//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Through the Tunnel 
// Story: A New Generation in the Forgotten Land 
// by The Kelduo 
//------------------------------//

We returned to the ruined town to find that it had changed a lot since we first visited it. Most of the debris was cleaned up, and some areas were blocked off for some kind of construction. In fact, five of the six saved Waddle Dees that had already been taken to the town prior to our return were already hard at work building on the remains of the town.

"Wow, Waddle Dees sure are good workers!" Izzy pointed at an already completed building, which looked like a movie theater judging from the camera symbol and lights on it. "And it looks like they've got their priorities straight too!"

"Poyo...?" I deadpanned as we set foot in the town. I may be young and love to have fun, but did the first thing to build really have to be a cinema?

"Why the confused face, Kirby?" one of the three newly rescued Waddle Dees asked. "I can see why they built that place first. Cinemas and the movies played within them are a valuable source of inspiration for those of all ages! And even though we Waddle Dees can keep going for a long time, we're still living creatures and need to take a break every once in a while, and watching a film is a good way to relax after hours of working hard to renovate a place like this, isn't it?"

"It most certainly is!" Wise Waddle Dee approached us from one of the construction zones. He was holding a blue paper with something drawn on it, probably a blueprint for a building. "And that isn't all. Since an Equestrian is here in this new place as well as us, a unanimous vote decided that this was also the perfect opportunity to teach, err..." He scratched his head. "Apologies, but I do not recall hearing your name, miss."

"I'm Izzy Moonbow!" Izzy replied.

"Okay, thank you! Anyway, this was the perfect opportunity to teach Izzy more about you and your past adventures, Kirby! The wide screen of the cinema coupled with the surround sound and vibrating seats should appeal to your fine young equine friend."

"Really? You made the cinema for me?!" She galloped towards the cinema. "Well, someone fetch the popcorn, because it's showtime!"

A Waddle Dee wearing an usher cap exited the cinema and stopped Izzy. "Not quite. We only just finished this place. There's still plenty that needs to be done in here, such as setting up the camera and renovating the theater room, but don't worry! Waddle Dees do their best work together, so keep on saving Waddle Dees and the cinema will be done in no time!"

Izzy saluted. "Yes sir, Mr. Usher Waddle Dee sir!"

Plop! Plop! Right nearby, two Waddle Dees fell over.

The Usher Waddle Dee sighed. "And please don't be so adorable like that in front of my future customers. Your sweetness is too much, and I don't want them dying of diabetes." Then he walked back inside.

Izzy looked at the two fainted Waddle Dees. "Will they be okay?"

Bandana nodded. "Waddle Dees can be knocked out pretty easily, but they recover quickly. That kind of resilience is one of the reasons why Waddle Dees make up the majority of King Dedede's army." He helped the two Dees get back up. "Though, I think I'm going to stay here in this little Waddle Dee Town. We need someone to protect these poor guys in case those beasts attack again."

"Good idea, Bandana Dee. In that case, see you later!" Elfilin hopped on the Warp Star again, and I boarded it right after.

Gim and Izzy followed us back into the skies and to the next area.



We landed the Warp Star at the mouth of some kind of construction tunnel, which was being guarded by some Cappies, a Kabu, and another creature I was familiar with. It was an orange creature with a big round mouth, two feet, and a fiery head; a Hot Head.

Thinking it could be useful for lighting up the tunnel, I dropped my Sword Ability and swallowed the Hot Head after avoiding a fireball he shot from his mouth, gaining a crown of flames with a blue jewel on it. Ahh, another old favorite Ability of mine, Fire...

"Hey, Kirby?" Izzy walked up to me from the Cappy furthest from the construction tunnel. "Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?"

A glow near her tail caught my attention, and it took a moment for me to register that the tip of her tail was ablaze.

Gim lifted Izzy's tail and showed it to her. "In a way, the answer is both."

"Oh, thanks!" Izzy stomped out the fire on her tail before taking a moment to sniff at the smoke coming off of it. "And it smells minty, too! Who knew my tail smelled so good when it's on fire?"

"Fire's good for all sorts of things, not just cooking and enhancing the scent of things." Gim pointed at a yellow lantern further into the tunnel, situated next to a Waddle Dee who was trying to light it by rubbing two sticks together. "Lamp oil, rope, bombs... You name it, fire can light it, my friend!"

"Poyo?" I haven't seen a lantern in any of my adventures, and this one stood out. It seemed like something would happen if it was lit up, so I walked over and ignited the oil in the lantern. Lighting it spawned a trail of Star Coins leading to a Bomb Block near a wall of metal blocks.

