Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[King Dedede]

Castle Dedede
Balcony

It’s a good day, today. A good day to nap, or relax, or hang out with friends.

To be fair, most days in Dream Land are like that. I mean, there’s a reason Dream Land is sometimes called the Country of Peace.

But it’s something to appreciate nevertheless.

We’ve earned this, several times over. Between Dark Matter and Nightmare, Magolor and Queen Sectonia, we’ve fought hard to stay happy and independent, to keep everyone else relieved and at ease. Me, Kirby, Meta Knight, Dee… there’s not a whole lot we can’t do, so long as we can put our minds to it.

Right now, though… I’m happy just putting my mind toward playing chess with Dee, my faithful assistant.

“Awwww…” he slouched, watching as his last piece on the board was eliminated yet again. “Th-That’s the third time I’ve lost today. You’re—You’re too good for me, G-Great King.”

“Hey, you’re not that bad, either!” I replied, idly picking up and twirling a king piece with my fingers. “I mean, you’re still giving me a pretty decent challenge to sink my teeth into!”

I let out one of my signature laughs. “Hey, maybe if you keep this up, you might even be able to match up against Meta Knight!”

Dee scratched the back of his head, affectionately blushing. “Heh heh… You—You really think so…?”

“Of course!” I laughed. “There’s a reason you’re considered one of the four most proficient fighters on Pop Star!” Next to Kirby, then Meta Knight, and then me. That’s a pretty high achievement, if you ask me. “And it’s not just ‘cause of your skill in battle.”

“I—I could s-say the same to you,” he stammered. “It wasn’t t-too long ago we were going up the Dreamstalk to save F-Floralia! R-Remember? You wanted to help ‘em, and I wanted to help ‘em—every one of us is like that, a-actually!”

“Yeah… I know I can count on our friends to give us a hand, so long as they’ve got the power.”

I laid back in my throne, smiling contently. “Maybe next crisis, we’ll actually be able to show that for real, instead of being frozen and completely unable to move. That’s a process I definitely don’t want to repeat.”

Lemme tell you this: it’s not fun being blindsided by big, out-of-nowhere cosmic threats. Meta Knight, Adeleine, and even Daroach can tell you that. The whole of Planet Pop Star was out of commission last year thanks to Dark Crafter, as Kirby called him—and I’m not in any mood to relive that hot mess.

It makes me worry a little about the future, to be honest…

I know Kirby’ll always be there to dethrone the latest ensemble of Big Bads, and he’ll always have us to act as his supporting crew.

But… how soon will it be until there comes a threat even he can’t handle alone?

Will the rest of us be able to step up and take the reins where it matters? Aid our sleepy home where he cannot?

…

Man, listen to me—I sound so pessimistic right now. I should think positive, have a little more faith! The last two years may have been a bit eventful for one reason or another, but it shouldn’t necessitate an additional serving of world-ending catastrophe to go with ‘em.

I stood up and stretched my arms.

“Well, ‘nuff of this! I’m in the mood for a good snack. C’mon, Dee—the kitchen awaits!”

“O-Okay!” He leapt up out of his own seat with an excited expression. “M-Maybe we can pull something outta the cake fridge! Cakes are always… nice… to… h-have…”

His voice trailed off as a shadow suddenly swept over my entire castle.

The two of us blinked.

What the—isn’t it supposed to be sunny today…?

Sounds of confusion was voiced by my Waddle Dees as their gazes darted around the area. Dee and I looked at each other nervously, taking out our respective weapons just in case. Finally, we slowly turned to look at the sky—

—and saw it covered by this massive spherical mothership, with mechanical arms extending out from the bottom and reaching into the horizons beyond. Strange spires and flying armors were raining down from the luminously rainbow entrance, the former doing something with our land upon contact with the ground.

It was… horrifying; a nightmare I could never have imagined.

“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh—! Wh-WHAAAAAAAAAAAT is THAT!?” Dee shrieked, flailing about his hands even more than his norm. “It’s—It’s—It’s—! It’s humongous!”

Screams filled the air from servants and subjects alike.

I grit my teeth and hoisted my Deluxe Dedede Hammer over my shoulder. The latch for my Rocket Launcher lifted, and a barrage of homing missiles went soaring toward our new foes. Down, down, down went several of the squadrons, the carriers of the mechs offering no resistance to our attacks.

I briefly glanced at everyone else.

“ALL SERVANTS!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “GET TO A CANNON AND FIRE, NOW! Any enemy who’s in range, TAKE THEM OUT!”

The Dees snapped out of their trance and rushed to the cannons. Projectile after projectile were blasted away, as fast as my Dees could reload, targeting the various light bulbs and the mechs closest to them. That was when a horde of minions – Capsule Js and cloaked weirdos and fighter ships – started descending as well, forcing my flight-capable servants to take off and duke it out with them.

Off to the side, I could also see a thankfully familiar ‘face’: the masked visage of the Battlefield Halberd, its Combo Cannons helping to clear out some of the crowd.

I grinned; never let it be said that Meta Knight wasn’t proactive when it came to the defense of our beloved planet.

All things considered, we were doing a lot better than we normally tend to on occasions like these. We’re doing some damage from the outset, at least, which is more than I can say about the Dreamstalk crisis from two years ago.

But that damage is barely even a dent compared to the clear might of our foes, I reluctantly noted.

Dang it, where the heck is Kirby when you need him…!?

“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap—!” Meanwhile, Dee was panicking hard, flailing his limbs around at speeds a Wheelie only wished they could reach. “This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, I can’t believe this is happening—!”

“We need more firepower,” I groused—“but we don’t have anything coming even close to that beast of a mothership! We’d need Galactic NOVA just to take it on, and none of us have the time to go out and summon him!”

I took aim with my hammer, and shot down yet another falling spire.

“I swear, if this thing happens to be a clockwork star itself, I’ll—!”

I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

A flash of purple—

and two growing lights.

My grip tightened.

My eyes widened.

“Oh, shi—”

“GREAT KING!”

BOOM! BOOM!

Just in time, Dee dove into me and moved us both out of the way of the incoming lasers. In front of my eyes, they demolished the top of my castle, searing through the towers and the cannons like they were paper.

Dee and I just sat on the ground for several moments, hands over our chests (or what passed for a chest), as we tried to catch our breaths.

Those beams may have only lasted about three seconds—but they might as well have been an eternity.

“Dear NOVA…” I swore. “We—We almost—” My words proceeded to fail me.

“…I, I, I’m—” Dee gulped. “I’m s-s-s-s—scared…”

In my numbness, I barely registered another laser flying overhead, striking the Halberd in the wing and sending it crashing past the skyline. Several of my troops were picking themselves off the ground, helplessly gawking at the absolute monstrosity above us.

This is…

This is way worse than I expected it to be.

…Kirby’s gonna need all hands on deck for this. If he’s gonna save our world again… if we’re gonna come out of this with our happiness more-or-less intact… then we’ve gotta pull our weight however we can.

“…Dee.”

“Y-Yes, G-Great King…?”

“You can still make those Assist Stars, right?”

“Yeah… Are—Are you telling me to—?”

“Kirby’s gonna be out there, I know. And my troops and I, we’ll be fine for a while.” I gave Dee a heartfelt smile. “Right now, he’s gonna need your help more than I do. Just… be careful, alright?”

Dee stared blankly at me for a little bit. Then, he saluted me with a determined gaze.

“C-Can do, Great King. I—I won’t let you down, I promise!”

With that pledge declared, he pulled out his spear and leapt over the balcony, heading his way toward the closest fortifying appendage I could see.

I watched him go over the increasingly patched-over land with a heavy heart, before I turned to face the rest of my servants, looking to me for guidance.

I breathed in deep, let it out…

…and prepared myself for the days to come.

Several days later…

Castle Dedede
Throne Room

It’s been a rough week. A really, really rough week.

In different circumstances, I’d be out in the field, fighting against this… technological conglomerate with my own strength. When Queen Sectonia and her minions had returned to Floralia, stronger than ever, it was me (and Dee, and Taranza) that went up and thrashed them all—plus that false Dimensional Mirror for good measure.

But maybe things were easier then because the danger was confined to Floralia; it hadn’t come close to encompassing the entirety of Pop Star.

The after-effects of this invasion were made clear from the get-go: those light bulb spires were turning Dream Land into an industrialized dystopia, forcefully transformed into the antithesis of the World of Peace we’ve always known. An untold amount of damage was being dealt onto our home—to the environment, to the villages around… to even the subjects I reign over.

Yeah, that’s right. As I soon discovered from the refugees seeking shelter at my castle, Dream Landers the planet over are sporting electronic parts – some functional, others only barely working. And with their homes wrecked and the invaders seeking to bring them to heel, by any means necessary… there’s no way I could refuse them a place to stay.

How could I? I’m not the person I was twenty years ago.

It was a good thing the rest of my castle was still intact, including my rather expansive basement – otherwise, I’m not sure what I’d do.

(…and that’s not even bringing up how everything about this seems so… unnervingly familiar…)

I sat back in my throne, tapping my finger along the armrest. With a sigh, I turned my attention to the two guards standing in front of me.

“Waddle Dees—give me a status report,” I commanded.

Several display monitors, each attached to an extendable arm, lowered themselves to meet my vision. They lit up one by one, various scenes displayed on their screens: a diagram of the whole planet, an image of that great big mothership, security footage captured outside… you get the picture.

One of my Dees brought out a baton and pointed it toward the monitor with the diagram—the picture of the spherical contraption drilling into Pop Star was burned into my memory.

“Great King, the situation in Dream Land is currently most dire,” he stated. “Based on our scouts’ findings, we are being invaded by the organization known as the Haltmann Works Company. We know not their goals beyond their alleged reputation for being a massive conglomerate, but they appear to express an interest in harvesting our planet’s resources for some nefarious scheme.”

The TV screen then switched to showing me images of several of Dream Land’s provinces in succession. Each one I saw earned a deeper and deeper grimace on my face.

“Every inch of the landscape, from Vegetable Valley to White Wafers,” the Dee continued, “has been affected by the mechanization spires from the invaders. Our best analysts report that the mechanization is growing at a rapid pace—it is likely that, by next month, all of Pop Star will have been affected by this process.”

