Author's Note: I have found a stylus, so I've decided to give the art a little overhaul. 

All of the episode art will be in glorious, detailed color now! Only issue is, this art is a lot more time-consuming to make, so I may have to stick to a three-week wait time between episodes for now. (This is also to give more time for editing and other projects, but the art is the main reason.) Sometimes, like this one, I can get it out in two weeks because it was so easy to write for some reason.

I'm also planning on going back and updating the previous art, starting with the cover! (The cover is partially cut off at the moment, anyway. I've been planning this for a while.) 

=====

King Dedede, worried about his kingdom, ran through the castle, looking for something. It took digging into the janitor's closet to find it. He pulled out the Royal Guard's radio and immediately tapped the button to have them all meet at the front gates. Hopefully, he could tell them before it was too late.

In about three and a half minutes, all four members of the Guard were at the gates, talking amongst themselves. They were a bit tired, as a group would be at six in the morning. Not to mention the fact that it was a rainy and miserable morning. Dedede ran up to them, out of breath.

"Listen to me," He panted, "Gather everyone in Dreamland! I've had a list made for each of ya. Get the construction workers first! We need to get Castle Dedede sea-worthy in three hours!"

"What happens in three hours?" Bandana Dee asked, worriedly.

"All of Dreamland's gonna be underwater!"

=====

*Theme Song Plays*

=====

"So, Dreamland is going to be flooded in three hours?" Blade Knight asked, very unconvinced.

"Yeah, now hop to the rescue!" The king ordered, pointing at each of them.

"Uh, forgive me for being reluctant," Waddle Doo said, "But why do you think the kingdom's going to flood?"

"It, uh..." Dedede thought for a second, "It came to me in a dream?"

"Yeah... do you need to lie down, Sire?" Sailor Dee asked.

"The king is right!" Everyone at the scene, including King Dedede himself, jumped when Meta Knight appeared from seemingly nowhere. What was even more surprising was that he was supporting this conspiracy theory.

"How do you know?" Bandana Dee asked, very curiously.

"I decided to try and salvage what I could from the Halberd. As it turns out, I actually have to pay to get stuff here. A barbaric concept, having heroes pay for things like a house, or food." Meta Knight shook off the thoughts, returning to his original point, "When I got there, I saw some sort of wind barrier. Even worse, the water level is higher inside the barrier, and getting higher by the second! My approximation is around three hours, as well!"

"We will save everyone we can, Your Dee-ness," Bandana Dee said, bowing a bit, "Just hand us the lists."

"I will get everyone in Whispy Woods, you have my word!" The Knight quickly explained, before warping away.

The rest of them ran off, ready to save some lives.

You're lucky Meta Knight saw it.

"What do you mean?" Dedede whispered.

You did an awful job convincing them.

"What was I supposed to tell them?" He asked, "That because your Dark Matter fell into the ocean and possessed some vengeful fish, we were all gonna be sleeping with the fishes?"

How about, "I found an ancient prophecy in a history book"?

"Meh, fair." The king sighed, "Alright, let's go get everything ready!"

As Dedede ran inside, he got a strange feeling that someone was watching him. He shook it off and ran to the servant's quarters.

=====

It was a normal day for Tiff. After eating breakfast with her family, she pulled a book off of the bookshelf and began to read. Then a siren began to sound from outside. It was probably a storm warning. After all, it was pretty rainy outside.

"Attention, all Dreamland citizens!" She could Bandana Dee's voice through a megaphone, "Please hop in the cart immediately! This is a flood warning!"

A flood? It was raining quite heavily, but it wasn't at flood level yet! That didn't stop Lady Like from grabbing her raincoat and her children before walking out of the house. Sir Ebrum came out of the basement as she was putting a smaller raincoat on Tiff. As for Tuff, he was already out the door, stomping around in mud, waiting for his family.

"Honey, where are you two going?" He asked, shutting the door behind him.

"There's a flood coming, dear!" She said, with a slight bit of worry, "They have an evacuation cart loading up right now!"

"Hmph! You can go in the cart, or..." He tapped a button on his wristwatch, opening the door that he had just shut, "You can join me in the new Flood-Safe Room Mark II! Uhh... name's a work in progress, but it should work perfectly!"

"Mark II?" Tiff mouthed as she was pushed out the door.

Shortly after leaving, mud was splashed in her face by Tuff, who was still jumping around. After wiping it off, the two of them followed their mother into the cart, which looked like it had nearly everyone in the town. Tiff recognized a lot of the faces as the cart began to move. She saw the mayor, joined by his wife, Curio, Chef Kawasaki, and even her teachers. In fact, there was only one notable exception.

