It's time for a brisk tour through the Rick & Morty planets!
Cover Image: In a shabby side of an alien town, they are frantically driving away from a suspicious blue alien, who holds up a bag of blue powder.
Schwifty Galaxy greeted Star and Kid with some questionable sights. Asteroids in the shapes of buttocks… a constellation shaped into a urinating wiener… a billboard of a thin yellow person labeled, How Poopy Got His Poop Back. "I'm about to lose mine…" Star sighed.
"What's the Schwifty Galaxy like, Star? Any KND here? Or famous heroes?"
"Well, Kid, the legend says that the gods made Schwifty Galaxy when they were drunk."
"… … …" Kid was expecting a follow-up. "And?"
"That's it."
"…Okay? So, do we know where the prison is?"
"The only real one I know is the Schwifty Federation Prison. Even despite the incident two years ago. Out of nowhere, an entire fortress suddenly appeared right in the middle of the prison, causing mass destruction and prison breakouts. Rick Sanchez was among the escapees."
"Really?!"
"And that fortress that suddenly appeared… it was full of Rick and Morty clones. Most of whom wound up dead. The incident also led to Schwifty Council's dismantling."
"Whoa…"
"Somehow, they came from another dimension… or maybe a bunch of them. It probably wasn't the first time the Ghost of Time or the Nexus Guardian caught on to his havoc, but it was the first time Galaxia's council became aware of it. Then they looked to MaKayla and Vendra for input, so now Rick has the bounty he has now. Too much tampering with time or space isn't healthy for the universe, and yet it's happening more than you think."
"It's happening a lot 'cause of Vilgax right now."
"Exactly. Anyway, the remnants of the federation built a new prison from what scrap remained of the old one. But those remnants also devolved into terrorists. I wouldn't be surprised if-" The Riftdar went off. "-if there's a Nether Rift here!"
"NEW POWER TIME!"
"No reason not to start with that! And knowing these rifts, they'll bring us right where we wanna be."
They followed the signal to a planet whose atmosphere had numerous alphabets and numbers sprawled around it. "Hey, it's Alphabetrium!"
"A planet about letters?"
"And numbers, too!"
All the planet's structures were built in the likeness of a letter, number, or some other symbol like the Internet info "i." The people were no different. They were all floating letters or numbers with faces. The letters were made of different elements while the numbers had scaly, serpentine skin. "The Alphabetrians and Numbericons used to be at war. But it looks like they're getting along just fine now."
"That… sure is weird! Don't the KND go by number codenames?"
"Eh, not so much anymore."
"Good thing 'cause I bet the letter guys wouldn't like you!"
"Hehe, maybe. …Huh." Incidentally, the KND were enemies with a group with letter codenames. Small universe.
However, as they entered the Capital (defined by the abundance of capital letter buildings), another war became apparent. Insectoid aliens were invading; green and brownish with red, fly-like eyes and wings. "Gromflomites!"
"Flymen!"
"Let's get swatting, Kid!" The W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. landed on an "R" rooftop and the boys sprung to action. (Imagine a longer version of the Rick & Morty opening!)
Stage 13: Schwifty Galaxy
Mission: Save Firaga!
The boys jumped a series of floating blocks made of B's and V's. They rotated, and the "V" sides were electric. The boys crossed them to the roof of an "A" building (with the letter facing up). Flymen buzzed around the roof and shot laser rifles. As hard as it is to swat a fly, the insectoids swiftly dodged the S.P.O.R.E.'s sprinkler and even Kid's H.O.M.E.R.. But of course, a fly's greatest weakness was a spider web, so the S.P.I.T.R.A.P. yanked them together with ease. The bound flies plummeted down the center of the "A." Coincidentally, they pressed a switch that caused a stairway of "I" platforms to rise past the tip of the "A." The I's were far and high apart, but when Star and Kid jumped on the first one, they learned they were spring platforms! They could spring to the height of each "I" and Warp Dash to them, with the final one landing them at the top of an "R" building.
There were three Flymen speaking to a hulking alien made of colored Lego blocks. Star recognized it as a Segmentasapien from Legola; Kid found it easier to call them Bloxx. "Are you sure that robot can keep the rift passage secure? We've heard that several of them have already been destroyed."
"No one will sneak past this E.M.M.I.! It can see through walls and stun targets with Space Lightning! That Chozo general says it's the best model, yet!"
"Then we'd be glad to test it out!" Star sent out a Sprinkler S.P.O.R.E. to mossify the enemies, with Kid splashing them with the I.N.K.S.P.O.N.G.E.. The enemies recovered as the Bloxx stretched its body like a wall, the Flymen taking cover behind it. They would pop up from the top to snipe them, but the boys used the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. as their own cover. Star charged the K.A.M.E.H.A.M.E.R. to give the Bloxx a face-full of laser, crumbling its wall. Star trapped the flies with the S.P.I.T.R.A.P. again while Kid froze them with the S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R.. The Bloxx recovered and shifted its segments in evasion and fired bullets from its fingers. When it shifted over a Space Block, Star trapped the Lego beast and burst it unconscious.