“That… doesn’t sound too good,” I muttered. Pop Star’s at its most beautiful when its ecosystems are free and allowed to shine.

How callous are these invaders, that they’d take a look at it and decide to tear it all away from us…? (And for a reason as petty as… profit?)

“The damage being done to the environments are just as bad, too.” A few screens switched to showing graphs and charts, the information presented on them only adding to my sense of discomfort. “The company is showing much disregard for the purity of our ecosystems, and we are reporting a massive upscale in plant deterioration and air pollution. Factories and large metropolises have sprouted over wide areas, using massive amounts of fuel and producing an equal amount of strange commodities in turn.”

He shook his head, looking incredibly grim.

“I wish this was not the case, Great King, but… should this continue…”

He hesitated briefly.

“…then Pop Star may suffer a similar fate to that of Shiver Star.”

I froze in realization.

A memory, half-forgotten, replayed itself in my mind.

[▪]

Coming into Shiver Star, we expected it to be just like any other planet—peaceful and serene, with a few villages and commoners here and there to greet us.

I was not expecting desolate buildings and creepy factories to stand in our way.

A cold breeze washed over my back—but whether it was from the air or from dread, I didn’t know.

“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh—” Bandana Dee stammered, his head rapidly flipping back and forth between all the weird stuff down this corridor. “What is… any of this!?”

The lights in this derelict workshop were flickering on and off, barely able to illuminate our surroundings, but what we could see was still… enlightening, in a way I never could’ve expected.

Humongous capsules lined the walls alongside a series of smaller containers. Each capsule held a different, clearly experimented-on creature inside it, swimming in this strange blue liquid and giving us this disturbing gaze as we passed. Conveyor belts were moving on their own, despite a lack of maintenance—in fact, every piece of technology in this laboratory was like that.

“They’re—They’re out of this world… literally…!” Ribbon whispered, hugging a Crystal Shard tightly to her chest. “Why did the Shards have to fall here, of all the planets…!?”

“Dang right,” I muttered. “This place gives me the willies!”

There’s about a dozen places I’d pick as a vacation spot—and this ain’t it!

I caught sight of a nearby window—and for whatever reason, it got me to stop and stare at the endless snowscape outside. A whole city laid beyond the glass barricade, coated in white and clearly having seen better days. The empty streets really emphasized how lifeless it all was – aside from us five, there was no trace of any actual civilization to be found.

Say what you will ‘bout the idiots back home, but they’re a lot nicer than the miscreants we’ve run into here!

…and then, I noticed Adeleine looking out the window with me, with something in her eyes that was hard to decipher.

Well, that just won’t do.

“Hey, Adeleine!” I called out to her. “Do you wanna cry, or—?”

“This place must’ve been so beautiful, once.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

She turned to me with a mix of emotions. What’s she gotta be all worried about?

“…my mom once told me about Shiver Star, a few years ago; that it used to be a bustling world, with a multitude of distinct communities. I always wondered why she always looked so sad about it—until now, anyway.”

Her frown got deeper, her eyes moving to face the ground. “I… I never thought that any home, any world could turn out like this. To be so bleak and devoid of happiness…”

“It’s definitely not my first pick for a vacation spot, that’s for sure. I’d even say that it’s Dark Matter’s ideal planet.”

I jolted; Kirby had snuck up beside us while I wasn’t looking. (Did—Did he just steal my thoughts?)

I scowled. “As much I hate to agree with you, that’s… not inaccurate.”

I turned away.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter! Let’s hurry up and get what we came here for! The sooner I can stop thinking about this place, the better!” And so, I marched off, doing my best to ignore all the looks lazily pointed my way.

Ugh, do all of these freaks have to do that…?

Strange, hybridized creatures; an overabundance of technology; completely snowed-over cities… whatever the commoners on this planet did, I’m glad that it’ll stop being relevant to me once we’re done with it!

If this is what industrialization does—then leave me out of it.

[▪]

I couldn’t help but… well, shiver.

Pop Star, turning into an abandoned wasteland like that…?

As much as I hate to admit it, I think I’d rather have another Dark Matter invasion.

I swallowed and decided to switch to a different topic. “Any news on our other allies? You know, Kirby, Meta Knight, everyone?”

I may not be in touch with as many friends as Kirby has, but it’s still my duty as his closest companion to figure out everyone’s status.

The two Dees somehow looked even more grim.

“It’s not good, Great King. We have little information on the status of many of our allies.” Portraits of the guys I knew showed up on the monitors as they spoke, accompanied by images of their last seen location.

“None of us have seen Meta Knight since the Halberd went down near what the civilians are calling the Gigabyte Grounds. The Animal Friends have presumably gone into hiding, though Coo, Pitch, and Chuchu have been sighted hovering over the Great Forest where they reside. And finally…”

He hesitated.

“…Adeleine, Ribbon, and Gooey are currently MIA. None of our scouts have managed to confirm their being alive and intact yet. Right now… we can only assume the worst.”

I closed my eyes in frustration.

Adeleine and Ribbon were two of my closest confidants, ever since we went on the Crystal Shard hunt. And Gooey’s something of a good acquaintance too, though we’re not quite as chummy.

To hear that all three of them are potentially in danger, with no way of checking up on them…

…c’mon, Dedede! Think positively, think positively!

They’ll be fine. You gotta believe that!

I let out a small huff. It’s been bad news after bad news after bad news. Meta Knight’s spoken to me before about the need to be prepared for any threat to Dream Land—and I’m really beginning to see why he insisted on it, now that we’re in the middle of disaster.

If the issue was simply ‘a Big Bad and their minions are terrorizing people’, I could at least be out there doing something truly useful.

But it isn’t.

Not by a long shot.

I seriously need a break after all is said and done…

Suddenly, a ringtone began to chime from the monitor, shaking me out of my contemplation. In response, one of my Dees brought out a touchpad connected to the castle’s servers, taking a moment to read who was calling.

“Great King,” he said, “we are being contacted from the area surrounding the Dreamstalk. Shall we accept the call?”

A while back, I added a video call feature to my systems out of boredom—and also so I could talk with my friends from the comfort of my throne room. Haven’t gotten as much use out of it as I’d like… but it’s really come in handy this past week.

I nodded assent. I knew who this was.

“Yeah. Hook us up.”

Static briefly popped up on the middlemost display in front of me, before a discernable image finally emerged.

The Dreamstalk could be seen rising high up in the background, amidst a crowd of commoners—flower fairies and Dream Landers alike—either lingering around or climbing up the great plant to the Kingdom in the Sky. Two central figures (plus some Squeaks) were standing front-and-center beside a miniature blimp, the screen showcasing them talking to each other on something. One was a tall mouse, tall and confident, wearing a dignified red hat and cloak; the other was a short arachnid, meek and introverted, a silver-horned helmet atop his head and a red scarf around his neck.

Soon enough, they realized the camera was on.

The chief thief tilted his head and flashed me a smug smirk. “Yo, Dedede. What’s up?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Hello to you too, Daroach,” I replied. “Good to see you and Taranza still have things covered out there.”

The aforementioned spider waved shyly. “Hi, Dedede…”

It was a bit of a surprise to learn that the Squeak Squad had found a way to reverse-engineer Haltmann Works’ tech. In no time at all, they had a functional makeshift network fully prepared; their first action with it was to contact me to coordinate our efforts. Before I knew it, the mousy treasure hunters were aiding me and Taranza in managing this rescue operation of sorts.

The only drawback is that their field of influence only stretches out so far. Past Cookie Country and the like, getting a signal is incredibly tough.

Daroach—their leader, and self-styled phantom thief—may be no stranger to storming my castle, sure (though I suspect it was more as a challenge than to steal my collectibles), but we’ve gotten along fine in the past. He’s polite and charismatic—and when push comes to shove, I know he’ll do the right thing.

“Yes, well, one doesn’t stay in this type of occupation unless you learn how to stay one step ahead of your enemies.” He raised the brim of his hat, making his twinkling eyes more visible. “This Haltmann Works Company is no exception. Their reach extends far, but they cannot focus on all of us – especially not when Doc’s tech can discreetly punch through their communications blockade.”

An accented voice echoed in from the back, “Iz very good work!”

“That’s good,” I said. “It’s always nice to know that they’ve got some sort of weakness we can capitalize on.”

I leaned back and tried to relax my nerves a little.

“How’s the whole ‘rescuing people from tyranny’ thing been working out?”

“We’ve—We’ve been getting a—a lot of people up to F-Floralia,” Taranza supplied, rubbing the back of his head. “It’s been a b-bit chaotic, but e-everyone’s been mingling well enough with each other. It helps th-that the metal guys haven’t been able to touch us since we’re so high up.”

He pulled out a clipboard, happily checking off the numbers listed on it.

“A-As far as I can tell, we’ve gotten j-just about everyone in the general area! I think that’s a real v-victory for us!”

I smiled.

While Taranza’s… mostly healed from the fall of Queen Sectonia, it still left some scars on him. Scars that, perhaps, may never fade. He’ll probably never be as upbeat as when he was with his former friend – but at least he’s trying to live past that as best as he can.

“It’s the closest thing we’ve got to one, I’ll give you that,” I replied.

Daroach slung a hand around the acting regent, a casual demeanor clear in his posture. “And we couldn’t have done it without everyone giving it their all—including you, little spider.”

Taranza blushed, burying his face in his palms.

“I caught you defending your territory a few hours back, y’know; using your spidery magic against the employees harassing your guards.” Huh. That happened? “It takes guts to stand up to your foes so daringly.”

“It’s—It’s not that im—impressive,” he whispered, barely audible. “Everyone else’s done a m-much better job than me…”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been a great partner,” I chimed in. “I’d be less able to keep my subjects safe without you, trust me.”

Taranza flushed.

I smiled. He’s adorable when he’s embarrassed.

(If only we could do this at a better time…)

The red-clad mouse coughed lightly, bringing us back on topic.

“That being said… I believe my squad and I have done everything we can to assist this region of Dream Land. There are other places where we can do good—so we will be setting out for Resolution Road in short time. We have plenty of safehouses for everyone stored up; now’s a good time as ever to make use of them.”

