Fanfic / Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Odyssey of Dreams

Image by ChronoWeapon. Used with permission.

Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Odyssey of Dreams is a fanfic based on Kirby: Right Back at Ya! written by ChronoWeapon. It ran for 44 chapters with the 44th being a bonus. Unlike most fan works of the anime, this one is primarily based on the English dub, though with some elements of the Japanese version and loads of references to the games.

The story takes place a year after Nightmare's defeat. The plot kicks off when Cappy Town is attacked by a maniacal jester named Marx, who wishes to obtain eight mystical stones known as the Dream Stones so he can Take Over the World. Soon afterward, Kirby finds Bandana Waddle Dee, who has been possessed by an entity called Dark Matter. After freeing him, they discover that an entire swarm of Dark Matter is invading and destroying Planet Popstar, with the Dream Stones being the only way to stop it. Thus, Kirby and his friends set out to find all of them and put a stop to Dark Matter and Marx, making new allies and battling new foes (including a robotic clone) along the way.

Can be read on DeviantArt and FanFiction.net. There's also a short sequel story, Haunted Halberd, which was released for Halloween. The fic has received various revisions that correct such things as spelling and continuity errors. However, in 2021 it began to undergo a much more extensive rewrite that included references to newer Kirby games, updated characterization, etc. As the final revision contains substantial differences from the original version, this is what the "rewrite" will refer to on these pages.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Abandoned Mine: The aptly-named Yogurt Yard Abandoned Mines, which once belonged to a crew of Waddlekin miners but were deserted after an alien attack.
• Absurdly Cool City: Rainbow Resort is the floating capital city of Popstar, located at the north pole. It has gilded gates, majestic and ornate buildings, and a massive luxurious skyscraper where the Trade Regent lives, and is populated by races from all over the world.
• Adaptational Badass: Many of the characters who didn't get a chance to fight on the show (such as Tiff and King Dedede) get an opportunity here. Additionally, some monsters from the games are much stronger than before—most notably, the Computer Virus, whose Slime and Dancing Doll forms have more methods of attack.
• Adaptation Name Change: Bizarrely zigzagged, as most characters use their English names but some use their original Japanese names. In some cases this makes sense, but others are seemingly chosen at random (Nightmare has his original name back, likely to stay in line with the games, but Lololo and Lalala have still been changed to Fololo and Falala), and the original version even switched between the two names by mistake on occasion (such as Silica and Sirica).
• Adventure Towns: As Kirby and his party travel across Popstar to acquire the Dream Stones, they encounter many towns and civilizations that need their help.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Alchemy exists in this setting, and is mostly used to create medicines and panaceas. However, it is possible to peform the classic "transmuting matter into different forms", which is mostly used by Dark Matter, the inventors of the technique.
• Amusement Park of Doom: The Ripple City Water Amusement Park isn't supposed to be dangerous, but the Dark Matter-possessed Ado has made it so.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Once Adeleine joins Kirby and friends, they decide the team is getting too large for them to continue without raising suspicion. Thus, Kirby and Ribbon keep only a few teammates with them at a time from that point onwards, with the others resting at Refuge Point and switching out when necessary. Sometimes, they bring out the full party for a really big fight.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The rulers of most societies are known as Faction Leaders, and typically achieve their position by being the strongest of their kind.
• Benevolent Precursors: Legends say that in ancient times, terrible Demon Beasts were coming in through the Dream Springs to wreck havoc on Popstar. To counteract this, eight wise sages from across the planet came together and created the Dream Stones to seal them off, as well as purifying the most powerful monsters to act as guardians. After their work was done, they retired to live a life of peace and allowed their descendants to carry on their work.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Battle for Popstar. Taking place right before the confrontation with Zero, it's a massive battle of the Miracle Monsters and the Black Knight vs. Kirby's party and all the cities they met along the way. It goes on for four chapters.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The chief antagonist of the story is Zero and his legion of Dark Matter, but Marx and Mecha Kirby also act as independent recurring villains.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Red Canyon is a place infested with ghosts, zombies, and other undead creatures thanks to Fry. The same applies to the Citrine Citadel located inside.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Meta Knight steps in to save Kirby and his friends from Kryl when they first meet the latter, as well during their second encounter when Kirby's teammates have been eaten.
  • Aegis Prime, the leader of the Elementals, pounds Zero hundreds of feet into the ground just before he can kill the heroes in his first battle. He also clocks Cloud Keeper in the face when it attacks Cloudy Park later on.
  • Just before the heroes can be destroyed by Commander Gyork's superweapon, a future Meta Knight arrives to destroy it with the perfected Flames of Galaxia.
