Kirby and the Rod of Darkness
Chapter 38: Mekkai Spy
Thank you for all your continued support.
After the Lor lifted off from Cavius, its passengers checked the map while it drifted through space. "Taking an unexpected trip into outer space wasn't all bad," Magolor remarked. "According to the map, there's more of the energy we're looking for on some of the surrounding planets!"
"In that case, we might as well go on an interplanetary journey while we're out," Susie said.
"Uh…" Kirby stood there with a blank stare. Big words confused him.
"She means we're going to travel to different planets," Taranza told him.
"That's right," Magolor added, "and now we're about to visit Mekkai, the machine planet."
However, the group's arrival at Mekkai didn't go as planned. As soon as the Lor entered the planet's atmosphere it abruptly stopped and fell to the surface with a CRASH! This resulted in all four friends falling to the floor. "Are you sure it's not the gravity planet?" Taranza said.
Magolor jumped up, noticing the ship's interior had grown unusually dark and the computer screen was blank. He pressed several buttons on the control panel but the craft was completely non-functioning. "This doesn't make any sense," he said, baffled by the sudden turn of events, "The Lor just shut down out of the blue!"
Susie pulled out the controller to her Business Suit and pushed its button a few times, but nothing happened. "My equipment's not working either," she replied, "Something on this planet must be interfering with our machinery."
Everyone knew they'd have to get to the bottom of this perplexing situation so they ran for the door...but since it didn't open Magolor bumped into it and his allies bumped into him. "Oh right, the doors aren't working," he laughed nervously, "Luckily, I know of another way we can get out." He opened up a dimensional rift and pulled his friends into it, allowing them to bypass the exit.
When they left the rift they were able to view Mekkai's environment. Nearly all of its surface appeared to be made of metal and contained floating platforms and spires under the morning sky. The machine planet lived up to its name as abundant machinery was visible near and far...but strangely not a single one was functioning, making the place eerily still and silent. "Something's wrong," Kirby frowned, "It wasn't this quiet last time I was here."
The others had to ponder what could possibly be behind all this. "It looks like all the machinery on this planet is in the same boat as ours," Taranza stated, "I guess we have a mystery to solve."
All of them started to walk down the metal path, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. At first they didn't see anything out of the ordinary, just some flowing water over some platforms in the distance. "The machinery on this planet is fascinating!" Susie commented, "I'd love to come back sometime with my company and study it." Of course she could only wonder who built it all, as no one appeared to be living here aside from a small number of common enemies.
Before long the team came across what looked like a large building. They could hear some odd faint electrical noises coming from inside when they approached it. "There's something going on inside this building," Magolor observed, "Sure seems suspicious." He tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. "The door's locked…"
Kirby spotted a yellow and orange Waddle Dee-like creature carrying a gold key standing on a small platform a short distance away. "I know!" he piped up, "If we make a Friend Bridge we could get that Key Dee to come over and open the door!"
Magolor, Taranza, and Susie weren't quite as excited about the idea. "Do we have to?" Susie inquired, "It's so embarrassing letting someone walk all over you like that."
"Yeah," Taranza added, "Why can't we just pick him up and put him in front of the door? Or take the key from him and use it ourselves?"
"Because that would be too easy," Kirby answered, "Besides, we don't have much of a choice, do we?"
Though somewhat reluctant, the others knew he was pretty much right. Magolor jumped on top of Kirby, Taranza jumped on top of him, and finally Susie hopped onto the top of the "tower". Then they positioned themselves horizontally between the two platforms to form a bridge. Since Key Dees, for some reason, liked running on Friend Bridges almost as much as they loved keys, the Key Dee ran across the bridge as soon as he saw it. He continued until he came to the door and unlocked it. Fortunately the whole thing was over in less than a minute.
Once the Key Dee dashed away, Kirby and friends returned to land and approached the now unlocked door. Kirby carefully opened it and a bright light appeared from within, making all of them shade their eyes briefly until they adjusted to the light. Kirby peeked into the building, now able to see what was going on, and gasped at what he beheld. An all-too-familiar robot hovered in the center of a large room resembling a type of factory (which was where the pink hero previously fought Heavy Lobster) with electric beams running between it and the machines in the room. "Mirrobo!" Kirby cried out.