“That’s fine,” I replied. “I think we’ll be able to handle things from here, anyway.”

“Y-Yeah!” Taranza made a thumbs-up with one of his limbs. “E-Everything’ll be under control!”

“Glad to hear you’re receptive. I’ll leave some of our networking devices here for you two to use. We’ll be off the grid for an extended period of time though – Doc may have rigged the systems so that the corporation can’t find you through incoming calls, but it’s best not to risk us being traced. So on that note… is there anything we should know before we head out?”

I took a moment to think.

Well, if nothing else…

“…Dee’s still out there,” I said. “Bandana Dee. He’s been out and about, assisting Kirby and whoever was unlucky enough to get caught up on this mess. I know he can take care of himself, but I still worry about him—so if you see him, give him a hand, will ya?”

“Your faithful assistant, with the blue headscarf, huh…?”

He dropped the brim of his hat to cover his eyes. If possible, his smirk seemed to get even wider.

“Well, he has interested me for quite some time. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for him, don’t worry.”

He lifted it back up, and started marching to his airship.

“I wish you luck in your endeavors, Dedede, Taranza. Squeaks, assemble!”

As the Squeak Squad rejoined their leader, Taranza looked back to the camera.

“It—It was good seeing you again, D-Dedede! I guess I’ll… talk to you later, then!”

And with that, the video call ended.

I closed my eyes and let the silence settle for a little bit.

“Keep me updated on the situation,” I told the two Dees, getting off my chair. I pressed a few buttons on the armrest remote, letting the TV ascend back to its resting place. “I’m gonna go check on the refugees in the basement.”

“Your wish is our command, Great King.”

With that, we dispersed, a few Waddle Dee guards coming to my sides as I waltzed on over to the basement level. We passed by a few windows on the way, and I took another glimpse at what had befallen my poor Dream Land.

Light bulb fixtures were everywhere, contaminating literally everything they touched – from the grass, to the trees, and I think I could even hear a train going off in the distance. That wasn’t even mentioning all the tubes littered throughout, acting as the cherry-on-top this disgusting sundae that my land had become.

This place really does deserve the title of Patched Plains, I thought to myself.

…I wish it didn’t have to be that way.

Castle Dedede
Basement

“Ha ha! I’ve got the hat, I’ve got the hat!”

“Aw, no fair! It was still my turn to wear it!”

“If you want it, you’re gonna have to catch me first! Nyehhh!”

Laughter and happiness filled the air.

A group of children – a Driblee, a Birdon, a Beetley, and a Poppy Bro. Jr. – ran around the middle of my vast living room, playing an impromptu game of tag with a spare cap of Mario’s.

I sat on a nearby couch and watched them go, the corner of my lips twitching every time I saw one of them get close to the ‘it’ for this round.

All around the room, there were Dream Landers of various ages and sizes – from GIMs and Capsule J2s to Bonkers and Phan Phans. They were engaging in all sorts of conversations, their spirits visibly healing as they confided in each other. Even though some of them were partially roboticized themselves, they weren’t gonna sit down and let the Haltmann Works Company trample over their lives.

…it’s a comforting sight to see, honestly.

The Driblee with Mario’s cap was surfing around the room, playing keep-away with his newly-acquired piece of equipment. He was sticking out his tongue and overall being incredibly mischievous. That is, until a little Birdon—Coco—swooped in and snatched it with her feet, snickering at her current rival’s flabbergasted face.

“H-Hey!” he protested. “Coco, you’re not supposed to fly in this!”

“Why shouldn’t I be able to?” she shot back. “Nobody ever said that was a rule!”

“She’s right!” the Beetley realized. The wing flaps on his back opened up, and he began to flutter about in the air. “There’s no rule about bein’ able to use your stuff here!”

Coco understood her mistake immediately. “Aw crap!”

“Don’t cause a huge mess, kids! No weapons or explosives allowed!” I preemptively called to them. “My Dees are already working hard, so I’m more than willing to have you help them out in exchange!”

“Yes, Mr. Dedede!”

Poppy groaned. “I like explosives, though…”

I wasn’t alone in observing the kids’ playtime. Birdon and Simirror—Coco’s parents, and two more acquaintances of mine—were sitting next to me, snuggling up beside one another. In the time since my reconciliation with Kirby (with the aforementioned Helpers as witnesses), I’ve gotten to know them among my other subjects, and they’re… alright. We’re not the best of friends or anything, but they’re good people.

…though I’ve gotta say, I didn’t expect them to marry each other.

(I guess it’s true, what they say about opposites attracting…)

“It feels like forever since we’ve gathered together like this,” Birdon mused, nursing a half-mechanized wing. “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

“You and me both,” I sighed. “We never seem to catch a break ‘round here.”

“For a land of dreams, we do seem to be swept up in more nightmares than most others can say,” Simirror agreed. “Except this nightmare in particular is more all-encompassing than usual. I scarcely remember a moment prior where we have been this depowered in our agency.”

“Tell me about it, Sim. It’s all so—so—so frustrating!” the red hen low-key shouted. “How the heck are we supposed to survive this time!? Our homes are gone, our bodies are sore, we’re outmatched in every way—and there’s absolutely no leg up we can get!”

Her voice was significantly more aggrieved than usual; I wondered if she was still feeling the phantom pain of her feathers turning into metal.

She buried her face in her wings and shook uncontrollably.

“…how do you handle dealing with this all the time, Dedede?” she whispered. “It’s all so much! I—I can’t even imagine what I’d do if—if it was Sim or C-Coco out there…”

…I’ll admit – sometimes, I wonder that too.

My friends are scattered across the kingdom. The threat to our worlds is bigger, badder; the worst that we’ve seen yet. If this had happened ten years ago, I’d probably have crumbled from the weight of it all.

Heck, I’m barely keeping myself aloft as it is.

And yet, despite everything…

“…there’s a lotta darkness in this world, sure,” I began, “but there’s also just as much light to be found. Case in point…”

I turned my attention back to the kids happily juggling Mario’s hat, oblivious to the gift of innocence they were taking for granted. Then, I looked to the Dream Landers sitting on the carpeted floor, hugging friends and family as if they might disappear the next day. I saw my troops behind them, still guarding my subjects and my castle valiantly against any intruder.

An understanding reached Birdon and Simirror’s eyes.

“I have a duty to uphold, to everyone here. A duty to all of Dream Land, as its Great King. I care for them, as much as I care for my friends. I trust my friends to stay safe, so I’ll focus on making sure nobody’s dreams get extinguished.”

This is what I’m fighting for. These are the guys who’ll suffer if I don’t protect them now.

I can’t let them down. Not here, not ever.

Birdon chuckled.

“…it’s no wonder Coco really likes you,” she said. “You really have a knack for stuff like this.”

“When you say such noble sentiments, I truly am reminded of how much you have changed these past eight years,” Simirror agreed. His beady white eyes twinkled. “Perhaps, that will be enough to hold back the tide.”

With that heavy talk outta the way, I decided on something to lift our spirits up.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted in the kids’ direction. “Hey, kids! You guys must be getting tired from all that playing ‘round. How ‘bout a story from Uncle Dedede?”

A bevy of cheers immediately began to fill the air.

“HECK YEAH! This is AWESOME!”

“Woo! A story! I love Uncle Dedede’s stories!”

“Ooh, ooh! I want one with a lot of kabooms in it!”

“Hey hey, not so loud! There’s too many of you in here…!”

I smiled, watching as they all rushed over to hear tales of my and Kirby’s exploits. Somehow, just looking at them, I already felt reenergized like never before.

I’ll do my part for you, Kirby. I’ll take care of everyone, so you can focus on bringing down this monolith hanging over us.

We’re all counting on you, okay?

Don’t let our hopes go to waste.

Chapter Text

[Adeleine]

Resolution Road
Network Boulevard

These buildings are huge.

Dream Land’s never had anything like this before, and it really frightens me. Just a few days ago, Ribbon and Gooey and I were just having fun painting some pictures – Gooey’s tongue can really move, seriously! – right before this colossal mothership came down from the sky and crashed onto Pop Star.

I still remember how loud Ribbon yelped (not that I could blame her for it).

A whole bunch of robotic mechs followed afterward, and I do mean a whole bunch. I noticed that one of them seemed to glance over us for a brief second, too. I didn’t want to stick around to see what it was going to do, so I grabbed Ribbon and Gooey and made a break for it.

We’ve been hiding wherever we can since, trying to find any sort of help, anyone who hasn’t been affected by… whatever the heck’s going on here. We would have gone to Castle Dedede, but we saw two gigantic lasers fire in its direction, so we didn’t know how that safe we would be.

I’m kind of regretting that, though, because I haven’t seen any lasers fire since—and let’s face it, we’re not going far the way we’re traversing Dream Land. At least Dedede would be able to help us in some way.

Heck, I don’t even know where we are anymore—

—which probably explains how we got into this city to begin with.

“Where is this?” Ribbon asked, staring in awe at the skyscrapers above us. “It reminds me of Shiver Star, but… that shouldn’t be possible, right?”

She floated over to Gooey, who was walking right beside us. “Gooey, what do you think?”

“Look at all the machines on the road,” Gooey noted dreamily, ignoring Ribbon’s question through his own oblivious nature. “I wanna try them. Ado, can we try them? I like the revving sounds they make…”

“…maybe some other time, Gooey,” I replied, my eyes peering carefully over our surroundings. “Right now, we need to find something here that can help us. Maybe even a resting place.”

We’ve been surviving off my ability to paint us a picnic in an instant, but it’s definitely no substitute for real, actual food. Not to mention, we’re only three people surviving against an entire brigade of enemies—our choices are either hide or die.

The roads before us seem to have a car with a half-mechanized Waddle Dee travelling over them (and some bridges in the background) every few seconds, and there are a few cyborg guards for the invaders hanging about, too. In the distance, I could see some large and fairly extravagant buildings, one of which looked like a research lab.

It was safe to say that going there probably wasn’t a good idea; they’re likely to be heavily guarded and extremely unsafe.

So we’re better off trying to find something in one of the many buildings scattered about this city. I’m not sure if we’ll even find something good, seeing how this place was built very recently – but it’s worth a shot.

