Chapter 97: Prodigy Painter: Adeleine
It's the Drawcia Incident all over again. Thankfully, for now, it's only limited to Lollipop Island, but it's clear that if left unchecked, it will spread all over Floralia, Dreamland, and the rest of Popstar. No choice, she has to go fight Adeleine and stop her. Fighting Adeleine is nothing new, Sweetie Belle fought her once back at the Crystal Shard Incident, and Kirby also fought her before during the invasion of the Dark Matters, but what worry her is that Adeleine now possesses the Magical Paintbrush, making her a Drawcia bis. Sweetie Belle can already see many fights against painted versions of various beings, starting with the Ice Dragon (a favorite of Adeleine). Hopefully, Adeleine won't use the power of the paintbrush to make her horn disappear, or worse, make her limbs disappear and turn her into some kind of pony-worm. And what has she done to Claycia, Ribbon, and Elline? Unless they have been corrupted too. Sweetie Belle hopes that hasn't been. Fighting Adeleine with the Magical Paintbrush will already be hard enough, so also fighting Claycia possibly helped by Elline who possesses powers similar to the Magical Paintbrush? No, just, no. At least, Yin and Yarn are with her.
"Sweetie Belle!!" she suddenly hears three voices calling her name one after another.
Sweetie Belle looks in the direction the voices come from and sees Claycia, Ribbon, and Elline approaching her panicked. To Sweetie's relief, they aren't corrupted. "Girls! You're alright!"
"Sweetie Belle!" shouts Ribbon. "It's horrible! Adeleine! She's... She's..."
"I know. Some kind of purple heart fell from the sky, and it corrupted Adeleine. I'm here to save her and stop..." Sweetie waves at the island. "this. I was really scared that you were corrupted too."
"Seems like the purple hearts can corrupt only one person at a time," says Taranza.
"If that's the case, then good for us," Sweetie says before turning to the girls. "Adeleine is still in her school, right?"
"Yes," answers Claycia. "She's starting to build an army inside it. We barely escaped them."
"But she totally transformed the school. The inside has nothing to do with what it was before," says Elline.
"Oh, I fear the worst now... Okay Taranza let's go to the school."
Claycia looks at Elline, and they both nod before they say "We will help!"
Ribbon then takes the last invention of the fairies of Ripple Star: the Crystal Gun, based on the Crystal back when they used it as a gun to destroy the Dark Matters and Zero Two. "I'm coming too!"
"Welcome to the team you three. With your help, the fight may not be as hard."
With this, not wanting to lose time traversing the whole island, Sweetie Belle flies her Warp Star right toward the entrance of the school, which now looks like a multicolored palace of painting with a tower twisting in weird directions, another looking like it's melting, and a third one looking like it's made of countless dots. At the entrance, Taranza then says "Wait. Before we enter, I want to test something. When you hit me with that pink heart, I could feel its positivity being absorbed by my body. Maybe I can now do the same."
"This would be neat! No risk to be corrupted anymore!" says Sweetie Belle happily before turning to the girls. "If that's the case, we should also give it to you."
As they nod, Taranza raises two of his hands and effectively creates a pink heart that he throws at Ribbon, giving her its power. Sweetie Belle does the same to Claycia while Taranza throws a second heart to Elline. The three girls immediately test this new power, throwing their own pink hearts. Each time that the energy of a pink heart is absorbed by someone, Sweetie Belle can feel a link forms between her and that person. It's... as if they now form one. They aren't just a team now, they are one being. They can absolutely trust each others. For good measure, she throws three more pink hearts at Yin, Yarn, and Spiky.
The instant the hearts hit Yin and Yarn, she feels the remaining corruption inside them disappear.
Now, she knows those two are her friends.
"Woo! I feel reborn!" they both shout.
Smiling, Sweetie knits for them their Wizard Yin-Yarn form, a smaller version that will be able to fit through the black doors. Thus, they will fight at their sides as a fellow fighter, and not as tools anymore.
"Nyahaha! Time to show the power of someone who can create worlds!" he shouts excitedly.
"You know that without the glowing yarns, you don't have that power anymore, right?"
"Uurg... Right... But I'm still powerful!" shouts back Yin-Yarn, rising the needles above his head.
With a giggle at his antics, they open the door to the school, and enter a different world.
As soon as the purple heart corrupted Taranza, Dissy sent a message to Discord who, in return, warned Twilight, who sent a message to her friends. While the ponies came one by one to Twilight's castle, without the Crusaders because they're still in school, Discord opened the portal to follow the events, watching Sweetie's fight against Taranza, and the newly formed team of heroes approaching Adeleine's school. By the time the last pony, Applejack, appears in the room, the heroes are at the entrance of the school. Twilight quickly explains what's going on to everypony else as they settle.
"But why would hearts corrupt? Hearts are symbols of love," says Fluttershy.
"In this universe, hearts represent all feelings, both positive and negative," answers Twilight.
"And it looks like those hearts in particular represent not just negative feelings, but negativity in general," informs Discord. "I would say that it's evilness in its purest form to be more clear, but evil wouldn't be enough to describe those hearts. Evil beings at least can feel positive emotions like joy at accomplishing their goal. There's no positivity in those hearts. Absolutely nothing! Nada! Niet! They're just pure Negativity with a big N!"
"So, everything that's bad in the universe," says Starlight.
"This smells Dark God," says Pinkie Pie.
"It smells Dark God in almost every single adventure since the first one," says Rainbow Dash. "Those hearts are probably another one of his creations." She then sees Rarity biting her lips while looking at Sweetie Belle. "Hey, you alright, Rarity?"
"Do not worry darling, I just need to get used at seeing Sweetie Belle... fat."
