Chapter 9: Getting Into It

The Warp Star landed in front of the entrance to Butter Building, unceremoniously depositing Kirby on the ground.

"Ow," muttered Kirby, picking himself up off the ground. "Hey, Gooey, how can I keep from falling off these things?"

"Hm," responded Gooey unreassuringly. "You just have to get used to it, I suppose."

"Get used to falling down?"

"No, get used to it stopping." He paused and then added, "You need to anticipate it."

Kirby sighed and looked up at Butter Building, which loomed in front of him.

Butter Building was roughly cylindrical and made of dark gray-brown stone, supported by long metal beams that created a large mesh within the walls. The structure, however, was falling into disrepair. Large holes had appeared in the walls, exposing the metal beams. These wide openings in the tower's sides looked as though they were in a perpetually crumbling state.

"So, this is Butter Building..." said Kirby.

"Indeed. Butter Building was once a gigantic, and overly elaborate in my opinion, shrine to the sun and moon. As you can see, it has been in disuse for a long time. Its yellow sheen wore off long ago, and now it's populated by rogue creatures from nearby locales. These creatures are to be considered enemies, as they will undoubtedly attempt to resist your passage through their home. Also, you need practice using your new power, so be sure to take advantage of this opportunity by combating these enemies."

"Right."

"Your mission is to locate the tube inside Butter Building that will lead you upward into Castle Lola. I cannot send you directly into Castle Lola itself by way of a Warp Star because the castle is made of an alloy too dense to penetrate. In order to locate the tube, you will have to search each floor before ascending to the next one, as you won't be able to enter the tube if you move up past its entrance. I'm certain that you'll recognize it if you see it from below, however."

"Alright."

"You got all that? Good. Now, enter."

Kirby did so.

Everything was a mess inside. Many areas had caved in, leaving rubble strewn all over.

A Waddle Dee rounded a corner nearby. This Waddle Dee's body was a pale orange, instead of being brown like those of the forest Waddle Dees. Kirby ran forward and inhaled it, but when he swallowed it, nothing happened.

"...Wasn't I supposed to get an ability or something by swallowing an enemy?" asked Kirby, confused.

"Not all enemies have special abilities, Kirby. What did you just inhale?"

"A Waddle Dee."

"Yeah, Waddle Dees definitely won't give you anything. They're about the weakest enemies you're probably ever going to fight. Just look for the tube I told you about and try swallowing anything that gets in your way. You'll copy an ability eventually."

"Alright," said Kirby again.

As Kirby explored, he encountered a number of Bronto Burts and two Gips, which were limbless winged pigs. Yet, none of them gave him new abilities when swallowed. It wasn't until he inflated and flew up to the second floor (through a hole in the ceiling, rather than taking the caved-in stairs) that he encountered a Hot Head. Hot Heads were orange creatures with flaming backsides, large eyes and round, nozzle-like mouths, out of which they could breathe fire. Upon seeing the Dream Lander, this one shot a ball of fire in his direction.

Though Kirby had seen the attack coming, he was a little surprised how easily he dodged. He then quickly approached and inhaled the Hot Head.

When he swallowed, stars suddenly burst in front of his eyes. On his head appeared an orange-and-blue striped headband with a round metal plate at its front. On the plate appeared a hexagonal emerald. Finally, the top of his head lit on fire.

"Fire!" exclaimed both Kirby and Gooey together.

"I can feel it!" continued Kirby. "And I know how to use it, too!"

Two Bronto Burts were flying towards Kirby, and he promptly breathed fire in their direction. The two creatures burst into flames and disappeared in flashes of stars.

He could copy enemies' abilities! Kirby's head swam with the possibilities. But then, something else suddenly struck him: Was he actually having fun with this?

Moments later, another question surfaced in his mind, and this one he voiced.

"Gooey, how is it you knew I have Fire ability?"