My paintbrush, Ribbon’s Crystal Gun, and Gooey’s… gooeyness should be able to hold off some of the bad guys if they come after us, but it’s best not to take any chances. Sticking to stealth is better than trying to charge in – we’re definitely not Kirby, after all.

“Hey, Adeleine! Look over there!” Ribbon pointed me toward a conspicuously visible tower, a label stating that it was a ‘Communications Tower’ specifically. It wasn’t as big as the gigantic research lab in the distance, but it was big enough. “I think we can get your phone working again over there! Or at the very least, we can get in touch with Dedede!”

Sometime back, Dedede decided to import in his own set of electronics: a phone, a computer, a network; the works. Unfortunately, he was only really able to interact with Kirby and Meta Knight through them, seeing as they were the only other people in Dream Land with that type of technology.

I myself only have a simple phone, like the one Kirby uses to call his Warp Star (and I’ve been told that that type of phone is outdated now? I don’t really get that). Unfortunately, I can’t get any cell reception at all, which might have something to do with that giant mothership.

The things in that tower, however, might definitely be able to lend us a hand in that department. Maybe it could connect to Dedede’s network thing, or something.

“Good thinking, Ribbon,” I complimented. “It’s certainly worth a shot!”

“So, does that mean no road machines, Ado?” Gooey inquired, his face looking adorably puzzled.

“…yes, Gooey. No road machines today.”

“Awwww…” The blob of Dark Matter momentarily wilted, before going right back to his usual jovial state. “Maybe next time, then.”

The three of us got moving, slowly making our way across the sidewalk. The industrial air just didn’t really click with me, and something about it felt utterly unnerving. I… think that might have something to do with the fact that this is on Pop Star, but I can’t really be sure.

Something caught my eye, and quickly, I ushered Ribbon and Gooey into ducking behind a set of convenient trash cans.

A Waddle Dee came walking over, part of his head patched over with something robotic while also sitting in some sort of tiny orange walking device. He looked around a bit, seemingly trying to find something (us?).

I grit my teeth; Ribbon chattered her own in nervousness.

I didn’t want to fight anyone, especially not a little Waddle Dee who hasn’t done anything wrong. The sight of him even gave me a little pause – in spite of his lighter color, he reminded me a little bit of my good friend Bandana Dee.

…where is Bandana Dee, anyway? We haven’t seen him at all these past few days.

Could… Could he have been caught by the invaders?

Were all our other friends alright too, or…?

…no, I can’t think about that right now. I gotta focus on getting to the store.

J-Just don’t think about them, don’t think about them…

Luckily, the Waddle Dee shrugged after a bit, and continued on his way.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Ribbon.

“That was a close one,” she whispered to me.

Gooey looked far more interested and something else.

“Oh, that Waddle Dee has a machine thingy too,” he remarked. “If I can’t ride in the big machines, can I ride in one of those?”

I sighed. “We’ll see, Gooey. We’ll see.”

We got back to moving, taking care not to be sighted by either the half-robotized sentries or the casual Waddle Dee drivers. Thankfully, I had a handy-dandy giant easel for all of us to hide behind – though it certainly was tedious having to repeatedly keep it up for so long.

I don’t get how those Dees can be so casual when everything’s like this. Do… Do they just not care?

I also had to make sure Gooey didn’t try to lick the poor Waddle Dees off their cars or mechs. He’s a good friend and all, but dang if he can’t be a bit of a hassle to deal with. That tongue of his really reaches far! He also nearly caught the eye of the overhead sentries—specifically, the ones with those bulky armors.

Boy, didn’t that give us a scare.

(Well, me and Ribbon, anyway.)

Those things were flying all about, and it was clear you didn’t want to mess with them. They looked like they could hit really, really hard—just look at how big their arms were! Not to mention, they seemed to be scanning around for something. I hoped it wasn’t Gooey. I’m sure that, with his status of being made of Dark Matter, the bad guys would definitely try to do something to him. And I didn’t like the thought of that any more than Ribbon did.

Finally, we managed to make it right outside the tower. Rather than heading in upfront, we ducked in behind an alleyway.

(I know what you’re thinking. No, there weren’t any bad guys back there or anything.)

“Alright you two, I’m going to head in first,” I said. “I’ll call you guys inside when it’s absolutely safe. Ribbon, make sure Gooey doesn’t wander off before that happens.”

Ribbon nodded. “Got it, Adeleine!”

Gooey merely drooled, his tongue still sticking out onto the floor.

“Bring back some food for us, Ado,” he said.

Resolution Road
Communications Tower

Waltzing on in, my eyes began to glaze over at how advanced the technology here was.

The color palette was a sleek white with hints of gray and blue – simplistic, yet charming, in a way. All about the lobby, there were loads upon loads of computers, and they were hosting so many people on them—both normal and mechanized.

I didn’t want a whole lot of attention, so I walked to a booth that was fairly out of the way.

Of course, that just led to a new problem:

I barely knew how to operate a computer.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know what a computer is – Kirby and Dedede have shown me theirs before – but that didn’t mean I knew how to use it like the back of my hand.

We… don’t have a lot of them in Dream Land, as you can tell.

“Alright,” I muttered, prepping my fingers, “let’s get this working.”

The numerous icons seemed intimidating at first, and I didn’t exactly know what they did, but after ‘clicking’ around (I think that’s what you do?), I managed to stumble onto the built-in phone function.

One inputting Dedede’s number later…

A bit of static played out on the screen, before Dedede’s glorious face finally greeted my vision.

“Adeleine! Is that you!? Are—Are you there!?” he exclaimed, his visage looking far more worried than I had ever seen it.

Was… Was he that worried for me?

“Yeah, I’m here,” I answered, a warm smile coming onto my face for the first time since this all began.

“Thank goodness!” Dedede visibly breathed a sigh of relief. “When I heard you were missing, I… I assumed the worst. I’m—I’m glad to see that I was wrong. Is Ribbon and Gooey with you?”

“Yeah, they’re just outside.” I pointed a thumb toward the nearby entrance. “I haven’t brought them in yet, but they’re safe with me. What’s going on here, anyway? Why’s everything so… patched over? And what did that giant ship thing do?”

“That ship belongs to the Haltmann Works Company,” Dedede replied, his face turning stony serious. “My Dees have reported that they want to harvest our resources for something, and to that end, they’re mechanizing everything in search of that goal.” He grimaced. “I’ve seen the effects on everyone; it’s not pleasant at all.”

“I can tell.”

I can’t imagine being half-human and half-robot – that just sounds like a recipe for disaster.

“They’re ruining everything that made Dream Land… well, Dream Land. It just feels so… so… so wrong. And that’s not evening mentioning all the sentries on patrol.”

“Wait… Sentries?” Dedede probed.

“There’s a lot of robot guys flying around in the sky—some Capsule J2s, half-robot Scarfies, and also these guys in weird armor. They looked really bulky, but also really strong.”

“Oh, dear NOVA,” he muttered. “You haven’t had to deal with any of them, right?”

“No, thankfully. I’ve managed to keep us hidden well enough, and we’ve kept ourselves sustained on my paint picnics these past few days. We’ve been trying to find any help for a while, but we haven’t had any sort of luck. We can’t haven’t even seen Kirby or Bandana Dee anywhere.”

“That’s weird. I thought Bandana Dee would have gotten to you guys by now? He’s been out and about trying to save as many people as he can from our invaders.”     

My smile grew a little warmer. “That sounds just like him.”

Bandana Dee’s always been a good friend; I’m glad to hear he’s still the same as ever.

“Maybe he’s just not in our currently region – we’re in Resolution Road right now.”

“Resolution Road? I haven’t seen much of that place yet. Then again, I haven’t gone beyond the Patched Plains because of my duties. Hopefully, that’s not too far from here…”

“What have you been doing, anyway? I know you wouldn’t just let yourself be cooped up in your castle without a good reason.”

“Heh heh… I’ve actually been housing refugees from the invasion!” he proudly proclaimed. Wait, seriously!? “You wouldn’t believe how many of them there are. I haven’t been doing a whole lot outside because of ‘em.”

I blinked a little in surprise.

“Wow. That’s… That’s really nice of you.”

Dedede smiled. “It’s a King’s duty to care for his people, after all. What kind of King would I be if I didn’t?”

“I guess you have a point.”

Man, and to think this is the same guy that used to fight Kirby all the time. It’s still almost surreal, actually.

“Say, I wanna see how Ribbon’s doing! It’s been a while since I got to catch up with her, what with the Robobot crisis and all. Come on, bring her in!”

“Alright, alright,” I laughed. “Ribbon and Gooey hopefully haven’t wandered off, it should be fine to—”

That was as far as I got before I heard a scream coming from outside. It—It sounded like… Ribbon!?

“Hey, that’s—that’s Ribbon! What’s going on!?” Dedede’s face shot back up to being anxious, and so was mine.

They should have been safe, these robot guys are too dumb to look in alleyways!

“Something’s happened,” I quickly stated. “I gotta go help them!”

Dedede nodded. “Alright. Try and get back to my castle—or the Squeak Squad, if you can!”

He looked directly into my eyes – I could see his own sprinkled with concern for me.

“…please stay safe, Adeleine. I don’t want to see you or anyone else captured.”

“I’ll try my best, Dedede. You can count on it.”

Resolution Road
Alleyway

I ran out of the tower, rushing straight toward where I knew Ribbon and Gooey had been hiding in. I heard several Dees and Doos yelp as I passed them by, but I paid them no matter.

I had to make sure my friends were safe, no matter what! I’d be a terrible friend if I didn’t!

By the time I made it, one of those armored patrollers had descended in front of Ribbon and Gooey. My fairy friend had whipped out her Crystal Gun, but it was clear that she was really scared, from the way her hands were shaking while pointing it at the bad guy.

“D-Don’t come any c-closer!” she stammered. “I—I know h-how to use t-this! It—It’ll hurt!”

Gooey, on the other hand, was staring perplexed at the guy’s presence. “Are you food? You don’t look like it…”

I don’t think he really understood just how bad this was for him or Ribbon.

“Scanning lifeforms…” the patroller intoned.

Huh. This guy’s voice was… pretty robotic. And loud, too.

