Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 16: New Adventure in the New World
The large Rod of Darkness entered the portal before Kirby and his friends could catch up to it, so they had no choice but to jump in after it. When they landed, they found themselves lying on the grass at the edge of what appeared to be a small town, but they didn't see the runaway rod anywhere. "This doesn't look like Another Dimension," Magolor remarked as everyone started to get up.
"That's because it's not!" Kirby replied cheerfully, jumping to his feet, "This is Waddle Dee Town, part of the New World. Some of the Waddle Dees and I use that portal to visit sometimes." The New World was a mysterious land which no one knew the real name of. At some point in the fairly recent past, the people who once called this world home went to live elsewhere, leaving the wild animals and the works of their civilization behind. When Kirby first got sucked into the New World through a vortex, he had to travel far and wide to rescue a large number of Waddle Dees captured by the Beast Pack. It was a long and difficult adventure, but in the end the conflict was resolved and the world was now a peaceful place.
There was one particular inhabitant of the New World whom Kirby was delighted to see again. It was his friend Elfilin, who was exiting a small house close by. Elfilin was a cute little magical creature who had large ears, light blue fur, and the ability to float; he had helped Kirby during his adventure. While this small house was actually built for Kirby during his stay in this land, Elfilin liked to use it as his home when the pink hero was away. Upon catching sight of his friend, Kirby waved both arms and called out to him, "Elfilin! Hiii!"
Elfilin quickly approached him, looking equally happy. "Kirby! It's great to see you again!" he said, then noticing Kirby wasn't alone, "Did you bring some friends?"
"Yep! This is Magolor, Taranza, and Susie."
Magolor, Taranza, and Susie all waved to Elfilin, who replied, "Nice to meet you!"
Everyone wandered around the village for a few minutes, finding that for the most part, things looked the same as they did the last time Kirby visited. There weren't as many Waddle Dees around as before, but there were still some who happened to be visiting right now. Kirby didn't see the item he sought, so he decided it was time to speak up. "Hey Elfilin, have you seen a big dark rod around here? We saw it go into the portal right before we did, but then it sort of disappeared."
"Hmm...I haven't seen anything like that, but maybe we'll find it if we take a good look around town?"
The five allies split up in order to search some of the buildings...but it was hard not to get distracted by all the sights. Unsurprisingly, Kirby was on top of the cafe eating Kirby Burgers and Car Mouth Cakes. Magolor was in the cinema watching movies about Kirby's adventure in the New World. "I knew Kirby was famous, but I didn't know he was a movie star!" he said to himself, "Why don't we supporting characters ever get to be movie stars?"
Meanwhile, Susie found the powered-up versions of regular Copy Abilities displayed in the weapons shop quite interesting. She was especially impressed by the Space Ranger ability, which gave Kirby his own blaster to shoot enemies with. "These Evolved Copy Abilities are amazing!" she told Weapons Shop Waddle Dee, who wore a brown hat, a pair of goggles, and a dark gray apron, "Did you make them yourself?"
"I sure did, ma'am!" he answered, looking pleased at the compliment, "But I did have some help from the blueprints." He held up a rolled-up piece of paper.
On the other side of the weapons shop was a small training area where Elfilin was currently playing with Mr. Sandbag. He did this by smacking the dummy with his tail and following it as it was knocked away. "Hee hee! Mr. Sandbag is more fun than he looks!" he giggled.
While all this was going on, Taranza was speaking with Wise Waddle Dee, who sat on a bench in the center of the town. This particular Waddle Dee wore a black graduation hat and glasses and, as his name suggested, was very knowledgeable. "Let me see…" he opened his red book and viewed its contents, "according to my book, a mysterious rod did indeed enter Waddle Dee Town, but it moved so fast no one noticed it. Apparently it went south from here."
Astounded, Taranza stared at him. "How did your book get that information?"
"Magic, I guess."
Once Taranza got Kirby, Magolor, Susie, and Elfilin to rejoin him, he told them what Wise Waddle Dee had said while they all approached the town's entrance. "...So, we need to head south of here to find the Rod of Darkness," he finished.
On the outskirts of town was a small plain, and past that was a long stretch of road, which of course no one was using. Elfilin saw an old rusty blue car sitting by the road and approached it. "Hey, Kirby!" he called out to his round friend, "You know what to do with this thing, right?"