The Waddle Dee shook my hand. "Thank you so much, Kirby! This tunnel is too dark for visitors, so I've been trying to light up the lanterns in here. I didn't bother asking the Hot Heads for help, though, because I'd get my butt handed to me. They're a hot tempered sort, as you'd expect."

"We can take care of the rest of the lanterns," Izzy replied. "How many more are there in this place?"

"You're too kind, miss! From where I've been able to go from here, there are three more lanterns that need to be lit up. Good luck finding them and making your way through here!"

"Alright, bye!" The Waddle Dee rode away on my Warp Star, and we continued onward.

A pink spring creature called a Bouncy guarded a ladder leading onward, and Izzy cleverly used a flat shield to press down hard on the Bouncy's head, before letting go and causing it to spring high into the ceiling. Good old slapstick.

Before climbing, Izzy bucked the Bomb Block, destroying the wall of metal blocks and revealing a small pile of Star Coins. Then we climbed the ladder and crawled into a smaller pipe, traversing it and exiting in a longer, narrow area with a Hot Head and some Bronto Burts patrolling metal platforms over bottomless pits. I know they're bottomless because not even a fireball could reach far enough to light up the very bottom. We could go the safe route and take the concrete path along the walls, but Gim and I chose to jump across the metal platforms and collect the Star Coins on them while Izzy kept her footing on the concrete.

"Oh! Over here!" Gim jumped onto the concrete path where it crossed over to the right wall, then he jumped again past another fox enemy and over to a metal platform on the left side of the path. Once there, he tapped the water silo stationed in the middle of the platform. "This is just the kind of water tank I was talking about back in the Downtown Grasslands!"

"Poyo?" I made my way over to the water tank, and it gave off weird colors just like the other objects that I gained Mouthful Modes from. When I inhaled, though, it didn't budge. Instead, I latched onto the top half of it.





"Mmm...!" With all my might, I twisted and turned, the lid twisting with me. After a few seconds, it popped off, and I spat it out to see what the dome was hiding.

A blue switch.

After eyeing another wall of metal blocks, Gim gave Izzy the go-ahead. She pressed the switch, and the metal blocks were destroyed, revealing a secret room.

"I'll check it out!" Izzy went inside the room.

She returned with two Waddle Dees and four fox enemies chasing them.

After we dispatched them, Izzy looked at them in curiosity. "You know, we never did learn what they're called."

Gim put a hand on his forehead. "Oh man, thanks for reminding me! I forgot to access my New Creature Name folder!" His eyes glowed for a brief moment. "Got it!" He pointed at one of the foxes. "That fox creature is called an Awoofy."

"Awoofy?" Izzy let out a squee. "That's such an adorable name for an adorable creature!"

"It is indeed! And the rabbit and bull creatures we found back in the Downtown Grasslands? The singular form of their names are Rabiroo and Buffahorn respectively. Don't worry about the names of those turtle things that need Cone Mouth to defeat, though. I don't think we'll be seeing more of them until we find another cone nearby."

The two Waddle Dees rode Izzy as we jumped ahead to the mouth of another construction pipe and entered it. We emerged in a small grassy area with sunlight coming down from an opening in the ceiling.

The Waddle Dees took the opportunity to ride my Warp Star out through said opening while Gim dispatched a Kabu on a metal bridge and Izzy collected a pile of Star Coins on a small platform. At the end of the grassy area was a dark doorway with three light–up yellow stars above it.

"So there are Star Doors in this new world too?" Izzy noted.

I looked at her in surprise. "Poyo?"

Gim explained, "I hung onto Button Mash's game consoles and video games after he, err... left Equestria. I used the ‘Kirbay’ games to teach Izzy and the other friends I made there about you and your world."

"Ah, poyo."

"And that's how I know there's probably no going back if we go through here." Izzy turned to my robot buddy. "Gim, are we missing anything?"

"Nope, I scanned the area, and we're good. Let's move onward!" So we all entered the door.



This next area led to the right, towards platforms that moved up and down. I lit up another lantern hiding behind two caution fences on our left, and it spawned Star Coins in the formation of an arrow that pointed further ahead. Really unnecessary, but we were still happy to have some more Star Coins to collect.

Izzy and I stepped onto the first moving platform, and it lifted us up to three Star Coins near a long, black, spiky bar with eyes. It reminded me of a Gordo, but long, so I chose to call it a Gordo Bar.

Izzy carefully tapped on a part of the Gordo Bar that didn't have a spike on it. It made a sound like metal. "Clang clang? That sounds like something that you can't hurt, so I'm leaving this guy alone."

"Poyo!" Smart pony. Gordos are invincible to all attacks, so she made the right choice.