  • After Kirby's friends realize that none of them have any earth-based weapons to damage Miracle Matter's Stone form, Trade Regent Chapman shows up to finish it with a robot tank (which has a sand blaster).
  • Just when Kirby and co. think they're about to be finished by Protaeus the Primordial, Sir Arthur and the various Faction Leaders show up to revive them. Also, Aegis Prime shows up to combat Protaeus himself, with Kirby assisting him for the rest of the battle.
• Big Fancy Castle: The Castle of Cake, a humongous, booby trappped castle shaped like a giant birthday cake. It's also the former hiding place of the fourth Dream Stone.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Mallow Marshes, a deadly, sticky swamp that's part of Yogurt Yard and the home of Escargoon's Country Cousin.
• Calling Your Attacks:
  • A variant: usually, when Kirby copies an ability for the first time, he gives a succinct description of what said ability does—presumably as a literary equivelent to his Transformation Sequences.
  • Most magic or special attacks have the user announcing the attack's name before launching it.
• The Cameo: Gooey briefly appears in Chapter 40 as one of Zero's failed experiments.
• Captain's Log: Starting from Chapter 4, most chapters open with a recap of the previous one that Tiff wrote in her journal. Sometimes her teammates write comments on it as well. She stops writing entires in Chapter 40 as the final battle approaches, but writes one final entry at the end of the epilogue.
• The Cavalry: Knuckle Joe and his team, Mecha Kirby, and even Kryl all show up to help Kirby fight Zero at the end of the story.
• Celebrating the Heroes: After Kirby and his friends defeat Zero, General Dee gathers people from around the world at Cloud Sea City to celebrate their victory.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The first time Zero is defeated, he drops what appears to be a lens of some sort. It isn't until much later, when he's defeated again and drops a second lens, that it belongs to the Queen Fairy's glasses.
  • At Skyline Tower, the heroes encounter a large metal door that they're unable to open. 23 chapters later, the door plays a crucial role when it's revealed that there are Legendary Air Ride Machines behind it, which Kirby and his friends use to get to Dark Star. This one's even lampshaded:
  Waddle Dee: So that's what was behind the door...
  Adeleine: And here I am nearly forgetting about that!
• Chekhov's Time Travel: At one point, Mecheye mantions that she's working on a time travel experiment. In the next chapter, a future version of Meta Knight briefly arrives to destroy the Eye of the Apocalypse and teach Meta Knight the perfected form of the Flames of Galaxia.
• Chekhov's Volcano: Double Subverted. Mt. Veluvius is stated to be an extinct volcano, but Wham Bam Rock tries to make it erupt in a desperate attempt to kill Kirby; Sir Arthur manages to stop him. However, defeating Magmalith actually causes it to erupt.
• Citadel City: Cloudy Park, a collection of numerous high-altitude Waddlekin cities, is surrounded by an enormous controlled tornado known as the "Barricane" to remain safe from intruders. It even manages to keep Dark Matter out, forcing Zero to set up a battle as a distraction so he can slip one of his agents inside.
• Clingy Costume: At one point, Kryl tricks Kirby into putting on a cursed suit of Nether Armor, which weighs him down and can't be removed through normal means. Once he reaches Cloud Sea City, he's able to get it removed and purified at the Crusader Monastery.
• Common Tongue: Most inhabitants of Popstar (as well as many other planets) speak a common language, translated into English for our convenience. However, other languages do exist, such as that spoken by the Waddlekin, which Waddle Dee will happily translate if they Do Not Speak Common.
• Cool Airship: King Dedede's personal blimp Kabula, straight out of Kirby's Dream Land, has just as much firepower as she does in the games. Escargoon uses her to intercept Kirby's voyage to Cloudy Park while possessed by Dark Matter, but after being freed he happily uses her to transport Kirby and his team wherever they need to go.
• Continuity Nod: Quite a few nods to the original show pop up from time to time:
  • When Tiff sees the beaches of Ripple Field have been polluted by Dark Matter, she recalls the time when aliens were dumping their garbage on Dream Land ("Junk Jam").
  • Tiff's journal entry in Chapter 9 (after King Dedede joins the team) has her looking back on the few times he allowed his good side to show, namely when the asteroid was about to destroy Dream Land ("Prediction Predicament") and when he thought he killed Kirby ("D'Preciation Day").
  • Apparently, Dedede is still into birdwatching ("Kirby's Egg-Cellent Adventure").
  • When Kirby gets the Mike ability and uses it to defeat Dark Daroach, Dedede immediately tells everyone to cover their ears, no doubt remembering the last time he heard Mike Kirby ("Fitness Fiend").