"But I don't like the prospect of this E.M.M.I. though… we really better be careful this time."
The two entered the rift. There were three routes they could follow, and they already heard the E.M.M.I.'s, "Bebebebebebebeep!" Star hurriedly brought up a C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F., fearing its X-ray vision. "Hey, I got an idea!" Kid whispered. "You think the I.N.K.S.P.O.N.G.E. can distract it?" He sent the sponge down the middle corridor. The E.M.M.I. seemed to beep more frantically. It crawled from the left tunnel and into the middle; the E.M.M.I. was purple.
Star planted a Warp Space before he and Kid quick-walked to the left route. They jumped some platforms over a spike pit, and the E.M.M.I. heard them. Hearing its high alert alarm, they assumed it saw them. "YOWCH!" A jolt of pink lightning zapped Star through the wall. "That's just NOT FAIR, man!" He shook the feeling off before hurrying with Kid down a left turn. "Crud!" A dead end stopped them, and the E.M.M.I. was just around the corner. Star warped them back to the Warp Space and lost it. Star planted another space before they tried the right passage. The E.M.M.I. had gone back in the tunnels and was tracking their movement. They covered up with another C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. as Kid sent an I.N.K.S.P.O.N.G.E. down the way they came, distracting it.
With another apparent dead end, it seemed they would have to Space Ball and enter the E.M.M.I.'s tunnel. Hopefully, it would stay distracted long enough. Especially since the passage they followed had a line of opening and closing hatches. At least that would indicate this as the right way. Just as they cleared the last hatch, the E.M.M.I. saw them. The hatches would stay open in its favor, and it charged Space Lightning, but the boys turned a left corner and dodged it in time. The tunnel let out into a wider passage where an exit rift saved them from their sorrow!
"Hoo boy!" Star gasped for breath. "I think I hate those E.M.M.I. more than the other vowels hate 'Y.'"
"Huff…" Kid wasn't sure if that was a joke or common knowledge on Alphabetrium. "Me, too. …Are we on Mars again?"
It had clicked with Star that they were on another planet; a desert one. They were on a sandhill overlooking a battlefield. The inhabitants, hulking red aliens with four main arms and two small arms where their ears should be, were fighting Vilgaxian Tetramands. "Gazorpazorp!" Star realized.
"Another Four Arms species?!" Kid exclaimed. "Except these ones have six arms. I guess that works. Should we help them?"
"Let's just try to sneak through. The Gazorpians are pretty brutish." They went into Space Ball form and rolled downhill, maneuvering to evade the aimless feet of the brawling, multi-armed monsters. A Tetramand toppled over from their left, a Gazorpian from the right, but they were fast enough to avoid either. Near the end of the onslaught, they rolled up to the face of a fallen Gazorpian.
"Uh?! What's one of our Hump Balls doing out here?" He picked the Space Ball up. "I'll play with you later." With his great strength, he chucked them down a hill beyond the battleground, where they rolled into a junkyard of mechanical balls and female robots.
The boys resized. "What're these, Star?"
"Let's get out of here ASAP, Kid."
"O-Okay." The rushed, worried tone of Star's voice made Kid nervous. Star used Gravity Shift to pick up a bunch of balls clustered together and toss them aside, revealing a rift. One of the lady bots had a Gold Bolt wedged in her mouth, but they couldn't pick it out.
They jumped down the rift and landed in a beautiful town with dome-shaped buildings. It seemed to be built in a canyon of red cliffs with a glass ceiling over it. Waterfalls poured from either cliff as a river snaked around town. Star and Kid even landed near it, in the town's lush central park. The residents gasped! They were thin, female Gazorpians! "Uh-oh! We're in the underground female sector!"
"It looks nicer than the male one."
"MALES!" one screamed. "CATCH THEM!" The town guards grabbed stun rifles and tried to shoot them. Star shot the S.C.H.O.O.L. and Kid the I.N.K.S.P.O.N.G.E. along with the H.O.M.E.R..
"Yeah, except it's basically Amazonia!" They crossed an arched bridge over the river and fought their way up it, making their way to a laying Gazorpian statue. "If it comes to it, Kid, you'll need to romance their queen!"
"WHY ME?!"
"Because I don't know where to find a Kateenian on short notice!"