Letting the lift take us back down, we took down a couple of Hot Heads in front of another lift with Star Coins and a Gordo Bar. After passing it, we encountered a Cappy near a yellow gate protecting a Gotcha Capsule.

"Oh yeah, the Gotcha Capsules!" Gim exclaimed as he ignited a nearby Lantern Switch, which sadly didn't make the gate open. Instead, it spawned Star Coins leading up the wall near the gate. "We shoulda showed the Waddle Dees the ones we found in the Downtown Grassland!"

Elfilin tapped my shoulder. "Hey, are those Gotcha Capsules still in your stomach dimension? Maybe you can send them from there to Waddle Dee Town!"

Izzy turned and gawked at me as she climbed up the wall. "No way! First you can eat people to get their powers, then you can whoop a changeling queen's tail like no pony's business, now you can teleport things from your belly?! You're a whole bundle of surprises!"

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly from her praise. "Hehe..." Teleporting stuff from my belly is definitely layman's terms. Really, my stomach is just connected to the universe because I was born from the god that created said universe, and so I can just deposit things I've swallowed back into the universe. It's a one-way trip, though, so I can't warp stuff back in my belly.

Click!

I heard the sound of Izzy pressing a switch, and the yellow gate lifted. I inhaled the freed Gotcha Capsule and used my powers to send it back to Waddle Dee Town with the other capsules.

Once Izzy got back down, we rode up two more moving platforms to a place with three Awoofies that tried to get the jump on us, but too bad for them, they're as weak as most Waddle Dees. After enjoying some nearby eggs and ham, we rode another pair of moving platforms up to a fourth lantern, which was being guarded by three of the ball Gordos that I'm used to seeing.

"Wait..." Izzy put a hoof up to her ear. "Do you hear that?"

After lighting the lantern which spawned Star Coins leading up the wall beside the yellow Star Door further ahead and into a vent, I stopped and listened as well.

"Wa–wa! Wa–wa!"

"Sounds like a Waddle Dee!" Gim walked over to a wall corner made of metal blocks. "And... It's coming from behind here. Kirby, go follow those Star Coins and see if they lead to a way to get rid of these blocks!"

"Poyo!" I jumped up and climbed into the vent, which was barely big enough for me to fit through. As I walked through, I heard Gim and Izzy chatting to each other.

"How do you know that's a Waddle Dee, Gim? I thought Waddle Dees actually talked instead of making whatever that sound is."

"Well, they do both. Waddle Dees sound like they're going ‘Wa–wa! Wa–wa!’ but that's just what they happen to sound like. They actually do talk, but it just comes out high-pitched and squeaky like that."

"Oh, that makes sense."

The vent led me to a Bomb Block above the metal blocks. I hit it, causing the metal blocks to break apart. When I jumped down, I saw that they were hiding a Waddle Dee holding a triangular ball of rice with some seaweed on it.

"Oh, thank goodness!" the Waddle Dee said. "I was getting hungry but I wanted to save this jelly donut for whoever inevitably saved me." He held it out to show us. "So... You want it?"

"Donuts? I love donuts!" Izzy eagerly took the food from the Waddle Dee.

Gim raised a finger in confusion. "Uh, did you say jelly donut? I don't think that's—"

But Izzy had already stuffed the rice ball in her mouth and was gingerly chewing it as Gim tried to speak his mind... Or should I say hard drive?

"...Hm?" Izzy furrowed her eyebrows as her chewing slowed down. "This is a lot different from the donuts I'm used to... I thought donuts were really sweet, but this one's salty and a bit smoky."

I did a facepalm. "Poyo..." I deadpanned at the Waddle Dee.

"What?" he asked, genuinely puzzled. "Did it go stale?"

"Waddle Dee..." Gim slapped the Waddle Dee across the face. "What dingbat told you that rice balls were jelly donuts?"

The Waddle Dee stepped back in shock. "That was a rice ball?! I knew there was something up with that Rock–type expert on that show with the creatures that go into red and white orbs..."

"Oh, you got that misconception from Brock. That makes more sense." Gim called a Warp Star that the Waddle Dee jumped on and rode back to town. "English localizations, am I right?"

Izzy swallowed the rest of the rice ball. "Mm, yeah. There's a bunch of games and movies that have differences depending on where in Equestria they're made. But really, rice balls being called jelly donuts in Ponish?" She giggled. "Whoever decided that needs to either be fired or promoted!"

We all laughed at that before heading through the Star Door.



Now we were in a long corridor, with a Hot Head not far ahead. It shot a fireball at Izzy, but she deflected it with a magical barrier...

Right towards the splayed end of a long rope leading along the path.