Then again, with the way this ‘Haltmann Works Company’ has been mechanizing everything, it stands to reason their employees would also be made up of robots.

“Lifeforms have been confirmed as a Ripple Star fairy and Dark Matter. The Ripple Star fairy is carrying a weapon of interest to the Mother Computer. New objectives: capture the Ripple Star fairy and Dark Matter for the Haltmann Works Company.”

The armor stepped forward toward Ribbon and Gooey, with Ribbon making a frightened squeak at its actions. Gooey finally seemed to recognize the threat, and began to whip around his tongue in a fighting manner.

It didn’t stop the armor from approaching, though—

—but that’s what I’m here for.

“Hey! Get away from my friends!” I yelled, pulling out my paintbrush and aiming it right toward the mech, my other hand holding my palette out to paint.

The pilot in response turned around.

“Scanning new lifeform… Human lifeform detected to have an unknown semblance of magical abilities. Additional objective: capture new human.”

The armor started trudging toward me, and subsequently began to wind up a punch.

The minute it dashed toward me, I dove outta the way, swiping my brush in its general direction. A splash of paint let loose and splattered onto the armor and the grunt’s visor.

“Error! Error!” he exclaimed. “Unknown substance detected! Vitality of Invader Armor has decreased!”

As it tried to shake it off, I followed up by getting up close and splashing even more paint on its face, leaving it unable to attack.

I took this opportunity to run past it.

“Are you guys alright!?” I ran to my friends, hurriedly checking them over for any sort of bruise or injury.

“Adeleine! W-We’re—We’re fine!” Ribbon said, looking fairly ruffled. “We just didn’t see that guy coming.”

“He didn’t look nice,” Gooey remarked. “We should give him food. People always become friends when you give them food.”

Behind us, the Invader Armor thing (finally, an actual name to give it!) regained its previous composure. It hadn’t managed to wipe off all of the paint, but it got enough off to get its sight back.

It performed the closest thing to a glare at me.

“Threat level of human lifeform increased!” it declared. “New priority: subdue the lifeforms at any cost!”

Once more, it rocketed toward us, but this time all of us were ready. Ribbon grabbed my back and we flew away, Gooey following through his Mock Matter form.

The Invader Armor prematurely ended his dash and proceeded to hop high after us, propelled by its jets.

Wordlessly, Ribbon handed me her Crystal Gun, and I proceeded to fire it repeatedly at the mech as we swerved out of its way. At the same time, Gooey was unleashing his own waves of purple lightning at it.

The mech couldn’t do much more than aimlessly try to grab at us, seeing as we were much more maneuverable—

—so instead, it did a cheap trick and targeted Gooey instead.

The poor blob hadn't seen this change of events and tanked the hit, the two of them descending back into the alleyway.

“Oh no, Gooey!” Ribbon panicked.

We flew in after them.

The Invader Armor rushed toward him again, and he responded by fire dashing through its form. Once he was behind the mech, he lashed out with a series of tongue strikes, but it didn’t take the thing long before it yanked his tongue and slammed him onto the floor.

It tried to squish him flat afterward, and Gooey went into his Stone form to nullify the damage. But no matter how invulnerable Stone was, it was still a rock—and even Gooey has to come out of there at some point.

As Ribbon and I landed back onto the ground, I went and plopped my easel into a standing position.

“What do we paint, Adeleine, what do we paint!?” Ribbon exclaimed. “We have to help Gooey out somehow!”

“Don't worry, Ribbon—I’ve got an idea!”

The first creature that came to my mind was the Ice Dragon from the Rainbow Islands, so I decided it would do.

I began painting, and before long, a paper-thin recreation of the Ice Dragon had come to life.

“Hey, you jerk!” I called out to our enemy, hopping onto my animated creation. “You should fight something your own size!”

The Invader Armor turned around to face us, and the pilot's eyes widened at the sight.

“Impossible!” it declared. “Scan visors indicate the appearance of an Ice Dragon… This information contradicts the known data of this creature!”

The grunt’s head spun in confusion, and I took the opportunity to bathe the guy in ice breath.

In just a few seconds, the Invader Armor had been blown to smithereens. The pilot went flying out of its cockpit, landing onto the street.

For a moment, the two of us and Gooey just stared at the mech’s remains.

Then, I began to laugh.

“We… We did it!” I shouted, pumping my arms into the air.

Ribbon grabbed my hands and we began to do a happy little fairy dance in relief. Gooey stuck his tongue back out and licked himself clean, sounding just as happy as us.

Unfortunately, our little celebration didn’t last very long. The guy that had lost his armor got back up and pulled out some sort of device from somewhere.

“Attention, all units in the vicinity,” he talked into it, “this is Haltworker Unit #14146. We have a case of three rogue lifeforms, consisting of a human, a Ripple Star fairy, and a piece of Dark Matter. This unit is requesting assistance to capture these lifeforms. Their functions must be studied!”

“I-I don't like t-the sound of t-that,” Ribbon whimpered, hovering close to my side.

Looking up, I saw a bunch more Invader Armors, just like the one we fought, hovering right toward our general area.

“I think that means it’s time to go!” I whispered back.

I grabbed Gooey and made a run to the closest car. Sadly, we had to steal it from a poor Waddle Dee, but now wasn’t the time to get hung up on that.

“Hey! That’s my ride!”

“Sorry, little Dee!” I called to him as we drove off, “I'll pay you back later!”

Indeed, we were just in time, for the Invader Armies had just touched the ground.

Much like computers, I hadn't spent a lot of time using vehicles—but I’ve handled a few Warp Stars in my spare time. That would have to be good enough!

“Ooh, look at all the pretty machines,” Gooey dreamily stated.

Briefly, I tore my gaze to the rear-view mirror. Lo and behold, there were several mechs rocketing toward our position.

“Ribbon! Try to blast them out!” I spoke. “I gotta handle getting us outta here!”

“On it, Adeleine!”

I heard the telltale signs of Ribbon's Crystal Gun firing as fast as it could, with Gooey staring in awe, but I couldn't exactly focus on that. Right now, I had to deal with traffic.

“Oops! Sorry! ‘Scuse me, passing through!”

I drove and swerved all about in an attempt to escape the army at our backs. I didn’t exactly know where I was going, or what was my end goal—

—but to be honest, anywhere was better than right now!

Go, go, go, go, go!

Resolution Road
Outskirts

Eventually, we managed to pull out of the city.

Normally, this’d be a good thing—I mean, it’s one step closer to escape!

But then I noticed something important: on the gauge labeled ‘Gas’, the marker was pointing closer to E rather than F.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what that meant.

“Guys, we’re running out of gas!” I yelled to the two in the backseat.

In the mirror, I could see Ribbon swivel her head to face me in shock. (Gooey just drooled.)

“What!?” she shouted. “But there's still so many guys chasing after us!”

“We’re gonna have to make our way without the car!” I liked this just as much as she did, but we didn’t really have a choice. I'm pretty sure I can’t paint up more fuel.

“On the count of three, we jump out and run,” I told them. “One… two… three!”

At my word, the three of us hopped out. Quickly, I grabbed my easel and painted Kracko in record time. After handily landing on its fluffy top, we made a break for it.

Luckily for us, there was a forest in view—somewhat patched over, as with the rest of Dream Land, but it would do! It’s really easy to hide in forests, believe me; all our hide-and-seek games have proven that to me.

“We’re almost there!” Ribbon pointed out. “Just a little bit more…!”

But to our horror, a set of three Invader Armies descended to the entrance of the forest we were heading in.

“Wait, what!?” we both exclaimed.

And then my Kracko drawing ran out of steam, leaving us falling to the floor.

We plopped face-first onto the patched-over grass, a disconcerting feeling quickly filling our senses.

“Oof!”

As I got up, I noticed we were now fully surrounded by Invader Armies, making an impenetrable circle around us.

No way through; no room to safely fly out.

“Oh, no,” I muttered, my eyes looking back and forth between the fleet of mechs. “We're surrounded.”

One of the mechs took a step toward us, a megaphone in the pilot's hand.

“Attention, lifeforms,” it stated. “We, of the Haltmann Works Company, politely ask that you surrender yourself to our care so that we may be one step closer to achieving infinite prosperity. In return, we promise that we will compensate you greatly—especially for the piece of Dark Matter you are carrying.”

“His name is Gooey,” I snapped, “and he’s my friend. And there’s no way any of us would willingly give ourselves up for you guys!”

“Such a shame,” the unit sighed (supposedly). “But I suppose you can't expect all natives to see a good business opportunity for what it is.”

Man, these guys are really getting on my nerves…!

“All units, prepare for battle!”

The mechs began to slowly step toward us. Ribbon looked at me, several levels of fright etched deep into her eyes.

“Adeleine, you… You won’t let them take us, right?” she asked me, a hint desperation lining her voice.

“Of course I won't!” I declared, clutching my paintbrush tightly. “You two are my friends! If they want you, they’re gonna have to fight me for the privilege. And that’s something I’ll never let them have.”

“Too bad we couldn’t be friends with them,” Gooey said. “But you’re a good friend already, Ado. I guess that’s alright too.”

“You know it.”

I glared defiantly at the crowd of Invader Armors steadily getting closer.

If this was to be our last stand, then at least we'd go out with one heck of a bang.

As I was getting prepped to fight for as long as possible, though, something totally unexpected happened: a giant curling rock, straight from the forest, slammed into the back of one of the mechs and took it down.

Ribbon and I both blinked in unison.

“Huh?” we dumbly pronounced.

The curling rock slowly began to decelerate after it struck the mech, slowly sliding to right where we were. Our eyes carefully followed both its trajectory and its appearance.

If I’m seeing this right, the stone kind of looked like…

“Rick?” I tentatively asked, staring at the suspiciously hamster-like face on the stone’s side.

The curling rock disappeared in a puff of smoke—and there was Rick, in all his hamster-y glory.

“Phew, ramming stuff that fast always gives me too much of a rush!” he breathed, wiping some sweat off his forehead.

He turned to meet our bewildered gazes.

“G’day, Adeleine, Ribbon, Gooey. Heard you needed a little hand?”

“Rick! It is you!” I couldn’t believe it! Even Gooey was drooling out an ‘Ooooooh…’ in response. “But… But how?”

