//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: The Brawl at the Mall 
// Story: A New Generation in the Forgotten Land 
// by The Kelduo 
//------------------------------//

Riding further north, we came to another mall district. While we could just fly straight into the central lot and rush into battle against the high–ranked member of the Beast Pack headfirst, Barry had the right idea. So as we approached, we kept the Warp Star low to the ground to keep from being spotted, then we landed in front of a side entrance to the mall. Barry was also right about the entrance; it was shut behind a pair of stone gates with a purple paw print painted on them, which were also barricaded by crossbones and purple chains attached to stone spires to each side of the gates.

"Looks like someone spent all their money on defending this specific spot." Izzy grinned at us. "But as any tower defense player should know, even the strongest defenses have flaws. They're not gonna be happy after they find out all their hard work was for nothing!"

"But how are we going to get past these gates without attracting any unwanted attention?" Elfilin felt the cold metal of the chains. "If these fall and hit the ground, no doubt they'll make enough noise to grab the attention of the animals here."

Before I could think about that, suddenly something bonked me on the head. I looked and saw Bandana Dee sitting on the ground next to me, rubbing his head. "Oof! Sorry, Kirby!"

"Bandana Waddle Dee?" Elfilin asked. "How did you—"

Gim pointed up at the sky. "More Waddle Dees incoming!"

We looked up, and discovered that a bunch of Waddle Dees were appearing out of thin air one by one, and we dodged them as they each fell from several feet above the ground, landing with a plop.

"Hi, Bandana Dee!" Izzy helped Bandana onto his feet. "What're you and these other Waddle Dees doing here?"

"Glad you're doing alright, Izzy! As for us, this Bronto Burt named Barry appeared in Waddle Dee Town and let us know that you needed to sneak in somewhere. Then Shadow Kirby inhaled us to bring us here, so we could take care of this blockade you're up against." Bandana Dee walked up to the gate. "Hmm... Yep, looks like we'd better be careful getting this open, guys."

"You need help?" Izzy walked up to Bandana. "We might be able to lend a helping hoof."

"Thanks, but the Waddle Dees really want to pay you back for saving them. They also want to prove that we aren't just adorable orange creatures that go down in one good hit. So without further ado..." Bandana Dee faced his brethren. "I need eight of you to go to the left side of the gates and eight to go to the right side. Get ready to catch the chains and bones when I break the former. As for the one remaining Waddle Dee, give me a boost so I can reach the place where the chains intersect."

"Yes, sir!" The seventeen normal Waddle Dees got into position, and Bandana got onto the head of the Waddle Dee in the center.

He took out his spear and held it near the spearhead, pressing the point to one of the chain links in the middle of the gate. Carefully, he engraved a small X in the chain link with his spear. "Gim, give me some heat!"

"Copy that!" Gim switched his yoyo to Sizzle Mode, and he brushed it against the point of Bandana's spear, lighting it ablaze.

"Get ready, Dees..." Bandana Dee pushed his flaming spear into the X on the chain link, and it began glowing with heat. It slowly started to melt as Bandana pushed the spear through. As the chain melted from the intense heat, Bandana turned to his brethren. "And, now!"

The chains came apart, and the Waddle Dees caught them and the bones before they hit the ground.

"That's it! Next, move them out of the way so we can pull the gates open."

The Waddle Dees carefully carried the chains and bones away from the gates and put them down. Then Bandana Dee used his spear as a crowbar to pry the gates open, as well as the automatic sliding glass door to the mall itself.

"Great job, everyone!" Bandana Dee nodded at me. "You're good to go, Kirby. Show them what for! ...After taking us back to town, of course."

So I opened my mouth, and the Waddle Dees jumped in one at a time to return to Waddle Dee Town. However, as they went inside, a pair of Awoofies came to the entrance and saw the Waddle Dees all going into my mouth.

We exchanged a very long and awkward stare.

One of them was terrified of how much I could eat at a time and made the right choice by taking off, but the other Awoofy was curious, looking at me as if I was one of those tiny clown cars that hold a bunch of clowns, which is a look I've gotten more times than I can count from people who aren't native to the Dream Universe. After the last Waddle Dee entered my gullet, the Awoofy walked over and took a peek inside.

