Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 36: Shadow Blade Appears!
The day after acquiring the five pieces of light energy from Floralia, Kirby and his team were back in Dream Land. It was a rainy day but Parasol Kirby didn't mind. He had his red and white star-topped parasol to keep him dry-well actually, he wasn't staying dry because he was enjoying splashing in puddles. "Ha ha! Rainy days are so much fun!" he laughed to himself as he splashed about, but then the rain began to fall harder and he was getting soaked. "But not when it rains this much!" he turned and made a dash for the Lor.
When Kirby came inside, Magolor and Taranza were playing checkers on one side of the room and Susie was singing to herself on the other side.
The rain is falling, falling, falling…
She paused. "Hmm...I haven't thought of the rest of the lines."
The rain is faaalling and the indoors is caaalling!
Kirby sang. He grinned. "How about that?"
Much to his confusion, when he looked around he found that Magolor and Taranza fell down, there were checkers all over the floor, and Susie looked as if she'd gotten too close to a Plasma Wisp. "That was...stunning," she mumbled before collapsing.
"I'd call that a stalemate," Magolor muttered to Taranza of their ruined game.
At that moment Kirby heard frantic chirping coming from outside. Wondering what it was, he started to run for the entrance only to slip on the wet floor. He ended up sliding right out the door on his bottom until he landed headfirst in a puddle. "Note to self: never run on a wet floor," the round hero said to himself once he sat up and rubbed his head. When he spotted a familiar yellow bird lying helpless in the grass ahead of him, he jumped up and raced to the Lor's entrance. "Everyone, come quick!" he called to his friends, "It's one of Dyna Blade's chicks!"
Dyna Blade was an enormous, majestic red bird with colorful wings. At one point Kirby had battled her after she destroyed some of Dream Land's crops. After he won he learned she was only trying to feed her three little chicks, so he fed them and taught them to fly while she recovered. Since then the two of them had gotten along better.
Magolor, Taranza, and Susie, having recovered from hearing Kirby sing, came to the doorway. "We'll get soaked if we go out there now," Taranza pointed out.
"Don't worry," Kirby replied, "I'll use my Chumbrella!" His parasol suddenly became much bigger and turned pink and white with heart designs (how he did such a thing was a mystery).
The Chumbrella was big enough to keep all four of them dry so they were able to approach the Dyna Chick together. The (sort of) little bird was crying, tired, and soaking wet, but it wasn't afraid of them because it remembered Kirby as a friend. It sat up and looked at them with pleading eyes. "How did one of the Dyna Chicks get all the way out here?" Taranza wondered.
"I'll bet it was practicing flying when it got swept away by the rain," Magolor guessed, "until it wound up right here wet and exhausted."
"You poor thing!" Susie said to the Dyna Chick, "Your mother must be worried sick! We've got to get you back to her!"
That was exactly what Kirby's party vowed to do. Of course, even at a young age the Dyna Chick was too big and heavy for any of them to carry alone, so Magolor and Taranza had to work together to get it into the ship. They were followed by Susie and then Kirby, who forgot about the size of his Chumbrella until it got stuck in the doorway and made him fall down. "Another note to self: never go indoors with a Chumbrella," he told himself.
Once everyone was inside, Susie took a towel and dried the Dyna Chick's drenched feathers. Kirby would have helped except he needed to dry himself off at the same time. Meanwhile Magolor and Taranza were at the computer viewing the map. "Dyna Blade's nest is at the peak of Candy Mountain," Magolor observed, "It won't take long to get there in the Lor!"
As the ship lifted off and began sailing through the sky the Dyna Chick started to perk up. Kirby brought two apples into the room, eating one himself and feeding the other to the young bird. Susie sang more of her unfinished song from earlier:
The rain is falling and the indoors is calling
So inside we'll stay till the rain goes away!
She laughed. "Who says music has to be serious?"
Suddenly the Lor was rocked by something huge flying past it. "What was that?" Susie questioned once the shaking stopped.
Magolor and Taranza caught a glimpse of the airborne creature on the map but it was too dark to be Dyna Blade. "I don't know," Taranza answered, "but whatever it was, it's gone now."
