Chapter 8: Another Dimension

Through the seemingly endless cosmic sea, avoiding cosmic platforms and spiky crystalline asteroids, a large floating blue vessel soared in the strange dimension. Inside the ship, a part of a group called the Star Allies goofed around the ship as it scanned for a pink puffball presumably lost in Another Dimension.

Meta Knight walked up to Magolor, who was standing in front of the large holographic monitor of the ship that was scanning the surrounding area around the vessel. 

“Have you found him yet?”

The wizard turned to the knight and shook his head, scratching the side of it. “Unfortunately no… the Lor is scanning Another Dimension as best as it can, although, no traces of him yet.” He turned back to the screen, tapping some buttons on the console below it. “As I said before, I’ll warn everyone when I get a read. No need to check on me every minute.”

The masked knight huffed, taking a subtly defensive tone. “It’s not even every minute. I am just worried about Kirby.”

Magolor’s ear twitched as he waved it off. “No need to worry Meta, I’m doing my job just fine. It’s not like I’m here on this screen planning something evil.” Meta Knight tilted his body as the mage looked at him in disappointment. “Yep, I noticed it. You’ve been keeping watch on me almost all the time since we departed. What? You can’t take your mind off of the Master Crown incident? I thought building that theme park would at least restore a tiny bit of trust in you.”

The knight sighed. “Do you think it’s that easy to just repair someone’s trust after you broke it in a way like that?”

The mage lowered his head, looking back at the console as his ears dropped. “Do you wanna know the real reason why I’m staying in Dreamland until now, instead of just… exploring the universe?” He looked back at Meta Knight, a regretful look in his eyes. “I stayed here in hopes that I could make up to all of you after everything I did.” He sighed. “I was hoping all of you could feel a sense of trust in me… although… it seems that’s not the case.”

The masked puffball analyzed Magolor for any signs of acting in his tone. He was an expert when knowing someone was lying, the only reason why he fell for the mage’s plan in obtaining the Master Crown was because his friends said to drop his suspicions off the mage. However this time… he noticed that Magolor was being genuine about his feelings. Meta sighed again and spoke. “Look, mage. I had a very troublesome past with many betrayals happening around me, so I of course try to not let my guard down for people claiming to have good intentions.”

Magolor scratched the side of his head. “What are you even trying to say?”

“All I’m saying is… it’s not your fault that I can’t trust you. For the others, what you’ve done and are doing right now is enough for someone to place their trust in you again.” The knight adjusted his cape as he turned around. “If you keep doing what is right, I may start trusting you more later.”

As Meta Knight walked away, Magolor looked back down deep in thought. Was he right? Has he done enough to compensate for what he did? He didn’t know, but hopefully, he might be able to fully pay off his debt one day. But for now, he had to focus on finding his best friend, the one who saved him from becoming a vessel for that wretched crown. He looked back up at the monitor with a determined look in his eyes after adjusting his hat. “Don’t worry Kirby, we’ll find you in no time, I’ll pay off my debt for you no matter what!” He muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, in another room of the Lor Starcutter, Bandana Dee was showing Elfilin around the ship. Since he had been there sometimes, it was fitting that he should show the newcomer the unfamiliar place.

“And here we have the cargo room.” Said the waddle dee as he pointed to the various boxes littered around the room with his nub. “If I remember from what Magolor told me, these boxes contain various items he managed to find on his explorations around the universe.”

The gemini flew over to the wooden and cardboard boxes, starting to look at them in more detail. “Woah… so many boxes here.” He looked back at Bandana and asked. “Is he a collector of sorts?”

The waddle dee looked aside. “Eh… sorta. He mostly stores these items in hopes that someone buys them. He specifically targets people with bad decision-making when it comes to money.” He then shook his head. “But no, he’s not a scammer, even if he looks like one sometimes.”