You know the saying "curiosity killed the cat"? Well, in this case, curiosity caused the Awoofy to get swallowed.

As we went into the mall and approached what looked like the lobby, Elfilin asked, "How did those Awoofies know we were there? The Waddle Dees handled the chains and gates quietly enough to not make much noise."

Gim glanced back at the door, which slowly creaked shut. "Maybe because the open door caused wind to blow in here."

Izzy nodded. "Yeah, I can see why that'd get their attention. We ponies have a really sensitive coat of fur, so I'd imagine Awoofies probably have a good sense of touch as well."

We went up the central escalators, but as we reached the top, a big shadow passed on our left, and through the glass wall we briefly saw something big and gray drop down in the distance.

"Whoa!" I looked at Elfilin with a serious face. "Poyo, poyo?"

Elfilin nodded. "Yep, I think that might be one of the higher–ranked Beast Pack members. Only a few of the animals here are that big, and they're by far the most dangerous when it comes to fighting them."

"Oh yeah?" Gim twirled his yoyo on his finger. "Well then, leave it to us to be the judge of that!"

We turned right at the top of the escalators, but before we made another right turn at the end, Izzy looked left and saw a not–so–hidden stash of food. To be precise, bananas.

"So..." Gim stared at the huge pile of bananas. "Primate?"

Elfilin nodded again. "Most likely. There's only one big animal in this world that loves bananas this much, and he wouldn't be too happy if we stole his stash. He goes by Gorimondo."

Even though Elfilin warned that it was best not to steal from the pile of bananas, Izzy took one anyway. "Ohh, banana!" she chanted, getting a small laugh out of us.

"Wha—But, I just said not to take his bananas!" Elfilin exclaimed, dumbfounded.

Izzy shrugged. "What? It's just one little banana. You really think such a big monkey would notice or care?"

Elfilin glared at Izzy as we walked past some closed shops and a display case, and turned left past the bathrooms. "Probably not, but he'd definitely care about what you call him. There's a big difference between monkeys and apes!"

"And that is?"

Before Elfilin could answer, a group of four Waddle Dees beckoned us over as we entered the cafeteria. "Kirby! Kirby's friends! Over here!"

We walked over to the window they were crouching under, and we followed suit.

The four Waddle Dees, which were each dressed up in green outfits, saluted. "Green Squad of the Fort Dees, reporting for duty."

I tilted my head. "Fort Dees?"

The Waddle Dee clad in a green ski mask answered, "You don't know? King Dedede's wised up about the weakness of his army after the recent attacks by villains such as Taranza and the Haltmann Works Company, so he decided to put several of his Waddle Dee troops through special training so that they can hold their own against at least the weaker enemies that come their way. The training was enough for them to become the highest–ranked Waddle Dees below the legendary Bandana Dee. After that, the king chose to differentiate these troops from other Waddle Dees mostly using costumes that he took straight from a video game because he's entirely unoriginal. Hence, the Fortress Dees were born, or Fort Dees for short. They're called that because each group of nine Waddle Dees is assigned to guard one of King Dedede's fortresses throughout Pop Star, unless he says otherwise or an unnatural disaster like those portals forces us away from our posts. I'm the Green Spy, by the way. Speaking of..." He nudged the other three Waddle Dees. "Gentlemen, please introduce yourselves to these heroes."

"Got it!" The Waddle Dee with a green blacksmith's helmet and goggles went first. "I'm the Green Engineer, but they call me Weapons Waddle Dee since I also help King Dedede come up with fancy inventions like the Kirby Printer and the Dedede Hammer 2.0. When it comes to battles, I mostly just do well against mechanical menaces since I can fiddle with 'em until they're scrap."

Next was the Waddle Dee in the green doctor's getup. "I'm the Green Medic. I provide healing and strengthening medicines for the others in the squad."

Last was the Waddle Dee in a green baseball cap. "And I'm the Green Scout. Leave it to me when you need blunt force or speed!"