"Hey, where's Kirby?" She asked Bandana Dee, who was driving the cart forward, "I don't see him!"

"Huh, strange..." He said, looking back at his group, "We can't wait for any longer, though. The water's pretty much all over the ground already."

She looked at the ground in panic. He was right, anyone who was outside of the cart would have to wade their way through a massive puddle. As the cart trekked forward, the Waddle Dee checked his radio.

"Hey, do any of you guys have Kirby on your list?" He asked his team, "He's not on mine, and I just went through the area."

"Uhh, not mine!" Waddle Doo said, checking off the last of his targets.

"Not mine, either?" Blade Knight was very confused, "Sailor, you got him?"

"I didn't even get a list!" She said, angrily, "I'm making sure the castle is seaworthy! You guys get the cool flood carts and I'm stuck-" She stormed off from her radio, still ranting.

"Huh, Dedede must've forgotten him!" Bandana Dee looked back at his backseat driver, "Uhh, hopefully he'll be fine?"

Tiff was in shock, she looked out into the distance, trying to see anything in the partially-flooded landscape. Then she saw it. The tip of a bright blue dome, with a chimney on the top. Kirby's house! Before anyone could stop her, she jumped into the water, which was up to her stomach, and began to paddle to the dome.

"Young lady!" The Waddle Dee screamed, "Are you insane!?"

He wanted to go and save her, but the water was getting difficult to drive through. He could either risk losing everyone to save her and Kirby, or just go on and save as many people as he knew he could. The choice was quick, but it wasn't easy. Bandana Dee stepped on the gas harder, and tried not to look back.

Everyone in the cart was yelling at her. Tiff could hear it as she got closer to the house. All she had to do was reach that brown door and save her friend. After all, she was his guardian, and she had to protect her best friend. When Tiff reached the door, she thought for a second. If she opened it while Dreamland was flooding, water would rush inside faster than it just creeping in through the cracks in the door. She needed another solution.

As fate would have it, an idea struck as she grabbed the door frame. She climbed up, eventually heaving herself onto the roof. Tiff carefully waddled across before jumping down the chimney. 

When she landed, she was relieved. The water inside of Kirby's house wasn't that high, and Kirby himself was still asleep in bed. Tiff ran up to him and shook him awake.

"Poyo?" The pink puff asked drowsily. By the looks of it, Tiff had decided to redecorate his house with a blue floor. He hopped out of bed before feeling the cold water envelop around a third of his body. "Uuaah!" He yelped, jumping back onto his bed.

"Come on, Kirby!" She grabbed him, running to the chimney, "We have to get out here before the house is full of water!"

Kirby didn't like that idea, so he sprinted to the door and threw it open, unsuspecting to the water rushing in soon after. At that moment, Tiff realized that the water was beginning to rise faster. It was already too deep to stand in, and her pink friend had jumped onto a cabinet, trying to avoid sinking in fully. She was constantly having to kick her feet to stay afloat, but Kirby knew that she couldn't do that forever. Being the lovable hero that he was, he jumped into the water, sinking like a metal pipe.

When he landed, he began to copy Tiff, kicking his feet to propel himself in the direction that he needed to go. It was actually pretty fun to swim around. If only his friend wasn't in mortal danger, then he could really enjoy it! It was also a bit hard to see, limiting his sense of direction. Eventually, he made it back to the water's surface, now only a bit below the ceiling, and grabbed Tiff.

She was beginning to get tired, and she didn't even struggle when Kirby pulled her under. Squinting, he pulled Tiff outside of his house and began to swim up with her. When they surfaced, they were happy to see a navy-blue blur, flying towards them.

=====

"Attention everyone!" King Dedede yelled, "The ocean doesn't like us! We need this thing afloat now!" 

As he said that, Bandana Dee, the last of his crew had made it with almost a whole town of civilians. It wasn't looking good, the water was already covering the cart's floor. Several adults were carrying their children, trying to keep them dry.

"Alright, everyone!" He said, as the cart stalled, "Get to the castle doors! Share life preservers, we only have so many!" 

Everyone in the final cart made their way to the castle, amazed at how it was already afloat. Bandana Dee sighed in relief. If he had arrived a few seconds later, they wouldn't have made it. Surely that justified leaving two children to drown...

Right?

Either way, King Dedede and Sailor Dee did a great job on the castle! They had managed to get everything seaworthy faster than expected. Waddle Doo and Blade Knight had made it with their entire loads, as well. Everyone did perfectly, except for the leader. What sort of example was that meant to set? To do worse?