  • King Dedede's first entry in Tiff's journal references that he used to not be able to read ("A Novel Approach").
  • One of Dedede's weapons is the Laser Saw, which replaced his regular chainsaw in the 4kids version of the anime.
  • On their way to Rainbow Resort, the heroes pass by Pengi Village, where the Pengis from "The Chill Factor" eventually settled down.
• Crystal Landscape: The location of the final Dream Stone, Snowflake Sanctuary, crosses this with Slippy-Slidey Ice World. It's a massive, ornate cathedral made of Ice Crystals, and the domain of Crystallossus.
• Darker and Edgier: While still having humorous moments, Odyssey of Dreams is quite a bit bleaker than the show it's based on. Whereas Right Back at Ya! was a comedic slice-of-life with some adventure elements and mostly had Laughably Evil villains, this fic is purely a high-adventure series with a far more dangerous antagonist and plenty of character deaths.
• Death by Transceiver: Two examples of people dying while communicating through a transciever occur: first when the keeper of the Vegetable Village Escape Route is killed by Mecha Kirby, and second when some of General Dee's soldiers are killed by Proteaus the Primordial.
• Death Mountain: Snowflake Sanctuary is located on Mt. Foreverrest, a slippery, icy mountain plagued by avalanches that make just reaching the Sanctuary a hefty task.
• Death World:
  • The Waddlekin seem to consider Yogurt Yard to be Popstar's equivalent of Australia, as they refuse to set foot there. With the treacherous swamps, rampant Eco-Terrorists, and deadly creatures lurking underground, it's not hard to see why.
  • There's also Frozen Fields, the north pole of Popstar where Rainbow Resort is located. The temperature rarely breaks zero degrees, the atmosphere is thin due to its altitude, and the native fauna are highly aggressive. This happens to be the very place where Meta Knight puts his allies through training.
• Demonic Possession: Like in the games, the Dark Matter does this to their victims. This also applies to those that defeat each member of the Rainbow Knights.
• Demoted to Extra: Tuff and nearly every recurring character in the anime has gotten less focus in this fanfic.
• Derelict Graveyard: Reaching the Water Palace requires crossing the Graveyard of Ships, a wasteland of wrecked ships from across the ages that's home to supposedly extinct creatures.
• Doomed Hometown: Mecha Kirby attacks Cappy Town soon after upgrading himself into Alpha Mecha Kirby. It's also the first to fall under Dark Matter territory. Thankfully, most of the residents were able to be evacuated and moved to Refuge Point. Dark Matter end up finding that, too, although the citizens successfully evacuate again.
• Doorstopper: This fanfic has 47 chapters. All of them combined is 267 thousand words!
• Dream Land: No, not Kirby's Dream Land. The Realm of Dreams is an actual Dream Land where all people's minds go when they dream. Zero wants to access this mysterious place so he can use it to spread his corruption across the universe.
• Dug Too Deep: The reason the Waddlekin refuse to enter Yogurt Yard, despite it being rich in natural resources. A mining crew was sent to retrieve minerals from the place, only for half of them to be killed by something they uncovered underground (a bunch of insectoid aliens, as it turns out).
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Once Zero is dead, the Dark Matter becomes disorganized without his guidance, causing Dark Star to implode. Kryl steals the Dragoon that was intended to be used to escape, but luckily, Queen Fairy is able to teleport the heroes off the planet in time.
• Eating Solves Everything: On a couple occasions, Kirby has been able to keep an important item safe from the villains by swallowing it.
• Eat Me: Somewhat ironically, on two occasions Kirby tricks an enemy into eating him, allowing him to retrieve something important the enemy has swallowed—first with Kryl (who had eaten his friends to copy their abilities), then with Mecha Kirby (to get the Emerald Amber from inside his body]].
• Elemental Plane: Completing the Skyline Tower allows access to a portal that leads to the Realm of the Elementals, populated entirely by embodiments of the elements in their purest form.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Three-fold:
  • When the time comes to fight the Miracle Monsters near the end of the story, Kirby uses the Prism Diamond on hs Warp Star, turning it into the Star Rod once more. He then wields it for the remainer of the story.
  • After accepting the Red Knight's power, Kirby's pure heart allows him to use it without getting possessed, becoming Red Knight Kirby—a powerful new form that still wields the Star Rod that he uses to battle Zero. His friends undergo a similar transformation after being freed of their possession.
  • Finally, after entering the Realm of Dreams, Kirby merges the Dream Stones with the Star Rod, transforming it into the Dreaming Star Sword which he uses to finally defeat Zero.