“It’s kind of hard to miss all the robot stuff coming toward here,” he idly drawled. “Don't worry—we’ve got a great welcoming party for them!”

The Invader Armors turned their attention toward the entrance of the forest, where they came face to face with the rest of Kirby’s Animal Buddies: Kine, Coo, Chuchu, Nago, and Pitch.

“Hey there, you three!” Coo called out to us. “It’s been a while!”

“I don’t like what these intruders done to our home,” Kine added. “Let’s go take it back together!”

I could have cried beautiful tears of joy at the sight. Gooey, to his credit, ecstatically said, “Ooh, a party? I like parties! I wanna join in too! Can I join, Rick?”

“Of course!” the hamster answered. “We’ve got plenty of room for nine in this house!”

“That's great!” Ribbon said, cocking her Crystal Gun in the most adorable way. “Come on, Adeleine—let’s show ‘em who’s boss!”

Rejuvenated by the support of the Animal Buddies, we charged on through and attacked the Invader Armors with all our might. Against the nine of us combined, they couldn’t even hope to get a scratch on us!

Ribbon and I happily laughed through the entirety of the skirmish.

Now this is what I call a fair fight!

Finally, we managed to send each and every one of them packing with their tails between their legs.

“And don't come back!” Chuchu shouted.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

We did it! We won! We survived! We weren’t captured!

Hallelujah!

“What time is it?” Gooey suddenly asked out of nowhere. It was so abrupt, I think I got whiplash. “I'm getting hungry now.”

“Oh my gosh, Adeleine! Ribbon! Gooey!” Chuchu barreled right into us with a tight hug, her face practically filled with a gigantic smile. “You’re here! You guys are really here! I told Nago that you guys would be fine, and it turns out I was right!”

“Well, to be fair,” Nago said, his features becoming rather furled, “it wasn’t like we exactly knew they’d be alright. This whole place has been thrown out of whack by these invaders, and—”

“Ah, you know what I mean,” Chuchu interrupted him, letting go of us. “Just be happy that our friends are here!”

“I am. I’m just making a point.”

Pitch waddled up to us too, looking as delightfully inquisitive as when I saw him last.

“Hi, Adeleine,” he greeted me. “You too, Ribbon.”

I smiled. “Hi, Pitch,” I greeted him back.

“You’re going to be able to play with us now, right?” he asked me. “Mom said it’s alright if you babysat me again.”

“Of course we will!” Ribbon perked up. She’s always enjoyed playing with Pitch. “We’re gonna have a lot of fun together, just as always!”

Gooey slithered onto the scene.

“Can I go see your mother, Pitch?” he requested of our little bird. “She always has the best food.”

“Of course, Gooey!”

Pitch hopped onto Gooey’s head, riding him like Kirby rides Rick.

“C’mon, everybody,” he called out to Chuchu and Nago, “let’s go see her together!”

“Ooh, I hope she has Kirby cookies again!” Chuchu said, her eyes twinkling. “Those are always the best!”

“Does it have to be cookies again?” Nago groaned. “I think I’m getting sick of ‘em.”

As the four of them left, I turned my attention to Rick.

“So, Rick,” I said, “what’s been going on with you guys?”

“Those annoying invaders have been trying to dig into our forests,” Rick explained. “The six of us, with our other friends, have been hard at work making sure they don’t get into our territory. It’s been pretty difficult, particularly because none of them know the meaning of the word ‘quit’. We've been fine so far, but it’d be nice if we had your help, too. Your painting prowess might give us the edge we need.”

“We’d be glad to help!” I cheerfully replied. “Those invaders won’t know what'll hit them!”

“Yeah!” Ribbon shouted with glee. “Our Crystal Gun will be able to blast those guys all the way to Rock Star!”

“That settles it, then!” Coo declared, ruffling my and Ribbon's heads. “Glad to have you two and Gooey back on board!”

“It feels great to have all the gang back together. It makes me feel a little parched,” Kine chimed in. “Let’s go take a nice, relaxing dip in the lake to celebrate.”

I thought it over a bit.

It has been a while since we got a chance to relax.

Soooooo…

“You know what? Yeah, let's go for it!” I exclaimed with a wide grin.

It’s been a pretty tough last few days, but we’ve finally managed to make it into the homestretch (relatively speaking, anyway). So long as our friends have our backs… I know we'll get through this crisis with our heads held high and our world still intact.

And hey—at the very least, I’ve got plenty of material for paintings now!

“If you really want to,” Coo said, “then I suppose now as good a time as any.”

“Is everyone in agreement?” Rick quizzed all of us. “Going once… Going twice…”

…

“Alrighty, then!” He dramatically pointed a finger to the sky. It was pretty cute, actually. “To the lake we go!”

“Yeah!” Ribbon cheered. “To the lake!”

Chapter Text

[Bandana Dee]

Overload Ocean
Docks

They say a Dee’s work is never done in Dream Land…

…but I don’t think they ever accounted for a situation like this.

It’s been quite a few days since what Great King has dubbed the ‘Robobot crisis’ has begun, and in that time, I’ve been out and about, trying to save as many people as I can from the invaders.

This crisis is even worse than the Dark Matter ones, too. At least Dark Matter had the courtesy not to bother affecting most of everyone on Pop Star.

These guys don’t even care! They’re killing off our way of life just because they can! They’re attacking everyone just because they’re in the way!

So the minute I saw the people of Dream Land in danger… I didn’t hesitate to go out and protect them the best I can. I may just be a little Waddle Dee with a spear, but that doesn’t mean I’m not qualified for taking out robots!

I’ve been out since then, trying to find as many people as I can – the ones who haven’t managed to get away from the Haltmann Works Company (or so they call themselves).

Oh, and I can’t forget helping Kirby out as well! I’m really good at encasing spare food in Assist Stars! I know Kirby appreciates it a lot—though they’re pretty good for personal use, too.

(Man, can those mid-bosses really hit now!)

I haven’t seen him a whole lot, seeing as how I’m on my own little journey—but I know he’s been doing a great job saving us all as usual!

Just looking at what’s happened to our beautiful land gives me pain, though. Our gorgeous oceans have transformed into an industrial docks with a lot of salvaging operations going on.

It’s… It’s just not us!

It’s not Pop Star.

And I don’t know why you would ever want to change that.

Why would these invaders do such a thing to us?

These docks have been relatively free of those in distress, thankfully—but I’ve still been keeping on the lookout, just in case.

Unfortunately, I can’t just walk around wherever I please. I don’t have extra Copy Abilities or Miracle Magic to bail me out like Kirby does, so I have to be careful. That’s why I’ve gotta be stealthy!

Only problem is, I’m not very good at that. So every time a big Haltmann guard nearly catches sight of me, I have to scramble to fit behind whatever nearest trash can I can find.

I really do wish I didn’t have to, but the world is super dangerous now.

I can’t take any chances.

“…it’s too quiet here,” I muttered to myself, staring ahead at all the shipping boxes on the docks. I haven’t encountered a single actual person yet today.

Like, where—where is everyone?

D-Don’t tell me the H-Haltmann Works Company g-got to all of them…

…

N-No, that can’t be possible. I gotta keep my spirits up!

J-Just because they’re everywhere doesn’t mean they can get everyone!

With this thought in mind, I cautiously made my way across the dock area.

There were so many boxes here, and I didn’t even know what was in them. What could possibly be so important on Pop Star that you’d need a shipping industry, anyway?

“I don’t like the looks of this…” I muttered,

Against my better judgement, I decided to shout a bit.

“Hello!? Is anybody there!? Please answer me!”

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on your perspective), nobody answered my call.

Seeing as I didn’t have a lot to do here as a result, I went and got a move on.

“Well, at least no one here is being attacked,” I said. “That’s a plus, right?”

Of course, the minute I said that, I heard a bunch of loud footsteps suddenly echo right into my ears.

Startled, I ran back into cover—and witnessed a bunch of Haltmann robots and Capsule J3s standing in a militaristic fashion. The former were holding blasters and evil-looking flails; it all made me all kinds of nervous.

I watched the faction of robots make their way through the docks, seemingly set on reaching a destination unknown to me. Wherever it was, though, I couldn’t let them wander about without supervision!

Clutching my spear tightly, I started running toward after them.

They were moving at a particularly fast rate, though. While I was able to somewhat keep pace with them, the run was also quickly wearing me out.

“W-Wait… up…” I panted quietly, even though I knew they weren’t going to say anything back. “I… I can’t… keep up…”

Finally, I heard their synchronized footsteps stop right outside the primary docks area. I stopped nearby to catch my breath for a couple minutes.

Oh boy… I hope Kirby’s having an easier time than I am at this.

That Robobot Armor would really come in handy at times like this…

“Wait… Why did they stop?” I asked myself, my breathing slowly getting back to a regular rate.

I looked up from the floor, trying to figure out our location.

What’s going on? What could possibly give them cause to—

It was then that I noticed a little village on the outskirts, right in the shadow of the docks. One of those light bulb spires – the ones that had ‘patched over’ most of Dream Land – was sticking right in the middle of the village, too. From here, I could see a bunch of villagers banded together, their faces noticeably consumed with one of two things: abject fear, or angry defiance.

“Oh no… This is bad, this is very bad!” I realized.

None of them would be able to handle that thing at all!

One of the many Haltmann grunts, piloting another of those Invader Armors, descended from the sky, hovering stationary in front of the miniature army. He pulled out a loudspeaker and held it to his… face, I think.

“Attention, natives of Pop Star,” the grunt announced. “You are currently residing in territory that belongs to the Haltmann Works Company. We must ask that you please vacate these premises and allow our expansion work to continue unopposed.”

One of the angry-looking villagers—a Bonkers with a big hammer and a mouthguard—defiantly glared back.

“You come to our planet, you mess with our land, and after all of that, you want us out of our own land?” he gruffly stated. “You can take your dumb statements and get out.”

“Y-Yeah!” a frightened Parasol Dee agreed. “Th-This is our village, y-you can’t j-just kick us o-out!”

To my horror, there was some sort of metallic eye guard over half of his face. Was that a result of the mechanizing spire?

Th-That’s terrible!