The laying statue had a gravity field around it, so the duo could walk on it freely. By climbing on its arched-up head arm, they were in just enough range close to the glass ceiling to Grav-Shift onto it. The Gazorpians flew to their level with psychicbending and tried to strangle them the same way. Remembering the advice Isabelle recollected to them, Star and Kid imagined their mixtape songs and danced to them to shake free of the psychic. Afterwards, Star stuck them together with the S.P.I.T.R.A.P. while Kid zapped them with Z.A.P.B.L.E.R.. They saw a rift at the top of the waterfall and made it their escape route.
The rift dropped them on a stage where a band was performing; they were pink aliens with single eyes and gooey bodies with ovular heads. "Arboles." Star deduced. They were in a high-tech city with a mountain in the distance.
"Hey! Are you the mechanics?" one of the band members asked. "Can you fix our satellites? They ran out of power. We can't broadcast in the Intergalactic Battle of the Bands like this!"
"Uh, we'll get back to you on that." Star said. For now, there was already another rift that warped them to Parblesnops, a region of giant plants. They were on a large plant platform in a swamp; a fish-like band with dark-cyan skin was performing; they were Greebybobes. Following their rhythm, the giant flowers in the swamp spat puffs of pollen onto other platforms. Star and Kid would have to jump the platforms while timing around the pollen bursts. Afterwards, they had to Wall Jump some vertical platforms, with flowers shooting pollen between the gaps, but by staying with the rhythm, the boys kept between the pollen until they reached the top.
When they entered the rift, they found their selves on a wide, square, stone ground. There were ledges on three sides, but a cliff on one. "Not sure where this is." Star said.
Kid walked toward the ledge opposite the cliff. "Check out the view! And there's a bunch more cliffs going down. They're like stairs."
"KID, WATCH OUT!"
"Huh?!" A giant came thundering down the steps, squashing Kid like a wad of gum.
"KID!" As the giant's shoe lifted, Star saw Kid's gooey frame stretch before he detached from the ground, forced to ride the giant's sole down the stairs. Star jumped down after his friend, thankful that Kid came loose on a lower stair. "Uuuhhhhnnn…" The youth moaned, his dirtied frame taking a while to reform. "Star… are we tiny again?"
"I think we're in Jellybean Kingdom. On some stairs in the giants' country. The Riftdar's picking up a signal upstairs. Let's try not to get stomped again." Each step had its own stairway of Space Block lights. The boys had quite the workout for their legs traveling up, and whenever a giant took a misstep onto them, Star conjured a shielding Space Block. "Come to think of it, one of Rick's crimes was assassinating King Jellybean."
"Why?"
"No one knows. And he was real nice to kids, too."
There was a tavern on one of the steps labeled Thirsty Step. "Here we are!" They entered the tavern and quickly saw the rift enveloping the bathroom door.
"I'm tellin' ya, I don't know about that new bathroom, man." Mr. Booby Buyer said. "There's a big purple spider in there. Shot lightning, too."
"That's our E.M.M.I.." Star said. Before entering, they explored the tavern and found a mixtape behind the bartender's counter. It had "Get Schwifty"!
The duo entered the Nether Rift. They stood beneath a vertical shaft where Star had to form parallel columns of Space Blocks, with gaps between some of them. Star and Kid Wall Jumped the Blocks, which drew the E.M.M.I.'s attention. Star used the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. as soon as they landed in a gap, but the E.M.M.I. would still climb onto their spot since there was a tunnel connected to it. Kid shot the I.N.K.S.P.O.N.G.E. down the tunnel, and it seemed to catch the E.M.M.I.'s attention as it crawled after. They Wall Jumped to the second gap, but there was no tunnel this time, so they proceeded to the third.
Unfortunately, Star was too late to use the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. as they heard the E.M.M.I.'s alert. "Crud, it saw us!" They kept Wall Jumping, avoiding its lightning just in time. They reached the top passage and found branching paths; the right path was sealed, so they hurried left; though not before planting a Warp Space. As Star suspected, the left path led to a dead end with a switch, opening the sealed right path. Star waited for the E.M.M.I. to close in on them before warping. With that, they were home free across the right passage, exiting a rift!
The boys caught their breath in Tamorus, a town of brown and green buildings beneath a red night sky. "Hey, there's my favorite adventurers!" Numbuh 20x40 called. "Ya know, the KND's never done business in Schwifty Galaxy 'til this point. Way too nasty out here for our likes. The Irkens thought it'd be good conquering ground, but hoo boy, was it a disaster! You know what else will bring disaster? This S.M.R.I.N.G.! A bazooka that retracted in and out via a spring in the center of it.
"We'll take it!" Star paid 21,000 bolts.
Galactic Kids Next Door: S.M.R.I.N.G.
Springs Mash Renegade Inferiors Neutralizing Gunfire
"Oh, I get it. You're mixing 'smashing' and 'spring.'" Kid deduced.
"Comin' up with these acronyms isn't easy, Kid."