  • Additionally, during Haunted Halberd, Kirby manages to obtain the Ultra Sword during the battle against Nightmare Soul, which he uses to finish off the villain.
• Fakin' MacGuffin: Meta Knight devises a tactic to defeat the Rainbow Knights involving this—he creates six copies of the Prism Diamond, gives one to each of his allies, and then they all run off in different directions. The Knights split up to find each of them, and the heroes defeat them all one by one.
• Fighting Your Friend: With Dark Matter's M-O being to possess people, it's no surprise that this shows up a few times:
  • Tiff, Meta Knight, and King Dedede (albeit still Kirby's nemesis) all get possessed at various points, forcing Kirby and his other friends to free them.
  • Ado, Adeleine's sister (brother in the original) also gets possessed, pitting her against Adeleine twice in the story.
  • Similarly, Ribbon needs to fight her sister Bella after she gets turned into a Cyborg by Mecha-Kirby.
  • During the finale, ALL of Kirby's party members get possessed by the Rainbow Knights, with their friends having to fight them while Kirby and Kryl focus on Zero.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: In a fanfic sense. Once Overlord Zero gets hold of all the Dream Stones, he enters the Realm of Dreams. Kirby follows suit. Cue the remainder of the Sequential Boss.
• Find the Cure!: On their way to finding the first Dream Stone in Big Forest, the crew tries to find six of a flower known as a Brambleweed Bloom to help a woman whose son is sick.
  • A more serious and important example happens later on when Marx infects Kirby with a spell that renders him unconcious, forcing his friends to find ingredients for a remedy and fend for themselves against Kryl until he recovers.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Gryl prefaces her telling of the legend of the Sages by saying it "may or may not be true". It's believed to be true for much of the story, but information given by the Guardians later on contradicts the legend, revealing it to be false.
  • During the heroes' trip through the Great Cave, Tiff discovers a fossil of an unknown insect-like creature. An identical one is found later on in an antique shop in Muckshell Village. They belong to the Antlyons, who attacked the Waddlekin mining crew sent to Yogurt Yard and become an obstacle later on.
  • Tons of hints are dropped about the Rainbow Knights' power to possess their killers, from Zero mentioning their "special ability" after Violet Knight's demise to their comments after each of their deaths.
  • Overlord Zero has a different look than his usual "giant eyeball" appearance. Also, after each of the heroes' encounters with him, he drops items belonging to the Queen Fairy. These are hints that Queen Fairy is containing Zero inside her body.
  • "Never let you go." It's the message that Kirby's friends receive through their Dark Matter-induced nightmares, and an early clue that it has greater plans for them. When the heroes have been assimilated by the Rainbow Knights, Zero even quotes the line verbatim, hammering the point home.
• Four-Seasons Level: The first Dream Stone is found in Brambleweed Fortress, an ancient fortress with trials based around the four seasons.
• Funetik Aksent: King Dedede, Sword Knight, and a few other characters with thick accents have their pronunciations of words spelled out phonetically. Bizarrely, this even extends to their writing, as King Dedede's journal entries still use his southern drawl despite not being spoken.
• Giant Scrap Robot: Heavy Lobster returns on the Halberd 2.5, this time constructed out of scrap parts and space junk.
• Green Hill Zone: The first areas that Kirby and his friends go to are Green Greens Plains and Vegetable Valley, which are both more-or-less the same as they are in their respective games.
• Hand Wave: While Water Kirby resembled its anime appearance (a translucent watery body with an ocean wave hat) in the original, the rewrite changes it to look like its appearance in the games (a tall pillar of water as a crown and no body change), despite taking place in the anime's continuity. This is explained as being due to Kirby first obtaining the Water ability in a dream, and thus not knowing what it really looks like.
• Haunted Castle: The third dream stone is found in Citrine Citadel, a spooky, labyrinthine cathedral filled with booby traps and crawling with undead monsters.
• Haunted Technology: The premise of Haunted Halberd centers around this, as a malevolent force is haunting the Halberd 2.5 and its robotic crew, turning them hostile.
• Help Yourself in the Future: Right when it seems like Kabula is about to be destroyed by a Dark Matter Kill Sat, a Cyborg Meta Knight from a Bad Future shows up (using the previously-mentioned Mekkai time travel program) to destroy it. He also helps the present Meta Knight indirectly, who finds the future Galaxia and gains his future self's memories, allowing him to use the perfected Flames of Galaxia.
• Heroic Lineage: The ancient sages who created the Dream Stones left behind descendants to continue their work. Some of them show up to help Kirby on his quest, including Undyne and Gryll. Tiff and her family also turn out to be among the descendants.