He waddled to the balcony and looked out into the sea, disappointed in himself. What was he supposed to tell everyone? The Ebrums were no doubt looking for their daughter, and he couldn't just hide that from them! Of course, that would also mean that he disappointed King Dedede, and that just made him feel worse. There was no way that they could've made it out, the rest of Dreamland (other than a few mountains) was entirely underwater. He knew that it was just going to keep getting worse until he fessed up, so he walked away from the ledge.

Only to be surprised when the rest of his team ran up to the same ledge, looking out into the distance. Eventually, Waddle Doo saw something that lifted Bandana Dee's spirits.

"It's Meta Knight! And he's got Kirby and Tiff!"

In about three seconds, the captain was right there by his team, watching the blue warrior fly in the rainy weather. Seeing that Kirby and Tiff ended up alright filled him with a strange sense of relief.

That immediately turned to dread when a stream of water shot up at Tiff, and then, as if by magic, reversed itself to pull her in. After this had happened, Meta Knight warped to the balcony, Kirby still in hand. The pink puff tried to jump into the water, but the knight held him back.

"Kirby, you cannot fight underwater!" He said, pulling his student close, "This rainstorm was clearly brought on by a powerful foe, and it would be careless to jump in without the proper equipment!" Meta Knight looked at Bandana Dee, "Go get two pairs of goggles, and two swords."

Although he was confused by the order, the captain listened and brought back the requested equipment. And a little more.

"Why are there three pairs?" The knight asked, looking at the set of blue, purple, and orange goggles.

"I'm coming with you guys!" He responded, putting the orange pair on, "Why are there two swords?"

"I have battled underwater with Galaxia only once!" Meta Knight said, stabbing his iconic blade into the castle floor, "Using an electric sword underwater is... a very bad idea..." He shook the forming flashback away and grabbed the eyewear from the captain, "You need to watch Galaxia! Guard her with your life!"

Meta Knight snapped the blue goggles onto (now Sword) Kirby before grabbing the purple eyewear and the spare sword. He nodded, which Sword Kirby took as the signal to jump into the ocean. The knight followed him, sighing.

Bandana Dee walked to the golden blade, when Sailor Dee threw his orange goggles back at him.

"Just go, we got this!"

He was confident in his team's ability to guard a sword (especially when only Meta Knight can wield it), so he strapped on the goggles, grabbed his spear, and jumped in after them.

=====

She should've died.

Tiff gasped, which is normally a very bad thing to do underwater. But, by some sort of miracle, she was fine. Looking around, she could definitely tell that she was underwater, along with the rest of Dreamland. That same question perplexed her. Why was she fine?

"Hello, Tiff!"

She jumped at the voice, turning to see who was down there with her. All she saw was some blue, flat fish. 

"How are you, my queen of the ocean?"

Tiff didn't know what disturbed her more, the fact that a fish was talking to her, or that it called her a 'queen'. Neither sounded good. 

"Uhh, hi?" Tiff said, mostly to check if she could speak normally, "Who are you, and why can I breathe underwater?"

"Oh, very funny, Tiff!" The strange fish said, excited, "I'm that fish that you feed every weekend at the beach! You probably don't know my name, but it's Kine!"

"Kine?" She said, "That's a good name, actually!"

"Of course it is! I came up with it!" Kine triumphantly puffed out some sort of chest.

"It just doesn't explain why I can breathe right now..."

"Oh, I can tell you! And it is a doozy, let me tell you!" Kine cleared his throat before beginning, "Yesterday, I was napping, and I had a dream. I was king of the ocean, and you were my queen! I felt so happy during that... So, when I woke up, I wished with all my might that it would come true. To my surprise, soon after, a dark star landed on me, giving me this amazing power! I flooded the land, making a kingdom for us to call home, and I even let you breathe water, just like me! Now, we can be happy! Together! Forever!"

"A dark star?" Tiff mumbled before realizing, "Kine, what are your thoughts on Kirby?"

The fish's expression grew full of hatred and malice, "That pink puffball? I never want him in our perfect world! He can drown with the rest of them!"

Tiff gasped and tried to swim back to the surface, but there were some fish guarding her way up. Kine looked up at her sorrowfully, "Tiff, I'm sorry... that's been happening since I got this power. I don't know how to- Will you shut up! Just use her as bait and destroy the puffball!"

"Kine, you're possessed by Dark Matter!" Tiff said, realizing that she might be able to use his feelings to help everyone, "Listen, I need you to fight it! It doesn't have full control yet!"

