Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Kirby perched on a boulder for a moment and surveyed his surroundings. Marx couldn't have gone that far, can he? As far as he knew, he could sense dark energy seeping from whatever could be at the distance. The pink puffball shuddered at the thought of what could happen if Marx interacted with it. As much as he's forgiven the jester for attempting to take over Popstar, the memory of what went down with Galactic Nova still lingered fresh in his mind.
Kirby jumped off the boulder and started sprinting across the strange terrain. He spotted Marx gliding over the terrain with ambition in his eyes. The jester glanced behind him and gave an irritated glare.
"Sorry, Kirby," Marx called over, "but I have to go! Can't have you get in my way, so try and follow me!"
Marx let out an insane laugh as he vanished in a teleport. Narrowing his eyes, Kirby summoned the Warp Star and hopped onto it. The Warp Star took off and flew across the land. In a matter of minutes, he sensed large amounts of dark energy in the valley.
"Poyo," Kirby stuttered.
The Warp Star made a rapid descent into the valley. When it touched down on the ground, Kirby immediately jumped off. However, Marx was nowhere to be seen. He spotted several large holes in the ground, each leading deep underground and making up a massive cave system. Moments continued on in silence before he heard excited cackling echoing from underground. Taking a moment to examine the depth, Kirby leapt into one of the holes.
Once he landed on the cavern floor, Kirby spotted the shattered remains of some kind of glass round structure, considering the curvature of the shards. He felt uneasy, but it wasn't anything he hasn't dealt with before. Without warning, thousands of screams echoed out all at once, along with the sound of breaking glass. A second orb shouldn't be too far from here.
Kirby braved the loud ghastly noises as he sprinted through the cavern tunnels. When he finally found Marx, the jester already found a third orb. The pink star warrior realized the jester shouldn't be allowed to break this one. The rule of 3 applied in this case, as Kirby had plenty of experience with bigger events after three connected events occurred. His more powerful foes had to be taken down in three phases, some puzzles required three answers and three things had to be broken for something awful to happen. Marx being in his Soul form wasn't helping.
"Poyo!" Kirby shouted and waved his arms.
Marx fixated his eyes on the pink puff for a moment.
"Why not?" Marx cackled, "we both know telling me not to do it is just gonna make me do this!"
With a flick of his wing, Marx threw the last orb to the ground and shattered it. Suddenly, the ground started to shake around them and Kirby started to wonder why these caves were all the same size. The pink star warrior shuddered when he noticed dark purple spots appearing all over the cavern floor. Without warning, a large tube-like being with large external fangs burst out of the floor and into the ceiling; yet it just kept going. He saw lots of eyes embedded into the body, staring at him as it moved.
"Poyo…" Kirby squeaked in fear.
"Oh my gosh," Marx stared in awe, "that is so cool."
The large worm-like creature dove after Kirby. Marx simply perched on the sidelines, giggling to himself as the pink star warrior leapt out of the way. As the giant worm creature kept pursuing him, he would dodge at every swipe and float over one of its body segments. It looped over itself as if it was trying to catch him, trying to corner him in the middle by tightening the loop.
Where was an opportunity for a copy ability when he needed one?
Kirby checked his rapidly changing surroundings for some loose object he could inhale. Soon enough, the pink star warrior leapt for a nearby pot, smashing it open and revealing an unlit bomb. Kirby inhaled the bomb and became Bomb Kirby. The worm-like monster tunneled after him again. The pink star warrior lit a bomb and threw it at the creature. It took the ensuing explosion like a champ, even if it was thrown off a little. A chunk of its body flew off and splattered the wall with green blood. Still, the creature slammed into the pink star warrior.
"Poyo!" Kirby yelped.
Kirby crashed into the ground and slid along a few feet. He quickly got back up. Kirby threw another bomb at the large monster. Another explosion. A displeased rumble in the distance echoed from somewhere in the ground. The creature sped up and started digging faster. The pink star warrior threw another bomb and jumped onto a section of its body, holding onto a spike on the side of the worm's body. The next thing he knew, he was forcefully dragged through several layers of rock and pulled through several walls, only to suddenly see light as the worm emerged from the surface. The creature arched in the air as it started its descent back into the ground. Now Kirby started thinking he had to get to safety fast, especially when the worm started to plunge back into the ground head first.
