Phazon: Time to get this story moving along. We're picking up from Kirby's triumph over the Whispy Woods and the gang's traveling to Rock Star via Warp Star. I apologize for the delays, but I was working with finals, and I'm trying to get as much out of a chapter as I can. Crystal Shards is a huge game, and I don't want to simply slap a chapter together without it being as detailed and enjoyable as I can make it, so sorry for the slight delays and I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: The characters, storyline, setting and all of that in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards belong and are the sole property of Nintendo and HAL Laboratories only, and I don't have them locked away in chains anywhere. Best to get the legalities out of the way before someone tries to sue. I aim to give the readers something to enjoy, but not have my story deleted by an NOA executive.
----------------------------------
Kirby called and called and called again Waddle Dee's name, hoping that the sand would spit him back out.
Adeleine walked over to the spot where Waddle was swallowed and tapped at it with her paintbrush. King Dedede walked over and bopped the artist over the head with his hammer.
"Girl, I don't think the red puffball is coming back up any time soon."
The King walked along the path with Ribbon trailing behind, when the sand began to rumble again.
The sand trembled as King Dedede stepped back, grasping his heavy hammer firmly. A large gaping hole as a giant Kany emerged from the sand, with a familiar red puffball on the back.
Ribbon scratched her head in confusion. She'd seen Kany creatures on her home planet in Pop Star, but never this large.
"There's barely any food on this area of the planet, so what gives?"
Before anyone could respond, Waddle Dee kicked the giant Kany in the head, stunning it and sending it back to the sand, causing a huge shockwave.
"Do NOT go under the sand!" Waddle Dee advised his friends before they decided to continue.
Walking in the sand under the blazing sun proved difficult for Kirby and his crew. As they searched for the area Ribbon spoke of, Adeleine looked towards the sky and saw something coming towards her.
"It's raining umbrellas!" She exclaimed in excitement.
They were actually Bumbers: walking orange balls that had umbrellas for hats. Adeleine painted herself a trampoline to jump and catch a few for the gang to cover their heads from the sun. They continued walking along until they saw two bouncing Kacti guarding the entrance to the structure that Ribbon spoke of earlier.
Kirby looked to his right. "Waddle?" The red puffball nodded in compliance as the two went on the offensive. Kirby had taken the time to absorb a Rocky creature awhile back, so he ran quickly towards one of the Kacti creatures, his body slowly becoming much more massive and bulky until the pink puffy exterior was replaced with a rough and rocky feature. Raising his left hand, the rocky Kirby sent his fist into the cactus and sending it deep into the adobe structure.
Waddle Dee was careful not to touch any of the needles on the Kacti creature, but because he couldn't find a smooth surface, he focused and sent his foot towards the Kacti as it sailed aimlessly into the structure, crashing to who knows where.
The troop walked carefully into the structure, Dedede coughed slightly as some sand fell from the ceiling and landed in front of him, creating small dust clouds.
"Guys, look," Adeleine looked through a telescope she had painted and saw an escape shaft at the far end of the structure. Barring their way, however, were some I3's: green cubes with mean looking eyes. Like certain other blocks from another universe, the I3's would come crashing down if one came close or under their path. Kirby saw that overtop of the I3's were some dark blue blocks that kept the I3's from rising to the ceiling. He grabbed onto a Pteran bird so he could get a better view of the escape shaft, but something else caught his attention.
Kirby looked down to the others. "Come here, Ribbon," he called as the fairy made her way to his side. Something shiny and mystical wasn't that far in front of them, and they both knew what it was. Ribbon wasted no time grabbing the Crystal Shard fragment.
"I can't believe the progress we're making," the little fairy said to Kirby. "And here I thought it would be impossible."
Before Kirby could respond, he saw that Adeleine and Waddle were using some Cairn creatures as catapults to launch themselves into the open shaft. As they got closer and closer, Adeleine painted herself a loose shirt to cover her face from the quick falling sand. Kirby and Ribbon soon flew over and up into the shaft where the King was already waiting.
Dedede was losing patience. He, Ribbon, and Kirby were now on top of a large sandy hill encased a very small room, almost as if they were being set up. Nothing was happening, but the Crystal Shard began to react vigorously. There was another fragment, and they intended to find it.
Kirby began digging away at the sand and was so into it he didn't happen to hear Waddle Dee and Adeleine finally arrive into the room. But their eyes were all fixed on the shaft suddenly closed by itself.
"It's a trap!" Waddle exclaimed. As soon as he ran up the sandy hill to the exit, in front of him materialized a Kacti creature. It bounced before Waddle Dee for a few seconds before it charged and started rolling down the hill. He jumped to evade, as did the others, whilst the Kacti crashed into the wall with a thunderous boom, causing even more sand and debris to fall.