"Of course," the Green Spy finished, "most of the time you can leave the color out of our titles when referring to us, since squads are almost never seen in the same place at the same time."

Izzy stroked her chin. "And I take it you Fort Dees escaped your cages like the other Waddle Dees that we found hiding?"

The Engineer laughed. "Heh, and then some! Lemme tell ya what went down. We actually let ourselves get caught, then we let them birds take us wherever they were going, and when we flew over a place we wanted to stay and check out, WHAM! We broke ourselves out and beat the feathers off them before touching down."

"Nice!" Gim gave the Fort Dees a thumbs up. "But why're we hiding?"

The Medic peeked out the window, and we did the same. Out there, in the central lot, there was a huge gray gorilla with red war paint and a mohawk with a white stripe down the middle, and a golden cage of Waddle Dees around his neck in a chain necklace. His torso and arms were way bigger than his legs, so the caricatured ape looked kinda goofy patrolling the lot.

Elfilin gasped. "I was right; it is Gorimondo that's residing here!"

The Medic replied, "So that's the name of the strong–armed beast outside? He's making sure nobody comes and takes his Waddle Dees. We're trying to figure out how to save them without him being able to get us too."

"So you're trying to come up with a plan to sneak attack him?" Elfilin asked.

The Scout had a confident glint in his eyes. "You bet! Even though that big ape's strong, he's also real slow and top-heavy, so we're thinking about making him fall down."

"The bigger they are, right?" Gim nodded. "We can take this guy for you! Thanks for the advice!"

"And thank you for coming to our aid." The Spy narrowed his eyes. "Despite our skills, the animals were still able to take away some of the Fort Dees against their will. The Red Soldier counted thirty missing Fort Dee members, five from each of the squads in this New World. We're at our best when all nine members of a squad are together, since each one plays a crucial role in combat and complements each other well, so your help is much appreciated due to our less–than–stellar chemistry as merely four members rather than all nine."

"Poyo!" I summoned my Warp Star to pick up the Green Squad. However...

Wham! CRAAAAASH!

The sound of something getting hit hard came from outside, and my Warp Star smashed right through the glass window for the Fort Dees. We peeked out the window again, and we saw that Gorimondo was covering his eyes with his left hand while he staggered for some reason.

"Bingo! That Warp Star of yours must've knocked his lights out!" The Engineer hopped on the Warp Star alongside the three others. "You better get 'im while he's reeling! Green Squad, signing out!" They took off, leaving us to decide what to do next.

Izzy didn't waste any time, putting me on her back, with my Ice Ability turning her fur white and her mane sky blue. "You heard him! Let's get this sucker!"

She jumped out of the window into the central lot, but the ape still managed to grab us out of the air with his right hand. Holding us in his palm, he intensely stared at us with his right eye, the left one having been blackened from the Warp Star slam. He picked me up with his left index finger and thumb and tried to squish me while he gripped Izzy tightly in his right hand.

"Kirby!" Gim yelled. "You need help?!"

"Uh uh!" I shook my head; getting squished would kill most people, but I don't even have any bones, and my naturally stretchy body lets me tolerate it. Still, it was a bit uncomfortable, and I needed to defeat this King Kong wannabe, so... "Ice Ball!"

I encased myself in a sphere of ice, allowing me to slip out of Gorimondo's grasp, and I turned and faced him. He swung his free hand to slap me, but my ice ball stayed strong, only being knocked away from him and towards Gim, who caught me.

"Poyo!" I rolled my arms in a spinning motion, then motioned towards Gorimondo's right hand.

"So you're gonna go Super Kirby Ball on him, eh? Sounds good! I was gonna say my offer was still up for grabs, but guess I didn't have to." Gim used his yoyo to form an ice ramp, then held me between his hands, and he faced the ramp. I spun my Ice Ball as he got ready to let go. "Three, two, one... GO!"

I shot up the ramp and sailed towards Gorimondo's face, and he instinctively put his right hand up to shield himself. Clearly he wasn't using his head, because when I hit his hand, it opened and freed Izzy.