Everything inside of the fish's brain snapped into focus. After hearing her say that, he tried to fight the Dark Matter's will, but was quickly overwhelmed, his body being engulfed by dark smog.

While Kine's efforts were a failure, it did buy Tiff enough time to hide.

=====

King Dedede felt good about himself. He had just about saved all of Dreamland's citizens from a flood. When he got the chance, he ran to his bedroom to talk to Zero. "Hey, Zero!" He said, "Is there a way that you can un-flood Dreamland?"

I may be able to. I have regained control over that dumb fish.

"Perfect! Then don't let me stop you!"

Someone's here...

"Eh, outside the room?"

No, they're opening the basement door!

"Oh, no!"

The king ran out of his room, right past Escargoon, who had gone to check on him, and through the halls until he found the basement door. It was left ajar, and voices were coming from inside. They sounded like children, no older than ten years old! 

It's not a good idea to show Zero to kids (Kirby's Dreamland 3 is literally T for Teen). When Dedede kicked the basement doors open, he saw three Cappies. One of them was a girl with pigtails, one was a boy who had really spiky hair, and the other one was a taller boy with a straw hat and striped shirt.

"Get outta here!" The king ordered them. 

They seemed disappointed, especially the straw-hat one, who had one had on the door to the second basement. As he sighed and walked away, the door, much to Dedede's dismay, creaked open, revealing Zero's crimson eye. 

The children were horrified. They had heard seen television shows about how basements usually had creepy things in them, and actually seeing it in the castle basement was scary and real. The king ran up and slammed the door shut.

After that, the children ran out, and Dedede prayed to Nova that they wouldn't tell anyone. Oh, who was he kidding? They were probably running to their parents, telling them all about how King Dedede was keeping some eldritch horror in his basement!

I can wipe their brains.

"You can do that?" Dedede asked, before shaking his head, "No, that feels morally questionable..."

I won't get rid of that much, just the last five minutes.

"Why have you never told me about the fact that you can-" Just like that, his mind went blank, "What were we talking about again?"

You were telling me to protect the secret at any cost.

"Oh, right! Just keep on doing that, and I'm sure that it'll be fine!"

=====

Being underwater was amazing. Now that Kirby could see everything, it all seemed so beautiful. He expected it to look like a blue-tinted Dreamland, but there were fish swimming around, along with random sea plants beginning to grow. He would've loved to explore, but Tiff had to be rescued! (Again...)

Suddenly, an overwhelming amount of fish seemed to appear around the two of them. They drew their swords, ready for combat, as the fish (that were wearing goggles for some reason) converged on them.

Meta Knight slashed at them, breaking through the crowd with relative ease. It was clear that, unlike Kirby, he had fought underwater before. Sword Kirby was struggling. Swinging the sword underwater was a bit harder than his mentor had made it seem. Eventually, he got the hang of it, but there was still a crowd swarming him.

Kirby dove deeper, deciding to focus on Tiff while the knight slashed away at the army. She was nowhere to be seen, which worried him. Did water do something bad to things that were in it for too long? Did Tiff turn into a fish? Or part fish? Pushing the idea of a Mermaid Tiff out of his mind, he decided to dive all the way to Waddle Dee Town, which was now just a group of flooded buildings and miscellaneous debris. 

He felt something cold behind him. Turning around, he saw a giant shadow. By the way it felt, it was some poor soul who got possessed by Dark Matter. Before Sword Kirby could throw a heart, he was frozen and sent sinking to Dreamland's floor.

The impact caused the ice to shatter and Kirby to lose his ability. He watched in fascination and fear as the Sword Essence dissolved in the water, crumbling to dust. Now ability-less, Kirby looked at the giant, blue fish rapidly approaching. He frantically tried to swim out of the way as the fish tried to use its apparent ice powers to freeze him again.

Eventually, the water around the fish got cold enough to create ice shards. At this point, it stopped, and threw the ice shards at Kirby. The pink puff decided that he wanted to try an Ice Ability out, and tried to inhale them. However, the water went in first, which was unexpected enough to make him cough.

When he did, he shot out a bubble of air. It felt interesting to do that, but it probably wouldn't be much help against the ice.

Just before the ice hit him, the fish roared, causing a strange sensation in the water. "Kirby!" He heard from behind him, "What's happening?" The pink ball tried to rub his eyes, but he was wearing goggles, making the motion pointless. He just couldn't believe his eyes. It was Tiff, and she was alright!

=====

Escargoon had to get to the king. The impossible had made everybody cheer. The rain had stopped, and a few people had said that the water looked like it was even sinking! It was a miracle! He had to share the news that Dreamland wouldn't be the new Onion Ocean!