"Oh dang, a fuse!" Gim warned. "C'mon, someone needs to beat it to the cannon!"

"Already getting to the race–against–time stuff? This came faster than I—" Izzy was cut off when the Hot Head roasted her face. She responded by blocking its mouth with a chunk of concrete. "Hey, didn't anyone tell you it's rude to interrupt others when they're talking?"

"Enough yapping, the fuse's already halfway to the cannon!" Gim activated Bluster Mode and picked me up. "Kirby, time for the ol' Fastball Special!"

In one quick motion, Gim hurled me ahead of the fuse and straight into the mouth of the large cannon connected to the fuse. I rolled backwards so that my head was facing out of the cannon, and the sizzling of the fuse stopped.

BLAM!

The cannon fired me straight up, and I careened into a big metal block, breaking through it with the destructive power of the cannon blast. I continued flying upward until I hit the ceiling, at which point I fell and grabbed the bottom edge of a sewage pipe the metal block was obstructing.

"I gotcha, Kirby!" The warm aura of Izzy's magic pushed my feet up, and I was able to climb into the pipe without much trouble.

I left the pipe the way I came, a Waddle Dee hanging onto my feet as I floated back down.

"Trapping a Dee in a sewage pipe?" The Waddle Dee groaned. "That's just mean!"

He flew off on my Warp Star, and we crossed a bridge with a single Awoofy at the end, who intended to knock us off but suffered that exact fate. Hopefully he landed on something soft...



Another Star Door later, and we emerged in an area that was being bathed in sunlight, which was a nice break from the gloomy darkness of the tunnel. We scaled a concrete and a metal platform, taking care of the Kabu on the latter before reaching a bigger concrete platform with a large brown Kabu on it that looked like a rook in chess. It was obviously bulkier than most Kabu, but nothing that more fire and unicorn lasers couldn't handle.

The path bent right, so we dropped down and followed it that way, when my mouthful senses started tingling again.

There weren't any big objects around to inhale... Except for a huge set of scaffold stairs.

"Poyo..." I took a step back. I may be the child of a god, but I still have my limits, and inhaling a set of stairs has got to be past my limits...

"What's wrong, Kirby?" Izzy asked. "Are you afraid of those stairs? They're not gonna eat you, silly!"

I shook my head, anxiously watching the weird swirling colors around the stairs.

Elfilin eyed the stairs too before watching my bewildered expression. "Kirby... Are you thinking that it's too much for you to inhale those stairs?"

I reluctantly nodded.

"Come on, Kirby!" Izzy nudged me forward. "If you can defeat your father who's a god, you can totally inhale some stairs! I know you can do it!"

"Po... Poyo!" With a friendly reminder that I took down my own father, how could I not at the very least try to pull this off?

So, with a determined look in my eyes, I inhaled as hard as I could.

And somehow, I managed to fit the entire set of stairs into my mouth.





The flatness of the stairs meant that I could only see forward, not to my sides, so I was surprised when I felt Gim pat my side. "See, we knew you could do it!" He and Izzy used the shape of the stairs to climb onto the top of my head. "Now let's see what these stairs can be used for!"

"Mhm!" Slowly but surely, I waddled ahead as Gim and Izzy grabbed some Star Coins in our path. I reached a wall, so I awkwardly shuffled to my right to continue ahead, but I was met with a wall of metal blocks. "Hmm..." Was I supposed to spit out the stairs already, or...?

"I've got this! Gim, get down to the middle step!"

As Izzy and Gim took a step down on my back, I felt something flat slide underneath my butt. Before I was able to wonder what was happening...

WHAM!

I got flipped forward, breaking the metal blocks as I fell on my face. "Mmm..." Growling, I managed to get myself back upright before attempting to glare at Izzy.

"I know that's pretty much the only way a set of stairs could attack, but you could've at least warned us before flipping Kirby," Gim berated.

"Sorry..." Izzy replied sheepishly.

Just a few feet further, four Kabus came our way. As with the metal blocks, I flipped forward and buried them into the ground, and three Awoofies to our right met the same fate when I fell on my right side. Next, I fell left to break a cracked wall, so we could net some Star Coins in the shape of the stairs. There wasn't anything else important there, so we went on ahead and to the right, almost bumping into a big Kabu only for Izzy to throw it behind us with her magic.

We came upon a wall that lined up with the top of the stairs, and on the wall was a Bomb Block connected to a wall of metal blocks. I put the stairs against the wall, and Izzy climbed up onto it to break the Bomb Block and grab some Star Coins and a Gotcha Capsule. After that, we crushed a Bouncy and some more metal blocks in our way before burying three more Awoofies waiting to attack us.