Fortunately the rest of the flight went smoothly without any more interruptions, and soon the five passengers arrived at the peak of Candy Mountain. This tall mountain was unique because of its many colorful platforms, but Kirby thought it would be better if there was actual candy there.
Having regained its strength and excited to be home, the Dyna Chick eagerly followed the others outside after they landed. By now the rain had slowed to a drizzle so they didn't have to worry so much about getting wet. Right away they saw Dyna Blade and her other two chicks looking around the nest worriedly, but the sad scene soon gave way to a heartwarming one. The no longer lost Dyna Chick flew joyfully, albeit somewhat clumsily, to its mother, who wrapped her wings around it in a loving embrace; its two siblings hopped up and down rejoicing. Kirby and company looked on, feeling happy inside from their good deed.
A sudden turn of events came when a strong gust of wind blew. Just a moment before the weather was calm, so everyone glanced up to see what caused the unexpected gust. It was then that they saw something they never would have imagined they'd encounter. High up in the sky above them soared another Shadow Beast...and this one resembled Dyna Blade herself! "Is that what I think it is?" Taranza said in disbelief.
Something small was floating beside the Shadow Beast which turned out to be none other than Mirrobo. "This is Shadow Blade, the greatest of the Shadow Beasts," it proclaimed, "Surrender now or you will suffer the consequences."
The three Dyna Chicks were frightened by the strange visitors and huddled in their nest. Kirby, Magolor, Taranza, and Susie stared upward, not knowing what to do at first, but Dyna Blade was unfazed. She came up beside them, letting them know she wanted to help them. "Come on, we have to stop that Shadow Beast!" Kirby told his allies.
Taranza, Susie, and he climbed onto Dyna Blade's back, but Magolor started running the other direction instead. "Where are you going?" Taranza called out to him.
"To the Lor! You guys might need some backup!"
The others had a feeling Magolor was right, for they didn't quite know what they were up against. Kirby, Taranza, and Susie held on tightly as Dyna Blase lifted off the ground. They didn't take their eyes off of Shadow Blade as she swiftly ascended toward it. They felt the wind blowing harshly against them when the great bird and her imposter charged at one another repeatedly. At first it seemed as though both sides were of equal abilities and it was hard to tell which way the battle would go.
Then Shadow Blade gave an eerie cry and shot something like a dark beam from its mouth. Dyna Blade was almost caught off guard but managed to swerve to the right just in time. Susie nearly fell off at the swift movement but Taranza caught her. Now it was clear the enemy possessed a power Dyna Blade didn't have. However, before it could attack again it was struck by a flurry of small stars. There was the Lor, shooting a steady stream of stars with its captain standing on the deck. "Ha ha!" he said, "Mess with us and you'll be seeing stars-literally!"
After enduring the attack for a few moments, Shadow Blade pushed through the stream with some struggle. It dove at the flying craft which fired its oars like spears in a counterattack. This prevented the shadowy bird from advancing any further, giving Dyna Blade the opportunity to strike. She rammed into the opponent and succeeded in knocking it away, but it was not ready to give up yet. The beast's eyes flashed and it raised its head and flapped its wings, creating a gust so violent that even Dyna Blade fought against it. Kirby, Taranza, and Susie held on but were unable to avoid being blown right off her back.
Magolor acted quickly when he saw his pals falling. "Kirby! Taranza! Susie! Try to land on the Lor!" he shouted over the wind. He positioned his ship directly below them and Taranza dropped a bouncy web on the deck, providing them with a soft landing. Still, it wasn't safe to be on the deck with the powerful force rocking the ship and threatening to blow it off course, so everyone hastily returned inside.
From there, Kirby and the others watched tensely through the computer screen as Dyna Blade was forced to land on the mountain's peak. Shadow Blade was unrelenting. "Magolor, can't you get us out of this gale?" Susie asked her mage friend worriedly. The Lor was swaying more and more by the minute.
Magolor tried to command his craft to leave the area but the wind was too strong for it to move against. "I can't! It's too strong!" he cried out. Soon the Lor could resist no longer; it was whisked all the way into outer space.