"Ah yes, I should explain," replied Gooey. "The cell phone inside you can detect your vitals. Indeed, I not only know where you are at all times, but also what your health is, and what abilities you have. I probably shouldn't get into the technical stuff about how this vital monitoring works, as it's quite complicated and not necessary for you to know."

"Right," said Kirby as he turned a corner and saw a number of small humanoids huddled together. They weren't human, though, as they had the large, legless feet of many of the denizens of Dream Land, including Dream Landers; these beings' feet were pointier than Dream Landers', however, and resided in yellow shoes. The little men also had large heads, and dressed in blue bodysuits, with blue nightcaps. They didn't look anything like the animals around this area. Kirby wondered if they could talk.

"Hello?" he said hesitantly.

"Intruder!" yelled every single one of the little men simultaneously in high-pitched voices. Then Kirby was shocked to see each one suddenly pull weapons from nowhere. Bombs, boomerangs and boxing gloves were readied for combat.

"He could be a spy for the yellows!" exclaimed a number of the little men.

"We must protect our Senior!" responded the others. Though they sounded very angry, their facial expressions never changed from happy smiles.

"No, wait, I'm not..." began Kirby, but he stopped as a boomerang was thrown in his direction.

He tried the usual tactic of sucking it up, but for some reason the suction of this inhale was only as powerful as it had been before he'd embarked on his quest! The boomerang cut into his cheek and he immediately lost his Fire ability. Dream Landers don't have blood, however, so the cut didn't start to bleed.

He yelled in surprise. That had hurt!

"Kirby!" exclaimed Gooey.

Kirby incredulously tried inhaling again, and this time it worked. Apparently, he couldn't perform his special inhale when he had a copied ability.

The boomerang that had been thrown was thrown again. This time, he inhaled it and swallowed.

Another burst of stars flashed in front of his eyes. A yellow hat, which had a visor at its front, two black eyes painted onto it above the visor, and two little white wings on its sides, appeared on his head. On top of the hat appeared a curved metal blade.

"Cutter ability!" declared Gooey.

Kirby grabbed the blade on his hat and threw it at his opponents. They recoiled, but not enough to prevent the blade, which curved through the air like a boomerang, from slicing through one of them, causing it to disappear with accompanying stars.

The little men sprang into action. Those carrying bombs lobbed their bombs and the other carrying a boomerang threw its boomerang.

Kirby's blade returned to him. He caught it and immediately ran out of the way of the bombs and boomerang coming at him. He threw the blade again, cutting down another opponent.

More bombs came his way. He jumped to the side, but was burned by the flames of the bombs' explosions. Kirby felt himself begin to lose his Cutter ability, and he concentrated to keep it from disappearing. Somehow, he managed it, but in his moment of surprise success, one of the boxing gloved enemies punched him in the face.

He yelled in pain and frustration. With no ability anymore, he inhaled, and a bomb that was about to hit him entered his mouth. But instead of swallowing, he hit the enemy in front of him with the star shaped shot.

He ran forward and inhaled, slurping up another opponent, and shot the star at one of the two remaining. Now there was only one left. It pulled out another bomb, but Kirby quickly inhaled it and its weapon before it could do anything else. With nothing to fire at, Kirby swallowed.

Stars flashed for a third time, and a blue hat identical to the ones the little men had worn appeared on his head.

"Bomb ability!" declared Gooey.

Kirby raised a hand and a bomb materialized in it. He threw it at a wall, and it exploded on contact.

This is all so amazing, he thought. If only it didn't... hurt so much.

Indeed, his injuries from the battle were starting to ache painfully.

"Gooey..." he said, groaning slightly due to the pain, "is there anything you can do about..."

"Your injuries?" Gooey cut Kirby short. "Well, have you cleared the area of all enemies?"

"Yeah. I won, but I got hurt..."

"Yes, yes, I know. Is there an opening near you in the side of Butter Building? I'm going to send you a curative via Warp Star, but I don't want to bash in any walls here. Butter Building is quite unstable and we don't want it to collapse."

"...Alright. I see one."