"Sweetie Belle was already starting to get fat for a while," says Applejack. "She was already a little plump when she fought that mad machine."
"And she warned you in her letters," says Starlight.
"I know. But before, it was barely visible with her clothes. And it is one thing to be told in a letter about her weight gain, it's another thing to see it." She puts a foreleg on her forehead. "For a dreamy world like this one, it is more a nightmarish one! Who thought it was a good idea to have cookie mountains and ice cream trees? Because of those, it's so easy for somepony to lose their figure!"
Pinkie raises her hoof. "Me! Me! Memememememe! I love that idea!"
"And any foal would love that too," says Applejack with a chuckle. "Just stop thinking about that. No matter her weight, she's still yer sister."
"And no doubt she'll easily lose that weight once she returns to Equestria," says Rainbow Dash. "Give a couple of months, and it'll be gone."
"Hum... They're entering the school," says Fluttershy.
Looking back at the portal, the ponies see the team of heroes composed of Sweetie Belle, Taranza, Ribbon, Elline, Claycia, and Yin-Yarn, opening the double door that is the entrance of the school. From what they already could see inside, it could now pass for Discord's home.
They have been warned about the inside of the school being transformed, but it's beyond anything Sweetie Belle thought! The inside is now as if all the styles of painting had fused in a chaotic mess of colors and forms! The hall they have entered now has walls with all kinds of environments, objects, and creatures randomly painted on them without logic, with a rainbow-colored staircase leading to the second floor.
And barely they enter that they're attacked by a Painted Ice Dragon among a group of various smaller painted enemies and three Painted Waius running on the walls to fire at them.
Sweetie Belle levitates to one of the Waius while Taranza flies to another. Ribbon starts firing crystals at the smaller enemies, and Claycia, Elline, and Yin-Yarn focus on the Ice Dragon, flying out of the way of its ice breath. While Claycia starts sculpting something, Yin-Yarn knits some bombs that explode on the dragon, and Sweetie already eliminates her Waiu with a strong body slam followed by her impaling his head with her weapon in its ten energy swords mode. She quickly points a hoof at the third Waiu, the one that nobody's attacking yet, and after trapping him in a cage formed by her shields, she fires a huge energy beam engulfing it, disintegrating the ninja. The last Waiu is eliminated by Taranza teleporting beside him before trapping him in a ball of net and making it explode.
Claycia finishes sculpting a big spiked ball and throws it in the air above the Ice Dragon as it's busy dealing with a few Yarn Spear Waddle Dees knitted by Yin-Yarn. Elline then paints a Rainbow Rope on the way of the ball and uses it to guide the ball toward the dragon until it hits. As the dragon recovers from the ball, it's impaled by the spears of the Yarn Spear Waddle Dees as well as by Yin-Yarn himself thrusting Yarn. Ribbon, who has finished with the smaller creatures, then starts firing at it, and the dragon's finished by Claycia sculpting a cannon looking like the head of Bastron before firing a group of bullets from it.
With the welcome committee destroyed, the group climbs the staircase and enters a hallway at the top where more enemies are attacking them, including more Painted Waius, a Painted Blocky, and a Painted Bonkers just before a black door.
As the Bonkers swings down his hammer at Sweetie Belle, she stops it with just a hoof before she forms an energy blade around her other hoof and uses it to behead him. She then uses the blade to impale a Painted Waddle Dee before saying "I thought those painting versions would be stronger."
"They're stronger," says Claycia. "With the Magical Paintbrush, Adeleine's power skyrocketed, and those copies are now almost as powerful as the originals."
"Yeah, it's you who has become a monster," says Yin-Yarn with a laugh. "It may be time for you to fight Kirby. I think you're more than ready."
"I know, but I want to be sure and certain that I will beat him. So not before I master Heart Matter and sculpting. Those are the last skills I still need to train," replies Sweetie. "Learning to teleport would also be great."
Elline turns to Taranza. "You could teach her. You know how to teleport."
"I don't use the same magic. I'm not sure I would be able to teach her correctly."
"Maybe you could still give it a try," says Ribbon.
"Maybe. Once we're done with those hearts, if Sweetie wants."
"I would like to."
The group passes the black door, seeing that it's a painted one that definitively wasn't here the previous time Sweetie came in this school, and they enter... a 3D painting. There are no other ways to say it. They appear on hills with a river not far, this river going into a hole in the ground. Further, at the other side of a cliff, they can see a volcano from which comes a column of lava going all the way into space. They spot the moon not far from it. Just behind them, the place they're in ends in a wall, the only way to know there's a wall being to touch it, the painting on it forming a perfect optical illusion.
Because of it, it's impossible to see where the room ends, and what isn't painted on the walls and the ceiling. The moon? The volcano? That weird upside down floating island at their left? The city they can see under it? That whirlpool in the air sucking the water from an ocean at their right? And what about all those objects and buildings randomly painted a little everywhere? Why place a pyramid in the middle of a grassland?! Well, the hole in which the river disappears seems to be real, so they decide to go over there, easily defeating all the enemies that get in their way.
"Even Drawcia's painted worlds weren't this weird, without counting the last one. At least, they all had a unique theme: grasslands, deserts, volcanoes, futuristic cities, space, haunted forest, and so on; but here, it's like Adeleine couldn't remain focused on a single theme and decided to just paint everything that passed in her head," comments Sweetie Belle.
"Uh? And how was the last world?" asks Yin-Yarn.
A chill crawls over Sweetie's body at thinking about THIS world. "You don't want to know."
After jumping or floating above a few pits, they reach the top of a hill where they can see that the river's still a little far, and that there are many enemies ready for them among the remaining hills. But seeing all those slopes, they can feel the positive energy of the pink heart in them resonate, and they suddenly get an idea.
