Chapter 22: Gourmet Race

Around the time Isabelle and her group while dealing with Rathalos, Samus and her group were still exploring the sea of clouds—while their main goal was the star-shaped that resembled Kirby's home world of Popstar, they investigated every sky island they came across to ensure they leave nothing unturned.

Unfortunately the only thing they seemed to have discovered so far were Puppet Fighters.

"I swear if I see one more Puppet Fighter—I'm going to scream." Samus grumbled as they took out yet another Puppet Fighter that tried to ambush them.

"Galeem sure is relentless. They must have stationed a lot of Puppet Fighters here because of how close we are to Galeem from this point." Link sighed, glancing to the side where they could see Galeem so close to them that it was kind of unnerving.

"W-what if they try to attack us from here?" Olimar slightly panicked.

"I think they would have done so by now if they could." Samus reasoned.

"Maybe they can't attack while their shield is up?" Min-Min wondered curiously.

Villager gave this some thought. "Maybe?"

"Either way—even if we could attack them from here—we can't rush into a fight with Galeem again without knowing the enemy properly. We can't afford to waste this second chance we have." Link reminded.

Villager nodded. "Yeah, you're right. We need to take down that shield first."

"Poyo poyo!" Kirby called out to the others who pointed that the star-shaped island within the sea of clouds was right within their reach.

"Oh, looks like we made it! It really does look like Kirby's home doesn't it?" Villager pointed out.

"As I suspected—there is a portal of light here. So this must lead to a sub-world."

"We need to prepare for anything. We might even find one of Galeem's minions in there." Link cautioned.

Kirby—however—didn't seem too concerned as he ran into the portal without a care in the world.

"Ah, Kirby!" Min-Min cried out.

"Some things never change." Villager sighed.

"Let's go after him quick!" Samus followed after Kirby. Link followed next and then one by one, the other fighters entered the portal as well.

Upon arriving through the portal of light, they found themselves in quite a colourful and surprisingly cheerful place—if the fighters hadn't known any better, they could have sworn that they had ended up in some other world entirely. It looked like a race course with food littered everywhere on the said course.

"Now I'm certain we're on Kirby's home world or at least a piece of that world." Samus confidently stated.

"Poyo..." Kirby looked sad as he looked around his familiar surroundings. It looked like his home Popstar but there was not a single living thing here, not even a spirit.

"There, there, Kirby." Olimar patted the small pink ball's head.

"Is this...some sort of race course?" Min-Min looked confused at the sight before them.

"Poyo? Poyo poyo!" Kirby recognized this course right away and immediately relayed what he knew.

"It's called the Gourmet Race?" Villager repeated.

"Poyo popo poyo!"

"You think King Dedede could be here because you two had done a race like this before back on Popstar?" Link added.

"Poyo." Kirby nodded.

"Well, it's worth a shot to try recreating that race. Maybe that'll get the Master Hand clone who's controlling Dedede to show up." Min-Min suggested.

"We should let Kirby do this. Since he'll know how this race works, right?"

"Poyo!" Kirby smiled.

"You know Kirby's just going to swallow all the food on the track." Villager narrowed his eyes playfully.

"I just thought of something. Even after being rescued, would King Dedede still work with us?" Olimar thought aloud.

"Poyo poyo poyo." Kirby answered.

"You trust him? Well...he doesn't seem as terrible as say Bowser and Ganon." Olimar slowly nodded.

"I don't think King Dedede will be a problem. He might have been a bully to Kirby in the past, but he's mostly harmless and compared to those two you mentioned—he's not that bad at all. I think so long as our goals align, we'll be able to work something out with him." Link reasoned.

"I have to agree with Link. I wouldn't be surprised if King Dedede wants revenge against Galeem as soon as we free him from their control." Samus chimed in.

"When you put it that way..." Olimar trailed off when he noticed that there was sign explaining the rules of the race. "Oh! These must be the rules for this Gourmet Race that Kirby mentioned.