"Ay–o!" Izzy cheered, balancing on me like a circus clown. "Now let's really go bananas!"

Angry that both of us were free from his grasp, Gorimondo beat his chest and roared.



He jumped a good ways back and dug his hand into the parking lot, pulling out a large chunk of stone which he threw at us. I considered getting rid of my Ice Ability since it isn't a really good offensive Ability, but Izzy was quick to prove that it can be made good; she rolled my Ice Ball away from the stone which crashed into the ground instead of us, then made it bounce and hit Gorimondo in the thigh.

He tried to kick us away, but we used the momentum to bounce high up where Izzy could shoot a laser at Gorimondo's face. As we fell back to the ground, the ape jumped away to put some distance between us, the ground shaking beneath his feet as he landed.

"Hmm..." Izzy knocked on my ice ball to get my attention. "Hey Kirby, let's see if we can get him to jump like that again! I've got an idea. Just be ready to hop on my back, since we're gonna need ice for my plan to work."

"Oh?" Izzy had my attention. Something told me she was about to make a big–brain move, and I'm no stranger to those. "Poyo!"

I rolled towards Gorimondo as he tried to throw stones at us, but they all kept falling to our left and right. Giving him that black eye must've really screwed with his aim.

When we were in range, he extended an arm to slap us again, but I shattered my Ice Ball and slid right beneath his arm before hopping atop Izzy, where we gave Gorimondo's legs the cold treatment. Ice began to form on his legs, slowing them down, but he raised his foot to stomp the ground, freeing it from the ice and shaking the ground around us. We regained our footing as he prepared to stomp his other foot, and we jumped to avoid the resulting quake.

Then he jumped high up to stomp with both feet and the full weight of his body.

"Freeze his landing spot! Now!"

Izzy cast an ice spell and I blew frigid breath on the ground where we were, then Izzy speed–skated away as Gorimondo dropped. As he landed, the ground under him cracked... and it gave way.

He fell through, but his torso got stuck.

I took the opportunity to free his Waddle Dees and have my Warp Star whisk them back to Waddle Dee Town, causing Gorimondo to get angry even though he couldn't get out of the hole he made, let alone attack us.

Izzy charged up her horn... but instead, she used her magic to pull the ape out of his hole by the arm.

"Wait, aren't you gonna take the chance to finish him off?!" Gim exclaimed, as confused as I was.

Izzy gave us a disapproving look. "What do you take me for, a speedrunner? Come on, I'm decent enough to give the big guy a chance to use some kinda special attack!"

Gim and I looked at each other and shrugged. Izzy had a point; decent heroes give their opponent a chance to try their special attack—unless it's Star Dream, screw its Fatal Error attack.

Izzy and I backed off as Gorimondo got back up with a confused look towards Izzy. Then, he stretched his arms out and started spinning.

The unicorn paled as Gorimondo advanced towards us while doing Donkey Kong's up special. "Eep! Never mind, get away from the spinny boy! Fall back! FALL BACK!!!"

We all ran away in an attempt to avoid the whirling ape, but my desperation to escape the centripetal wrath of his mighty arms caused me to fail to notice a little pebble in the way. I tripped over it and fell on my face as the others kept running, so they didn't even know Gorimondo was about to slam right into me. This wouldn't be a problem for me, since I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, but I didn't want to reveal them to Izzy so early in our adventure.

So, in an effort to lessen the impact, I put my hands over my head and brought up an ice shield around myself, and awaited the inevitable...

But the shield turned out to be sturdier than I expected. I heard something collide with it, before I saw Gorimondo go right over me and land face–first on the other side.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Gim pumped his fist. "Smart move, taking the Scout's advice and using the ape's own weight against him!"

"Uh... Yeah, poyo!" I chuckled bashfully as I got up and ran over to join them. Wasn't what I mean to do against Gorimondo, but it worked.

Gorimondo opened his eyes and tried to push himself to his feet, but Izzy aimed the banana she got from his hoard towards him like a gun. "Alright, buster, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Hands where I can see ’em!"

With a growl, the downed gorilla raised his fist to punch Izzy, but she quickly jumped to the side to avoid it.