“We have all the power in the galaxy to,” the worker proclaimed. “You natives are merely ants to our mechanical might. We are giving you a generous chance to depart without any major trouble. It would be unwise for you to refuse.”

I can’t believe what that guy’s trying to do right now. He’s kicking them out of their homes just because they’re in the way! If Great King was here, he’d never agree to that!

Why… Why are they doing this!?

“Generous?” the Bonkers snorted. “Generous would imply there is anything for us to gain. All you want is us out of the way. And we are left in the dust as a result.”

“And how is that a problem? It would save many resources for both our company and you.”

“Where would we go to live, then!?” a particularly prickly Sparky demanded to know. Her sparks were hovering about vicariously around her. “Do you expect us to just find a new place to stay immediately!? We don’t have your type of budget to spend!”

“That is not our problem. Now, we can either finish this job the easy way… or the hard way.”

The grunt then proceeded to gesture toward the little army, which outnumbered the villagers three-to-one.

“It’s your choice.”

The villagers huddled up and discussed for a bit.

I couldn’t hear them from here, but it looked pretty tense to me.

My mind whirled at a million miles a minute.

Finally, they turned their attention back toward the Haltmann robots.

“Have you made your decision yet?” the mech rider apathetically asked.

The Bonkers nodded.

“We will not be submitting to your demand,” he replied. “This is our village, and—like it or not—it is where we will stay.”

He swung his hammer over his shoulder, ready for battle.

“If you disagree… then try and get us out yourself.”

“I was hoping you natives would be reasonable… but as I see, you are nothing more than unintelligible savages. Haltworkers! Capsule J3s!”

The lead grunt pointed in the villagers’ direction.

“Take them out by force!”

The squadron of baddies began to charge forward, and I watched as the villagers did the same.

A fierce battle soon erupted.

The villagers tried their best to push back with their limited abilities, but it was clear they wouldn’t be able to do this alone. Even the Bonkers was having a bit of trouble dealing with the swarm.

But, well… that’s why I’m here!

To help!

I aimed my weapon well—and a split second later, a flurry of three spears flew from my grip, striking a particularly troublesome Capsule J3 fighting the Bonkers.

“Huh?” he dumbly stated, watching as his opponent was sent back a fair distance.

I hopped off from my hiding spot and ran into the battlefield, giving a few consecutive stabs to the downed worker.

“Hey, you guys need a hand?” I asked.

The Bonkers looked contemplative for a moment.

“Hmm… This is unexpected,” he said, “but good. I have heard word of your exploits from across the land, little Dee. Your assistance is most appreciated.”

“Heh heh, you have?” I said, my cheeks blushing. “Thanks!”

“Another unwanted interferer?” the Haltworker noted, a bit of annoyance leaking through its mechanical tone.

His eyes narrowed at me.

“You… Internal data logs tell me you have been a particular source of annoyance for the Haltmann Works Company, alongside that persistent pink native.”

Pink native? He must be talking about Kirby!

“We do not have the tolerance for your unwanted interference. Haltworkers! Take care of this bandana-wearing pest!”

A fair amount of Haltworkers, maces and blasters and all, broke off to take care of me. Blaster shots started firing in my direction, forcing me to wildly jump away from them.

A mace was thrown in my direction while I was still in the air, and actually landed a solid hit to my side.

“Yowch!” I yelped, sliding on the floor.

The guy with the mace wound it back and threw it at me again. This time, though, I spun my spear around in an attempt to deflect it.

It worked; the Haltworker was caught off guard. I took the opportunity to rush on in with a flurry of spear strikes, each one doing a considerable amount of damage, before ending it off with a final thrust.

By the time the enemy hit the floor, he was out cold.

“Impressive, little Dee,” the Bonkers complimented. “Let us do battle with these invaders!”

He charged into the fray himself, spinning his hammer around and smashing several enemies backward. A stray shot from a blaster Haltworker gave him pause, but he quickly shrugged it off.

Two Capsule J3s approached from my sides, their rockets blasting toward my position. In response, I rapidly spun my spear above my head and flew out of the way, watching as they crashed into each other with a comedic ‘TONK!’.

I struck down at them, dazing one of the J3s in the process—but the other J3 wasn’t having any of it. He crouched and revved his engines…

…and then, he blasted off at practically light speed!

“W-Whoa!” I shouted, barely sidestepping out of his way. “Hey, w-watch it!”

As soon as he stopped, the J3 turned around and shot off at me again.

This time, I wasn’t so lucky.

And let me tell you, being tackled by somebody at that speed kind of hurts! A lot! (I think I’d rather face off against Kirby’s hammer!)

“O-Oof! H-Hey, w-what are y-you doing!?” I squeaked.

Though I had already taken a bruise, the J3 wasn’t letting go of me. I didn’t get his intentions until I looked behind me—he was trying to crash me against a nearby house!

I can’t let that happen! Great King’s always telling me to limit property damage! I can’t go against his word!

Quickly, I grabbed my spear and stabbed his hands, forcing me to release his hold on me. I tumbled onto the ground, but not before following up with a quick spear throw. The tip plunged into his jet, causing it to explode—and he fell to the floor, thoroughly unconscious.

“Phew!” I wiped my forehead.

Thank NOVA for my infinite supply of spears!

I took a glance at some of the other villagers. They were putting up a far better fight now, the Sparky in particular using her electric forcefield to absorb some of the blaster shots.

My appearance must’ve been enough to renew their determination. It looked like we actually had a chance at winning this now!

“Your performance against these natives is absolutely disappointing!” the armored Haltworker berated his minions. “Mere moments ago we were close to expanding our influence here! Worthless grunts!”

He shook his head.

“No matter. We have one more trump card up our sleeve. A special present for the bandana-clad native here, you could say.”

The ground began to rumble, accompanied by loud and obnoxious whirring noises.

“P-Present!?” I squealed, struggling to keep my footing. “W-What are y-you talking about!?”

“We were originally going to save this for the pink native,” he continued, “but calculations indicate that now is an opportune time for a latest investment. It will be more than enough to take care of business!

“Now, behold!”

All of a sudden, a giant and purple snake-like robot burst onto the scene. It sported these strange shoulder pads and gigantic golden blocks for hands—which looked very efficient at slamming things.

Electricity flickered around it.

“This is our new, advanced prototype machine: the Gigavolt II!”

All of us looked up at the newly-dubbed Gigavolt II in horror.

“You have got to be kidding me!” the Sparky exclaimed, both exasperated and frustrated. “Why is this invasion so freaking unfair!?”

“I see this as perfectly fair,” the Haltworker waved her off. “Your venting is just an after-effect of our striving toward infinite prosperity. Simply inconsequential in the grand scheme of events.”

Oh, I’d like to show you ‘inconsequential’…!

“Now, Gigavolt II. Take out these savage natives by any means necessary!”

The giant robot began to move toward us.

There was only one thing we could do.

“R-R-Runnnnnnnn!” I screamed, grabbing my spear and hightailing it.

Luckily, everyone else had a similar idea, and were all bolting with me as far away as we could from the mechanical behemoth.

I felt utterly flummoxed.

Were they so annoyed at us as to slaughter us wholesale!?

What’s their beef!?

The Gigavolt II had far more than just its menacing size to count on though. I briefly looked back at it, and caught a glimpse of the many rocket launchers behind its head.

They promptly began to fire.

Repeatedly.

At us.

And said rockets were big, purple, and definitely deadly.

Oh, that’s just great! I internally grumbled.

There’s no way we were going to be able to battle this thing like this! You’d need another giant robot on your side to stand any sort of chance!

“W-What the h-h-h-heck!?” the Parasol Dee shrieked as we attempted to maneuver between the incoming missiles. Their explosions were just as massive as the rockets themselves! “A-Are th-they trying to k-kill us!? B-B-But why!?”

“What, did the giant robot there not tell you anything about what they think!?” the Sparky snapped. “Just shut up and keep running! I’d like to live to see tomorrow, thank you!”

“That’s right,” the flying Haltworker taunted, hovering a little away from us. “Flee all you might; you’re only delaying the inevitable.”

The scramble away from the Gigavolt II led us right back into the docks. The thing seemed either oblivious or uncaring to all the property damage it was causing, despite both it and the docks belonging to the same company.

Seriously, it was tearing into all the equipment!

“We will not be able to sustain this flight for long,” the Bonkers said, running next to me. “We must find a way to turn the tide back around!”

“But how do we do that!?” I replied, deflecting a rocket with my spear. “None of us have the firepower or maneuverability to damage that thing in the slightest!” I hopped over an explosion. “We’d need a miracle to tackle it!”

Then, an unfamiliar voice hit the scene.

“A miracle, you say? If it’s a miracle you want… then a miracle you shall have!”

A series of indescribable blurs gathered in front of the Gigavolt II.

They revealed themselves to be mice of varying sizes, too: there was a fat blue one with an eyepatch; a stout yellow one with cool shades; a bunch of little tiny ones reminding me a lot of my fellow Waddle Dees; and a crazy-eyed one in a UFO of all things.

How’d he get his hands on one? Those things are rare!

Finally, the last of the collection of mice hopped in, wearing a red top hat and sporting a really fashionable cape (one that Great King would’ve liked to wear himself). His claws brought down the rim of his hat, and he looked back at us with smug confidence.

“I believe you desired help, yes?” he asked us.

I recognized him now. He was Daroach; Dedede showed me a picture of him once.

So that meant… this was the infamous Squeak Squad!

“What is this!?” the Haltworker shouted from his lofty throne. “More interlopers!?”

Daroach turned to look at the annoyed pilot.

“Ah, another one of you ‘Haltmann’ people,” he noted. “Let me tell you: you have troubled this part of Pop Star for long enough. It wouldn’t do well for us thieves to ignore these villagers and their plights, after all.”

The Haltworker growled.

“My internal data logs pin you as Daroach of the Squeak Squad. Your team has similarly been a constant annoyance for our expansion efforts. Is today simply a day for all of the nuisances to band together at once!? Is the pink one going to show up as well!?”

“Hmph! You’re speaking of Kirby, I take it? We won’t need him to take care of you. Squeak Squad, you know the drill. Take this oversized behemoth down!”

“Yes, sir!”

Without another word, the Squeak Squad all dashed into the fray.