"What's it doing here?" Magolor wondered aloud, "Not to mention, why isn't it out of commission like all the other machines around here?"
Mirrobo didn't seem to be paying any attention to its unwanted visitors, giving Kirby the chance to strike. He spotted some deactivated yo-yo-wielding robots called Gims lying on one side of the room, so he inhaled one and became Yo-yo Kirby. Then he hit Mirrobo as hard as he could with a toss of his yo-yo, causing the electric beams to disappear. Now the robot took notice of its opponents and stared at them with its expressionless black eyes. "I have been gathering data from all other mechanical items in the area," it said, "This process must not be interrupted."
"So you're the one behind all this!" Taranza exclaimed. At last the mystery was solved! Kirby, Magolor, and he weren't about to let Mirrobo cause any more harm to Mekkai. They charged toward the robot in preparation to attack, but it fired a beam from its eyes which knocked them back. At the same time, Susie looked on as her comrades got up and continued the fight, unsure how to join in with her equipment still unusable. But then she glanced up at the room's upper level and saw something that gave her an idea, so she went off to carry out her plan.
Mirrobo began to exhibit newly gained abilities as soon as the battle was underway. Magolor and Taranza tried to use their electric orbs and magic webs on it, but it whipped a beam of energy at them like a yo-yo. This gave Kirby the opportunity to strike from below with a Gazer Spiral. Next Mirrobo launched fireballs from its mirror, which the other three had to dodge swiftly to avoid being burned. It seemed as if the enemy's skills were limitless!
Meanwhile Susie made her way to the upper level. With both her Transporter and the elevator out she had no choice but to scale several platforms to reach her destination, but that wasn't too difficult for her. She went straight to a big computer she'd seen from below and turned it on; instantly all the deactivated machinery roared to life. Just as I suspected! Susie thought to herself, This is the main computer that powers all the other machinery on Mekkai. Mirrobo must have turned it off!
The sudden change caught the attention of Kirby, Magolor, and Taranza, who looked up to see their female ally giving them a thumbs-up in the distance. "Way to go, Susie!" Kirby cheered happily.
Of course, Mirrobo did not ignore Susie's feat either. The mechanical menace charged at her as soon as it figured out what happened, but she ducked and caused it to crash into the wall instead. At this point all the Gims in the room, having reactivated and seeing Mirrobo as a serious threat, ran over and pummeled it with a flurry of yo-yos while it was briefly stunned. Unable to escape the attack, it was forced to retreat and teleport elsewhere.
Their work done, the Gims ran off. "Well, that takes care of Mirrobo," Kirby remarked as Susie used her Transporter to rejoin her teammates, "But we still haven't found what we came here for."
Taranza spotted a bright light on what appeared to be a conveyor belt in the distance. "I see it!" he said. He hastily floated to the belt and came back with a piece of light energy in each of his six hands.
With another mission accomplished everyone returned to the Lor. While Kirby and Taranza viewed the increasing amount of energy in the capsule, Magolor searched for the next planet to visit. "Now that the Lor's working again, we can go to the eternal planet Halfmoon," he declared, especially happy to see his ship usable again.
Suddenly the three of them heard Susie cry out, "Oh no!" from another room. They rushed to where her voice had come from and found her in the room where food was stored, staring into the cooler as if her worst fear was inside.
"Susie, what's wrong?" Taranza asked her.
"All the ice cream melted when the Lor lost power!" Susie responded sorrowfully, "Just look at that sad little puddle."
The others came over and looked down into the cooler. The ice cream was completely liquefied and the flavors mixed together; it was a tragic sight indeed. "It'll refreeze eventually," Magolor pointed out.
"Yeah, into one giant block! Who eats giant blocks of ice cream?"
"I would," Kirby grinned. Well, at least it wouldn't go to waste!