"That's what I thought. The hard way it is!"

Izzy fired the banana out of its peel like a bullet... and it literally exploded in a yellow burst of potassium when it hit Gorimondo's face, blasting him unconscious while Gim and Elfilin and I stopped laughing at her antics and immediately switched to surprise.

She threw the peel on him to add insult to injury before proudly shouting, "Now that's what I call a food fight!"

Gim slowly turned to Elfilin. "Is it... natural for bananas in this world to explode?"

Elfilin shook his head. "No. Not at all."

"..." Gim stared at me. "Er, I believe a fifth Super Smash Bros season took place while I was chilling in Equestria. Were there... any new shooting weapons?"

I blinked a couple times, before it hit me. I slowly nodded. "Banana gun." No doubt one of the strongest shooting weapons you can pick up in the Smash Ultimate exhibition matches, if you can handle the slow speed of the single shot.

"...Smash is weird."

I nodded again without delay. "Uh huh."

"...Let's just head back to Waddle Dee Town and see how they're doing."

"Yeah." I summoned the Warp Star, and we went back to town, not saying another word about the banana incident.



The Waddle Dees had made a bunch more progress since we last visited. Two buildings were almost done, one of them looking like a life-sized clay igloo of sorts while the other looked like it was going to be some kind of stand. But more importantly, there was a brand-new building in town that was all finished, with a sign that depicted a sword and shield. On the left and right of the entrance were window displays with hats of different shapes, sizes, and colors in them.

"Check it out, guys!" Elfilin pointed at the completed building. "I wonder what kind of building that is... Maybe a hat shop?"

Gim shook his head. "Nah, what kinda hat shop has a sword and shield insignia on it? Maybe it's... an armory?"

"Dang right it is, Gim!" The Green Engineer walked out of the building with a proud look. "Though, I like to think of it as an... inspiration station, of sorts. It's loaded up with all kinds of Abilities Kirby may’ve grabbed during his adventures here in this New World."

"Really? But why would you go to all the trouble of doing that if Kirby can just—Ow!"

The Engineer smacked Gim with his forging hammer. "You better hit mute, buddy. We don't want you revealing Kirby's secret to Izzy or Elfilin, do we?"

"Secret?" Elfilin looked at me with curiosity. "So you've got a little secret too...?"

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "Poyo..." More like a big secret...

Gim nodded while rubbing his voice module where the Engineer had whacked him. "Mm, best to keep Kirby's secret hidden 'til we find ourselves in a crisis where he'd need to use it."

"Fair enough. In that case..." Elfilin put a hand under his chin. "How about I tell you my secret when you reveal yours in such a situation? That way, we'll have gotten to know each other well enough that we will feel comfortable sharing more about ourselves! Deal?"

Smiling, I shook Elfilin's hand. "Poyo!"

"Good idea! Gotta build up that trust first!" Izzy looked at the Engineer. "But how'd you get those Abilities in the first place?"

"That'd be thanks to me." Barry flew down from atop the armory and landed next to the Engineer, who smiled at him. "I've been picking up after you, Kirby, swooping in and carrying the Ability hats you've been dropping back to the Waddle Dee Town ever since you found me in that mall. Managed to pass it off to the Beast Pack as keeping their territory clean of litter." He chuckled. "They kept the empty cans and stuff around because they're fun to play with, or something."

"Wouldn't they want to wear the hats, though?"

"Apparently not. Must be ’cause it makes their noggins feel funny. Or maybe..." The Engineer led us into the building, where he showed us several me–shaped mannequins with my Ability hats and weapons on them. "... they're afraid of using the Abilities! No doubt they'd freak out after accidentally roasting themselves or spawning a bomb in their paws!"

"That's awesome! But..." Elfilin went over to a pair of mannequins, one with my Hammer Ability's blue–and–white headband and mallet, and the other with my Tornado Ability's crown of wind. "I don't remember Kirby grabbing those Abilities in the Natural Plains."

