"New world!" Sora said.

"Land us down," Luigi said. Sora nodded and pressed down on the button to create a green portal to the outside of the world. They landed in a forest, filled with green trees with bright red apples hanging from the branches.

"I wonder what kind of world this is," Peach said. Before she could find out more, the four were surrounded by small mouse like creatures of varying colors. "Oh?"

One of the mice, a blue one, pulled out a large bomb and held it in its ears. "Give us your treasures and we won't use this." A much larger mouse emerged, this one dressed in red with dark blue skin.

"Treasure? We don't have any-"

"Ya sure, your princess's crown is pretty nice and would count as one." The larger mouse pointed at Peach. The smaller ones all started to squeak in agreement.

"I'm afraid I can't give you my crown. I'm sorry, but stealing from people is just…rude…" Peach said. Her hand opened up from a fist.

"I guess we'll have to steal it," the mouse said. The smaller mouse with the bomb threw its bomb at her as another stole her crown, but before it could hit a pink ball jumped in the way, sucking up the bomb in the process.

"Poyo poyo!" the pink ball, as it turned out, was a strange creature, perfectly round with arms, two red shoes, and a face. A light blue hat formed on its head as it threw the bomb at the mice.. "Poyo!"

The mice started backing away slightly before outright fleeing. Their boss glared at Kirby before teleporting away.

"Thank you," Sora said. "I'm Sora."

The pink puffball looked confused. "Oyo?"

"No, Sora," Sora said and pointed to himself. "Who are you?"

"Kirby! Kirby!" the puffball jumped around in excitement.

"Kirby?" Peach picked him up and smiled. "He's absolutely adorable."

"Not only that, he's a powerful Star Warrior," Tippi said.

"That thing's a warrior?" Bowser asked.

"Kirby!" Kirby cheered and nodded.

"Well, he's a baby warrior anyways," Tippi said, adding to her earlier statement. "He fights by sucking up the opponents weapon and absorbing their power to use."

"Really, so this little guy can do anything then?" Luigi asked.

"That is correct," a voice said. They turned around to see a dark blue version of what Kirby was with a silver mask on his face. A cape flowed out from behind him, but what worried them was the yellow glow of his eyes, a trait that they had begun associating with the Heartless. "It is this ability that makes him one of the strongest Star Warriors."

"Oyo!" Kirby looked excited at the knight's arrival.

"You know Kirby?" Peach asked him.

"I test him to see if he is ready. Nothing more." The knight walked up to Kirby and looked him over. "At the moment, he has become Bomb Kirby, however I would be interested to find out what would happen if he managed to get copy the powers of a Keyblade."

Sora summoned out his Keyblade and looked it over. "If Kirby managed to use this?"

"Yes."

"So wait, who are you? And who was the guy who attacked us?" Luigi asked.

"The person who attacked you was the leader of the Squeak Squad, Daroach. A treasure hunting group Kirby put a stop to when they stole the Dark Nebula. They still steal and hunt treasure although they haven't interfered with us in a while," the knight said, purposely avoiding the first question.

"What about you?" Bowser asked. "That doesn't tell us anything about you?" Before he could finish the question, the knight had vanished.

"Who was he?" Peach asked.

"Meta Knight, a powerful Star Warrior who protects the world of Dreamland, he probably even knew about the fact that we're dimensional travelers," Tippi said. "He probably wanted to see if we could be trusted and had no real intention of interfering…"

"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby pointed towards the direction Daroach ran off to; then to Peach's head.

"That's right, we have to get my crown back before we leave," Peach said with a nod.

"Then let's go get it!" Sora started running off deeper into the forest, shortly followed by the others. Not ten steps in were they surrounded by the Heartless. Some were the former varieties of Shadows, while others were similar to the mice from the Squeak Squad, except darker shades and with the thorny red heart on their backs. Another new Heartless amongst their ranks was a dark red Heartless with a single eye, inside the eye being the same heart on the other species.

