Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 9: Ripple Star Reunion
After teleporting from Another Dimension, the Lor Starcutter appeared...somewhere in outer space. The computer screen showed an image of the view in front of it: a planet that looked like a pink heart with a smiling face. "That doesn't look like Popstar," Taranza observed.
A smile spread across Kirby's face at the sight of the familiar planet. "It's Ripple Star!"
"That's Ribbon's home planet! I've been wanting to visit there," Susie said. Like Kirby, she was good friends with Ribbon and wanted to see her again.
Magolor scratched his head in thought. "I must have taken a wrong turn. But there could be a Rod of Darkness there so, why don't we check it out?"
When the Lor descended into Ripple Star's sky, Kirby went up to the deck so all the fairies would know their visitors came in peace. When he saw a group of them fluttering in front of Ripple Star's castle, he waved. One of the fairies spotted him and said, "Ribbon, look who it is!"
Ribbon, the pink-haired fairy wearing a red bow in her hair, turned to see Kirby atop the Lor as it landed; she was positively delighted to see him. "Kirby!" she flew over to him while he climbed down, and the two friends hugged, "It's so good to see you again!"
Kirby had never told anyone, but he secretly had a crush on Ribbon. After all, she had once kissed him on the head, which caused him to blush and tumble down the stairs nearby. King Dedede, Adeleine, and a certain Waddle Dee had witnessed the event, but fortunately for him they weren't here right now.
Magolor, Taranza, and Susie came up beside Kirby and Ribbon. "Hi, Ribbon!" Susie waved with a happy expression in her eyes.
"Susie! It's been a while!" Ribbon said, flying cheerfully around her. Then she looked at Magolor and Taranza. "And you're Magolor and Taranza, right? Oh, I'm so glad to see all of you again!"
Kirby liked seeing Ribbon so happy. He hated to change the subject, but he knew it had to be done. "Hey Ribbon, we're looking for something that looks like a dark Dream Rod. Have you seen anything like that?" he asked her.
The fairy thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, I did see something dark in the sky a few hours ago. But it went by so fast, I couldn't tell what it was. I'll help you look for it, if you want."
So everyone followed Ribbon away from the castle and into a vast field. As they walked, they took in the scenery around them. There were flowerbeds filled with colorful flowers scattered around the area, some of them topped with a large pink and purple flower. Unique spinning trees could also be seen in spots, and rainbows arched over parts of the path. What a lovely place this was! "Your planet is so beautiful, Ribbon," Susie remarked, "You and the other fairies must be very happy here."
"We are," Ribbon smiled, "Especially since Kirby saved us from that awful Dark Matter!"
Kirby and Taranza weren't paying as much attention to the search as Magolor, Susie, and Ribbon were. The latter was admiring some of the flowers; they were almost as beautiful as Dreamstalk flowers, he thought. Kirby, meanwhile, was busy chasing the little white butterflies called Flutters that flew around the field. When he came near one of the rainbows, he got an idea. With a running start, he dashed right up one side of the rainbow and slid down the other, landing in a flowerbed. Popping out of the flowerbed, he said to himself, "Hey, no fair! I thought there was supposed to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!" He paused for a moment. "...Actually, I'd rather have a pot of chocolate coins." Then, Kirby noticed a small building nearby glowing like the Dream Palace and King Dedede's castle had been, so he went to take a peek inside…
Suddenly something small, round, and pink zoomed past Magolor, Taranza, Susie, and Ribbon, causing a brief gust. "What was that?" Susie asked.
"Kirby...pretending to be a racecar?" Magolor guessed.
Kirby rushed back to his friends, his eyes wide with fear. "Th-there's a m-m-monster in there!" he stammered, pointing at the small building.
The others cautiously approached the structure and only briefly glanced inside before backing away. Inside was...an enormous purple Sawyer?! Kirby had fought a large version of the saw-like enemy in this very spot last time he was there, but this one was even bigger! It nearly took up the entire room, and it was somewhat transparent like a hologram. Magolor, however, did not panic. He simply summoned a black hole over the Sawyer, which sucked it in easily. "Problem solved," he said matter-of-factly.