On his way there, he ran into three Cappy children, who seemed to be panicking and trying to tell him something about the castle basement. He ignored them and went on to the bedroom, those kids were probably just still freaking out over the new horror movie that had come out a few weeks ago.

That thought process continued until he saw a piece of Dark Matter fly right by him. He barely managed to jump and duck into his shell in time. The last thing that Escargoon wanted was to be possessed and turned into one of those monsters to be saved by Kirby. When it got to the children, it looked around to see if anyone was around.

Escargoon cowered in his shell, afraid of what would happen if he was seen. Luckily, he had also landed behind a table, and from there, the snail rolled behind a wall, unseen. Once he was positive that he was safe, he got out his shell and saw King Dedede, just on the other side of the hallway. Right by the basement door. 

He was very unsure of what to do. The practical conclusion is that His Majesty was just playing a prank on the kids, just to mess with them for snooping or something like that. However, a voice more nagging than that of Karen Dee was telling him to be careful around the king. Just play dumb.

"Sire," Escargoon called out, in a faked happy tone, "The water's stopped rising! Some people even think that it's sinking!"

"Really?" King Dedede asked, seemingly full of relief, "That is amazing! Nova likes us!"

The king didn't seem like he even knew about the Dark Matter in his castle, which was both good and bad news. It was good because it potentially disproved his suspicions, bad also bad because it meant that Dark Matter could get anywhere, anytime.

He didn't want to be next.

=====

Are there infinite fish in the sea?

It sure seemed that way, as Meta Knight couldn't manage to slash his way through them. Every time one was cut apart, more came out of nowhere. Like some sort of fish-hydra from the fiery pits of Halcandra. He was freed from the prison of scales and suffering by Bandana Dee, who had drilled through the crowd with his spear.

When the two of them met at the depths that Dreamland was now at, Meta Knight was upset and Bandana Dee for leaving his sword in the hands of Blade Knight. 

"Poyo!" Kirby said, bubbles floating out of his mouth. He was ecstatic to see that his friends were alright.

"Kirby, can you inhale?" Tiff said, much to the shock of the two mentors. Kirby, however, simply shook his head (his face, I guess?), confirming that this wouldn't be a normal bout. Kine, now furious, charged at them, surrounded by an icy aura. Everyone there dodged out of the way.

This didn't faze the fish, who kept on chasing Kirby with no intention of stopping. Eventually, Tiff had noticed that the ice underwater was a curse, disguised as a blessing.

"Kine, keep freezing, you can do it!" She yelled at the fish, again confusing Meta Knight and Bandana Dee.

Even though he was possessed, he took that advice and kept the ice attack going as he swam around. Just when Kirby was backed into a corner, Kine stopped, now a frozen block of ice. The frozen fish floated up to the surface of the water, which Kirby thought he saw getting lower. The four of them swam up to the surface (Meta Knight glaring at all of the fish nearby), and got on top of the miniature iceberg as the castle was set back into place.

At this point, Bandana Dee cracked the ice open, and Kirby threw a heart at Kine. The water quickly sank as he shrunk down to his normal fish size. Tiff grabbed him and threw him back into the water.

As he swam away, Tiff thought she heard him, "See you later, my queen!"

This confused and concerned Meta Knight and Bandana Dee. Kirby waved goodbye to him as he swam to the sunset.

=====

After all of the water was drained, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee walked back into the castle. "So, MK," The captain said, fishing for a compliment, "I guess I helped you back there, huh?"

"I guess you did, but you also disobeyed me!" The knight was upset.

"And?" Bandana Dee said, "I don't work for you, I'm loyal to King Dedede!"

"Hmmm..." Meta Knight's eyes glowed green a bit, showing that he was thinking, "I guess you're right, but you left my sword with people that I don't trust!"

"I trust them!" The Waddle Dee said, walking to the balcony, "I guarantee you, your sword is fine!"

The two of them walked onto the balcony to see that Bandana Dee was right, the sword was fine. His crew, however, was covered in scars and burns, with Blade Knight's armor still crackling with electricity.

The knight laughed at the scene as Bandana Dee ran to his crew. Before they could explain, Meta Knight pulled his sword out of the ground. "You see, that is why you don't touch Galaxia!" He leaned closer to his blade, whispering, "Don't worry, my dear! I won't leave you in such irresponsible hands ever again!"

As the Star Warrior walked away, talking to Galaxia, Bandana Dee glared at his team, who only chuckled in response.