Kirby and the Rod of Darkness

Chapter 42: Towara Tussle

Kirby, Magolor, Taranza, and Susie had now been on their planetary journey for nearly a week. They only visited one planet a day because exploring each one took time and to avoid exhausting themselves. Today Magolor, Taranza, and Susie were preparing to start their next exploration when they heard the door to the room on the left open. They turned to find Kirby entering the main room...in a doctor's outfit?

Okay, the pink hero was actually dressed that way because he currently had a Doctor ability. Oddly enough, he was also holding a tomato in one hand. "I'm Dr. Kirby!" he announced with a grin, "And this is my patient, Mr. Tomato. His problem is he's more delicious than he should be, but I know just how to cure him." With that he shoved his so-called patient into his mouth.

His friends just looked at him. "Have you even been to medical school, Pinky?" Susie asked him.

"Nope! I'm self-taught." Well, that explained a lot. It also made the others glad they hadn't gotten sick or badly injured during their adventure.

"Here we are on Planet Towara!" Magolor announced once everyone came outside. Towara was a very unique planet filled with lofty gray towers; who built them and for what purpose was unknown. Shades of purple and light blue colored the sky and green flames burned continuously in spots along the towers. Despite the comfortable climate, the fiery Burning Leos and icy snowmen called Chillys seemed to live in harmony here. Unfortunately that peacefulness wasn't always extended to outsiders.

Before they could get very far, the travelers suddenly became aware of the air behind them being unusually warm. They turned to find a Burning Leo breathing fire at them! "We didn't say we wanted an extra-warm welcome!" Taranza exclaimed, running away with his pals.

Soon the four of them had to stop again, for they nearly collided with a Shadow Beast resembling a Beetley. "I don't think we want a shadowy welcome either!" Magolor said. Everyone moved aside when the Beetley charged forward in an attempt to jab them with its sharp horn. Taranza took care of it by catching it in a web and throwing the pod far away.

Then things took an unexpected turn. All of a sudden a dark web was launched at Taranza, wrapping him up in a pod. Behind him was another Shadow Beast, this one resembling a spider-like Como! "Hey, I'm not supposed to be on the receiving end of spiderwebs!" he mumbled as he managed to shake the webs off of him. Kirby tossed several pills at the Como until it vanished in a puff of smoke. (Doctor Kirby liked to use large pills as weapons rather than medicine. No one knew what effects they had or if they even worked. Besides, one would have to be a giant to swallow them without choking.)

Soon after Kirby and friends started moving on, they walked through an area containing several waterfalls. They spotted a Burning Leo and a Chilly standing on opposite sides of one of them; the two appeared to be taking turns freezing it with ice breath and thawing it with fire breath. When Kirby saw this he laughed and ran over to a different waterfall. He used ice and fire potions to alternate between freezing and thawing it. "Is that some kind of waterfall competition?" Magolor remarked.

After Kirby was pulled away from his little game, the adventurers encountered a set of stairs so big they had to jump from each one to the next. These stairs, as Susie remembered, would move into and out of the wall every so often. "Watch out for the moving stairs," she reminded her allies when the stairs began to move. Unfortunately they must have been a bit distracted, because the three of them didn't react fast enough and went crashing down to the floor. "Or not," Susie sighed.

They all decided to hover up the rest of the way to avoid any more falls, but they got a surprise when they reached the top. There were countless shadowy Beetleys and Comos up ahead! "Shadow Beasts everywhere!" Kirby cried out. At first he didn't know what to do but an idea soon came to him. "But don't worry! I bet we could take care of them with a Friend Star!" That sounded like the best option so the four of them combined their power and made a Friend Star appear.

Kirby rode on the star itself while Magolor, Taranza, and Susie were somehow able to ride on the trail of light behind it. It was easily able to eliminate every Shadow Beast in its path by shooting stars at them. After that there were some breakable blocks in the way, so the Friend Star charged into them at high speed and destroyed them. Kirby's allies made sure to hold on tightly since he was having a lot of fun flying all over the place.

Once the Friend Star reached the peak of the tower it landed and disappeared. Its riders were delighted to find two pieces of light energy there, but just when Kirby was about to grab them a big one-eyed cloud descended over them. He jumped back in surprise. "K-Kracko?"

No, there was something off about this airborne adversary. His cloud was magenta instead of white with yellow and green accents, and his piercing eye was yellow with a slit pupil. "If my knowledge is correct, this being is the poisonous Venom Kracko," Susie told the others with concern, "Everyone, we must be very careful."

Kirby's party knew this was a dangerous situation. They would have to fight Venom Kracko if they wanted that light energy but extreme caution was necessary; one wrong move could be disastrous. So they decided to play it safe and attack from a distance, although that wasn't always easy since their enemy tried to swoop at them. They swiftly moved out of the way and fired pills, electric orbs, magic webs, and blaster shots at him. He attempted to zap Kirby and Susie with electric beams but they were able to dodge them.

Then the unthinkable happened. Magolor and Taranza tried to run when Venom Kracko positioned himself right above them, but they were too late and were caught in a toxic rain shower. Kirby and Susie gasped at the sight. Once the rain subsided the mage and spider began to pull themselves back up, but the poison was already taking its toll. Everything was spinning and their vision was out of focus. Before they could get up, Susie moved in front of them in her Business Suit and told them, "You two need to rest. I'll take it from here."

"But-" Taranza protested at first.

"You don't want to increase your circulation. It'll only make the poison worse." Magolor and Taranza, though reluctant to give up so soon, knew Susie was right so they allowed her to take over. Of course, she would have to continue to be on alert. Her machine couldn't be poisoned but she was still vulnerable. That was why she stuck with shooting missiles at Venom Kracko without getting too close.

While Kirby resumed tossing an assortment of pills, he and Susie watched the toxic troublemaker's movements closely. They jumped back to avoid a few bolts of lightning he sent at them. Susie did her best to keep her distance but soon found Venom Kracko diving directly at her. There was no time to escape so she struck him with her Business Suit's spinning arms, but she was surrounded by a cloud of noxious gas in the process. Her eyes were protected by her visor but the same could not be said of her lungs. She too became a victim of the poison and was forced to retreat just like Magolor and Taranza.

Kirby was nervous. It was all up to him now, and if he succumbed to the poison they would all be doomed. Still, he tried to focus on the battle at hand. He hastily sprayed strangely harmful medicine at Venom Kracko before evading another diving attack. He was knocked back by spheres of lightning but these were not toxic. Next the pink hero got up and moved out of range when Venom Kracko began to drop various objects covered in poison. He waited for just the right moment and then he leapt at his cloudy opponent and pummeled him with a clipboard. Finally Venom Kracko went POOF! followed by his eye, making the two pieces of light energy visible again.

Kirby took the radiant items and turned back to his friends. Magolor and Taranza's eyes were dull and Susie's cheeks were unusually pale. Their condition hadn't worsened but their ally was still quite worried about them. He doubted there were any hospitals on Towara, so he decided to take them back to the Lor for the time being. Of course they were in no shape to walk there, so he took out a Warp Star and pushed each of them onto it so they could fly there.

Once everyone was inside, Magolor, Taranza, and Susie sat in the main room waiting for Kirby. He didn't really know how to examine or treat anyone, so he went to search for a book that would tell him what should be done. A few moments later he came back with one about dangerous creatures in the Gamble Galaxy, which gave him the answer he sought. "According to this book, Venom Kracko's poison can make you pretty sick," he informed the others, "but it's not fatal or lasting. You'll feel better once you get some sleep."

Now that was a relief for all of them. Magolor, Taranza, and Susie would be fine, even if they'd have to spend some extra time sleeping!