Adeleine wiped some sweat from her brow, but backed off when she saw a miniature Kacti bouncing next to her. It slowly edged towards her, but the painter was ready. She painted herself a flamethrower that was used to incinerate the cactus, but another took its place.
At the bottom of the sand hill, Kirby rolled down the hill as his body formed into a rock again. The thick and dense body crashed, slammed into the giant Kacti. As it tried rolling around to regain composure, a shadow from above it came crashing down as Kirby's thick body penetrated the Kacti's defenses. The Kacti tried rolling over and on Kirby, but the puffball was no longer a puffball, but solid rock that made waste of this monster cactus.
When it exploded, taking its other Kacti underlings with it, the beast left a Crystal Shard fragment that Ribbon caught. The doors on both sides opened, revealing yet another room with quick falling sand, but there was a ladder at the far end of this new room. Of course, the entourage bravely walked through it. As they did, however, they were met with another locked door behind them, but no giant Kacti. This time, sand began to accumulate very quickly until it was inches above Adeleine's socks.
The painter and Dedede made their way to the hammer, but Waddle Dee beat them to the punch. The red puffball looked back to Kirby.
"I'm going ahead to find a clear way out." Kirby and Ribbon nodded as they joined the others. They made it to a safe level of blocks they could cross, but the sand was rising still, coming out of every crack or hole in this adobe prison. Making their way to the next level, they saw a Sandman creature suddenly pop out of the walls. Sandmen were light yellow blobs of sand with huge, black eyes and did not pose a serious threat. The Sandman looked over and spoke to the troops.
"Beware, fighters, I cannot be defeated so simply. Many have tried and failed, for as you see…"
All while this was going on, Adeleine was busily painting a small vacuum cleaner. When it came to life, she walked in the direction of the Sandman.
"…not even the greatest Sandman of them all could be trounced by such--" Its words were cut off when it was sucked into Adeleine's vacuum cleaner. The painter looked at her friends.
"Anything I paint comes to life."
She didn't have to remind Ribbon and Kirby that, as the memory of their fight against her when she was possessed was still fresh.
It took some time and a lot of effort, but the gang soon arrived at the top of the structure, meeting a ceiling, and the sand showed no sign of stopping.
"Where's Waddle Dee?" The King questioned demandingly.
They all got their answer soon enough when they heard some rumbling and thumping coming from the ceiling above them. After enough noise, the ceiling cracked and a hole started to form. When the ceiling gave way, Waddle Dee was there on top of the structure, waving down to the others.
"Told you I'd find a way out of here," he remarked smugly. Kirby and Ribbon flew out together, whilst Dedede grabbed onto Adeleine.
Adeleine was frightened. "Hey, I was just gonna paint myself a trampoline!"
But the King had no intentions of waiting around for her to pull out her easel and go to work. With one quick, swift motion, Dedede threw Adeleine skyward and out of the hole, but the painter was able to save herself from crashing by painting a parachute. Dedede grew tired of this little girl outwitting him. He looked towards Waddle Dee and asked him to pick up a rock.
"How accurate do you think your aim is?"
Waddle Dee grinned. "Good enough to sink that parachute." And so he did, he grabbed the sharpest rock he could and sent it Adeleine's way. The rock made its mark as it burst through one end of the parachute and came out the other. The laws of gravity were now having their way with Adeleine as she came closer and closer towards the rocky terrain. She was saved when Kirby caught her just in time.
"Let's just move on," he concluded as they hopped down the adobe structure. As King Dedede brought up the rear, he snapped his fingers when he saw that Adeleine didn't hit solid ground.
As the exit soon was covered by sand, Kirby jumped down the different levels of rock before he unexpectedly landed on an unusual yellow and brown structure that was different from the rest of the terrain around him and the others. He took note of this for later.
King Dedede had discarded his heavy coat he wore as king and had Adeleine place it in a bad she had drawn up.
Ribbon saw that not too far from them was an area that looked like an abandoned or destroyed castle ground. Whatever it was caused the Crystal Shard to react, but the shard also reacted strangely to the yellow and brown structure that Kirby recently passed. She wondered why, but she couldn't be bothered by that now.
Kirby landed on the sand with a 'poof' as he began walking up the long, ascending sand hill. Ribbon began flying to the top of the hill, but she passed some orange floating balls that looked so similar to Kirby, but not really. Ribbon approached one of the floating creatures and smiled.
"Hello, there!" She called. As she continued along, the floating creature went demonic, now only having one eye and mean looking teeth. It growled and yelled at Ribbon, who immediately whipped around to see…the same orange ball with the innocent eyes. The fairy soon passed over two other orange floating creatures, but when she floated pass, they repeated the same motion as the first. Ribbon began to grow suspicious.
"O….k, I could've sworn those thingies were looking mean at me," she said to herself.