The locals of Tamorus were peaceable, so the duo hoped for a nice stroll through town. That was before the undead dinosaurs attacked. A skeletal T-rex stormed out, chomping an unfortunate alien in its jaws. Kid panicked and immediately tried out the S.M.R.I.N.G., shooting a large spring that bounced high into the air before forcefully smashing the dino's skull against the ground. This left it vulnerable to the S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R.'s freezing, with some Bomb Spores to seal the seal. A skeletal triceratops charged the kids, so Kid grounded it with two S.M.R.I.N.G.s while Star charged the K.A.M.E.H.A.M.E.R., destroying the beast.
Star and Kid followed the town's road to a large rift where they came from. This led to the pavilion of a museum in Centaurus City, where three more T-rexes were shredding the ground on giant skateboards, trying to chomp the red and yellow, toad-eyed alien locals. The undead dinosaurs were skating laps around the museum, so Star's only way to catch them would be to speed boost. "So, dinosaurs in this galaxy can skateboard?!" Kid exclaimed.
"I heard they could bust a mean 1080!" Star had to run up the available ramps around the museum to catch up with each dino, ramming their boards directly to blast them away. Star then left Kid to destroy each dino with the S.M.R.I.N.G. and S.P.O.R.E..
After all three rexes were smashed, the boys spoke to the museum manager by the entrance. "Phew! You kids sure saved me a ton of lawsuits! I guess it's safe to reopen now… though I'm still getting used to the new renovations." He unlocked the entrance, but there was actually a rift inside.
It led to an entirely different museum in Ronkonkoma. "WHOA!" In fact, the boys landed directly atop the spine of a long brontosaurus fossil. Grinding the fossil, they would have to shoot raptors that were skateboard-grinding from the opposite way, a task easy for Kid's H.O.M.E.R.. Star shot grapple points to swing over gaps between one spine and the next—except if he had fallen in the third gap, he could land on a safe platform with a Gold Bolt. Dang it!
The last spine slid them through a Nether Rift—the E.M.M.I. immediately saw them! "AAAAH!" The droid grinded the spine after them! There was another spine on the ceiling with a Grav-Path. They could jump to dodge its lightning strike, but when the E.M.M.I. caught up, the boys shifted gravity onto the ceiling spine, forcing the E.M.M.I. to slow down to change rails. From there, they repeated the process and dodged three more times before grinding through an exit rift. "You can't just throw us in a position like that!" Star shouted.
They landed in the middle of a village of red grass and bizarrely-shaped, furry buildings. "HEY, friends!" A yellow catlike alien with ragged fur and a mad smile approached them "Welcome to Squanchville!" he greeted in a crazy accent. "How can I squanch you today?"
"Uh, we're just… passing through."
"Well, feel free to squanch around!"
"What's squanch me-" Kid tried to ask before Star clamped his mouth.
"DON'T ask, Kid."
There was a purple sea to their left, but otherwise not much to do in this town of weird cats. Their next rift would be at the top of a tall green building, in which they could use the netting around its tower to climb. Before doing that, Star noticed a fishing pole above a red house, a shaking clamshell dangling from it. Curious, he shot the string with his N.A.V.S.C.O.P.E.. The shell popped open on the ground and released a monochrome cat.
Star shared a knowing glance with his protégé and approached the Spoof. "…SQUEEEEX!" The Kittentia had a mad face like the Squanchies. "Squex Squex! Squex Squex! Squex Squex!" She strolled out of the village in repetition. "Squex Squex…Squex Squex…" And she pooped out a Gold Bolt. Star and Kid had very mixed feelings about collecting it.
The two climbed the netting of the green house and entered the rift. They were on the outskirts of a city built over a chasm, situated on enormous roots with trees growing from said buildings. Star and Kid were on a forested ledge near the chasm, with glowing blue crystals. "This must be Birdtown. Home of the Birdpeople."
"How many planets have we been on in this galaxy?"
"Two."
"JUST TWO?!"
"The only outlier so far was Alphabetrium. All these other places are countries on Planet Parmesan, the Core World."
"But they looked so different from each other."
"It's the same on Earth. Core Worlds have lots of variety." There were Birdpeople flapping left and right over the chasm, holding grapple points in their talon-like boots. The Birdpeople seemed more like humans with feathered capes, crowns, and loins. Star and Kid had to swing them quickly before their weight pulled the birds down. They landed on a town balcony, walked up stairs, and advanced on a narrow town road. Flymen were invading, the citizens flapping away in panic. Star trapped several flies together with S.P.I.T.R.A.P. so Kid could squash them with the S.M.R.I.N.G.. The road led to a dead end, but they could Gravity Shift on a tree trunk to walk up to the next layer of town. Birdpeople were lined up on a walkway to shoot down incoming Flymen. Star helped them out with his handy N.A.V.S.C.O.P.E..