The Engineer smiled as he took my Ice hat and plopped it on another mannequin. "Well, one of my fellow Waddle Dees found those two Abilities in some kinda special place. I don't know what he meant when he kept blabbering on about a ‘How Rune’ or something, but he was happy, and that's all that matters. Let's get to the reason why I had you come in here..."

He jumped over the counter and turned to face me.

"Kirby! Have you ever felt like your Abilities just aren't cutting it on their own? Maybe you wonder if you could make them better somehow?"

"Po..." I raised my hand to object to him insulting my power and skills, but I realized he had a point. Some of my Abilities, like Water and Spark, were good for utility, but aren't exactly the best in battle, and I did sometimes feel like bad guys just wouldn't go down fast enough even with battle–ready Abilities on my side. "Poyo."

"Well, guess what?" He pointed at me. "You always could. Because you, Kirby, have a special power... The power of inspiration."

Gim and I glanced at each other, confused. "I... don't see how a happy-go-lucky gourmand could inspire others aside from being a hero and always wearing a smile," Gim admitted.

The Engineer shook his head with a laugh. "Nah, I meant inspiring yourself! Kirby, remember when King Dedede had broken up the Star Rod into a bunch of pieces, prompting you to go on your second adventure? That was when you discovered your Copy Ability! Now let's think back to that day, you amazing pink puffball." He assertively slammed his hands on the counter. "You remember why you went and swallowed that Waddle Doo? The one that caused you to gain your first ever Ability?"

I looked up, reminiscing. Those were the days when things were actually really tough. I mean, just inhaling and spitting stars at enemies wasn't exactly the easiest way to take them down, but it had been all I knew how to defeat them aside from air bullets to take out Scarfies when I didn't have anything to spit at those floating fiends.

But then, I saw that Waddle Doo. Instead of just running up and walloping him the only way I knew how, I took a moment to watch him. I watched, as he tried to hit me with his eye beams. That beam attack looked pretty effective, covering a decent arc in front of him, and unlike my stars which I could only use if I had something to inhale, he could use it whenever he wanted.

And I wondered... What if I could use that in my adventures?

I didn't know how to use his powers, so I just inhaled him. But instead of spitting him out, I swallowed. Not like I hadn't swallowed any enemies before, but this time I did it with an actual purpose. Then I tried using his beam attack, and it just came naturally.

The rest is history.

"That look on your face... No doubt you do remember." Snapping back to reality, I looked back at the Engineer, who was seeming to reminisce as well. "I was there on that day. The way you were contemplatively frowning as you saw the Waddle Doo... I had an inkling you were using your head. There was no hiding your spinning gears from my eagle eyes! You looked at the Waddle Doo's beam attack and thought to yourself a question along the lines of, ‘How could I use that to help me achieve my goal?’ So you learned how to copy his powers, and you put your own little twist on it. That, my friend, is inspiration at work."

"Poyo..." I never really thought about it, but his wording made what I did sound like a miracle! And, well, it did seem like—no, it was a miracle. A miracle that I inherited from a greater power...

"To think that Kirby's come all this way from star bullets to super powerful Abilities, all because he stopped and took a moment to observe a cyclopic sphere with a cowlick..." Gim gave me a joyful slap on the back. "Just imagine what you could do if you got that brain of yours going on overdrive more often!"

"My thoughts exactly! Which is how I know you can make your Abilities even better!" The Engineer pointed to a mannequin with my Fire hat. "Kirby, think for a bit. What do you associate with fire? What does fire remind you of? Don't answer, just think."

"Fire?" I put a hand under my chin as I thought. One thing that comes to mind when I think of fire is my adventures. I almost always went through a fiery area at some point in my adventures to save Pop Star and beyond. One such place was Halcandra, where I had to dodge past lava meteors raining from the sky, and another was Endless Explosions which was home to this volcanic frog that spat magma balls and fire at me...

"Got an idea for a kind of fire or something associated with fire?" The Engineer gave me a determined nod. "Now keep it in mind, swallow your Fire hat... and get ready for transformation."

I didn't know what he was getting at, but it excited me, and I couldn't wait to find out. So I thought about something reminding me of fire, and inhaled and swallowed my Fire Ability hat.