They let the energy speak for them, and following it, they quickly form a circle, or rather, a wheel, grabbing each others' legs, and they soon roll down the slope of the hill, crushing anyone that gets on their way.
"Waah! Are we really doing this?!" shouts Elline.
"Yes! We're doing this!" shouts Sweetie Belle as she laughs.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" repeats Ribbon, not sure if it's in fear or in excitement. Maybe both.
"This is the power of the pink heart?!" asks Claycia.
"Yeah! It turns friendship into a weapon! Nyahahahaha!" shouts Yin-Yarn.
"They won't believe it back home!" shouts Sweetie Belle.
"I'm not even believing what we're doing!" shouts Taranza in disbelief.
Everypony looks at the... friend circle... in awe.
Then, Pinkie looks at the others with one of the biggest smiles she could give.
"No, Pinkie! No!" shouts Twilight. "We will not do that!"
Moving up and down the hills, jumping above pits and obstacles, and crushing enemies, the group is able to reach the river in just a couple of minutes. Just as they reach it, they approach a Painted Whispy Woods that they crash on. While it doesn't destroy him, it uproots him, leaving him vulnerable to a serious beatdown despite his attempt to get up using his roots, and in just a few seconds, the heroes eliminate him without even letting him time to attack.
"Easiest Whispy fight ever," says Sweetie Belle.
"No, remember what Dedede said about what Kirby did to that last Flower Whispy in Sectonia's palace?" asks Yin-Yarn.
"Oh yeah."
Taranza looks at the both of them. "I'm curious. I always wondered how Kirby, Dedede, and Bandana Dee were able to catch up to us so rapidly despite the tree."
"Thanks to one of the Miracle Fruits, Kirby ate the Flower Whispy whole," says Sweetie.
"Ah."
"What?" ask the girls in disbelief.
"We will explain later," says Yin-Yarn.
They start following the river, which is somehow able to go up a slope, until they reach the hole in which it disappears. They look in it, and seeing nothing, they carefully float down in it until they reach the submerged bottom of the cavern they are now in. So they let themselves fall in the water where currents slowly push them among Gordos and all kinds of fish toward the next part of the cavern where the river continues, with some ground out of the water.
Getting out of the water, they see a dam blocking it, forcing it on a path toward a hole. Two more dams follow this one, before the path ends against a huge metallic door with metallic wheels at the bottom, where the river should be.
The heroes quickly understand than they have to open this huge door, and for this, they have to open the dams to let the river reach the wheels, so they move to the first dam and spot beside it a round hole. From this hole starts a slope with, at the top, something in the ceiling, and a pit along the way.
They move to the top of the slope and grab a few handle hanging from the ceiling, revealing it to be a plug. With it gone, a big metallic ball comes out of the hole in the ceiling and starts rolling down the slope. The heroes quickly run to the pit, and with the help of the energy in them, form a bridge with their bodies, letting the ball roll on them without falling in the pit. The ball then reaches the round hole, and the dam opens, letting the river pass.
For the second dam, they have to jump in a pit beside the round hole where, further down, they find a path with another slope with a plug in the ceiling at the top. Removing the plug, a new metallic ball falls, and they quickly return to the pit to form another bridge for the ball, only, this time, as the ball rolls on them, they have to climb the pit while making sure that the ball doesn't enter another path as it rolls back and forth.
With the second dam opened, they pass to the third where there are two round holes, one red beside the dam, and one green in the pit beside it. Like previously, they find the two balls after removing a plug further down in the pit, and as the two balls roll on them when they form a bridge, they slowly climb the pit. The problem is that the green ball can't reach the green hole because of the red ball on the way, so they have to find a way to reverse their positions. They find the solution thanks to two of the paths, one above the other, being dead ends where they let the red ball enter the one at the top, then let the green ball enter the one below. So, the red ball comes back first, followed by the green one, successfully reversing their positions. And so, the green ball is able to enter its hole, and the red one too.
With the three dams opened, the river reaches the door and starts to push the wheels as it passes under it. After a couple of seconds, the door opens, letting our heroes pass and continue to follow the river, which ends in a waterfall toward a big underground lake. Diving in the lake, they encounter a Painted Acro.
"I didn't think I would encounter a painted version of Acro," says Sweetie Belle.
"I remember him from the party for your one year in Dreamland," says Taranza. "I didn't dare approaching him too much..."
"He's nice, you've nothing to fear from him," reassures Ribbon.
"Not this version," says Yin-Yarn as the Painted Acro starts spitting skulls, anchors, and smaller Acros at them.
They swim out of the way, Sweetie Belle quickly firing back energy beams while Ribbon and Taranza also fire crystals and energy balls, and Claycia and Yin-Yarn sculpt and knit fishes of clay and yarn to attack. Painted Acro then rapidly swims toward Ribbon, mouth wide open, trying to devour her, only for Sweetie's whip to wrap around his mouth and force it to close. Sweetie Belle then turns the whip into Spark Mode, electrifying the orca as he starts swimming around to get himself rid of her without success. Elline then turns into her paintbrush form and creates a Rainbow Rope on the path of Painted Acro which leads him right into a wall, some of his teeth breaking because of the impact. Claycia then quickly sculpts a harpoon and throws it at Painted Acro, impaling and eliminating him.
With the orca gone, they emerge from the water in front of the entrance of a tunnel without water.
"Now I wonder who we will encounter next," says Claycia.
"I'm certain we will fight a Kracko sooner or later," says Sweetie Belle. "He's another one of Adeleine's favorites. Beside Kracko... No idea. Anything's possible."