“Oh, I see…” Elfilin said in understanding. Now he had a clue of why all of the star coins he and Kirby gained in the forgotten world suddenly disappeared one day, and the puffball didn’t even bother to tell him. Although, not like chinchilla was annoyed, he was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t spend more money on those capsule machines. He continued to examine the boxes until his ears suddenly perked up at a sound coming from one of the boxes. It sounded like… breathing? The flying chinchilla looked around the pile of boxes before turning to the waddle dee. “Do you hear that?”

Bandana tilted his body and walked to the boxes as well in confusion. “Hear what?”

“It sounds like someone’s breathing…” Elfilin said, putting a paw on his chin as he continued looking around. “Is someone inside of these boxes?”

“Now that you said that…” Bandana Dee started looking around the boxes, starting to hear the sound. He started walking around slowly as the noise started getting louder, tensing up from the noise. He took out his spear and readied it as he looked around, Elfilin trailing behind him. “Stay close to me.”

“Uh… does he also store feral creatures here…?” The gemini whispered, a bit nervous due to the atmosphere.

Bandana answered uncertainly while whispering. “N-not that I know of…” He said before noticing a potential box with the source of the noise. He pointed the spear at the box and whispered. “I think I found it…” Elfilin gulped as the waddle dee slowly approached the cardboard box.

“B-be careful!” Elfilin whispered from a distance, floating upwards to get an upwards view of the box. Bandana Dee nodded as he got to the box. The waddle dee analyzed the box before he could hear the sound better.

It sounded like snoring. Someone was sleeping inside the box.

Curiosity overcame Bandana’s feeling of nervousness as he decided to hesitantly open the cardboard box. While peeking inside it, the blue chinchilla slowly approached the object as well to see what was inside it. “Huh!?” The waddle dee blurted out in surprise.

Inside, a pink creature with no arms was sleeping. They wore shoes, a bowtie, and a red and blue jester hat with white spots on it. Elfilin tilted his head, wasn’t that one of the creatures that was always sleeping? “Isn’t that… a noddy?”

Bandana slowly shook his head. “No… that’s not a noddy. Although his name is-”

Suddenly, the jester stopped snoring and opened his eyes, looking at both Elfilin and Bandana Dee. He started smiling as he spoke. “Oh lookie! What do we have here?” He jumped and landed beside the box, summoning a beach ball out of thin air for him to balance on. “Hey hey hey! If it isn’t my favorite waddle dee, long time no see buddy ! I thought that you left lil’ ol’ me since you and the rest of the buffoon gang disappeared out of thin air!”

The waddle dee sighed and holstered his spear. “Cut it out, Marx. I’m pretty sure the portals were the talk of Dreamland when they occurred.”

“Eh, whatevs.” The (not) noddy’s attention was then directed toward the blue and floating chinchilla. “Whoa, I didn’t know rats learned how to fly! Not counting the thief of course.” He giggled.

Elfilin replied a little annoyed. “Hey! I’m not a rat!” He released a huff, calming down a little. “My name is Elfilin, and yours is…”

The jester lifted a foot, still balancing in his ball. “Name’s Marx, just your lil’ friendly jester around Dreamland that loves to joke around with his friends!”

The gemini smiled. “Nice to meet you Marx, I hope we can be great frien-”

Suddenly, a crazed cackle left Marx’s mouth, his mouth changing into a wide grin as he laughed. After a moment, he started bouncing on his ball as he looked back at Elfilin. “You’re such a fool! I can’t believe you fell for it, I can already tell you’re gonna be one of those idiots that I will LOVE to mess with!” He stopped bouncing before his tone shifted into a menacing one as he approached the chinchilla. “What I am is a being of pure chaos and mischief, hehehehe!” 

As Elfilin shuddered in nervousness, the Bandana Dee got between the two of them and looked fiercely at Marx. “I said to cut it out, Marx.”

The jester rolled his eyes as he leaned back from the rodent. “You’re such a fun killer. It was just a teensy tiny bit of harmless teasing, of course.” He chuckled. “Now that you and the fun gang are back, where is Kirby? I can’t wait to release a nice dose of pure power at him again!”