Kirby called to the fairy from the ground. "Ribbon, those are Scarfy creatures! They play innocent, then go demon when you don't look at them. They use that time to strike, so look out!" The creatures went for Ribbon, but one was soon deflated by a pop rock that came from a slingshot Adeleine had painted. Waddle Dee jumped high and went for the second, whilst Kirby floated into the air, eying the Scarfy.
"Suck it up," he teased as he inhaled deeply. Unfortunately, the Scarfy did not move, but kept grinning at Kirby. It quickly chomped onto Kirby's cheek and smiled devilishly. Kirby tugged and tugged, but the Scarfy did not detatch. Both Kirby and Waddle Dee knew what was coming next.
"Oh, no…," Waddle Dee said to himself.
"What's the problem?" Adeleine asked Waddle as they continued to watch Kirby strain to pull the Scarfy off of himself.
"Scarfies self destruct when they choose to!"
It was too late to do anything about it, the demonic Kirby doppelganger exploded and sent Kirby high into the sky, screaming for his life. After an odd twenty seconds, the pink puffball was falling fast and landed feet first into the small tide pool that was situated at the top of the sand hill.
"OK, that does it!" Kirby said as he stood up. Looking down the opposite side of the hill, he saw a Sparky creature and remembered the Rock/Electric combo he had before when he fought the giant Bouncy. This gave him an idea. As he picked up speed whilst running down the hill, he pulled out of his mouth a brown elemental crystal and tossed it towards the Sparky, concocting the Electric Rock combo.
Adeleine rolled her eyes. "Sheesh, Kirby, it doesn't hurt to try something new once in a while."
If there was one thing no one did, it was question Kirby's ability in a negative manner. Adeleine found herself running down the hill and back towards the brown and yellow structure with Kirby running mad behind her, firing the electric boulder every couple of steps.
The painter found herself cornered with her back against the structure, Kirby staring at her. With a huff and puff, he spit out the electric rock and Adeleine swiftly dodged, but it didn't end there. As opposed to the rock bouncing back, it shattered the structure and revealed a Crystal Shard fragment hidden within it. Ribbon was quick to get it.
Adeleine had a sly look on her face. "Works every time."
"You knew?" Kirby inquired.
"When we passed this thing, the Shard started reacting, but no one seemed to notice it, so I looked at the pattern and figured it was worth a shot."
"Stop chattering, you two," Ribbon called from the sky as she pointed in the direction of the church fairgrounds. "There's probably more shards in that direction."
Soon, Waddle Dee, Kirby, King Dedede, and Kirby were sliding down the other side of the hill, but they stopped when they saw some mean looking cactuses staring at them and chomping down whenever they tried to proceed.
"More Kacti creatures around here?" The King asked.
"No," Waddle Dee answered, "those are Gobblins. They're immune to any type of harm and always bite down on anyone who tries passing their way.
"We'll run on three," Kirby figured. As the pink hero counted down, he found that the others had long run ahead of him and were heading into the ruined church area. Kirby sighed and ran after them as they left the desert and entered better territory.
-------------------------------------
Whilst the five walked through the grassy meadows, Dedede started talking of how great it was not to be back in the hot, arid desert. The others agreed and simply stopped for a moment to admire the cool, crisp atmosphere that was light years better than the area they just came from. Adeleine was silent, however, which was confusing to the others.
Ribbon floated back towards the painter and asked if there was a problem, but Adeleine was busy at the moment. In her hand was a sketchbook, and in this sketchbook were various drawings and small sketches that looked similar to the areas they had visited thus far.
"I'm trying to keep track of the places we've gone to so far and how many shards we find in the locales," Adeleine explained to Ribbon, who understood the concept. "So far, there were only three shards found per area, meaning that there are lots scattered on the different planets."
"I say it's time we take a break to plan how we'll go about into this ruins area," Kirby suggested. Adeleine smiled and agreed as she painted a picnic blanket for the group to sit on and enjoy some goodies that were prepared by paint.
Kirby picked up an apple and quickly gobbled it, savoring each taste more than the last, but never forgetting his mission. He looked over to Ribbon, who was actually enjoying herself.
"Say, Ribbon, aren't you worried about us just sitting here and relaxing while your planet could be getting worse?"
Ribbon smiled. "I'm trying to focus on the positive things of now. If I'm always worried about Ripple Star, I'll never enjoy what we're doing now. The Queen told me that if I believed I'll succeed, everything will be fine. And with you all around, Ripple Star will be saved and the Crystal Shard will be as strong as ever."
The others nodded and agreed with what the fairy told them, but she had more to say. She yawned and slowly laid on her back.
"But before we head into those ruins, let's just rest awhile."
Looks like Ripple Star's in good hands after all, Kirby thought to himself. He yawned also and slowly closed his eyes, drifting off into dreamland, as did the others.