• High-Altitude Battle: Kirby and friends' flight to Cloudy Park quickly turns into one of these, as they're attacked by the Dark Matter-possessed Tiff, Escargoon, Sword Knight, Blade Knight, Lololo and Lalala.
• Holographic Terminal: Zero charts his progress in conquering Popstar using a holographic map.
• Hope Spot:
  • After the long and arduous battle against Crystallossus, it seems like the heroes are finally able to claim the final Dream Stone and defeat Dark Matter once and for all... And then Kryl shows up to take it. Followed by the Rainbow Knights. And Zero. They ultimately manage to keep their hands on the Prism Diamond, but lose all the other Dream Stones they've collected.
  • Kryl hopes he can finally be free and get some peace and quiet after Zero seemingly dies... until the piece of Zero that was placed inside his body awakens.
• Hostage For Macguffin: While Marx manages to steal the map leading to the Dream Stones, Kirby manages to take the gemstone that is required to navigate to them. When Marx realizes this, he kidnaps a fairy and trades her safety for the gemstone. Fortunately, said fairy turns out to be Ribbon, who also has the power to locate the Dream Stones and gladly helps Kirby and his crew.
• Hulk Speak: Rolling Turtle and Storo speak in this manner.
• Hypocritical Humor: Rolling Turtle tries to insult Kirby by making fun of his name, which doesn't mean much coming from someone called Rolling Turtle.
• Ice Magic Is Water: A Waddle Doo professor Discusses this trope, as Water and Ice are considered separate elements. Ice doesn't necessarily have to be frozen water—it could also be frozen gas (i.e., dry ice), hence why some ice spells do water damage and some do ice damage.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Twice, Adeleine is mistaken for Ado by the citizens of a city she attacked, with her friends having to get her out of trouble—first in Ripple City, then in Cloud Sea City.
• Infodump: Typically, whenever a location's history or a character's backstory needs to be revealed, a character will give a long-winded explanation of it to the party. Occasionally, this can even happen in the middle of a battle.
• Instant Oracle: Just Add Water!: The Dream Springs' mystical waters can show the past, present, and future in their reflections, as well as other planets. If you're a Demon Beast, you can also use them to travel between each Spring.
• Jungle Japes: The area leading up to Marzipan City is Gnarlyvine Jungle, a rainforest with dangerous flora abound. It's also home to the descendants of the Fallen Army.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The team's encounter with Deathly Woods ends with them just giving up and continuing their search for the Dream Stones, as even Kirby's most powerful Fire attacks can't hurt it. This ends up being the case with every Miracle Monster, leading to the heroes simply fleeing to the next area whenever one shows up.
• Lady of War: Lady Sylvanya is a very beautiful and graceful woman, and the skillful leader of the Argent Crown Clergy.
• Laser-Guided Karma: It's mentioned in the epilogue that Ribbon "politely" kicked Tokkori out of Kirby's house, which was well-deserved after all the crap he put Kirby through in the show. Kirby apparently still prefers sleeping in the tree, though (though this likely means Tokkori no longer has a home).
• Legend Fades to Myth: It is believed that the Ancient Sages came together to create the Dream Stones to prevent Monsters from coming to Popstar through the Dream Springs, as well as purifying the most powerful ones to act as Guardians. This turns out to be false, as the Dream Stones were not their creations and the Guardians were always the Guardians.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": Sir Ebrum is made a retroactive example, as his species is revealed to be called "Ebbrians".
• Ludicrous Precision: In Haunted Halberd, GIM calculates that after being disconnected from her Mekkai following their Demonic Possession, Overseer Mecheye made "approximately 32,476,932,145,267 attempts" to reconnect with them.
• Mage Species: Two notable examples: Ebbrians, the species of Tiff who have greater attunement to magic, and the Fallen Army, a clan of dark magic-wielding Waddle Dees that broke off from the rest of their tribe.
• Magic A Is Magic A: The rules for the Dream Stones are clearly set in place. While each of them specialise in a certain type of magic that can be used endlessly, they can also be used to grant wishes. However, this causes the Dream Stone to be "locked out" of granting further wishes for a period of time to prevent its power from being abused. Larger-scale wishes also require more Dream Stones to pull off, which means something major like Taking Over the World requires all eight of them. Also, you can't make a wish unless you actually own the Dream Stone, which means either receiving it as a gift or defeating its owner in combat — unless you're Dark Matter, who can use it anyway without issue.
• The Maze: Part of Citrine Citadel is a massive labyrinth with tons of enemies and traps. Reaching the end leads to a torture chamber containing a music sheet, which has the song one needs to play on the organ at the start of the Citadel to progress.