The waddle dee sighed. “He’s missing and we’re currently looking for him. We are in Another Dimension.”

“WHAAAAAT!?” Marx suddenly spread golden wings with colored floating hexagons below the gold part, making Elfilin flinch in surprise. “Why did no one tell me earlier!?” He then flew out of the room calling out a name. “MAAAAAAGS!!!”

The blue chinchilla was with his eyes widened. What the heck was all of that? He looked back at the waddle dee and asked while stammering. “Wh- wha… is… is he normally like that?”

“Unfortunately…” He said with a huff.

In the control room of the ship, Magolor and Susie were managing the scans around the place before a scream from the hallway interrupted them. The door slid open, revealing a flying Marx that flew directly toward the egg-shaped mage, stopping in front of him. “MAGS! Why didn’t you tell me Kirby. Was. MISSING!?”

Susie facepalmed and muttered to herself. “For Nova’s sake, why is here…?”

Magolor rubbed the back of his head. “Whoops… I uh… forgot to tell you about that.” He then looked away and muttered. “And I forgot you were sleeping in my ship for today…”

“Doesn’t matter! I need him to pull one of my best pranks on him since I’ve been craving a good prank for ages since they were sucked into that portal!” He grabbed Magolor’s sides with his wing claws. “Where. Is. HE?!?! ”

Magolor just took the claws off of him. “We are currently looking for him, and we have suspicions he was kidnapped and taken to Another Dimension.”

“Where we are right now.” The president added before looking at her tablet, her tone changing. “We got a horde of Sphere Doomers headed our way!”

Magolor nodded before activating the microphone on the console. “Attention guys! We got a horde of troublemakers approaching. You guys head to the deck while me and Susie continuing to scan around!”

Marx giggled behind Magolor and started floating up. “Oh, this is gonna be a nice warmup before we eventually find that pink menace!” The jester vanished and appeared on the deck of the ship, looking back to see the visor of the vessel opening up. From the ship, came King Dedede, Meta Knight, Bandana Dee, and Elfilin. Marx grinned. “Took too long! If the enemies were already here, I would’ve already annihilated them!”

Dedede and Meta Knight flinched in surprise. “Marx!?” Meta Knight continued with a question. “What are you doing here!? How did you get here?”

“Was sleeping here, nothing much.” A screech made their attention be directed elsewhere, the horde of doomers getting even closer. “But for now, how about we focus on our new friends here?” Marx grinned as he inflated his cheeks before he shot out from his mouth a giant laser directed at the Doomers, making them spread.

“Get ready, gang!” Dedede said as he readied his hammer along with Bandana and Meta who readied their weapons.

Elfilin was a bit nervous, but he was gonna go through this no matter what. He had the power now, he trained for situations like this. He could do this, he could defend himself this time! 

When Kirby and Eliflin defeated Chaos Elfilis, the gemini got some of Elfilis’ powers along with some of their memories. Even though his powers are not at their full potential, he can still hold his weight in battle… hopefully. 

Steeling himself up, he focused his power and summoned a smaller version of Elfilis’ spear, although way shinier than the original one. 

“Since I’m the next best thing to the puffball, I think I’m allowed to say it,” Dedede said before lifting his hammer. “Let’s go Star Allies!” Everyone lifted their weapons and with that, the battle started. 

The group split off, charging at different groups of Doomers. Bandana Dee focused on a group of two fire and electric Doomers, the latter starting to launch balls of electricity at the waddle dee. He dodged the balls of lighting and ran up to them, jumping and repeatedly jabbing one of the green avians. After finishing, he used the Doomer as a platform and jumped from it before exploding into a puff of smoke, making a downward trust at the other electric Doomer.

After said avian exploded, Bandana landed on solid ground and rapidly blocked against fireballs shot by the two fire Doomers. After some seconds of guarding against the fire, he slashed the two fireballs away and summoned another spear out of thin air on his nub. The waddle dee then threw the two spears at the two doomers, making a direct hit on the two before both of them burst into smoke. “Yeah, I got it!”

