Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 22: Hideout and Seek
merendinoemiliano, happy New Year to you too! I hope you're having a good one so far!
Susie slowly opened her eyes as she came to. The first thing she was aware of was that she was no longer outside the Lor; rather, she was locked in a cell in an unfamiliar chamber. Kirby, Magolor, and Parallel Susie were nowhere in sight, but Taranza was lying on the floor a short distance away. "Taranza, wake up!" Susie whispered, quickly getting up and shaking him awake.
The spider lifted his head to see what was going on, shaking off the drowsiness that remained. "What happened? Where are we?" he said softly upon seeing the current situation.
His friend spotted a familiar round robot floating outside the cell, facing the opposite direction. The last thing she remembered was hearing an odd noise coming from it before she passed out, which told her what must have happened. "Mirrobo's over there! I think it's taken us to Shadread's hideout!"
Taranza did not like the sound of that. "We've got to get out of here!" he said. Susie nodded, knowing what to do. She hastily brought out the controller that summoned her Business Suit, but Mirrobo was even faster. It abruptly turned and launched a beam from its eyes at Susie, which broke the controller and knocked it out of her hands. Taranza caught her before she could fall and glared at Mirrobo angrily. "You monster! Don't you know how to treat a lady?!"
"I have been ordered not to let you escape," the robot replied, "I must carry out the will of Master Shadread."
Taranza growled before turning his attention back to Susie. "Are you okay, Susie?" he let go of her, seeing she could stand on her own.
"I'll live," she answered, retrieving the broken controller and looking down at it sadly, "but now I can't use my Business Suit."
Meanwhile in Dream Land, Parallel Susie was the first to regain consciousness. "Ugh...I've been spending way too much time sleeping lately," she muttered to herself as she got up. She could tell right away that something bad had happened; Kirby and Magolor were lying beside the Lor and two party members were missing. "Kirby, Magolor, wake up!" she said.
The two of them only slightly moved, still feeling sleepy. "Come on, Mom...I'm tired…" Magolor muttered.
Parallel Susie was not amused by this response. "I'm not your mother! Now get up-we have a serious situation here! Mirrobo is gone, but so are Taranza and Susie!"
Suddenly wide awake, Kirby and Magolor jumped up from where they lay. "Oh no! That metal maniac must have kidnapped them!" Kirby panicked.
"Don't worry," Magolor told him, "If I know Mirrobo, it's taken them to Shadread's base-and the Lor will get us there in a jiffy!"
"And I know my way around Shadread's base, so it shouldn't be difficult to find them," Parallel Susie added. So the three of them boarded the ship and teleported to Another Dimension.
Back in the shadowy villain's hideout, Taranza and Susie were trying to come up with another escape plan when they heard one of the doors in the room open. There was Shadread himself, approaching the cell with a sinister chuckle. "Good work, Mirrobo," he told his assistant while eyeing the two captives, "You brought those two straight to me, just as I ordered."
Susie had a bad feeling about this. "W-what do you want from us?"
"Why, you have no reason to worry, my dear. You see, Mirrobo has detected significant amounts of darkness within both your hearts-which I intend to collect. It will not harm you, but it will benefit me greatly."
Little did anyone know that Taranza, who was not going to allow that to happen, was stealthily charging up an attack. No sooner had Shadread finished speaking than a group of magic webs was hurled at him and Mirrobo, wrapping both of them up like bright pink mummies. Then Taranza, after moving away from Susie, used a powerful burst of magic to break the bars of the cell. "Run for it!" he said to her, and they both ran out of the room.
"After them!" Shadread mumbled, but Mirrobo and he couldn't see a thing with their faces covered by spiderwebs. With the villain hopping awkwardly and his robot flying unsteadily, they tried to follow the fleeing duo...but of course they couldn't tell where they were going. Taranza and Susie were able to turn at a corner after making their way down a hall, but Shadread and Mirrobo bumped into the wall instead, which knocked the webs off of them.