At this, they enter the tunnel, which reveals to be a long, straight path with a few pits in the way, ending in a dead end, the only way to continue from there being upward.
And again, the energy of the pink heart resonates in them. When they call it, the energy gathers above Sweetie Belle as everyone else forms a single file behind her. The energy then materializes... a conductor's hat with the chimney of a train that drops on Sweetie's head.
"What?"
And then, as smoke comes from it, they start running on the spot for a couple of seconds, their legs (or whatever for Taranza and Yin-Yarn) somehow forming the sound of a train starting.
"What?"
And finally, they suddenly charge forward at max speed.
"WAAAAHH!!! What the heeeeeeck?!!" yells Sweetie Belle while the others all scream in surprise, before she quickly jumps above a pit followed by the others, the sound of a train whistle coming from the chimney when she jumps.
"Are we seriously doing a train?!" shouts Taranza.
"This is so weird!"
"This is so fun!"
"This is embarrassing!"
"AAAH! Captain! Wall right ahead!" yells Elline.
"I can't stop!" shouts back Sweetie Belle as the wall approaches dangerously. "StopstopstopstopSTOPSTOPSTOPST-WAH?!" To her surprise, and to everyone's, as they're about to hit the wall, they suddenly start climbing it using a small slope between it and the floor! "EEEH?!"
"Are we se-"
"YES WE ARE!"
They quickly reach the top of the wall, only to now run on the ceiling before doing a loop. Back on the ground, they run on a switch that opens a part of the wall they have just climbed, and after the jump, they continue in the newly revealed passage.
Twilight must be pulling her mane!
They continue running and jumping, eventually reaching a... place where they jump on the roof of a floating house before jumping from melting clock to melting clock. After running on the back of a flying whale, they then run up a giant pencil before jumping on piano keys. One last jump and they leave this crazy place and return in a more normal looking cavern, only to be attacked by a Painted Moley following them, digging through the earth like swimming through water and throwing boulders at them.
Because they can't stop, the heroes are forced to either jump or to move slightly to the left or to the right to avoid the boulders while the giant mole jumps around them while digging, once at their left, then at their right, then directly in front of them, and even going out of the ceiling. They get some respite when they reach another underground lake where they actually run on the water, the mole only able to attack from the ceiling here, but the boulders hitting the water causes it to form waves that make dodging more tricky.
They soon leave behind the lake to enter another tunnel, only for the heroes to run on a switch. The next instant, the tunnel is filled with smoke, and they can't see where they're going, forcing Sweetie to focus on her path to avoid pits while also leastening to the others who warn her of the boulders, because Moley doesn't need to see them to know where they are, the mole sensing them.
But then, they leave the tunnel to run on some kind of stone bridge above a huge lake of magma, and behind them, the Painted Moley falls in it. But another problem quickly appear: they approach a huge column of magma going all the way toward a hole in the ceiling!
"Uh... Sweetie..." says Claycia in panic.
"I know, don't worry, I got this."
Lighting her horn, she covers everyone's legs in ice before they start running up the column of magma.
"Okay, that's nice, but when, and how will we stop?!" asks Yin-Yarn.
"I'm sure we will find a way! There must be one!"
At this instant, as they enter the hole in the ceiling, in front of them, a painted version of that creature of magma Sweetie fought in that volcano along with Kirby, Dedede, Bandana Dee, Adeleine, and Ribbon, comes out of the magma of the column further in front of them, and it starts sending little pillars of magma toward them. Like before, the heroes move left and right to avoid them, and this time, Sweetie Belle counterattacks by sending a stream of ice against it from her horn. The living magma then spits fireballs that are also dodged before it charges toward them. Again, a slight move to the side is enough to avoid it while they finally exit the hole, coming out of the volcano they saw earlier.
The fight lasts during the whole climbing before the magma being solidifies into stone and is rammed, and smashed into small boulders by the train. This, however, breaks the train, everyone getting propelled up in space as a result, not far from a huge round boulder at the top of the column of magma. Quickly, they all fly or levitate to it, taking the occasion to rest a little after this long running.
"It was crazy!" says Claycia.
"But, of all things, why a train?" asks Elline.
"Uh... Because friends love doing the train?" proposes Sweetie Belle. "Especially children."
"I never saw someone doing the train," says Taranza.
"Me too," says Ribbon. "Probably because there aren't trains in Ripple Star. But it was fun! I'm sure the others will love it once I show them!"
"Eh. I can see why kids would find it funny, but you'll not take me doing it again anytime soon!" says Yin-Yarn.
Elline giggles. "You may reconsider that. We may do the train again soon."
Yin-Yarn gives an exasperated sigh.
"Speaking of, are you feeling the energy resonate again?" asks Sweetie Belle.
Hearing her, everyone starts focusing, quickly feeling it too.
"Again?" asks Claycia.
"What will this be this time?" asks Taranza.
"Probably a way to reach this door," says Elline as she points at the moon not far, showing a black door visible on it.
All nodding, they call the energy, and it soon creates some kind of Warp Star with wings and a comet-like trail. Sweetie Belle jumps on the star itself while the others jump on the trail in a single file, like the train. Sweetie Belle quickly learns that she can fire star-shaped projectiles from the star, and thanks to her magic and her master of Dream Matter, she can change the properties of the projectiles, sending ice stars, fire stars, spark stars, sharp stars, and so on. If someone else was on the star, they could probably do the same depending on their abilities. If they could create more than one star, it would be neat!
At the command of the star, Sweetie Belle guides it toward the moon, a great quantity of flying enemies trying to stop them, including many big ones, like Dubiors, Bugzzys, Telepathos, and especially Vividrias. Some meteors, small black holes, red angry faces firing fireballs from their eyes, and pens drawing walls also serve as obstacles forcing Sweetie Belle to be careful. And as they near the moon, as Sweetie predicted, a Painted Kracko comes from behind it and stops them.