After shooting down every Flyman, a particular Birdperson flew down to greet them. "Birdperson is grateful for your help, young visitors. To what does Birdperson owe this kindness?"
"We're just helping out against the Vilgaxian invasion." Star said. "And it looked like these Gromflomites were allied with them."
"Then perhaps you can assist us. My fellow Birdpeople and I are planning to invade Gromflom Prison to rescue my daughter."
"Hey, we're trying to rescue a friend of ours, too! Maybe they'll be in the same prison!"
"In Birdculture, we call that the work of fate. We have been mapping these bizarre portals, and there is one in Alphabetrium that connects straight to the prison."
"Cool! But before that, we have an android to take care of." Star looked at his Riftdar. "There's another Nether Rift at the top of that tree." He pointed at the large tree whose wide roof of leaves covered a portion of town.
"You plan to dispose of the dangerous robot in that portal? We Birdpeople will be most grateful."
"Birdperson!" Another Birdperson landed by him. "The Birdpeople are ready!"
"Thank you, Birdperson. We must go. Join us soon, children." They took flight.
"They aren't creative with their names, huh?" Kid remarked.
There was a narrow hole in the roots of the tree they could Space Ball into, rolling up the interior and finding the rift at the top. Star and Kid entered as cautiously as every other time. They crossed a small tunnel that would drop them into a wider, square-shaped room. "Oh!" Star perked up at the only adjacent room. "It's the Omega Core! That was easy." (Play "E.M.M.I. Chase" from Metroid Dread!)
All that was left was to unload their weapons on the core's shell. After shattering it, Star grounded the floating cyclopic brain with the K.A.M.E.H.A.M.E.R.. But as a consequence, the Omega Energy flowed into said weapon. "'Guess we're using this one."
Just as they were wondering how else to leave the square room, it rumbled. The floor descended like an elevator. They heard the E.M.M.I. crawling in the walls, the boys having to dodge its Space Lightning the whole descent. But as soon as the elevator hit the bottom, the E.M.M.I. was out to chase them. Star couldn't charge the K.A.M.E.H.A.M.E.R. in time, so they had to flee down a long corridor. But he planted a Warp Space first. There were several closed doors sealed by three buttons, which Kid had to quickly shoot with the H.O.M.E.R.. The passage merely led to a dead end, so now was the time to warp back. With the E.M.M.I. needing to travel a long way back, Star had enough time to charge it. "Kaaaaa…meeee…haaaaa…meeeee… HAAAAAAAA!"
The Omega-powered laser melted the android's iris right off. It stretched upright, jittered, and spun its head. "Beep! Boop, beep, bo, bow, bebebebebebebebe…p." (End song.)
The energy flowed up from its fallen husk. Star welcomed it into his veins. His aura sparkling, Star wriggled his fingers in the air and let the lightning crackle! Kid gawked in wonder and amazement.
Star learned Space Lightning! He can stun enemies and power up electrical machinery! He can also move certain objects around.
"But why does spacebending have a lightning power?"
"Haven't you ever seen those nebula storms? Those make space lightning! Now, let's see if we can get to that prison."
They Space Balled through the E.M.M.I.'s tunnels and quickly found the rift leading back to Alphabetrium. They were near the "B" blocks with electric "V" sides. Star was quick to realize he could connect Space Lightning to the V's and shift the platforms around! As he was contemplating what to do with this, he noticed a couple Birdpeople flying to their left and going into a distant rift. With that, Star moved the platforms to make a path that way, which brought them to the tip of a "J" building. They compressed into Space Ball to roll down the side of the "J" and up the curve, launching into the air. They pushed forward from this height and landed atop an "a" building. The hanging tip of an "r" was between the a's hoop, so they landed on that and rolled across the "r." From the tip of the "r," they jumped to an "e," and the bottom tip of that would connect to the bottom of a "d." The top of the "d" had the rift.
In the blink of an eye, they had warped to a prison compound ravaged by gunfire, Birdpeople and Flymen going at it relentlessly. The compound was behind a barbwire fence. Thrown aback by the chaotic sight, Kid's attention spun the opposite direction. "WHOA! Star, what's that?!"
"?!" Star turned to face the very edge of the planet, a chasm of empty sky. However, beyond that chasm, they faced the exposed mantle and core of what seemed to be the other half of the planet. What looked like red tentacles wriggled out from the sides, and the surface of the planet was purple. "This is Gromflom Prime! The Gromflomites' homeworld!"
"So, NOW we're on a different planet! Or at least half of one…"
"I heard this place fell to chaos after Sanchez dismantled the government, but I didn't expect this! What happened to the Heart of this world?"
"Let's just save Firaga and get outta here! This place reeks!"