Meta Knight flapped his wings, flying into a group of fire and ice Doomers. He started slashing the Galaxia in the air, sending blue slash waves at the Doomers as they responded with fire and ice balls that clashed against the waves. The fire avians covered themselves in fire and started spinning, charging at the masked knight. He huffed before making Shuttle Loop and flying towards the attack, winning the clash as he slashed the three fire doomers in a flash. The three Doomers then exploded in a puff of smoke.

The knight landed on the ground and looked back at three gray avians who started throwing ice shards at the knight. However, Meta lifted a glove and the projectiles stopped in midair, aiming back at them. The ice shards then flew back to their respective doomers and impaled them before they combusted into smoke. 

King Dedede was using his infamous Super Dedede Jump, slamming some purple Doomers with his weight as he landed back down. “Heh! It’s nice to be back into action!” He then looked at some blue Doomers charging at him, shooting water projectiles at the penguin. The king grinned and started spinning along with his hammer, deflecting the water projectiles before hitting the spherical avians themselves and knocking them far away.

After spinning, Dedede looked at three more purple Doomers around him, grouping up together before charging at the king. He smiled before readying his hammer as he began focusing, building up strength on his hammer. As they got close enough, King Dedede swung his hammer hard , launching the Sphere Doomers away before they exploded into a puff of smoke. “Alright!”

Meanwhile, Elfilin was dealing with his own set of enemies. There were four elemental Doomers he was fighting: fire, ice, electric, and water. At the same time, the doomers released their projectiles at the chinchilla. He opened up a small star-shaped portal in front of him, making the elemental balls go into it before opening another portal behind the avians and releasing their projectiles against them. The avians exploded in a puff of smoke and Elfilin smiled. “Yes!”

The gemini’s ear twitched and he turned to see four more Doomers (this time being purple ones) charging at him. Elfilin flinched and vanished into a portal before the spherical avians could get a hit on the floating rodent. The doomers stopped and started looking around, confused. Elfilin then emerged from another portal behind them and lifted his spear in the air, summoning spear-shaped energy projectiles beside him. He raised the spear even higher and the energy spears were launched at the Doomers, stabbing them and making them explode into smoke. “I… I did it!”

A maniacal cackle made Elfilin’s attention be directed to it. He could see Marx teleporting around a group of Doomers while making a creepy face, making them confused and a bit scared. “Aww, what’s the matter? Can’t keep up!?” He laughed as he continued to teleport like crazy before appearing in the eyesight of a single gray Doomer. “PEEK-A-BOO! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” His laugh started becoming distorted as his body suddenly split itself in two, making Elfilin, who was watching the scene, flinch in horror. In the crevice where was once Marx’s body, a blackhole appeared, sucking the spherical, and winged creatures whole, not leaving a single trace of them.

The vortex disappeared before Marx’s body glued itself together, humming. “That right in the spot!” He looked to the side to see another group of Doomers heading his way, charging at him. He grinned maniacally before flying straight to them, shooting lightning-coated arrows from the hexagons of his wings, piercing the Doomers and making them disappear with a puff of smoke. “Hehehe, I should come here more often! This place is so much fun!”

As the rest of the enemies were retreating, Elfilin flew towards Meta Knight and asked. “Um… do you have to deal with that every time he’s around…?”

Meta Knight sighed as he holstered his sword. “Sometimes…”

The fighters grouped up and King Dedede spoke. “We did it guys! That was a well-fought battle!” The others nodded.

Marx added as he dissipated his wings before he landed. “Man, I could be doing that ALL day!”

Bandana Dee sighed before looking at Marx unamused. “We definitely know you could do that…” He then perked up as he looked at Elfilin. “But hey, for your first standalone fight, you did well!”

Elfilin blushed a little bit and looked away, rubbing the back of his head. “T-thanks…!”

Suddenly, Magolor’s voice could be heard from a speaker. “Nice job in defeating those pesky Doomers, guys! Even though we could use a small celebration for such a feat, we have some urgent news! Come to the control room, me and Susie found something that might be a clue we need to find Kirby!”