As I got back upright, the sound of the stairs falling caught the attention of a Waddle Dee to our left, who had been using a caution fence to try and reach some kind of poster that had a painting of me on it crossed out in purple paint.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "I knew you were big, Kirby, but not literally! Really let yourself go, huh?"

"Nah, he just went a little overboard while teething," Izzy quipped. "And it worked out in his favor!"

"A power where Kirby shoves big stuff in his mouth? Weird, but pretty cool." The Waddle Dee motioned for me to come over. "Say, could you help me reach that Wanted poster up there? It's having a bad influence on the furry beasts, I think."

"Mhm!" I waddled over in front of the caution fence, and the Waddle Dee hopped up me to tear down the poster before using my Fire crown to burn it to ashes.

"Thanks! I'd better be going so I can meet up with the others." Like the rest of the Dees, this one rode my Warp Star back to Waddle Dee Town.

After seeing him off, we encountered a winding fuse that led to a cannon on top of another wall. "I'll volunteer this time!" Gim jumped from my head into the cannon and switched to Sizzle Mode to light the fuse with his yoyo from afar. "Be sure not to stand on the fuse, or it'll go out!"

Seeing a wall with a ladder up ahead, I spat out the stairs away from the fuse. "Poyo!" I ran ahead with Izzy to climb the ladder as Gim blasted out of the cannon. On top of the wall was a Sir Kibble guarding another pipe, and we took him down before waiting for Gim, who dropped down from another ladder with a Waddle Dee in tow.

Once we reached the end of the pipe, we found ourselves out of the tunnel and in a bright, grassy clearing that held a sleeping Awoofy, a Blade Knight, and three Waddle Dees in a golden cage.

"Sir Kirby," the Blade Knight said while saluting, "I see you have a newcomer travelling with you. Like many others before me, I have been forced by the beasts to stop you from rescuing the Waddle Dees and advancing through the new world. But I know my limits, and so, you are not allowed to pass until I test only her mettle."

"Poyo." With a nod, I nudged Izzy forward. "Izzy, en garde!"

"No need to say it twice!" Izzy readied herself to battle the Blade Knight, and vice versa.

They both stared intensely at each other, looking like snakes about to strike. They kept staring, staring, staring... It felt like a wild west scene, where the two gunmen would glare at each other for what seemed like hours...

Izzy made the first move.

She pulled her lower eyelids and stuck her tongue out. "Blblblblblblbl!"

This caught the Blade Knight so off guard that he couldn't help but snicker. "Pfft, what—"

Izzy took the opportunity to fire a laser... at the gold cage. It bounced off of it and struck the Blade Knight in the back. She then grabbed his sword and hit his head with the hilt, knocking him out.

"I win!"

At last, we rescued the Waddle Dees and took to the skies again.



Izzy used her magic to teleport the Waddle Dees back to town, and we began searching for the next area to land in, when Gim held his hand out abruptly.

"Hold on, guys! My sensors are alerting me to a number of anomalies in the vicinity."

"What kind of nominees?" Izzy asked.

"I'm talking anomalies in the spacetime continuum. In other words, portals to an alternate dimension have appeared!"

"Poyo...?" Another dimension, huh? Nothing new to me, but Izzy had stars in her eyes.

"Ooh, we can go to other dimensions? That sounds so fun!" Izzy gave me puppy dog eyes. "Can we go into these portals? Can we? Please?"

"Hmm..." I thought for a while. Most of my adventures take me through around six or seven major areas, and we were only about halfway through this first area, the plains. We needed to pick up the pace, and optional portal adventures would only slow us down, so I shook my head. "Poyo..."

Gim nodded. "Kirby's right. We need to stay on track and keep saving the Waddle Dees as we explore this new world. But still... There could be something valuable in those portals. We could use a little help if we want to find out what's in there while also making haste."

"Help? ...Poyo!" And I knew just who to call on. Taking out my Cell Phone, I called a good friend of mine.

He picked up. "Poyo?"

"Poyo! Shadow!"

"Kirby! Poyo poyo?"

"Poyo poyo? Poyo poyo poyo."

"Poyo! Poyo poyo?"

"Eep! Hmm... Pop Star, portal?"

"Poyo! Bye!"

"Arigato! Bye!"

I hung up and started driving the Warp Star to the next part of the grasslands filled with Waddle Dees... before realizing I still needed to drop off the ones already on my Warp Star. It was a long way, though, and it'd get tiring going back to the Waddle Dee Town after saving every golden cage of Waddle Dees, so I transported them the easier way...

I inhaled them and sent them there via my stomach dimension.