"You said it!" The barbed fence possessed a strong electric current. They found the gate to it and used Space Lightning to pry it open. Charging into the battleground, it was no surprise that two Flymen and Stinkflies would attack them first. Star glued them with the S.P.I.T.R.A.P., and once they collapsed on the ground, Kid squished them with the S.M.R.I.N.G..
"This is Transport D-37, we're having some trouble!" They saw a shaking prison transport flying a short distance away. "The prisoners broke their constraints! I told you it was a bad idea to have them both in one—AAAAHH!"
The side of the cargo exploded with a burst of flame. Two girls leapt out and landed firmly on the ground. One was a tan-skinned dragon-human hybrid with red hair and a black martial arts robe. The other was a short girl with brown hair, ragged gray shirt and shorts, and a feathered cape. "RAAAAH!" The bird-girl bellowed as she nimbly leapt and kicked several Flymen, and cracked one's neck. Firaga cupped a hand over her mouth and spat fireballs at some Stinkflies. "PRAY FOR MERCY FROM DRAGONGIRL AND BIRDGIRL!"
"It's BIRDDAUGHTER!"
"Same difference! Let's go wreck more of 'em!" They flapped off.
"FIRAGA, WAIT!" Star called. "Dang it! Kid, let's hitch a ride!" He grabbed his friend and shot his G.R.A.P.P.L.U.H. to the bottom of a pursuing transport. They hung and flew along with it, swinging left and right to dodge transports flying beneath it. The girls made a hard turn left, tricking the transport into having to fly through a narrow tunnel, so the boys dropped back to the ground.
They were ambushed by a lone, monochrome alien who was about their height. It split into several clones who dogpiled the duo. "Splixsons!" Star exclaimed.
"Dittos!" Kid named.
"That name would make more sense if they were shapeshifters!" Star used C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. to confuse the horde, then used the Sprinkle S.P.O.R.E. to make a garden out of them, which would promptly be exploded. Afterwards, they had to cross an entrenched chasm of electricity. Star used lightning to pull up vertical panels from the chasm, which they could use to Wall Jump across, but they'd have to move quickly before the panels sank. They caught up with Firaga and Birddaughter to see them surrounded by a swarm of Flymen.
"Man, that's a lot of them!" Star said.
"Star… is that a giant bug-zapper?" Kid indicated said device standing left of the area.
"It… very well may be." Why a giant fly race would have this eluded him. Regardless, Star ran over and powered it up with his lightning.
The zapper shone a bright pink. "Oooooo! Prettyyyyy!" The first group of flies flew into it.
"NO!" yelled one of them, shielding his eyes. "Don't look at the light! AGH!" Firaga flew up and kicked him into it.
"We weren't supposed to turn it on until we got the protective covering! Who did this—AGH!"
"We just wanted something pretty to look—AAAAAAT!"
"Star!" Firaga called. "When'd you get here?!"
"Not important! We're here to rescue you, and the Birdpeople are here to rescue her!"
"I don't need saving!" Birddaughter shouted.
The bug-zapper was destroyed by a large, yellow armadillo ball. "It's the Supreme Leader!" The ball uncurled into an Arburian, a wide monochrome alien whose face covered its upper torso. Kid would call it Cannonbolt! "Don't let them get away!" The way backward was sealed by a thick metal gate.
"We're surrounded!" Several aliens crowded in from all directions. Star noticed a smaller steal door against a wall, locked by a terminal. "Let's try to get in there! Ed, get to work on this, we'll hold them off!"
"Ha ha ha! Ed loves a prison riot! Invite Ed next time, okay?!" As the four kids fought the swarm of Flymen, Cannonbolts, Dittos, and Wildmutts, the 8-bit Ed had to web her way up a series of gear platforms. She sniped any digital flies that threatened her progress, and with nimble leg and handiwork, the terminal was hacked!
The door opened, unveiling a rift behind it. "Aha! That's why they kept it locked!" Kid said.
"Let's BOOK IT!" Birddaughter flew in.
"Wait, we need to return you to your-" Star rushed to say, "oh forget it." So, they rushed in after her.
The group wound up on a grated walkway in some kind of warehouse. There were three giant vats of acid beneath them. As Flymen chased them through the portal, they unloaded gunfire. Kid gooified to dodge their lasers—"AAAAAH!" but he phased through the bridge's holes.
"KID!!" Star cried as his friend splashed into the acid. He gazed horror-struck, having to rely on Firaga and Birddaughter to fight the flies. …But Kid resurfaced.
"Star! It's fake acid!"
"What?!" The girls returned to Star's side after KOing the Flymen. But shortly after, two Four Arms and three more Flymen marched out. "Girls, follow my lead." He whispered. "Aaaaahh! Kid fell in the acid and died! I can't go on like this! Life isn't worth living! Come, girls! Join me in the Spirit World!" He grabbed both of their arms and dove into the acid.
