Racing across landscapes of Rainbow Resort, pink puffball Kirby dove at the quarterback ape with his blackhole of a mouth wide open. In one gulp, he swallowed his foe and proudly wielded his newly acquired mallet. With this in hand, Kirby knew Deedee* would not be causing any trouble in Dreamland for a long time.
Finally catching up with the pesky penguin, Kirby stared DeeDee down, challenging him to a fight. The penguin accepted the puffball's challenge, but regretted it as soon as Kirby began to thrash him with the mallet. Badly beaten, DeeDee gave up.
"Ok! Ok!" DeeDee covered his bruised head with one hand while handing something out to Kirby with the other. "I give up! Here it is! Here's the letter from space! Just put the mallet away!"
Kirby curiously took the letter out of DeeDee's grasp and opened it. The letter contained an invitation to a tournament in another unknown world. He blinked curiously at the letter, then glared at DeeDee oddly.
"How did you find this?" Kirby asked.
"I, uh, well,…" DeeDee stuttered, knowing he was going to get hit some more for this answer. "Well, uh, you see, Kirby, I was, uh, checking out the Star Rod when it, uh, just fell from the sky. I didn't see anyone else around, so I just took it."
"And what were YOU doing around the Star Rod again!?" Kirby was slowly drawing the mallet out from where he had hidden it.
At the sight of the enormous weapon making a second appearance, DeeDee dropped to his wounded knees and cowered in front of the all mighty Kirby.
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I was really just LOOKING at the Star Rod!" the penguin panicked. "I swear that was all! I was l-l-l-looking at it and the letter fell from outer space!"
"And when you saw that it had MY name on it, you didn't even bother to come give it to me?" the puffball leered at DeeDee.
"Ah! Yes, well, uh…" DeeDee fumbled for an answer. "You see, it was, uh, already night time! Yeah, that's it! It was already late at night when I found it, so I, uh, just figured I would give it to you in the m-morning!"
"DeeDee!" Kirby scolded angrily. "It's ALWAYS night time here in the Rainbow Resort!"
Fearing death would be heading his way in a matter of seconds, DeeDee made a run for it, leaving Kirby far behind. Kirby, on the other hand, decided against chasing him. That penguin had had enough a lesson for one day's dirty deeds.
Kirby looked carefully at the letter again, this time reading all of it. There was a set time and date for him to keep on it, but Kirby didn't see how he was supposed the reach this tournament just by standing around and doing nothing in the designated place. A sense of reasonable pride washed over him and he grinned. It was an honor to be invited to participate in a tournament, especially one from an entirely different world!
On the appointed day, Kirby waited patiently where the invitation had told him to do so. For a while, it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then, from out of nowhere, a warp star crashed down beside him. Unlike the warp stars Kirby had been used to riding, this one was glowing with a bright swirl of colors. Cautiously, Kirby hopped onto the star was immediately sped away into the depths of space.
The pink puffball didn't remember landing at all. Regaining his consciousness, he looked around and found himself somewhere rather odd. It seemed as though he were still at home, with Wispy Woody blinking curiously back at him. Kirby approached him wearily.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" Kirby asked. The tree didn't respond, not verbally anyway. Kirby found himself nearly being blown off of the… arena… he had been standing on. Luckily, he managed to grab a hold of the edge to keep from falling into the abyss below. Hopping out of the tree's windy range, Kirby got his first full glance of just where he was. It may have looked a lot like Dreamland, but it most certainly wasn't Dreamland!
"Is this… the tournament place?" he scratched his head curiously.
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This is Chapter 3. Where would you like to go next?