After going through a few more halls, Susie paused when she saw something in one room that caught her attention. "Taranza! Over here!" she called out quietly to her friend, who then came back to where she stood. The two of them entered the room, which was small and contained only a desk, a stool, and a lamp; atop the desk sat a large tablet with some text displayed on its screen. "I have but a small amount of darkness to collect before the rod reaches its full power," Susie read, "Through it I will unlock the ultimate weapon and finally my true form."
"Ultimate weapon? True form?" Taranza repeated. That did not sound good. Susie and he didn't have time to think about it, however, as they could hear Shadread and Mirrobo coming down the hall. They swiftly raced out of the room and through the rest of the hall.
Since the wizard and former secretary didn't know where the exit was, they soon ended up in the lab containing capsules and machinery. Almost as soon as they entered, two capsules dropped down from above and trapped each of them. "I've got you now!" Shadread declared as he and Mirrobo arrived in the lab a moment later, "You know you cannot escape."
Suddenly blue light emanated from Mirrobo's eyes. The small robot detected three life forms growing nearer, which were none other than Kirby, Magolor, and Parallel Susie. The trio was currently flying toward the hideout in the Lor, with Parallel Susie making repairs to her Business Suit along the way. "We have company," Mirrobo stated. Kirby and Magolor appeared as glowing blue silhouettes on its mirror as before, but Parallel Susie's life force was purple because she was a parallel being.
Shadread frowned. "We must collect the darkness quickly!"
"Yes sir," Mirrobo replied. It placed itself in front of the two capsules, its eyes turning purple. It began to run a scan of Taranza and Susie, who could only watch uneasily from where they were trapped.
At that moment, a loud crash was heard when something smashed right through the wall. "Hold it right there, Shadread!" said a voice. It was Parallel Susie in her Business Suit, with Kirby and Magolor riding behind her.
The villain was not exactly happy to see the red-haired woman again. "Parallel Susie!" he growled, "You traitor!"
"Who are you calling a traitor? I only worked for you because you forced me to! Now let them go or I'll have to crush you myself!"
"Hmph! I'd like to see you try!" Shadread pulled out his Rod of Darkness, which was bigger than any the others had ever seen. He used it to fire a powerful dark beam at Parallel Susie's machine, but it hopped right over the attack. Then, before Mirrobo could gather any negative energy from Taranza and Susie, it was struck by the spinning arms of a charging Business Suit. As a result the robot went flying into the wall before it fell to the floor, sparking.
Kirby and Magolor jumped from the top of the Business Suit, dodging another dark beam; after that Magolor summoned a black hole above Shadread. Now was the time to act quickly. While the villain was busy hiding behind his cape, Parallel Susie shot missiles at the capsules holding Taranza and Susie until they shattered. Kirby took out a Warp Star, which Magolor and he jumped onto, and flew it to Taranza and Susie so they too could hop aboard. Finally the four of them rode the Warp Star out of the hideout, followed by Parallel Susie in her mech.
Once everyone got back to where the Lor was landed, it was time to part ways with Parallel Susie. "You go on ahead," she told the others, "I'll stay here and keep a close eye on Shadread and Mirrobo. I'll alert you if anything suspicious happens." And so Kirby, Magolor, Taranza, and Susie boarded the ship, with Parallel Susie watching from below as it exited Another Dimension.
When the Lor returned to Popstar, night was falling and the sky was dark. Kirby was very happy to have Taranza and Susie back. "Taranza! Susie! I was so worried about you!" he said, giving each of them a hug, "Shadread didn't hurt you, did he?"
"No, we're fine," Taranza answered, "just a little shaken up."
"Shadread said there was darkness in our hearts, which he wanted to use for his own benefit," Susie spoke up, "He must have been referring to our pasts...but how did he and Mirrobo know about them?"
"And what about that text we found in his base?" Taranza added, "It said he's trying to unlock the 'ultimate weapon' and his 'true form'!"
This information both surprised and worried Kirby and Magolor. "It sounds like there's more to Shadread than meets the eye," the latter remarked, "We'll have to do whatever we can to keep him from achieving his goals." The others agreed, knowing that as long as they worked together they would be able to take on whatever dangers lay ahead.