"HOLY SMOKE!" a Four Arms screamed. The five aliens peered over the railing into the boiling acid. "They actually did it… They straight-up killed themselves!"
The four shared smirks, holding their breaths under the fake acid. "Yeah, man! No way they're gonna survive in that! I mean, I'm not an acid expert, but that had to be, like, INSTANT, you know?"
"What if they had, like, a few seconds, at best? How do you think that would feel? Like, you feel pain all over. Your eyeballs probably go first, so you don't even see yourself dissolve. You can only imagine how your body looks."
"Would they even feel pain? What if the acid is so intense that your nerves completely burn up? So, you don't even feel your legs melting into it?"
"You might be right, man. I ain't even seeing any bones float up. That is some SICK acid, it totally vaporized them."
"Yep. There is NO WAY they surviving from that! They are 100%, straight-up dead."
"MMMMM-HM."
The kids glared in disbelief. This was taking longer than anticipated. "Like, you must've really given up, if you're willing to throw yourself into that, knowing there is NO chance of surviving."
"Tell me about it. Like, I hear people surviving in lava, but acid? Nuh-uh."
"Is acid hotter than lava?"
"Let's see." The Four Arms typed on his phone. "Nope, lava beats it."
"Boy, if they dissolve that fast in acid, I can't imagine. Like, your body would probably just fade from existence as it begins touching the lava."
"Man, we should test it out! Let's get a bucket of this acid, find a bucket of lava, and see how fast things melt in it!"
"Yeah, that'd be dope, man!"
"How do we even safely transport this stuff?"
"These vats gotta be made of something, right? Let's just ask whoever runs this place what-"
"I CAN'T TAKE IT, ANYMORE!" Kid popped out of the acid and shot them with the H.O.M.E.R., dizzying the aliens. Firaga flapped up and kicked them right into the real acid.
The others climbed onto the rim of the vat and jumped down to the floor. "Great idea, DUMBASS!" Birddaughter snapped at Star.
"Excuse me for being creative…" They proceeded through an exit on this floor, which was a rift.
The fresh air of an autumn forest blessed them. There was a mountain at their back, and an enormous red crater in front. Judging by the normal scenery and blue sky, Kid wondered, "Are we on Earth?"
"I don't really know…" Star curiously climbed the side of the crater, his friends following. They took in its surreal and almost repulsive sight. There was a pink glow emanating from the hole in the center… and yet walking down the crater gave them a sense of discomfort. They peeked down into the hole. Another rift. "We might as well keep going."
"AAAAAAAHHH!" The planet rumbled from a deafening, feminine voice. "YOU! What are you doing in my crater?! GET OUT!!" A forceful quake sent them flying back into the grass.
"WHAT?!" a manly voice bellowed. "Who's climbing in my wife's crater?!" The sky filled with dark clouds. An actual giant donned in a Greek toga, sandals, and spiked hair and beard descended on a cloud. His golden belt buckle was inscribed with a "Z." "Didn't your mommies ever teach you to keep your hands to YOURSELVES?!"
"Is that ZEUS?!" Kid gawked.
"I am the mighty spirit tasked by the gods to protect the living planet, Gaia! I am REGGIE! And I will SMITE you punks for what you've DONE!"
"I don't know what I did!" Kid cried.
"I don't think I WANNA know!" Star screamed. (Play "Planette" from Yooka-Laylee!)
Boss fight: Reggie
Star ushered the girls to fly away while he took Kid and sped boost around the crater. Reggie hovered his cloud above the boys and jumped on it in repetition, striking tremendous bolts that would miss the speeding pair. After four missed strikes, the giant panted in exhaust. "Star, let's go up and smite him!" Firaga threw him and Kid onto her back and took flight. Once level with the giant, Reggie punched Thunder Fists at them. Firaga swerved left or right to dodge, and when Reggie mustered chi in his palms, Star told her to fly close. When Reggie thrusted his palms to shoot a constant electric wave, Star shot Space Lightning to intercept it. Their chis pushed against the other until Star's prevailed. "ZZZZZEEEEEEUUUUUU!" The giant cried from spatial electrocution and floated stunned. Star charged the K.A.M.E.H.A.M.E.R. while Kid shot him in the eyes with the N.A.V.S.C.O.P.E..
Reggie recovered and dealt a thunderous clap that blew them out of the sky. "KIDS! Get off your lazy asses and kill them!" Spike-headed stone humanoids with milky gray eyes and frowns rose from the earth. Star used the Sprinkle S.P.O.R.E. to make them grow with plant life, and Kid mashed them back into the dirt with the S.M.R.I.N.G.. Reggie spun on his cloud to conjure tornados that orbited the crater. Star protected himself and Kid using Space Block, but Firaga and Birddaughter were wildly blown away by the wind. Even after Reggie tired himself out, the dragon couldn't recover, yet. "Kid, stay here. I have another idea, but I have concerns about doing it." Star built up the speed boost and stopped directly under Reggie. He Shinesparked right up against the dizzy giant's pelvis.
