Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 41: Frostak Attack
Planet Frostak...a planet filled with snow and ice. The gently falling snowflakes, glittering ice in all the colors of the rainbow, and aurora borealis may be beautiful, but the perpetually cold weather can be harsh. Nevertheless, there are some creature roaming the snowy hills such as...Kirby?
That's right! Kirby was wandering gleefully in the snow, his arms full of ice cream bars. And not far behind him was Susie, who was equally cheerful and carrying lots of ice cream and sherbet. The truth was, she expected there would be an abundance of frozen treats on the frigid planet, so she'd gone out to collect some before it was time to start exploring. Kirby unsurprisingly volunteered to go with her and gather ice cream bars, vanilla with a yummy fudge coating. As tempting as it was to eat them all now, he managed to resist so he'd have some for later.
Magolor and Taranza met Kirby and Susie as they approached the Lor. "What are you two doing?" Taranza said to them, "You could get hypothermia if you stay out too long in this cold!"
Without missing a beat Kirby answered, "We're not getting hypo-thingamajig, we're getting more ice cream to replace what we lost on Mekkai!"
"But if you eat ice cream in this weather you might freeze from the inside out and get a literal brain freeze!" Magolor said dramatically.
"That's not scientifically possible," Susie replied matter-of-factly, leading Kirby inside. The two of them went to put the tasty treats where they belonged before they melted.
It wasn't long before the four of them set off to begin their search. They'd only walked a short distance when Susie looked back and discovered that Kirby, who was previously behind her, was not there. "Where's Kirby?" she wondered.
That caught the attention of Magolor and Taranza, who paused and glanced around for any sign of their round friend. It was the former who caught sight of him sliding down one of Frostak's winding snow sculptures. "He's over there," Magolor told Taranza and Susie, "He must think this is the playground planet."
Kirby was having a great time playing on the huge "slide"...until he reached the end and went flying, that is. He ended up landing in the snow right in front of his pals. He popped out, covered with snow so that he looked like a small snowman, which he shook off. Then he noticed something glowing up ahead-it was three pieces of light energy! "Look over there!" Kirby cried out excitedly. He jumped up and started running towards the bright items, but he didn't realize there was a patch of ice in front of him so he slipped and fell on his face. Magolor, Taranza, and Susie didn't have time to stop so they tripped over him, and all of them landed in a heap on the ice.
Kirby and friends looked up when they felt a sudden gust of wind. The light energy was gone-and an enormous shadowy bird high up in the sky was taking off with it! "It's Shadow Blade!" Taranza exclaimed, "And it's stolen the light energy!"
Everyone quickly stood up but they didn't know what to do. Shadow Blade was already out of sight. "How will we ever find it again?" Susie wondered, "We're not fast enough to keep up with it."
Kirby noticed a long slope nearby; going down it would lead in the direction Shadow Blade had been flying. "If we use a Warp Star to sled down that hill, we could move a lot faster!" he spoke up.
"True, but why can't we use the Warp Star in midair like we usually do?" Taranza questioned.
"Because Shadow Blade would probably knock us out of the sky," Kirby answered, "I wouldn't want to feel like a shooting star!"
"Good point." Taranza, like Magolor and Susie, didn't want to become a shooting star either. So Kirby took out a Warp Star, he and his teammates hopped onto it, and they began sledding.
The Warp Star zoomed down the hill, maneuvering around any small obstacles in the way. Magolor, Taranza, and Susie tried to keep an eye out for Shadow Blade but they didn't see any trace of the beast. Kirby was having a blast, so much so that he wasn't paying enough attention to where he was going. Magolor saw a block of ice coming up and said, "Keep your eyes on the road, Kirby!" At this the pink puffball turned his attention back to the path, quickly swerving to the right to avoid crashing. But he didn't have time to evade another block of ice at the foot of the slope, so the Warp Star collided with it and its riders fell off.
The four of them got up and brushed the snow off themselves. "That really went well," Taranza remarked, "Got any more ideas?"