• Mineral Macguffin: The Dream Stones are magical gemstones that grant their holder wishes. If all eight are collected, they have the power to bring any dream to life—great for banishing Dark Matter (if you're Kirby) or Taking Over The World (if you're Marx).
• Mordor: Dark Star is portrayed quite a bit differently than in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Rather than being an Eldritch Location made of floating hexagons, it's a desolate wasteland cobbled together from parts of other planets.
• My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: The second encounter with Kryl plays out like this. Since Kirby has been taken out by Marx, his teammates (as well as Meta Knight) need to stall him until he can recover and gain the upper hand.
• Mythology Gag: Enough of these to warrant its own page.
• Named After Their Planet: The Mekkai come from the planet Mekkai.
• Orwellian Retcon: The author, ChronoWeapon, regularly updates the story's chapters to fix spelling and grammar mistakes, continuity errors, plot holes, and more, even before the official "rewrite" began. As a result, the absolute earliest version of the story is totally inaccessible.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Mer-folk exist in this world, and they're led by a queen named Undyne (no, not that one) who happens to be a descendent of the Sages.
• The Paladin: The Argent Crown Clergy is an order of holy knights dedicated to fighting evil beings.
• Palmtree Panic: Ripple Field is a popular beach area, which also includes a coastal city and a water park.
• Parallel Conflict Sequence: Chapter 28, which constantly jumps between two simultaneous battles: Meta Knight and his crew fighting Battle Windows, and Kirby and his crew fighting Mecha Kirby.
• Patchwork Fic: Primarily based on the English dub of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, but includes some concepts and names from the Japanese version that were changed in translation (such as the Galaxy Star Army, the name of Nightmare and his company, etc.). And, of course, it includes tons of characters from the games.
• Philosopher's Stone: Philosopher's Stones allow anyone to perform the basics of Alchemy, though it takes more skill and learning to perform more advanced feats like manipulating matter. They are also illegal to create. The Dark Matter-possessed Sailor Dee uses one of these to battle Waddle Dee.
• Quest Giver: Befitting the story's video game-like structure, there are numerous side characters who give Kirby and his friends jobs to do in exchange for rewards.
• Red Herring:
  • Gryl's story about the Ancient Sages and how they created the Dream Stones turns out to be false.
  • Initially, the creatures that attacked the Waddlekin mining crew are hinted to be the Mekkai Cyborgs. It's actually a Horde of Alien Locusts that were attacking the Mekkai as well.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Tiff sees Waddle Dee carrying a Drifter, she believes he's under its control. She's right about Waddle Dee being under someone else's control, but it's not the Drifter—it's Dark Matter.
• Role-Playing Game 'Verse: This fanfic is distinctly set up to resemble a video game—things like Equipment Upgrades, Sidequests, a limited party size, and multi-phase boss fights are all included in the story.
• Rollercoaster Mine: Refuge Point is reached via a mine cart track that's set up like a rollercoaster, complete with an announcer telling passengers to "keep all appendages in the mine cart at all times". Unfortunately, Mecha Kirby also attacks the heroes here in his Wheel form; this leads to a tense Chase Scene that ends with the mine cart being too damaged to continue, forcing the characters to walk the rest of the way.
• Rope Bridge: Exploited. One of the obstacles in Brambleweed Fortress is a very narrow bridge with stone walls that pop up to block the path. It was designed as a death trap to keep intruders out, as the narrowness of the bridge prevents enemies from swarming the fortress and the walls allow defenders to snipe said enemies from a safe distance. Also, the walls act as supports fo the bridge, meaning it will collapse if they're all destroyed (provided the invaders weigh enough).
• Ruins for Ruins' Sake:
  • Just outside of Mt. Veluvius is Marzipan City, the ancient abandoned city at the base of the volcano which was wiped out after it erupted.
  • The location of the seventh Dream Stone is the Yogurt Yard Shrine, a peaceful grotto built inside a mountain. Unlike the other Dream Stone temples, this one seems to have no already-existing traps and is simply extremely well-hidden, with the main danger coming from the much newer Antlyons, toxic waste pools, and crumbling caverns from overmining.
• Running Gag:
  • Kirby setting off a trap either by pressing a button, or pulling a lever.
  • Every time Kirby spots a rare weapon, he tries to obtain it... only to be stopped by Meta Knight, telling him that he's not ready to wield it. This is all to prevent Kirby from being corrupted.
• Secret Underground Passage: Refuge Point is accessed through a secret trapdoor in Mayor Silverleaf's office. Tiff, being the daughter of Dedede's Cabinet Minister, is quite familiar with this sort of thing.