Painted Kracko starts attacking by firing lightning bolts that Sweetie Belle tries to dodge as best as she can while firing back her star projectiles at him. He also creates small storm clouds that flies toward them while raining lightning bolts too before he tries to ram them a couple of times. But despite all his attacks, some of them hitting the star, the Painted Kracko is eventually destroyed, and the heroes land on the moon in front of the black door.
They discover that the moon is made of cheese.
"The moon is made of cheese... So cliche," says Yin-Yarn.
"At least it's good," says Elline as she eats a piece of cheese.
Sweetie Belle also eats some cheese to heal after the fight against the Painted Kracko. "And useful."
Once fully healed, they pass the door and appear inside a huge room where the floor, walls, and ceiling are entirely made of canvas and that is full of painted enemies. In the center of the room is Adeleine, the girl swinging the Magical Paintbrush. With each swing, more enemies are painted, adding to their already great number.
She eventually spots the heroes and jumps out of the crowd before landing on an elevated platform.
Adeleine points the paintbrush at them, ordering her minions to attack before she paints two wings on her back, letting her fly. As everyone else deal with the minions, Ribbon flies toward the painter and fires at her with her crystal gun, but Adeleine flies too fast and easily avoids the projectiles before bonking the fairy on the head with the paintbrush. Taranza and Sweetie Belle come to her help and fire energy balls at Adeleine, hitting her a couple of times before she flies away and swing the paintbrush, sending balls of paint to intercept the energy balls.
Meanwhile, Yin-Yarn, Elline, and Claycia knit, paint and sculpt their own minions to help them fight Adeleine's army, which the girl constantly recreates when she gets the time. To help the two of them, Sweetie Belle takes the Spiky doll and throws him at Yin-Yarn. The mage of yarn then knits the doll into Spikezilla, and the dragon immediately starts rampaging among the enemies.
Adeleine then swings the paintbrush, painting five clones of herself in one go, the clones starting to fly around before attacking the heroes one after another by charging at them while swinging their paint brushes. One of the clones, however, remains behind and continues to paint minions while the real Adeleine paints giant spikes on the canvas, causing giant spikes to come out from the floor, walls, and ceiling.
Spikezilla easily destroys half of the Adeleine Clones, but gets impaled by some of the spikes. Yin-Yarn, while avoiding the spikes, immediately starts healing the dragon by knitting more yarn for him, and Claycia sculpts the same laser cannons she used while she was possessed by Dark Crafter, the cannons raining lasers from the ceiling for a few seconds and serving as obstacles for Adeleine. As the painter is forced to fly around the lasers, Sweetie Belle is able to intercept her and punches her into one of them. Since Adeleine isn't resistant at all, it hurts her greatly, and she gets even more hurt when Taranza traps her in a net and moves her through two more lasers before slamming her against a wall. Meanwhile, the remaining clones are destroyed by Spikezilla and Elline painting her own spikes from the canvas.
Adeleine recovers and quickly flies to avoid the claw of Spikezilla before she paints an Ice Dragon as well as a Fire, Water, and a Spark equivalent, which forces Spikezilla to deal with them along with Taranza and Sweetie Belle. Yin-Yarn, Claycia, and Elline remain focused on Adeleine as the human paints on one of the walls a pirate ship that starts firing bullets at them with its cannons. Claycia throws balls of clay to destroy some of the bullets, and Elline uses the Rainbow Rope to stops the others, while Yin-Yarn opens his mouth and, like in his tank form, fires rockets from it, but only one at a time, and much smaller.
Elline follows Adeleine's example and paints in the opposite wall Bastron who starts firing at the girl who, again, flies around to avoid the majority of the bullets before she swings her paintbrush and destroys the painting. Seeing that her dragons have just been destroyed, she then swings again at the ceiling, painting an orbital laser cannon that starts charging energy. Before Elline could destroy the painting, she's slapped by one of Adeleine's wings. The cannon fires, and its laser starts moving around, forcing the heroes to run to avoid it, all the while attacking Adeleine. When the laser of the cannon stops, Adeleine then swings her paintbrush again, and the cannon breaks apart before the pieces come out of the painting and fall in the room like meteors. Yin-Yarn quickly turns Spikezilla back into a doll before he could be killed, his size not letting him much place to avoid the falling piece, contrary to everyone else.
When the last piece crashes, Adeleine then paints a few Gordos before she starts doing circles with her paintbrush, and all the canvas of the room are painted to make it look like they are inside a storm. A strong air current constantly changing direction appears in the room, pushing everyone, including the Gordos, before lightning bolts come out of the canvas and strike randomly around. To complete the picture, Adeleine paints Kracko, the painted one-eyed cloud adding his lightning bolts to the ones coming from around.
Sweetie Belle fires an Ultimate Doom Laser at him while the others continue to try to hit Adeleine who continues to fly around. Attacking Kracko with all she has, Sweetie's able to quickly destroy him, only for Adeleine to immediately replace the storm by an ocean, submerging the room in water as dozens of aquatic enemies start attacking the heroes, including another Painted Acro and a painted version of the captain squid Sweetie fought in Seventopia. Turning her weapon into Ten Swords Mode, she starts cutting the two of them into cubes helped by Yin-Yarn knitting a submarine firing harpoons.
But then, just as Adeleine finishes to paint herself a fish-like tail, turning herself into a mermaid to better swim in the water Taranza's able to hit her with a huge ball of energy followed by a dozen smaller ones. Ribbon then charges toward Adeleine as she recovers and bonks her on the head many times with her crystal gun. Adeleine uses her paintbrush to slap her away, only to be hit and slammed against a wall by an energy beam from Sweetie Belle.