Kirby smiled and nodded, and then he did something most of his allies had never seen him do. He inhaled the car but instead of swallowing it, his body somehow stretched over its upper half, turning him into Car Mouth Kirby. Upon witnessing the unusual transformation Magolor, Taranza, and Susie stood there staring in astonishment. "I...didn't know you could do that, Pinky," Susie uttered with a surprised tone.
Kirby couldn't say anything with his mouth full of car, so he motioned for his pals to hop aboard. Magolor, Taranza, and Susie climbed onto his back and Elfilin landed where the front part of the vehicle was, and then the currently not-so-round hero started to drive down the highway. While Elfilin laughed and enjoyed the ride, Susie was still trying to process what she was now experiencing. "I never thought I'd ride Kirby down the street!"
Magolor, meanwhile, looked like he was enjoying himself. "Here comes the caped hero, Magolor, bravely speeding into the unknown on the Kirby Express!"
"I think someone's been watching too many movies," Taranza told Susie.
Kirby only stopped once on the highway to let a mama duck and five little ducklings cross the street. Shortly after that, he finally reached the end of the road and skidded to a stop in the grass. Now the travelers were in what looked like the remnants of a city with numerous tall buildings scattered about. The plant life here was overgrown, and Awoofys and Rabiroos were playing among the abandoned structures. Right away, Elfilin gasped when he spotted something floating atop the tallest building in sight. "Look up there!"
"It's the Rod of Darkness!" Taranza said, recognizing the dark item. Everyone else got off of Kirby, who released the car and returned to his normal shape. (How was he able to stretch and un-stretch like that? Well, no one knew exactly.) Elfilin hovered to the roof of the tall building while Kirby climbed several ladders to reach the top. However, as soon as the two of them got close to the rod, it began to fire dark beams all around itself; this caused both of them to fall from the roof, but Taranza caught them.
Before the dark beams disappeared, they struck every Awoofy and Rabiroo in the area. The native creatures' eyes turned red and then they all glared at Kirby's party aggressively. When the Awoofys growled and began to run towards them and the Rabiroos got ready to stomp on them, Kirby knew he had to find a way to fight back. So he used a Drill Copy Essence he found hidden by a flowerpot to become Twin Drill Kirby. Now he was able to stop the animals from going after his friends by burrowing underground and attacking them by digging around beneath them. Next, he dug in a circle around them before leaping out of the earth, causing a small earthquake that knocked the creatures off their feet.
Meanwhile, Susie knew something had to be done about the Rod of Darkness before it could cause any more trouble. With Magolor following her, she swiftly took the Business Suit to the top of the tall building and smashed it into the dark rod, which was cracked by the blow. Once she moved out of range, Magolor blew up the rod with Gem Apple bombs and it shattered into tiny fragments as a result. In response, all the Awoofys and Rabiroos returned to normal, glanced around in confusion, and finally ran away. Kirby and Elfilin high-fived; they really made a great team!
Their mission completed, everyone went back to Waddle Dee Town, where all the Waddle Dees were happy to hear about the victory. The four-Waddle Dee band called the Deedly Dees was on stage playing music, which Kirby and Elfilin joyfully danced to. Taranza was watching a Waddle Dee fish for Blippers at the fishing pond when he got an idea. He lowered one of his magic webs into the water and brought it back out, pleased to find three small Blippers wriggling inside. "Hey, that's cheating!" the fishing Waddle Dee said unhappily.
"All's well that ends well, right Magolor?" Susie told her mage friend while sitting on one of the benches in the center of town. When he didn't answer she looked around, noticing he was not there. "Magolor?"
"Try looking up there," Wise Waddle Dee pointed up at the observation tower, seeming a bit amused.
Susie did just that...and saw Magolor standing atop the tower, seemingly pretending to be a movie star again. "That's right, folks! Thanks to the heroic efforts of the brave Magolor, the New World is saved!" he was saying to an invisible audience, "Watch him stand over Waddle Dee Town in triumph! Oh, and don't forget to watch his next movie." Kirby and Elfilin, who also saw the whole thing from below, glanced at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing. Perhaps Magolor was twisting the story just a little bit, but the day was saved regardless!