• Sequel Hook: Quite a few intriguing story elements are brought up or foreshadowed throughout the fic (such as the Waddlelorn and Queen Fairy's sister), but ultimately don't play a role in the plot or are never expanded upon. Word of God is that these were supposed to be addressed in a sequel story, but it's unclear whether these will pan out.
• Slave Race: In ancient times, the Waddle Dees and Doos were enslaved by Monsters coming in from the Dream Springs. They were kept underground, forced to make tools and weapons—including magical weapons, which became the Monsters' downfall when the Waddlekin used them to strike back against their captors and free themselves.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The various lands of Frozen Fields are dangerously cold, slippery, and filled with deadly animals. Perfect place for Meta Knight to train his team for harsh environments! This also extends to the final Dream Stone temple found within, Snowflake Sanctuary.
• Shoot the Fuel Tank: Kirby severely damages a GIM Stalker in Haunted Halberd by getting it to ram its saw into a fuel tank, causing it to explode.
• Shout-Out:
  • Among the strange items that Gryll has stored away are Mario's cap, a silver Rupee, and Ness' yo-yo.
  • Tiff's Sage outfit bears a strong resemblance to the White Mage.
  • One of the traps in Skyline Tower consists of massive stone cubes falling from the ceiling and threatening to crush the heroes, essentially being a massive (and deadly) game of Tetris. If you didn't get the reference, Waddle Dee helpfully points it out.
  • This exchange between Zero and Tiff is a likely reference to Super Mario Bros. Z:
  Tiff: Y-you're a monster!!
  Zero: No... I am a God!
  • One of the obstacles in Veluvius Temple is a rollercoaster made from a skeletal serpent, a reference to the Spine Coaster of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
  • King Dedede after seeing Mecha Kirby's evolved form in Chapter 25:
  King Dedede: Yikes, he must'a evolved again like one of them Pokémon creatures!
  • The Slime created by the Computer Virus successfully calls a pal here—a Heavy Metallic Slime. Meta Knight is surprised that it doesn't run away before he can attack.
  • The confusing layout and dead ends of the Yogurt Yard Shrine prompts a comparison to Metroid from Meta Knight, which his friends don't get (Word of God is that this is because Meta Knight is in Smash and the others aren't.
  • Kryl's Motive Rant in Chapter 31 is paraphrased (and in some cases, lifted entirely) from the Air Conditioner's rant in The Brave Little Toaster, of all things.
  • The god that the Argent Crown Clergy worships happens to be Palutena.
  • The rematch against the Black Knight appropriately begins with him quoting the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Some of Zero's attacks are described as "incomprehensible", a nod to the infamous "You Cannot Grasp the True Form of Giygas' attack!" from EarthBound (1994).
• Sole Survivor:
  • Ribbon and Bubbles both believe themselves to be the only survivors of Marx's attack before they find each other again. Ribbon's sister, Bella, is also still alive, though not unscathed.
  • Protaeus the Primordial wipes out an entire island of General Dee's troops, with only one living to tell the tale.
• Star Scraper: The fifth Dream Stone is found in Skyline Tower, a miles-tall building with rooms based on the Classical Elements and believed to be the first structure ever built on Popstar.
• Status Quo Is God: Despite Ribbon politely kicking out Tokkori, Kirby still sleeps on the tree. And despite being nicer, Dedede is still a bit mischievous.
• Stock Ness Monster: Nessy, a supposedly extinct sea monster that lives in the Graveyard of Ships.
• Storming the Castle: Chapter 40 begins with the heroes invading Dark Castle to confront Zero for the final time.
• Sugar Apocalypse: Zero's ultimate goal is to snuff out any semblance of happiness in the universe, which means he always sends his destructive, corruptive Dark Matter to attack the most peaceful, cheerful planets he can find. He did it to Ripple Star, and now he has his sights set on Popstar.
• Supervillain Lair: Dark Castle is changed to Overlord Zero's personal lair here. It's a massive, ominous castle in the middle of Dark Star with gunky machinery that produces Dark Matter and a dungeon where Zero keeps his experiments.
• Surfer Dude: The mayor of Ripple City, appropriately named "Dudely".
• Temple of Doom: While most of the Dream Stones are located inside ancient structures filled with traps, they were mostly improvised from various caves and fortresses. The only temple truly built to protect a Dream Stone is the final one, Snowflake Sanctuary.
• Tournament Arc: Chapters 9-11. Kirby and his friends learn that the Squeaks have gone to compete in the Sandstone Arena, so they enter its fighting tournament for an oppurtunity to battle them and get back their stolen Dream Stones, along with the key to Citrine Citadel and an autograph. Uniquely, the heroes don't have to actually defeat the champions to get the key pieces (and as a matter of fact, they don't) as it's an exhibition match, and instead receive them for showing impressive feats of strength and skill.