Looking like she's about to fall unconscious, a purple aura suddenly appears around Adeleine, and in one swing, everything painted in the room disappears. In another swing, the room becomes even more huge, becoming as big as the whole school. In a third swing, everything is painted black and red with weird black marks rapidly moving around.
Exactly like in...
A fourth swing, and Adeleine paints Zero Two.
"Oh no..." says Sweetie Belle.
But then, with a fifth swing, Adeleine paints beside Zero Two the weird white Dark Matter with the many red eyes they fought in Ripple Star.
And with one last swing, the two painting fuse before coming out of the canvas. The result of the fusion is simply Zero Two with twenty-one bloody eyes moving around in his body, which is enough to make Ribbon, Elline, and Claycia sick. Everyone knows Zero Two thanks to Magolor's training room, so they're used to him, but this new Zero... It's the most disgusting thing they've ever seen.
ABOMINATION OF DARKNESS
PAINTED MIRACLE ZERO
Sweetie Belle stares at the new Zero in shock before she looks at Ribbon. The fairy looks back at her, and fighting her sickness, she nods in determination, readying her crystal gun. Meanwhile, Adeleine hides behind her creation.
Zero fires his little explosive projectiles toward the heroes, and they all quickly fly away before approaching the abomination, quickly discovering that no attacks outside of the crystal gun work against him, and the crystal gun can only hurt him by hitting the eyes. Using the Heart Matter she has been able to learn to use, giving in all her positive feelings, Sweetie Belle starts firing little energy beams, which also hurt Zero when hitting the eyes. Meanwhile, Taranza, Yin-Yarn, Elline, and Claycia move around the abomination to attack Adeleine directly.
But then, Zero's body covers itself in fire, and he starts firing huge streams of fire in all directions, burning Yin-Yarn and almost getting the others. Remembering what she must do, Sweetie Belle starts firing fireballs and streams of fire, even using her ten cannons to create a real storm of fire and badly hurt Zero. When Zero returns to normal, three of his eyes are missing, and his tail has appeared. Ribbon immediately proceeds to attack it with her crystal gun.
"Guys!" then shouts Sweetie Belle. "When that thing changes form, his weak point becomes whatever element he's using!"
Yin-Yarn flies to her. "Right. I remember when you trained against him in the training room. He uses fire, only fire can hurt him. If I remember correctly, his other forms are ice, spark, stone, bomb, cutter, and needle, right?"
"Yes, that's it." She looks at Claycia and Elline. "So you understand what you must do when he change form?"
They nod, readying themselves to sculpt and paint.
Meanwhile, Zero's tail disappears, and he restarts firing projectiles from his eyes, explosive ones, bloody ones, and there's even one time where the eyes all fire a continuous beam at the same time while moving, managing to get Sweetie Belle, Taranza, and Elline by surprise.
"Wait a minute. Zero Two is a being created from negativity if I remember how you described him," says Taranza. "Maybe the positive energy in us can hurt him."
Sweetie Belle rubs her chin in thought. "It could work, but this one is not the real Zero, but a painted copy, so it may also not work. But let's give it a try."
They all nod and start approaching Zero to be able to throw pink hearts at him, but before they could start, Zero changes form again and becomes all black before he shoots from his body at least one hundred black bubbles all around him. It takes everyone off-guard, and they're all hit at least once by one of the bubbles that explode upon contact. But the heroes quickly recover and move back to avoid being hit again before Sweetie Belle starts firing explosive projectiles while Yin-Yarn, Elline, and Claycia all create their version of a rocket launcher. As for Taranza, he teleports beside Zero and creates explosions of energy.
It doesn't take long before Zero returns to normal with three less eyes, his tail reappearing, and Ribbon attacks it again. But this time, Zero starts turning and flying to get his tail out of the way of the projectiles of the crystal gun, but Sweetie is still able to hit it with her beams of Heart Matter.
When the tail disappears, everyone immediately starts attacking Zero's eyes, the pink heart hurting him like Taranza said. Sweetie Belle manages to partially destroys Zero's wings, causing him to become slower.
Zero's body then turns into a ball of electricity, and he fires beams of electricity in all directions, the beams bouncing on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room, but this time, the heroes have seen it coming and they quickly fly back to better dodge them while firing their own projectiles of electricity, Taranza actually forming Sectonia with his magic before making it fire lightning bolts from its scepter like the real Sectonia for a couple of seconds.
Sweetie Belle suddenly hears Dedede's anthem playing from her belt, and she quickly takes her communication device before pressing the button.
«Hey, Sweetie, whe-»
"SorryDededecanttalkmiddleofafightcallyoulater!"
She presses the button again, puts the device back in her belt, and continues attacking Zero.
When Zero returns to normal, because of his destroyed wings, he has more difficulty avoiding the projectiles of Ribbon's crystal gun, so he tries to directly attack her with his eyes, but the fairy manages to avoid every projectile he throws at her.
Turning to his ice form, Zero surrounds himself in a sphere of spiky ice boulders orbiting him, the ice boulders protecting him while he moves around to try to hit the heroes with them, but because of his lack of speed, they're easily able to fly away. Seeing this, Zero suddenly expends the sphere, but this causes the space between the boulders to grow, giving enough room for the heroes to pass between them and attack Zero with ice projectiles (for the ones who can fire ice projectiles, to Taranza's annoyance).