We all stared in awe as they began to utterly thrash the Gigavolt II.

The little Squeaks ran all about as a distraction. The yellow one was throwing shurikens into its arms, puncturing its armor. The UFO guy sat on its head, pulling out the screw atop with a giant screwdriver. And the big fat one, he was slamming into one of the Gigavolt’s giant block hands.

And he was denting them!

Before long, another screw was revealed on what used to be a massive hand. The UFO guy tossed the big guy another giant screwdriver to use, and he got to work on it pretty fast.

These guys were just making a joke out of this massive robot.

It was amazing! 

“Wow!” the Sparky exclaimed. “Heh, these guys aren’t half bad!”

“How fortunate,” the Bonkers commented as well. “I suppose we did get a miracle in the end.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t ask for any payment,” Daroach chimed in.

He shuffled over to me.

“So… You must be the little Dee that King Dedede holds fondly. Bandana Dee, no?”

“U-Uhh, yes! Yes, th-that’s me!” I stammered and saluted. “Bandana Dee, reporting for duty!”

“You’re pretty commendable, to have been out here for so long without being caught. Some of the refugees over in my ship speak quite highly of you.”

Th-They have?

“Y-You mean, th-the guys I saved… they’re alright?” I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t know I had been holding. “Th-That’s great!”

“Indeed,” Daroach smiled, “you are certainly as much as an inspiration to them as Kirby is. I must confess, it is nice to see such noble figures doing good during this crisis. It is certainly a lot to be proud about.”

The sound of rockets coming down the sky interrupted our little conversation.

“I’d love to let you continue your little talk,” the armored Haltworker spat in disgust, “but I have duties to the Haltmann Works Company, and I am getting tired of dealing with you all. If I must take you on myself, then so be it!”

As the Invader Armor charged on toward us, Daroach simply tipped his hat again with a smirk.

“Trying to handle things yourself, eh? Well then, I must warn you…”

Suddenly, he pulled out a cane, topped by a upside down star bell.

“…we’re not as easy to take on as you think!”

I aimed my own spear at the armor. “Y-Yeah! W-We’ll take you down!”

Daroach swung his cane, and three separate Star Bullets rushed from it and into the armor. The Invader Armor swung its arm and blasted them away, but that wouldn’t deter us from continuing our approach.

I dashed in, hopping right over the armor and stabbed several of its parts as I passed.

“Wha—! Hey! You—! Stop that!”

The grunt attempted to swipe at me with his armor’s fist, but he was distracted enough to get smacked instead by a particularly big bomb. I took the opportunity to get some distance as Daroach’s Fire Bomb went off with a spectacular bang, even making a large pillar of flame in the process!

By the time the dust settled, there were many black blemishes on the Invader Armor’s paintjob. Rage adorning his features, the pilot began to repeatedly jump and slam down, making little shockwaves each time he tried to squash us.

Sadly for him, it was much easier to maneuver around him than it was to do the same to the Gigavolt II.

To put it bluntly, he was easy pickings.

“Stay still, you persistent pests!” he demanded angrily.

“A treasure seeker never makes things easy for his rivals, you know,” Daroach taunted, shooting a few ice crystals from his cane. “The same holds true even in battle.”

“Hmph! Babble on all you want, it won’t help you! Not when we still have the Gigavolt II on our side,” our enemy spat at us.

He looked back at where the Gigavolt had been. “Gigavolt II! Hurry up and teach these natives a lesson!”

The key word to my earlier statement was ‘had,’ of course. For where once there stood a towering robot… now, there lay only a disjointed mess of parts.

The other members of the Squeak Squad were laying all over it, joined by the other villagers kicking its remains with a vicious satisfaction.

The Bonkers looked on with faint amusement.

“What!?” the Haltworker cried. “This cannot be! This possibility was not predicted in our calculations!”

“Alright then!” I declared. “You’re through here! Your minions are down, and your big robot’s scrap now! Leave these villagers alone—or you won’t like the consequences!”

I pointed my spear at him, just to drive the point home.

“It would be wise for you to make a strategical retreat now,” Daroach advised as well, “lest your company winds up with further damages to pay.”

The grunt sizzled for a bit before simmering down.

“Fine,” he relented—“but don’t think this is the end. The Haltmann Works Company will achieve infinite prosperity—

“—even if we must exterminate all you natives to reach it.”

With those ominous words, the Haltworker flew off, his armor smoking and frayed from our battle.

Once he finally left our sights, I sat down on the floor and allowed myself to fall onto the grass.

“We—we did it!” I cheered, feeling sweat pour down from my forehead. Jeez, that was a little tougher than I expected! “Phew, I-I’m feeling pretty tired…”

The Parasol Dee from before waltzed up to me and Daroach.

“W-Wow, you guys really s-saved us!” he excitedly stammered. “Y-You’re like heroes!”

“It was nothing, really…” I chuckled lightly, a hand scratching my head.

“I admit,” the Sparky began, walking up beside the other Dee, “you guys really helped us out in that pickle. Not that we… needed it… or anything…”

Her eyes shifted about. It was obvious what she actually believed.

“…but now that that’s over, what do we do about our village? We can’t stay here anymore, even if we don’t want to leave.”

She’s right. The Haltmann Works Company won’t let this show of resistance go. If the villagers stayed, the company would only come back again—and they’d definitely have a larger force to bring to arms.

I’d tell them to head to Castle Dedede, but that’s pretty far from here. And I can’t get in touch with Great King, what with the communications block and all.

Luckily, Daroach had a solution on hand.

“Well, if it’s shelter you need, then our airship has plenty of room.” He put his claws under his chin. “It will be a slightly bigger strain on our resources, but it’s nothing we cannot handle.”

“That would be much appreciated,” the Bonkers acquiesced. “I do not want to see my friends hurt under those intruders again.”

Daroach turned to his crew.

“Hey, Spinni!” he called. “Have you guys finished harvesting all the resources yet?”

The yellow mouse—Spinni—ran on up to his leader.

“The parts of the Gigavolt II has been successfully taken, Boss,” he said. “We are currently in the process of transporting the last of the pieces to the airship.”

“Very well. Let us return, then, with our new guests.”

He gave us a nod.

“It won’t be far.”

Daroach’s Airship
Cockpit

I’ve never been inside the Squeak Squad’s headquarters before. Or even seen it, for that matter.

Even still, I wasn’t too surprised to find that the ship looked a lot like Daroach. I mean, Meta Knight does have that whole motif going on with his Halberd—and even Great King’s gotten in on it.

I was surprised, though, to find out just how spacious it was!

The villagers we had rescued were currently looking all around, joined by plenty more civilians who had been staying here beforehand. My heart warmed at the sight of everyone. Some of them even went up to thank me for saving them a few days earlier.

“It was nothing, really!” I had replied. “I was just doing what was right.”

“It meant something to us,” they said.

Oh, did that warm my stomach.

Now, I was just sitting around, watching the little Squeakers operating the interfaces and the villagers playing around without a care in the world.

“It’s a pleasant sight, isn’t it?” Daroach’s voice came into my ears, him sitting down next to me. “I imagine your King Dedede sees a lot of this at his castle, too.”

“I hope he has,” I quietly replied. “I… I don’t want the people I’ve saved being captured despite my efforts. I don’t want them to be hurt by these evil invaders. I—I just want everyone to be happy.”

“Mmm… I’m glad you’re trying your best. I think both Kirby and King Dedede would be proud of everything you’ve done.”

He looked back at the kids.

“I may be a simple treasure hunter myself, but there’s a heart inside me too. It is a shame then, that this Haltmann Works Company can’t recognize it.”

“Yeah, it is,” I acknowledged—“but they won’t be here for too long! Kirby will take care of them, I just know it!”

“Ah yes, Kirby. I assume he’s been doing his usual, then?” Daroach smiled. “If he can trounce me and my Squeaks, then he can certainly come out on top of this conflict.”

“You know it!”

A few moments passed in silence.

…

“I should really get going,” I said. “I mean, I have to make sure I’m there to help Kirby too. That’s why I’m making all these Assist Stars, after all.”

I pulled out one from my inventory, still housing a freshly-picked pair of cherries.

“Assist Stars, eh? Didn’t think you had a talent for making those,” he commented. “That type of skill is rare here in Dream Land.”

He closed his eyes for a bit, and then he pulled out a few somethings from his cape.

“Here, take this,” he said, holding three Maxim Tomatoes fresh in his hand.

My eyes widened.

“W-Whoa, r-really!? Y-You’d… You’d really let me have th-them, just like that?”

Daroach’s eyes twinkled.

“Well, I’d be a terrible person not to help a hero like you out during a time like this,” he reasoned. “Just make sure to tell Kirby they’re a gift from me.”

“Th-Th-Thanks, D-Daroach!” I said.

Talk about generous…! Maxim Tomatoes aren’t exactly common ‘round here. I can’t imagine how long it must’ve taken just to find all of them!

“You can thank me later. So, how about I give you a flight to wherever Kirby is?” he put forward. “Even with those invaders affecting our scanners, I’m sure he’s not too far from our current positions.”

I beamed.

Sounds good to me!

“If you want to!” I agreed. “Last I checked, he was heading for that big building in the middle of this ocean.”

I pointed out the window, where there was this abnormally-shaped skyscraper just sitting out there, visible even over the water’s horizon.

“Our best chance of finding him should be close to there. But—But not too close, y-you know?”

He nodded.

“If it’s there he’s headed, it’s there we’re heading too. Spinni!”

At the front of the ship, the yellow mouse looked back.

Daroach gave his orders. “Get us as close as you can to that building over there without being spotted. Can you do that?”

Spinni nodded, and got back to driving.

I looked at the Maxim Tomatoes Daroach had given me, and carefully put them in my coveted Assist Stars.

I’ve fulfilled one goal today… but there’s another I still have to take care of.

And I won’t cower away from it.

I’ll face it with my head held high!

Just like what Great King would want; just like what Adeleine and Ribbon would want.

So Kirby, if you’re there…

…

…don’t worry.

Everyone here in Pop Star’s doing their best, even if things aren’t so hot right now.

We don’t have anything to fear, not while we have our friends and allies by my side.

And so long as I’m still here, I’ll be there to help you and everyone else!