And then, I flipped up into the air for an Ability transformation.

I felt my body solidifying, as a stony crumbling noise came from all over me. Before I knew it, I had turned to stone, but then I felt something burning in my head. It throbbed and ached, like my head could explode any second. It did, in a way, with the stone that encased my body breaking away, as a jet of lava erupted from my head and the aching immediately left.

"SUCCESS!" The Engineer jumped for joy, before holding up a mirror for me to better see my hat's appearance.



My friends all oohed and ahhed, as I admired my head–mounted volcano surrounded by rocky spikes.

"Would you look at that..." Izzy exclaimed in awe. "Check you out, hot stuff! You got an all–new Ability!"

"You sure did, Kirby!" The Engineer smiled, putting away the mirror. "Tell me, what were you thinking about when you swallowed the hat?"

I had thought of a common staple in almost every adventure in which I had to traverse a fiery area; a mighty landmark that would rain blazing meteors down upon the land... "Volcano!"

"Good choice! In that case, let's call this evolved Fire Ability... Volcano Fire!"

"Volcano Fire..." Elfilin nodded. "Yeah, that has a nice ring to it!"

"And a great naming scheme as well!" Gim added. "Having the upgrade's name in front of the base Ability name so that we know what it evolved from is a sweet idea! You planning on doing this with the other Abilities too?"

The Engineer chuckled. "Heh, well, it isn't my job to tell you what to call your Ability evolutions. That Volcano Fire is 100 percent invented by the pink demon himself! All I did was give you a nudge in the right direction. But yeah, that's probably a good idea for naming them."

"That's still a big role you had, though!" Izzy answered. "I mean, if you hadn't set this place up and reminded Kirby of how he inspires himself, I bet he'd never have learned to evolve his Abilities! Thanks so much, Engie!"

The Engineer laughed humbly. "Please, it's Weapons Waddle Dee. I should've specified earlier, but the times I prefer to go by that or Weapons Dee are when I'm not at work as a Fort Dee, such as while I'm running the armory at Dedede's castle." He looked away for a moment, before giving a resigned sigh as he broke character with his Southern accent. "Actually, speaking of which, I could use your help. I don't like having to ask stuff from cute creatures like yourself, Izzy, but could you guys hear me out?"

Izzy's ears flopped as she did an eager double nod. "All ears, Weapons Waddle Dee!" She giggled as she glanced over at Elfilin. "Especially Elfilin over here."

"Great! So, let me ask you something..." Weapons Dee took out a rolled–up sheet of old paper with a red string decorated using a yellow star keeping it rolled. "You ever see one of these while you were exploring this world?"

Gim shook his head. "Sorry, but negative. My cybernetic eyes didn't detect any such papers out in the Natural Plains."

"Well, that stinks..." Weapons Dee looked down, a bit dejected. "You see, in the first place, I didn't actually build this armory for you, Kirby. There was another reason. As you should already know, Waddle Dees aren't really the best at self-defense." He pointed at my Volcano Fire hat. "So I had the idea of the unequipped Waddle Dees using your Abilities!"

I blinked, just as surprised as my allies. "Poyo?!"

Weapons Dee nodded, taking my Volcano Fire hat and putting it in front of the mannequin with my regular Fire hat on it. "I know, that's a shot in the dark. But only one way to find out, right? So here I was waiting for you to show your face, coming up with blueprints for possible enhancements to your Abilities so that even the less experienced Waddle Dees could fight well enough..." He frowned. "Only for those stupid animals to capture us and make me lose most of my blueprints!"

"And you want us to go look for them?" Elfilin asked.

"You got it!" Weapons Dee took out a second blueprint, and set it on the counter. "Don't think you won't get anything in return, though. Whenever you bring me a blueprint, I'll get straight to work and have Barry deliver you the finished product." He unrolled the first blueprint, and stared between it and my Volcano Fire hat. "And good on you, coming up with the very evolution I had on this blueprint! Obviously that one's on the house, but you'll have to pay up for future evolutions, else I won't make a profit from the most important customer in the Dream Universe."