"Okay, go stand by it."

"...It's kind of high up."

"Then float up to it."

Kirby inflated, but winced as this caused the cut in his side to throb painfully. He flapped his arms as best he could through the pain and eventually made it up to the opening, where he deflated and hung onto one of the metal bars sticking out of the wall.

"Gooey," he panted, realizing another problem, "I'm tired too. I haven't slept in... too long. Could I go home and get some rest?"

"We'll deal with that in a moment. Did you get up to the opening?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, I'm sending the Warp Star. It should arrive momentarily. I couldn't send it when there were enemies around, you see, because I can't run even the slightest risk of my Warp Star technology getting into the wrong hands."

The Warp Star soared down and stopped in front of Kirby. On top of it was a large tomato, which had a black M on its front.

"A tomato?" said Kirby inquisitively.

"A Maxim Tomato!" proclaimed Gooey. "Now, this is something I wish I had figured out how to make. My world-renowned chef here, Cook Kawasaki, has invented the ultimate food in the universe... for Dream Landers that is. This one tomato is guaranteed to cure anything that ails you; that includes cuts, burns, and even fatigue! Eat these regularly and you'll never have to sleep again, nor will you have to eat anything else!"

"No..." Kirby's eyes widened slowly. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am. It's just too bad this stuff doesn't work on anything but Dream Landers and other organisms with similar food consumption abilities. You see, any creature that has to excrete any of its food at some point after eating will not benefit from the curative properties of Maxim Tomatoes. I myself am lucky in that I do not have to do such a thing, so Maxim Tomatoes are my sole source of nourishment. This way I can stay awake and alert perpetually, and never be away when you have need of me."

Kirby had only vaguely followed Gooey's talk. There was something in there about creatures that have to excrete stuff that he didn't understand. He was currently preoccupied by the prospect of never having to eat or sleep again. Eating and sleeping were two of the most core aspects of Dream Lander life. How could he just give them up?

"...You there?" said Gooey. "You haven't responded or eaten the Maxim Tomato yet."

At this point, Kirby's cut gave another twinge, and he figured that it would be best to at least eat this Maxim Tomato so he could heal up.

He leaned forward and picked up the food item. The Warp Star flew away the instant it was relieved of its cargo. He put the Maxim Tomato in his mouth and swallowed.

Energy soared back into his system. He was suddenly wide awake, and felt his wounds disappear.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, unable to control himself.

"Glad you like it," acknowledged Gooey smugly. As Kirby floated back down to the floor, Gooey continued, "And now we must discuss the beings that gave you those injuries you just cured."

"What about them?"

"They were wearing blue, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Well, they are known as the blue-suited Poppy Brothers Juniors, though they are more commonly referred to as the blue PBJs. They live to serve their leader, and creator, the blue-suited Poppy Brothers Senior. The rivalry between the blue-suited Poppy Brothers Senior and the yellow-suited Poppy Brothers Senior has been escalating for years. It is now at the point where the blue PBJs and yellow PBJs have been fighting a small war against each other, trying to assassinate their rival color's Senior. The Poppy Brothers triplets are all bad eggs. The blue-suited one has been using his PBJs to terrorize the populations of Butter Building, Yogurt Yard and Grape Garden, so as to create a base for his army. The yellow-suited one has likely joined up with one of the rogue organizations, like the Underwater Mafia, the Eye Minds or the Meta Clan, rather than trying to make it on his own like his blue-suited brother. Well, probably not the Underwater Mafia, as he's not exactly suited for underwater travel, but I digress. The red-suited one disappeared a while back, but he was a crook. If you meet any of these Poppies, eliminate them."

"...Alright," said Kirby. He would not have followed all of Gooey's speech if it weren't for his newly reenergized state.

He walked into another area of Butter Building's second floor, and a Como, a brown spider-like creature, came down in front of him, hanging from the ceiling on a strand of webbing.

Kirby immediately threw a bomb at it, destroying it instantly.