Kirby noticed there were more icy blocks all over the path ahead. "Yep!" he replied, "I bet we could use a Friend Circle to break all the obstacles!" The others didn't have any better ideas so they went along with it. All four of them jumped together and held on to each other to form a ring, which then began to roll down the path.
No one knew how exactly Friend Circles worked. What kept them rolling, how they could jump without their members moving, and how they were able to smash through obstacles without getting hurt was a very peculiar mystery. The Friend Circle moved ahead for a little while, pulverizing every block in its way until it bumped into an icy wall. After Kirby and his pals fell to the ground they carefully stood and stretched their stiff muscles. "It never ceases to amaze me," Susie commented, "how we Kirby characters can smash through blocks without getting a concussion or breaking any bones."
All of a sudden Kirby cried out, "Look! There's Shadow Blade!" The others looked up and saw the great Shadow Beast perched atop a towering snowy spire in the distance. They'd finally caught up to it, but how were they going to take back what it stole from them?
Taranza knew how. With all his might he sent a magic web directly at Shadow Blade, which landed a hit and caused it to drop the energy it was carrying; then he used the same web to bring the precious items down to him. "Nice shot!" Magolor said to him.
"Look out!" Susie shouted at that moment. As expected, the bothersome bird was not ignoring the strike. Everyone ducked when it dove right at them; then it let out a cry and four shadowy Birdons materialized out of nowhere. Kirby inhaled one of them to become Wing Kirby and took out the rest by flying into them at high speed.
Shadow Blade did not give up. Next it summoned a shadowy Ice Dragon, which roared and tried to charge at its opponents. Magolor stopped it by bumping into it with a Magolor Surge but it fought back by hitting him with its tail. Before the dragon could attack again Susie used her Transporter to launch a blast of air at it. It attempted to drop icicles on all of them which they dodged. Taranza tossed a ball of magic power at the Ice Dragon and then Kirby swooped at it from above, smacking it on the head. That was enough to defeat the icy beast.
Now Shadow Blade was furious and ready to take the matter into its own hands...er, wings. It shot a dark beam from its mouth which knocked Kirby's party back. While they were still down it began to dive straight for Taranza. Magolor reacted quickly, knowing the adversary must want to get the negative energy from his spider-like ally, and struck it with his Ultra Sword.
Shadow Blade was injured but not defeated yet. It lifted off into the air and prepared to swoop again, but Kirby knew how to deal with it. "Two can play at that game, Shadow Blade!" he declared, rising off the ground. The two opponents charged at each other repeatedly, rapidly moving up and down and in circles in midair. Despite the fact that he looked like a flying pink ant compared to the giant Shadow Beast, Kirby fought pretty fiercely.
Magolor, Taranza, and Susie could only stand there watching as everything was happening so fast. "What is this, a fight or some kind of high-speed flying lesson?" Magolor said. This went on for a short time until Kirby finally found the opportunity to launch a barrage of sharp feathers at Shadow Blade, giving it no choice but to fly away in retreat.
Everyone was glad to return to the Lor with their mission accomplished, since it was much warmer than outside. Once there, Taranza and Susie observed the great amount of the Dream Rod's power contained in the capsule. Each tiny piece was beginning to move around inside as if they were excited to be together again. "We've collected quite a bit of light energy now," Susie said, "but this is only a portion of what's out there!"
"Hard to believe all that can fit in the Dream Rod!" Taranza added, "I wonder how our friends' searches are going?"
Magolor was nearby, searching for the next destination while Kirby was flying back and forth through the room. "We'll find out soon," he replied, "because as far as I can tell, there's only a little bit more that hasn't been found!" Then he turned his attention to his fluttering friend, whose constant movement was getting distracting. "Kirby, will you settle down?"
The round hero kept on going, thoroughly enjoying his flight. "I can't! It's so much fun to fly around!" But he wasn't quite watching where he was going and ended up crashing into the wall. "Okay, maybe I will settle down," he mumbled before falling to the floor.