• Training from Hell: After landing in the deathly-cold Frozen Fields, Meta Knight puts the rest of the Kirby crew through this, as they hike their way to Rainbow Resort using painful medication that protects them from the cold.
• Treasure Map: To find the Dream Stones, Marx steals an ancient map from Mr. Curio, which has the locations of said stones marked. Kirby, Tiff, and the rest of the crew are stuck with a regular map, but they also have a special gemstone (and later on, Ribbon) that can help them navigate to the Dream Stones, which they attach to a compass.
• Tropical Island Adventure: When Marx's spell causes Kirby to accidently crash his Warp Star, he and his friends land on Crescent Moon Island, the uncharted island inhabited by Marx's kind.
• Underground City: Refuge Point is the Apocalypse Bunker flavor, being an underground city where war refugees historically hid. Many denizens of Popstar (including the residents of Cappy Town) go there to stay safe from the Dark Matter invasion, and Kirby's party members are transported there when they need to switch with someone else.
• Underwater Ruins: The second Dream Stone is located in the Water Palace, an ancient palace that collapsed into a massive sinkhole as punishment from the mer-folk for its inhabitants stealing the Dream Stone.
• Unnaturally Looping Location: The Mirrorwood Forest contains many paths that will cause you to loop back to the start of the forest if you take the wrong one. Kirby and his party exploit this while fighting Kryl be tricking him into going down the wrong paths, causing him to get lost.
• Volcano Lair: The sixth Dream Stone is located in Veluvius Temple, a temple built inside the seemingly extinct volcano Mt. Veluvius that's filled with appropriate fire-based obstacles. It is split into two areas—one leading to the top of the volcano, and one leading below it—where Kirby and his friends must find the Way Stones needed to unlock the way to the Dream Spring.
• Watching Troy Burn: Dark Matter manages to successfully destroy Bubbly Clouds City by blasting it with a gigantic beam of light. Kirby, his friends, and Admiral Doo are able to escape, but they still have to watch as the city crashes to the ground.
• We Need a Distraction: In order to get past Cloudy Park's defenses, Dark Matter possesses Escargoon, Tiff, and a few other residents of Cappy Town. They then start a High-Altitude Battle with Kirby on the path to Cushy Clouds Airport, allowing them to slip Ado inside during the ensuing chaos.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 24 opens with the heroes interrogating the Dream Guardians on their origins, leading to the revalation that the legend of the Sages told by Gryl is false.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The story ends with a final journal entry from Tiff, who explains what happened after Zero's defeat:
  • Although the Rainbow Knights were unable to be fully removed from Kirby's friends, Queen Fairy was able to make it so their power could be activated or deactivated at will.
  • Waddle Dee, Ribbon, and Adeleine moved to Cappy Town. Ribbon "politely" kicked Tokkori out of Kirby's house for good, though Kirby still likes sleeping in his tree.
  • Waddle Dee continues to be General Dee's guinea pig, and is currently searching for the pieces of the General's broken Halberd of Heavy Storms.
  • King Dedede is still mischievous, but has officially pulled a Heel–Face Turn. He and Escargoon are currently rebuilding their castle after it was destroyed by Mecha Kirby.
  • Adeleine and Ado live with Chef Kawasaki, as they actually like his food.
  • Sir Arthur bought some land in Orange Islands and made it a home for refugees from the war against Nightmare.
  • The Mekkai integrated into society and returned Mecha Kirby's cyborgs back to normal, including Ribbon's sister Bella. Mecha Kirby himself has been refurbished and is no longer malevolent.
  • Most cities that were destroyed during the invasion are being rebuilt, including Bubbly Clouds City. General Dee made a memorial for the old one, with Admiral Doo adding Commander Gyork's head.
  • Meta Knight continues to train Kirby and his friends, with Knuckle Joe and Sirica paying frequent visits.
• Who You Gonna Call?: As paladins, the Argent Crown Clergy is very good at getting rid of undead creatures, and help Kirby and his party get through the undead-infested Red Canyon.
• Womb Level: After Kryl inhales King Dedede, Adeleine, and Waddle Dee, Kirby tricks him into eating him as well. After this, he explores the dark pits of Kryl's stomach to find his friends and free them.
• World in the Sky: Cloudy Park is a land high in the sky, and home to the world's largest Waddlekin cities, Bubbly Clouds and Cloud Sea. It's also well-protected against invaders by a massive tornado surrounding the park. Rainbow Resort is also located on the sky, though more emphasis is placed on how cold the surrounding area is.