Rather than turning back to normal, Zero immediately changes to a different form, now using the cutter one, huge cutter blades firing from his body while his wings turn into even bigger cutter blades and move around his body. This doesn't leave much for the heroes outside of Sweetie Belle who throws cutter blades with her tail, and Yin-Yarn, Elline, and Claycia are forced to simply create Sir Kibbles to attack.
Zero then turns to his needle form, his body turning into a ball from which huge spikes come as it turns. To make it worse, smaller spikes grow from the bigger spikes, turning them into 'spike trees' that could easily impale everyone. Created Gordos are quickly thrown while Sweetie curls into a ball, turns her fur into needles, and turns her body into metal, before she charges toward Zero. At this point, Taranza has decided to go after Adeleine, the spider chasing the girl around while attacking her.
Finally, Zero turns into his last form, the stone one, and his body starts rapidly flying around the room to try to ram them, his two wings-turned-boulders orbiting him. Created boulders are quickly raining all over the room, and Sweetie Belle turns into stone before charging at Zero's body like a meteor.
With this last form defeated, Zero returns to normal, and Ribbon destroys his tail.
But to everyone's surprise, he doesn't explode. He just... cracks, and he flies and turns erratically as he starts heavily bleeding. His body then becomes a mismatch of all his forms from which he starts firing everything all around! Between all the projectiles, the heroes have extreme difficulty avoiding them, and Adeleine herself is hit and knocked out by them, a purple heart coming out of her.
And finally, after about ten seconds of this chaos of attacks and movements, Zero's body explodes, and the whole room is plunged in light. When the heroes can see again, they are now in the room that they recognize as Adeleine's office.
The purple heart then flies through a window, but the heroes don't pay attention to this, more busy catching their breath after surviving this last storm of attacks.
"It's the second time an enemy attacks before dying," says Sweetie Belle. "And this one totally caught us off guard."
"Yeah, it's not like Star Dream's Heart who lets you time to prepare, making it easy to dodge," says Yin-Yarn.
"Adeleine!" Ribbon then screams the name of her friend as she flies toward the unconscious human girl. Quickly acting, Ribbon throws a pink heart at her, and Adeleine immediately recovers before being hugged by the fairy. Everyone else approaches her, Sweetie Belle joining Ribbon in hugging her friend.
Adeleine looks around confused for a few seconds before she recovers her senses and sighs with a shake of her head. "At least, it wasn't possession this time... I think."
"More like corruption," says Taranza. "I got the same."
"Thank you for stopping me, and I'm sorry for everything I've done. But what the heck was that heart?"
"We don't know," answers Sweetie Belle. "They just suddenly came from space. All we know is that they're pure negativity, a little like the Dark Matters."
After a quick explanation of everything that happened until now, which isn't much, Sweetie Belle then says that she's planning to go to Dedede's castle to talk with him and plan together their next move. Adeleine, as well as everyone else, decide to join her. Better using the power of this 'Friendship Heart' while they can, and so, all work together to find, and destroy, the origin of those hearts. Whatever it is, it must be really terrible, and powerful.
While they exit the school, Sweetie Belle takes her communication device and calls Dedede, remembering that he searched to call her earlier.
When Dedede answers, she says "Hello Dedede. Sorry for earlier, I was busy."
«No problem. You said you were in the middle of a fight, right? Must've been really nasty if even you couldn't take the time to talk, you who could almost fight everyone with your eyes closed by now.»
"You have no idea. Remember that white Dark Matter we fought on Ripple Star? Now imagine it fused with Zero Two. That's literally what I fought."
«You're kidding!»
"Not at all."
«But how?»
"Adeleine got corrupted by one of those purple hearts. Speaking of, please, tell me Kirby hasn't been corrupted."
«Thanks the stars, no! I was the one corrupted by one of those things, and Kirby saved me with the help of Bandana and a few other guys he recruited on the way.»
"Neat! Well, I'm exiting Adeleine's school, now, so I will soon come to the castle to meet you and the others."
«Uh... Actually, I'm not in the castle anymore. That's why I called you earlier, I wanted to know if you were alright, and I also wanted to warn you that me, Kirby, and the others are chasing the purple hearts. Right now, we're in that place called Friendly Field.»
"I don't think I explored this place yet. What is it?"
«Ahahah! You would love and hate it! It's an area entirely made of food! Like, biscuit bushes, giant cupcakes, hill sized ice creams, and macaroon mountains!»
Sweetie Belle looks at her pudgy body and sighs. "I think I will wait for you to leave this area before joining you."
She can hear Dedede guffawing through the device. «I knew you would say that!»
The group exits the school at this moment, and Sweetie Belle calls her Warp Star. But before she could climb it, Pitch suddenly comes in front of her screaming frantically.
"Woah! Pitch! Don't scare me like that! What's going on?"
In reply, Pitch crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue as far as he can. After that, he forms a heart with his wings.
Sweetie Belle immediately rubs the hoof holding the device between her eyes. "Don't say more. Gooey got corrupted?"
Pitch confirms it.
"Buck..."
"Oh oh..."
"Drat."
"Not good."
Sweetie Belle puts the device back beside her ear. "Sorry Dedede, I won't be able to come yet. Pitch just told me that Gooey got corrupted too."
«Gooey?! Oh, please, no... With the power of those hearts, he could start a new Dark Matter invasion.»
"Exactly. And that's why I must go right now."
«Well, hurry, before we get clouds of darkness above our heads! Me and Kirby will continue to chase the hearts. I'm sure you'll be able to deal with Gooey.»
"Thank you. Good luck to you," finishes Sweetie before she presses the button, stopping the call. "Okay everyone, time save another friend and stop a potential invasion of darkness."
"Yay..."
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I detect sarcasm in that.
So; dark dream Gooey?