"Let's see..." Villager approached the sign in order to read out the rules aloud. "It says here that the challenger needs to collect eleven points to win the race. Each food item on the floor counts as one point each. You can only select your chosen path and cannot go backwards on yourself to collect the food behind you. Once you reach the finish line, your points will be tallied and the one with the most points wins." Villager read out the rules.

"I see, so this is about choosing the most optimal path to gain the most points." Samus figured out.

"But there's so many paths that split into two or three paths. I wouldn't know which way to go." Olimar looked at the layout of the race, it looked more like a maze than a racetrack.

"All the more reason why Kirby should do the race. He's got more experience and probably already knows the best route already." Min-Min stated.

"Okay then, Kirby. Do your best!" Villager cheered.

"Poyo!" Kirby beamed and ran over to the starting point, as if the start point acted as a trigger a screen appeared in front of them, numbering down the countdown for the race to begin proper.

"Wow, even comes with it's own countdown timer and everything." Villager noted with a hint of surprise in his voice.

Once the beeping countdown went down to zero and change to 'GO!' in red. Kirby burst into a dash and started to suck up every piece of food that laid before him on the paths he took.

The other fighters could only cheer Kirby on as they waited for the race to end. When Kirby finally reached the end, a new screen came up showing the results of the race. It showed that Kirby had collected 11 points just as the rules stated.

Shortly after the screen changed to 'WINNER' with yellow lettering and a crown on top of the word.

"Poyo!" Kirby cheered and went over to the champion pedestal to check and see if King Dedede would show up now. Kirby looked over the pedestal with curiosity but yelped in panic as he saw a giant yet familiar wood hammer smack down on the champion pedestal, smashing it to pieces in the process.

Just as they had expected, it was indeed King Dedede followed by their Puppeteer—another clone of Master Hand.

"Hang on Kirby, we're coming!" Samus called out to Kirby as she and the other fighters wasted no time to head over to the other-side of the race course.

Kirby being familiar with fighting King Dedede in the past, was able to swiftly dodge every move the possessed fighter made, it also helped that hammer made the fighter's movements easy to read.

Kirby had an idea pop into his head and quickly inhaled the fighter into him before spitting him back out but this time he had copied King Dedede's moves, as shown as he had King Dedede's hat on his head now.

This seemed have frustrated the possessed fighter and attempted to launch a powerful hammer attack against the small pink fighter. Kirby, however, was able to outsmart him and jump on top of the hammer as King Dedede slammed it down before jumping up and bringing out his own hammer bashing it directly on top of King Dedede's head.

This made King Dedede's eyes swirl in daze and confusion as the hammer strike was surprisingly effective, causing the giant penguin fighter to slam down to the ground in defeat and change back into a trophy, hence freeing him from the Master Hand Clone's control.

Realizing their control over their fighter was lost, quickly fled the scene flying away from the area and leaving the sub-world entirely.

"Rats, they got away." Samus cursed as they arrived a little too late to prevent Galeem's mass-produced clone of Master Hand from escaping.

"Oh well, the important thing is that King Dedede's freed from Galeem's control now." Link shook his head.

"Wow, Kirby took that guy on all by himself. You're a lot stronger than you look, little guy." Min-Min winked at Kirby.

"Poyo!" Kirby beamed.

"Heh, let's just say Kirby and King Dedede have had their share of fights against each other. Both within tournaments and out." Samus informed the Newcomer fighter.

"Oho~" Min-Min gave a cat-like smile.

"What are we waiting for? Let's awaken King Dedede. He'll want to know what happened after fighting Galeem like the rest of us." Villager turned to Kirby. "Kirby, can you do the honours?"

"Poyo po." Kirby nodded and tapped on King Dedede's trophy to awaken the fighter within.

"I just hope he'll be willing to listen to us." Olimar gulped.

"Oooohhh, that really hurt. What in tarnation is going on?" King Dedede grumbled as he eased his poor head that still felt the sting of someone smacking him with something heavy.

"Poyo!" Kirby smiled and waved at King Dedede.