Now that it was safe, everyone entered the small building, which contained nothing more than one mostly empty mechanical room. There was no sign of the Rod of Darkness inside, but there was something else on one side of the room that caught Susie's eye. There, on the floor lay a pile of small light blue robots resembling plugs, which were clearly non-functioning. "What happened to all those poor little Pluggs?" Susie gazed at them sadly.
"They attacked me last time I was here, so I had to defeat them," Kirby answered, "I guess this is where they've been stored ever since."
This discussion was soon interrupted when Taranza called out from outside, "Look up there! It's the Rod of Darkness!" The others caught up to him to see a dark rod up in the sky, moving away from where they stood.
"It's headed for the castle!" Ribbon exclaimed, and everyone raced after it.
A few minutes later, the mysterious rod entered the castle and descended in front of the queen of Ripple Star. She was a fairy much taller than the others, who had dark braided hair and wore a crown and glasses. "Well, what have we here?" she wondered to herself, reaching out to grab the rod.
Before she could do so Ribbon burst into the room, followed by Kirby and the others. "Don't touch that!" the pink-haired fairy cried out.
The queen simply looked at Ribbon and adjusted her glasses. "Why, Ribbon, what is all this fuss about?" Then she noticed Kirby's group and turned to them, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary here. "Oh look, you've brought some friends! How good it is to see you again, Kirby, and a pleasure to meet the rest of you. Now Ribbon, what was it you were saying?" She turned back to Ribbon, fixing her glasses again as they were trying to fall off her face. (How someone like this got to be a queen was one of the great mysteries of the universe.)
"Your Highness, Kirby told me that if you touch that rod, it might possess you just like Dark Matter did!"
All of a sudden the rod began to move out of the room, so everyone chased after it. "Ribbon, your crystals might be able to destroy it!" Kirby called out. So Ribbon fired small crystals at the Rod of Darkness, stopping it in its tracks. Everyone watched it carefully in case it exploded like the one from Shadread's base; but instead it quivered for a moment and then disintegrated. Success! They all cheered at the victory.
With their mission completed, Kirby, Magolor, and Taranza returned to the Lor. While evening came and the sky turned a gorgeous golden color, Magolor searched for any more Rods of Darkness on Ripple Star. "Good news! It looks like that Rod of Darkness was the only one on this planet," he announced, "How's the Dream Rod doing?" He looked back at Kirby, who was closely watching the Dream Rod as it lay in a capsule.
Kirby thought the rod might be slightly brighter than it was before, but he couldn't tell for sure. "About the same," he replied.
At that moment, Taranza entered the room; he'd apparently been wandering around the ship's interior. "Has anyone seen Susie?" he asked Kirby and Magolor.
The two of them glanced around and noticed that indeed, their female party member was nowhere in sight. In fact, they hadn't seen her since they left the castle. They didn't have to wonder where she was for long, though, as she soon came running into the room. "Guys! I've got something to show you!" she said excitedly.
Kirby, Magolor, and Taranza followed Susie outside, where they saw something that both surprised and delighted them. The Pluggs were up and about! Some of them were playing with the fairies while others were hanging around the castle and the mechanical room, which was no longer glowing. Susie giggled. "I couldn't help myself," she explained, looking pleased with her work, "I repaired those Pluggs we found and reprogrammed them to be good little helpers for the fairies. Now they'll help provide electricity for the buildings and structures!"
Ribbon came from the crowd of fairies and approached Kirby. "Kirby, if you hadn't visited our planet today and helped us destroy that dark rod, we could have been in big trouble," she told him, "You've saved us once again!" Then...she kissed him on the head! Kirby couldn't help himself; he blushed and started stumbling around. Oh no, it was happening again! But this time there were no stairs nearby, so instead he bumped into the mechanical room and fell down. Thankfully Magolor, Taranza, and Susie were too busy watching the Pluggs to notice. Kirby was glad because Magolor surely would have teased him about it. Once Ribbon helped him up, both of them had to laugh. Another Rod of Darkness was successfully destroyed, and it looked like happy days were ahead for Ripple Star.