"The mice are Squeaker Heartless. They simply jump to attack, unlike the Squeak Squad members we saw earlier," Tippi said. "The red Heartless are Waddle Doo Da Heartless, and fight much like creatures known as Waddle Doos. Their main attack is a laser that emerges from their eyes."

"Poyo!" Kirby lost the hat as quickly as it came before suctioning up one of the Waddle Doo Das. He gained a red and yellow jesters hat with white tips and a blue tip staff. Even his coloring changed as he went from pink to orange. He raised the staff and fired it off at one of the Heartless, destroying it in one orange blast. The others stared in shock for a moment.

"Stop staring and start fighting!" Bowser shouted and began slashing at the Heartless with his claws. Shadows fell to his claws in a puff of dark smoke before he turned to a Squeaker and clawed upwards and effectively destroyed it in midair. Peach and Sora joined in the assault, hitting and slashing at several of the Shadows and Squeakers with their respective weapons. Luigi began firing off green fireballs in rapid assault and hit several Waddle Doo Das, meanwhile standing at a far enough distance to avoid the orange beams they fired.

Sora wasn't so lucky. He turned around to face on and nearly met with a beam in the face. Peach lifted her parasol in time to protect them both from the majority of the damage from the beam.

"Hey, watch it!" Bowser released a large fireball at the Waddle Doo Da, effectively killing it in one hit and releasing a pink heart from the end of the fight.

"Oyo!" Kirby puffed up and began running off.

"Does he know where the Squeak Squad hides?" Sora asked.

"Who knows, but now we have to go after him," Bowser grumbled. They ran off slightly deeper into the forest where the Squeak Squad had set up camp, Kirby stood inside it.

"Long time no see Kirby," Daroach said. "I see you brought friends."

"Poyo! Poyo poyo!" Kirby pointed at the four heroes. "Kirby! Kirby!"

"Hm," Daroach looked at them. "You're friends of Kriby's I see."

"Huh, oh yeah," Sora said. Daroach threw the crown to Peach.

"Why did you return my crown?" Peach asked. Confusion laced her voice as she replaced the crown on her head.

"I've learned a long time ago not to steal from Kirby."

"What a pity, I was longing for a fight?" All of them looked around the area in confusion. "Ah well, can't say I am surprised."

"What?" Sora asked. "Show yourself!"

A jester clad in purple and yellow poncho appeared. Yellow bells dangled from the tips of his hat, the purple ends. He wore a mask, completely covering his face, however not hiding his eyes, one yellow and one black. The mask itself was black and white with a creepy smile lingering on his face. "If you insist."

"Hey, who are you?" Luigi shouted.

"Who am I? I am the master of dimensions, the pleaser of crowds. I am Dimentio, Count Bleck's jester" He took a bow. "And if I am correct, you are the heroes who pester the count like a rose thorn stuck in some poor idiots thumb."

"Yeah, that's us. Do you think you can take us?" Sora asked.

Dimentio laughed. "Who said anything about fighting you? I'll leave that to Daroach."

"Why would I fight them?" Daroach asked.

"Because of this." He smirked and teleported an ornate dark blue chest to his hand.

"That's…"

"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby pointed to the chest in a panic.

"So you recognize what's in the box then?" Dimentio laughed. "Excellent, I'll leave you to it." He opened the treasure chest. "Ciao." Dimentio disappeared as a dark cloud emerged from the treasure chest and swarmed Daroach. The dark creature sent a pulse of dark aura at Peach before she had time to pull out her parasol, knocking her unconscious.

"Peach!" Sora reached his hand out for her before the possessed Daroach made an angry growl.

"Worry about her later, you have to take him out," Tippi said.

"Poyo!" Kirby lost his beam Kirby power-up and turned to Sora's Keyblade. He suctioned the magical weapon up in an instant. Of course, the sword would return to his hand in an instant, but the weapon did transform Kirby. Now the Star Warrior was still pink, but wore a silver crown on his head. A key-shaped necklace dangled around his neck and a miniature version of the Kingdom Key was in his hand.

"Woah!" Sora looked at Kirby in surprise.