"Wait...Kirby?! What the heck are you doing here you little pink gumball?!" King Dedede was taken aback by Kirby's appearance. "Now wait just a second, whatever happened, I didn't do it! I didn't do anything wrong this time!" King Dedede quickly defended his innocence as he suspected Kirby was here once again to fight him.

"Poyo?" Kirby looked confused by King Dedede's quick denial.

"Relax, King Dedede, no one's here to scold you. We actually came here to rescue you." Link reassured the self-proclaimed Popstar ruler.

"You're welcome by the way." Villager rolled his eyes, his voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Huh? Oh it's you guys! Wait...weren't we fighting that Galeem fella a few seconds ago?" King Dedede asked, puzzled at the sudden change of location. "And why the heck are we back on Popstar? Isn't this the Gourmet Racetrack?"

"Well...a lot of things happened since then, King Dedede." Olimar started. And so, the other Smash fighters began to explain everything that has happened since their first attempt to battle Galeem ended in failure and what has occurred during that time until his rescue.

"You're telling me that giant rainbow-winged weirdo enslaved all of us except for Kirby and these Newcomers showed up just after our defeat. Wait, you mean Galeem enslaved ME?! The King of Popstar?!"

"That's the biggest thing you took away from all of this?" Min-Min raised an eyebrow.

"This is normal for King Dedede, you'll get used it." Samus reassured the Newcomer.

"Oh now this is just got personal! No one enslaves the great King Dedede of Popstar and gets away with it! I may have my issues with the pink gumball here but Galeem just made a new enemy today." King Dedede declared.

"So...does that mean we can expect you to help us take down Galeem?" Villager asked.

"If it helps me get revenge against Galeem—then yes—I'm willing to even work with the gumball and you lot to pack that rainbow-winged freak back where they came from."

"Poyo!" Kirby cheered.

"That's fair enough. I think it's safe to say we've all got a bone to pick with Galeem." Samus shrugged.

"Oh, my name is Min-Min by the way! I'm one of the Newcomers these guys we're telling you about." Min-Min introduced herself.

"Huh, I thought you were a new face. I thought Master Hand said we weren't expecting any new fighters after Ken and Incineroar showed up." King Dedede pointed out.

"You're guess is as good as ours. Even WE don't know how we got here." Min-Min sighed.

"All the Newcomers seem to suffer from a shared amnesia, they don't remember how they arrived here other than a bright light." Link explained.

"Huh, that sure is weird. Hey...wait a second...Wouldn't that Shulk fella know how they got here? He can see the future can't he?" King Dedede suggested.

"That's what we're hoping to find out too. Unfortunately we haven't found Shulk yet. Hopefully the other teams had better luck than we had. So far we've only found Ness and you." Oilimar answered.

"Then what are we waiting for then? Are we going to go help the other fighters and beat up Galeem or not?" King Dedede twirled his hammer in his hand before placing it behind his back.

"Right, there's nothing left for us here. So let's head back out to the sea of clouds."

"...We're not on Popstar?" King Dedede was puzzled.

"It'll be easier to show you rather than explain." Link added.

"Poyo poyo." Kirby nodded in agreement.

And so, another fighter rescued, they left the sub-world leaving through the same portal of light that they came through to arrive here.

"What in the name of Popstar?! We're in the sky?!" King Dedede cried out in disbelief upon arriving through the portal of light.

"Told you." Link chimed almost instantly.

"Wha-what happened? I don't remember there being any sky islands!"

"Well, you see, King Dedede. After Galeem devoured our home worlds, they either recreated or merged parts of our worlds into this one giant world of Galeem's creation." Link started.

"And any parts of our world they couldn't add here, they made as smaller worlds within this one. We've dubbed them Sub-worlds—which was where we found you." Samus continued.

"...Wait so the Popstar that we were in just before was just a made-up mockery of our home?"

"Pretty much." Villager nodded.