Kirby released his grip on the worm's spike. He landed safely as the worm tunneled back into the ground, still bleeding thick green blood. He grimaced at the awful rotting smell. He couldn't tell whether or not it was a living creature. All the pink puffball could do was check the ground for any nearby rumbling. Part of him had faith Marx might have a good chance surviving this creature, but he worried about the others still at the Lor Starcutter. He would have to warn them as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the creature's head popped out of a hole nearby and tunneled back into the ground just as quickly, its body still visible as it traveled around. Kirby prepared another bomb. He tossed it at the still slithering body. Suddenly, the worm's head popped out underneath him and snatched him in his jaws.
"Poyo!"
The worm let out an angered hiss as its lower body exploded, separating it into two pieces. Kirby barely managed to wriggle himself free, though he lost his Copy Ability in the process. He shuddered as the dismembered section rapidly developed into its own individual worm. The pink star warrior began sprinting across the terrain. He smashed another nearby pot, revealing an unlit torch. Why were there pots lying around on an uninhabited planet, anyways? He inhaled the torch and became Fire Kirby. He coughed a little smoke and the fire was weaker than expected.
For now, he leapt into the air and turned into a fireball. The large worm tried to catch Kirby in its mouth, but their face caught fire. It let out a screech of pain as the rot on their body slowly spread. It quickly tunneled underground again. When the pink star warrior came out of his fire spin, the other worm slammed into him. He crashed into a boulder. He still held onto his Copy Ability, but exhaustion from the pain was starting to take a toll on him.
Kirby reached into his pocket dimension and munched down on a Maxim Tomato. This quickly healed up his injuries and brought him back to full energy. Seeing that worm split into two was bad enough. He dreaded the thought of the giant worm splitting up into smaller worms as the battle continued on. Still, he spun around and let out a fiery breath. The worm veered out of the way, but its tail caught fire. There seemed to be some intelligence behind those eyes, and that was worrying.
Kirby hopped onto a boulder and checked his pocket dimension, which was rather different from Elfilis's. Of all the things he inhaled, there should be something useful. He sifted through miracle fruit, a variety of swords, a couple staves and wands, destroyed UFOs, mechanical parts, broken glass, and so on. The intensity of the battle meant he could only bring out one. Keeping an eye out on his surroundings, he noticed a matchbox floating among the inhaled rocks. He remembered using these to help light the candles on Dedede's birthday cake. He might've sucked up the matchbox when he inhaled his own slice of the cake.
Having brought out the matchbox, Kirby struck up a match. He quickly inhaled it and his fire quickly grew in power, the small fire on his head quickly igniting into a bonfire. The pink star warrior leapt back into action just as the second worm emerged from the ground, moving faster than the first one. Just as the worm rushed at him, he did a midair cartwheel and ignited himself on fire. The worm hissed, but it stopped and coiled itself. Kirby wheeled after the worm. The flames seared the worm to the point another segment of its body exploded, green putrid blood spewing all over the place.
Coming out of his fireball spin, Kirby turned to face the new segment of the worm. He dashed and turned into a fireball. The new segment exploded when he slammed into it at high speed. He quickly noted the smaller segments were weaker the more they separated. Courage building up inside, Kirby checked his surroundings for the other remaining segments. The largest one remained nowhere to be seen. The other one, however, leapt out from underneath him. Kirby jumped and did a back flip backwards. He only took a little damage from the surprise attack.
The pink star warrior unleashed his fire breath. The worm let out a screech of anger. Kirby rolled to the side, igniting in flames. Another angry screech, and the worm attempted to tackle and consume him. The pink star warrior turned into a flying fireball, moving from the snapping jaws. The other worm tackled him without warning. Kirby panicked as he flailed his arms.
"Poyo!"
With the worm about to tunnel into the ground, Kirby wiggled before igniting himself on fire. The worm hissed, but it didn't let go. The front of its body burned away before it exploded again. He let out a fire breath and tried turning around, hoping to aim the flames at his target. Both worms slowed down as the flames seared them and Kirby freed himself from the jaws. The remaining worms hissed and immediately charged at him. The pink star warrior did another cartwheel and ignited. Each worm he collided with exploded into blood and guts. Smaller segments had lesser intelligence. The smallest one charged at him. It burst into flames upon contact. It screeched as it tried to bury itself to put out the fire.
Kirby kept dodging the smaller worms' dive attacks and burrowing attacks, countering with fire breath at any chance he got. Before long, the pink star warrior finished off the remaining two worms, the fight drawing to a close. He took a few minutes to sit down and catch his breath. When he got back to his feet, Kirby returned to the cavern system to locate Marx. Much to his dismay, the jester already left. He climbed out of the caves within several minutes and checked his surroundings again.
