has been beaten! We have to take the hard way out of this one." Kirby said as they walked across the real earth, headed towards the ocean.