"Oh Galeem is gonna rue the day he made an enemy of King Dedede! YOU HEAR ME? I'M COMING FOR YOU GALEEEEEM!" King Dedede declared loudly into the sky.

"Keep it down, King Dedede! You might attract Puppet Fighters to us!"

"Puppet-what now?" King Dedede repeated quickly.

"Oh trust me, you'll know when you see them. They're everywhere." Samus rolled her eyes.

"Hey look! Galeem doesn't have any shields anymore!" Olimar pointed out in shock.

Everyone looked over to where they could see Galeem in the distance yet just as Olimar pointed out—the shields protecting them were no longer present.

"That must mean...the other teams must have taken down the last of Galeem's defences!" Villager cheered.

"So the rematch against Galeem is upon us. We better make sure to prepare this time. We can't afford to make the same mistakes again." Link realized.

"Yeah, we much as I want to take them on right now. We'll just end up getting turned into trophies again. Not to mention we haven't found everyone yet." Samus agreed.

"But we've looked everywhere now. So where could they be?" Olimar wondered.

"You don't think they're where Galeem is, do you?" Link's brows frowned with concern at the thought.

"It's possible. After so many of us were freed from Galeem's control, they could have ordered those that remained under their command back their side." Samus noted.

"That's less than ideal." Min-Min sighed.

Just then they heard the beeping sound from Samus' communicator sound off, Samus activated it to open up a screen showing Megaman on the other-side of the screen.

"Hey Samus, how's everything going on your end?"

"Well, we've rescued King Dedede but unfortunately I think we've explored everywhere that we can up here. We plan on returning to the Great Fox since there's nothing more we can do up here. We can see that Galeem has lost their protection so I take it things went well for the other teams." Samus reported.

"Yes, Isabelle confirmed that they took down a red dragon that was connected to Galeem. The other teams have recently returned back so we'll come and pick you guys up right away. I've also got other great news to share with you guys, we'll talk more when you're on board. See you soon." Megaman smiled and winked at Samus at the 'great news' part.

"Alright, see you shortly." Samus nodded and turned off the communicator on her end. "They're on their way to pick us up." She then turned to the other fighters.

"Great, so all we have to do is wait." Min-Min beamed brightly.

"I wonder what this 'great news' is that Mega was talking about?" Villager wondered.

"We'll find out soon enough once we're back on board. We've got a lot of planning to do for our next move."

It took at least half an hour for the familiar shape of the Great Fox to come into view and pick up the last of the three teams that departed for the Pac-Maze ages ago, at least for now, they were safe from the enemy until their planned assault against Galeem would begin in earnest.

Okay, that's this chapter done! Sorry it took a while to update and for this chapter being really short, not a lot happened at this part when I did this part in my playthrough. XD

Also I decided to go with King Dedede from the Kirby right back at ya show. That voice acting for King Dedede is literally my head-canon voice for him now. XD

Imporant note about Byleth: There's been a change in plan after playing through Fire Emblem Engage against recently. So in Fire Emblem Engage, it was Male Byleth who presented Fire Emblem Three Houses as part of the twelve rings that represent each Fire Emblem mainline game. And usually when they choose a certain gender for avatar characters like Robin and Corrin, they're usually considered the canon gender. Hence we in spin-offs we always see Male Robin and Female Corrin.

So...yeah...that kinda scuppers my plan to include female Byleth which made that whole poll I made a while back kinda pointless now. So I've decided to go with Male Byleth instead of female Byleth since I did say from the very beginning that for avatar Fire Emblem characters, I would be going by what genders the Fire Emblem Spin-offs usually present them as. I sincerely apologise to everyone who had been hoping for female Byleth. Blame Fire Emblem Engage. XD

Male Byleth is still pretty cool in his own right, so I hope you still enjoy the character regardless what form they take. =3

The next chapter will be much longer though, as this will be quite a story-heavy one. And I've actually finished it, just need to proof-read and check for spelling mistakes. =3 We're getting near to the end of the World of Light arc now people. Exciting times ahead. Until next chapter, happy reading everyone. ^-^

Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!