He found the jester relaxing and poking at the dead creature with his shoe. Still in his Soul form, Marx seemed to be tempted to lick it for some reason. Shedding his Copy Ability, Kirby carefully approached the crazy jester. Marx stopped what he was doing and glanced over at the puffball.
"Heya!" he cackled, "it's been a while since I've been in this form! I'm pretty sure last time you killed me!"
Kirby gave Marx a confused look, not recalling seeing him in such an enhanced form.
"Maybe that was a dream," Marx continued, "or maybe it wasn't, or maybe it was a parallel universe, or maybe…"
"Poyo," Kirby stammered, shaking nervously.
"You'll have to speak up," Marx giggled, "I can't hear you over everyone else talking."
Kirby closed his eyes and shook his head, or lack thereof.
"Poyo!" Kirby reminded, "poyo poyo!"
"He's always worried," Marx shrugged, "I don't ever get to let loose anymore…"
One of Marx's red wings rubbed at his head as he started to get a headache. Kirby took another cautious step towards the jester and reached out his arm. He wasn't sure how Marx came back, but he remembered sparing the jester after finding him drifting in space and taking him back to Popstar. When his arm brushed the side of the jester's face, Marx bit down on him, eliciting a sharp hiss of pain.
"P-Poyo," Kirby pleaded, "poyo."
"It makes it hard to want to fight you when you're so nice, you know?" Marx grumbled, "damn it and I wanted to let loose a bit."
The jester's body flickered between his lighter colors and darker intimidating appearance. Kirby tilted sideways, taking note of his visible struggle to calm down from his power high, which seemed more difficult than Elfilis. The pink puff withdrew his arm and sat down. Over time, Marx started to calm down. After a moment, he hacked up some black fog. He didn't seem to have an easy time ejecting the excess mana. He let out a pained whine and coughed up some more smoke along with a bit of broken glass.
"Guh," Marx muttered, "I…I think I need a nap."
Marx fell onto his back, knocked out cold. Kirby stood up and summoned the Warp Star. By then, the jester returned to his normal state, which made it easier for the pink star warrior to nudge him onto the Warp Star. He hopped on and it took off into the air. Apart from the sleepy giggles, Marx didn't make much noise. Soon enough, the Warp Star touched down near the Lor Starcutter. Kirby disembarked and dragged Marx's unconscious body aboard.
"Poyo!" Kirby waved his arm.
Vesa, who had been sitting in a chair reading the book in her possession, tilted her gaze towards the pink star warrior.
"Welcome back," she smiled.
Elfilis glanced over their shoulder, perking up their feelers.
"Nice work," Elfilis said, "I felt the dark energy in the air, but it was far weaker so I assumed you could handle it."
Elfilis frowned at the sight of the bruises all over Kirby.
"Though judging by your appearance," they added, "I may have misjudged a tad."
Kirby sat down to rest for a bit while Magolor turned around and raced towards Marx. With Vesa, Elfilis, Kirby and Elfilin following him, the floaty manipulative mage carried him off down the hall into a small medical bay, placing him on a hospital bed. An overhead machine scanned the jester and a screen displayed his vitals.
"He seems to be doing fine," Magolor observed, "the machine has diagnosed him with extreme insanity and a warning not to let him around other people, but that's normal for him. He's tainted with dark magic, but again, that was true before he did whatever he was up to. The only real change is some magical depletion. He should be fine."
Elfilin nodded before he exchanged glances with Kirby.
"So what happened?" Elfilin asked.
Kirby used his body language and limited speech to explain what he found Marx doing and the powerful monster he had to fight, sparing no detail.
"I see," Elfilis nodded, "I'll probably need to head over there and assimilate whatever is left. Even if the creature is distasteful, it's still my job."
"And what will you do with its dangerous strength?" Vesa asked, "I mean, if it can tunnel through the planet's crust that easily…"
"Not much, I imagine," Elfilis shrugged, eyes wandering to Elfilin, "there are even worse things I could do to destroy a planet, but I still have standards."
Magolor finished studying his boyfriend's vitals and turned to face the others.
"Well," Magolor deadpanned, "that's a lot of new and scary thoughts you put in my head, so thanks for that."
"I can't really help it," Elfilis shrugged, "I was made to be a weapon and living library of every species I encounter…even if said species were intelligent or dangerous."
"Anyways," Magolor sighed, "since we're done here, perhaps we can check out this old theme park next?"
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