You know, the pink hearts are like a symbiotic Virus they help and multiply!
Also Sweetie is on a boss rush?
9930517
They've to go fight a corrupted Gooey after all. You just know that something horrible will happen.
More like an unenthusiastic 'yay'.
9930524
More like... Zero Gooey.
9930532
I didn't think about that.
All the bosses appearing in this chapter outside of Adeleine are more like sub-bosses. Between the heroes' number, and their power (especially Sweetie's), that's as far as they go now, even Kracko (old version, not the Star Allies version). This arc is more a trip down memory lane for Sweetie. She first got to revisit a little of Triple Deluxe with Taranza going Sectonia, and now, she got to relive more or less Crystal Shards and Canvas Curse with Adeleine (and with Yin-Yarn and Claycia present in the team, Epic Yarn and Rainbow Curse are also here). And next chapter, as you can guess, we will revisit a little of Kirby's Dreamland 2 and/or 3.
9930532
Nah, she has "levels" to deal with in-between. All custom, much like Robobot. At least the next one will be custom; if the timeline syncs up then Jambastion will show up afterwards and she'll get to reunite with Kirby to deal with what is clearly the source of the problem.
9931133
Except that Sweetie's 'worlds' will be shorter than Kirby's worlds in Star Allies. Kirby's adventure started around the same time than the fight against Taranza, so he was probably already fighting Whispy Woods by the time team Sweetie Belle entered Adeleine's school.
I will not tell however how much of Sweetie's 'worlds' it will take before the Jambastion appears, but it could appear anytime after the fight against Gooey.
AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9931144
Eh, you confirmed the merging point and that was the bit I cared about.
Again, it's 'the worst.'
Behold, the whirling fortress known as the Friend Circle!
How they were able to catch up to us.
You can't break the Friend Bridge and its powerful bond!
All aboard the Friendship Express! Next stop: Victory Road!
(If you've read either of my stories, know that I made that quip as my team used the Friend Train to take down Marx Soul. Also, the Friend Train/Star leitmotif is my favorite Kirby song ever.)
Sonic must be super jealous right now.
It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's... the Friend Star! (Also, you forgot the 'e' in 'single.')
Wait a minute. I thought you accepted my proposal for Adeline's boss subtitle!
Wow, you knew that out of all the Star Allies characters, Adeline had the least health! You must have done your research!
(And it's spelled resistant.)
Oh no, anyone but Marx--
--Never mind, it's just Gooey... GOOEY?! Anyone but the friendly Dark Matter!
9931384
I said I liked it, but I also said I didn't know which one to choose, so I tossed a coin to let it choose for me.
It's easy to remember too that in the previous games, she was knocked out in just one hit.
I'm with you here, even me was disturbed when I imagined this. I think I went a little too far in the eldrish abomination domain.
Yes, Gooey, and oh boy, what a fight I have in store against him! And I thought that Gooey would be more obvious when Pitch tried to mimick him. Marx sticks out his tongue only in his soul fight.
9931426
...Have you even heard of the Batman villain Two-Face? His coin sometimes leads him to make dumb decisions. Really dumb decisions.
You have a good point about Marx, but when the story said that Pitch looked in two different directions, I immediately thought of left for the left eye and right for the right eye. It might have helped if you described Pitch as looking cross-eyed, like Derpy. You could've also had him walk around like he had no idea what he was doing.
(Also, you only spell 'mimic' with a 'k' if you're using the past-tense--with the '-ed' suffix--or present-tense--with the '-ing' suffix--version of the verb.)
9931464
That's why I use this method only when I know that the two possibilities aren't dumb.
I totally forgot about that expression. I will add this. I should also find a site listing all the English expressions.
Gooey? oh no...... WE MUST SAVE PRECIOUS BOY
9931384
As an enemy, Adeleine traditionally goes down with less effort than the average Waddle Dee. The trouble has always been getting to that point.
10221595
I know, right?
Kirby's Dreamland 2: Dedede gets possessed by Dark Matter. Kirby's Dreamland 3: Dedede and most of the bosses get possessed by Dark Matters. Kirby The Crystal Shards: Waddle Dee, Adeleine, Dedede, and the Queen of the fairies get possessed by Dark Matters and Zero Two. Kirby Squeak Squad: Daroach gets possessed by Dark Nebula (and let's not forget the Ghost ability). Kirby's Epic Yarn: Dedede and Meta Knight get controlled by Yin-Yarn. Kirby Mass Attack: It's never told, but the bosses are certainly controlled by Necrodeus (excepted Skullord). Kirby's Return to Dreamland: The Lor Starcutter gets controlled by Magolor, and Magolor ends up controlled by the Master Crown. Kirby Triple Deluxe: Dedede gets controlled/corrupted by Taranza, and Sectonia is corrupted by the Amazing Mirror. Kirby Rainbow Curse: Claycia is possessed by Dark Crafter. Kirby Planet Robobot: Many beings are robotized and controlled by the Haltmann Work Company, and Haltmann himself is corrupted by Star Dream. Kirby Star Allies: Whispy, Dedede, and Meta Knight get corrupted by the Jamba Heart Shards, and Hyness is indirectly corrupted by the influence of the Jamba Heart and his own darkness. There're also the spin offs, especially in the Team Kirby ones.
I don't think there's a saga possessing more characters getting possessed, controlled, and corrupted than Kirby. Even the anime has some mind control and corruption here and there, like the television episode.
Also, corrected.
Error spotted, correction in green, original struck out.
11415114
Thanks.
The Azteks & Mynas
The Adeline picture in this chapter is broken.
11574736
Yeah, I need to find a new one of her looking evil, like when she was possessed in Crystal Shards, but it isn't easy to find.