"That's Dark Daroach, a version of Daroach possessed by the Dark Star. He teleports around mostly and uses dark aura attacks to attack, so be careful."

"Right." Sora nodded to Tippi and ran to attack Dark Daroach, his Keyblade slicing into the mouse just as he teleported away. He reappeared moments later to attack the whole group with a dark aura pulse. Bowser was able to duck inside his shell, but the others were unable to defend themselves from the attack and were knocked back several feet, Sora almost hitting a tree. Bowser attempted to claw at him, but the attack did very little in terms of damage and simply put Bowser in hitting range for another attack, blowing Bowser away immediately.

"It's up to you two!" Luigi shouted to Sora and Kirby after realizing normal attacks did no good. Sora looked at Kirby and nodded before charging at Daroach. The attack hit him and he lifted up his Keyblade just fast enough to protect himself from the dark aura attack. He threw his Keyblade at Daroach's head and the Keyblade returned to his head after missing, however distracting the mouse enough for Kirby to get a shot in at him. Kirby fired a Fire spell out of the tip of his tiny Keyblade which hit Daroach directly.

"Thunder!" Sora used his newly acquired magic to hit Daroach in the head with a multitude of tiny lightning bolts. Several of them hit while others missed as he teleported away right into a hit from Kirby's Keyblade. The hit knocked him back before Sora and Kirby locked eyes. Sora nodded slightly and the two charged at Daroach while he was town, Sora slashing from the front and Kirby slashing from the back. Daroach fell, the dark cloud leaving him immediately. The Squeak Squad leader rendered unconscious.

"Poyo!" At Kirby's command, Sora pointed his Keyblade at the dark cloud before it could possess another or form a true form. It dissolved as a beam of light shot out of his Keyblade and hit it directly.

"I commend you, Keybearer, for your impressive show." Meta Knight jumped off a cliff.

Sora raised his arms behind his head and smiled. "Thanks, but Kirby helped out a lot as well."

"I see," Meta Knight said.

Kirby started looking around for something. "Poyo?"

"What's wrong Kirby?" Sora asked. "Is something missing."

"Poyo! Poyo!" He jumped up and down and indicated Bowser, Luigi, and Tippi.

"Uhh, guys, where's Peach?" Sora asked.

"She should be right-what?" Where Luigi had pointed was nothing but pressed down grass and an empty space.

"Where did Peach go?" Bowser growled in anger. Nobody had an answer.

"I think I know…" Tippi said suddenly. "Remember what the green girl said…how they needed Peach too?"

"You don't think they got her too?" Sora asked.

"I…I do…"

"Well then, I guess I have to travel with you all." Bowser looked away. "After all, how am I supposed to save Peach from Count Bleck so I can kidnap her myself!"

"You have a one track mind…" Luigi shook his head. "But you're right. Now we gotta work twice as hard so we can save the princess and find Mario and Sora's friends."

"Then let's hurry!" Sora ran through the forest without a second glance. The others followed.

-x-

"Not such a successful plan Dimmy, the Keyblade Master and his friends beat that possessed mouse guy," Mimi said with a laugh.

"Actually, Mimi, it was quite a success as the goal was to distract them from the unconscious princess long enough for our new recruit to swoop in like an owl eagerly going after its prey," Dimentio said. Riku shivered slightly as Dimentio looked at him with interest, most of the minions went from okay to pretty cool, but there was something about Dimentio that creeped Riku out.

"Yes, thank you for that," Riku said. "And I did manage to get Peach."

"A very good job indeed Riku," Count Bleck said. "Nastasia, have you located the girl yet?"

"Yeah, she located onto Mobius, so we're gonna have to call in that favor from Eggman and have him pick her up, k?" Nastasia asked.

"Girl?" Riku didn't quite understand what they were going for.

"The one you were searching for, Kairi," Count Bleck said. "Count Bleck figured that while you helped him, he would help you."

Riku nodded. "We're going to save Kairi?"

"We shall depart immediately for Mobius," Count Bleck said. "Prepare yourself Riku." Count Bleck teleported out of the room, and Riku walked out shortly afterwards.