Bandana tilted his body in confusion. “Really? A clue? What could that be?”

Marx rolled his eyes. “Don’t just stand there pondering what that could be. Better to just go and see it for yourself!” He opened his wings again. “After all, I want Kirby back as fast as possible, so see ya there!” 

After Marx teleported away, King Dedede huffed in annoyance. “Well… he’s right for once. Let’s go see what this is.”

The others nodded and went back inside the ship. They wondered what kind of clue Magolor was talking about, would it be something small and not helpful? They hoped that wasn’t the case.

After reaching the control room, they saw that Marx was already there, balancing on a beach ball. Magolor turned to them and clasped his hands. “Ah, you’re here, wonderful!”

Dedede stepped up to them and asked, putting his hands on his sides. “So what’s the situation here?”

Susie turned to them and flipped her head. “I’ll go straight to the point. While scanning around the place, we found energy readings near our current location.” She tapped on her tablet as she spoke. “When we focused our scans on said place, we found traces of a portal that opened and closed recently.” 

“Remind me again, when was Kirby last seen?” Magolor asked, putting a hand over his mouth.

Bandana answered. “I last saw him almost three days ago.” He then tilted his body. “Why do you ask?”

The president explained while looking at them again. “Because, funnily enough, the energy readings that we saw are still fresh, and our sources deduce that the portal opened about two to three days ago.”

The Star Allies looked in shock at each other before Elfilin asked. “Wait… doesn’t that mean?”

“Yep!” Marx said while smiling, starting to bounce on his ball. “Put one on one together and you realize that Kirby is not even Another Dimension anymore since the kidnapper I was told about probably thought it was a wonderful idea to take Kirby somewhere else!”

“Wait, if he’s not in Another Dimension, then where does that portal lead to?” Meta Knight asked after stepping up to them.

“Due to the incredible tech of the Lor Starcutter, we can confirm that Kirby is in another world entirely.” Magolor said, making the Star Allies’ eyes widen in shock. “Although… there is no information or recorded history about that world.”

“That means it’s a new world that just appeared on our radar.” Susie confirmed before putting away her tablet. “And it’s because of that we must prepare first before entering that place.”

King Dedede made a thinking face before asking the mage. “Magolor, can the Lor open portals that were previously closed?”

“Why of course it can!” Magolor beamed before patting the console. “This baby can do anything portal-related, even open portals previously closed by another.”

The penguin nodded. “Alright then.” He then started speaking to everyone currently in the room. “Star Allies, we are going to enter a potentially dangerous world to save our friend and leader, Kirby. But to enter such a mysterious world, we need to be prepared for anything, that’s why we will prepare today and depart tomorrow. Are you with me, Star Allies?” He asked while raising his hand.

Everyone raised their nubs/hands/paws/claws, some more enthusiastically than others. Dedede went back to Elfilin, Bandana, and Meta Knight while Magolor and Susie started to manage the ship meanwhile Marx teleported away, muttering something about sleep. Bandana Dee said with glee. “That was an awesome speech, sir! You’re getting better at it!”

Dedede rubbed the back of his head. “Thanks, Bandan! Although, I could’ve done it a bit better.”

Meta Knight nodded. “It is as they say. “ Practice makes perfect. ” You will be speaking like a king one day.”

“I can’t wait to see it!” Elfilin added. “And I’m sure Kirby would love to see it as well!”

The penguin blushed. “Thanks, y’all.” He then put his hands on his side. “But anyways, let’s go back to Dreamland for now. We have much to prepare.”

They nodded before the Lor turned around and made another star-shaped portal, leaving Another Dimension completely.

However, as they left, a black mass of energy saw them leave. “Who was that group? And why they were investigating that world? Do they… no, I cannot allow any interlopers to intrude on my plans.” The mass of energy opened many eyes, each displaying a different color. “I shall strike them down before they can do anything against me. That world shall be mine!”