"Pay up?" Izzy grinned at me. "Finally, we've got a purpose for all those Star Coins we've been finding!"

"Poyo!" Smiling back, I spat out a good amount of Star Coins onto the counter.

"Glad to hear you're up for that deal! But the thing is, I'm gonna need some extra special materials to upgrade your Abilities myself." Taking the coins, Weapons Dee leaned over the counter and shouted towards the entrance, "Hey, Shadow Kirby! You here?!"

Moments later, my Mirror–World counterpart ran inside the armory. "Poyo?"

"Good! Now, I hear you've been exploring some rifts in the sky and finding treasures in them. Mind if I have a look at the spoils?"

"Poyo!" Smiling, Shadow Kirby's face scrunched up, then he spat out out a star–shaped gem just like the one he showed us in Rocky Rollin’ Road.

"Now that's a special ore if I've ever seen one..." Weapons Dee took the gem and looked at it carefully with his goggles. "Mhmm... Yep, a gem holding this kind of energy might just be the thing I need to give those Ability evolutions the oomph they deserve!" He took off his goggles. "Shadow, if you find anymore of these Rare Stones, hand them over so I can work on making Kirby's Abilities as good as they can be, alright?"

"Uh huh!" Shadow spat out a few more Rare Stones for Weapons Dee, who beamed.

"Yeah–ha! That's what I'm talking about! Sorry about making you go on a wild goose chase, but there'll be more stuff I need for each blueprint Ability..." Weapons Dee opened the second blueprint and looked it over. "For this last one I managed to hang on to... I'll need a Ring Target from the Pokemon world and an iron ingot or two from the Minecraft world."

Shadow saluted and began to set off, but Barry stopped him. "Hold it! We might need something else too." The Bronto Burt looked at Izzy. "By any chance, would you know how to swim?"

Izzy shook her head sweetly. "Nope, never taken a dip in water before. We unicorns never had to go swimming, as far as I know. Why d’you ask?"

Barry sighed. "Ahh, should've known. Weapons Dee?"

"I'm on it." Weapons Dee took out a huge sheet of paper and placed it on the floor in front of Izzy. "Step onto this so I can measure your hooves."

Izzy obliged, walking onto the paper and holding still as Weapons Dee traced each of her hooves.

"There we go!" Weapons Dee handed the paper to Shadow Kirby. "While you're in the Minecraft world, fetch me a Frost Walker enchanted book, and make sure to find some horseshoes somewhere that’re the size on that paper. Pick up the Ocean spray paint while you're at it, so they'll look the part."

Nodding, Shadow left the shop and took off on his Warp Star.

Weapons Dee looked at us apprehensively. "While I was up high being carried off by that crow, I saw that the next major place to explore was a coastal sea. Can't have a Kirby adventure without an aquatic area..." He gave Izzy a comforting pat. "Since you can't swim, I'm gonna build something for you once Shadow gets back with the materials I need. Barry’ll bring it to you when it's finished, so you guys just wait at the farthest spot you can reach without swimming, okay?"

"Something to let me pass high water? I'm all for that!" Izzy grinned at Weapons Dee. "You scratch our back, we scratch yours! We won't let you and the other Waddle Dees down!" We turned back, but Izzy took another look at Weapons Dee. "By the way, what's up with those two structures being built outside?"

Barry smiled. "Oh! Well, the dome–looking one's gonna be Kirby's home away from home, and the other place's fixing to be a delivery office." He grinned. "I'm gonna run it alongside Delivery Waddle Dee once he's saved. He does all the packaging and paperwork, while I do the deliveries."

"Sweet! Well, I'm looking forward to visiting the Waddle Dee–liveries!" With one last wave, Izzy and the rest of us left the weapons shop and rode our Warp Star off to the next destination.

Barry and Weapons Dee waved back, before the former paused. "Wait, how'd she know that's what we were gonna call it?"

"I didn't!" Izzy called back. "It was a pun waiting to happen!"

"Eh, fair enough." Barry smiled, before sighing as he looked over at Weapons Dee. "Good thing none of the Waddle Dees here are going to set up a peanut stand. She could've called it Waddle Deez—"