"ZEEEEEUUUUUU!" Clutching his sore spot, he toppled off his cloud and quaked the earth. The boys gave him a dose of Bomb Spores and a S.C.H.O.O.L. of piranhas munching his eyes and nose. The furious giant kicked up and hopped back on his cloud. Another round of his children attacked, but this time, Kid painted them with the I.N.K.S.P.O.N.G.E. and Star's S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R. turned them into colorful popsicles. Reggie loomed above the duo and tap-danced to make it rain, which evolved into a thick waterfall. The boys ran to stay out of the downpour, for Reggie began striking lightning down the current. In-between bolts, Star would sent his own lightning up the current and strike the spirit. After five rounds of pink lightning, the giant hovered tiredly in place.
"You're ours now, buster!" Firaga and Birddaughter flew toward him like aerial torpedoes. With a powerful impact, Reggie toppled off, headfirst into the center of the crater. His titanic body was sucked right into the tiny rift, flailing his legs in agony before he was sucked all the way in.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" They shut their ears from Gaia's cry that echoed for light-years. "Ahhhhhhh…" Then she sighed in euphoria. "I've never felt like more of a planet… in millennia… Wake me up in… 500 years…" The air grew peaceful as the world went into slumber. (End song.)
"…I think I'm starting to see why we never go to this galaxy." Star said.
"Birddaughter! There you are!"
"Birdperson!" They beamed seeing their avian ally fly over from the forest. "We wanted to find you, but we got kind of lost."
"As we birds say, it is no trouble. Thank you for rescuing Birddaughter."
"Get lost, Dad!"
"Mind your manners, dear. I want to get home in time to watch Family Birdguy." He took his daughter's hand. "Before we leave, I don't believe I caught your names."
"I'm Kid Cosmic! This here's my partner, Star!"
"I would say you're more of the partner here."
"I am in your debt, Star and Kid Cosmic. If there is anything I can do to return the favor, call anytime. Unless I'm watching birdsports or using the birdcan."
"You got it, Birdbuddy!" Kid saluted.
And so, Birdperson and his daughter flew down through the crater's rift. "Bird." Firaga said.
The three kids jumped into the rift next. They landed back in Alphabetrium—right atop Reggie's giant corpse, stabbed into the tip of a sharp "X" building. "Uhhh…well, spirits respawn, he'll be fine." Reggie's arm was hanging near the roof where the W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. was parked.
"So, where to next, captain?" Firaga asked.
"Before we leave, there's actually something else we need to look into. One of those riddles from Star Haven actually had Planet Parmesan above it."
"You do that." Firaga said. "I wanna see what food they got on this planet! I'm starved for anything that's not fly food!"
Star and Kid backtracked to Arboles. Star used lightning to power up the band's satellites like he promised. The satellites brimmed to life and cast waves of light to the sky! In fact, they created space lights! Star could make platforms leading them up into a new rift.
They were awestruck at Gearville, a mechanical city made of gears. "Wow! And I thought Azoth was obsessed with gears!" Even the people were cyborgs with gear mouths and whose torsos were glass-made with gears inside. Star and Kid were on a ledge on the side of a building. They rode a large pink cog that was their level, then Wall Jumped from it to land on a stairway of smaller gears. They watched their footing when walking up them. From the last step, they had to Wall Jump between some larger cogs and reach the roof of the building. From there, they slid down a zipline of hanging cogs, leading near a giant gear on the side of another building. They Warp Dashed to other gears and made it atop a cluster of small gears on the side of a building. There was no visible way to go from here, until Kid got the idea to squeeze himself between the gears. He was able to slip into a secret room behind them and hit a switch, opening the gears so Star could get in.
They stepped into a rift. Star and Kid were greeted with the vastness of another Earth-like valley. Strangely, the distant mountains were cob-shaped. So were the nearby berry bushes, and the flat earth itself looked like segments of corn. "Ah…this must be Cob Valley. I've heard about this. Everything is on a cob."
"Is it edible?"
"I don't wanna chance it. And yet…" Star recalled the riddle. "'The cob mountain longs for a bountiful harvest.'" They found another rift just a few yards ahead, and it warped them directly on the cob mountain. Its landscape was completely barren. "Does the riddle mean we have to make plants grow here? Of course!" The Sprinkler S.P.O.R.E.! Star shot ammo all around the mountain as their sprinkles made life grow all around the mountain. In moments, the cob never looked so bountiful.
The tip of the cob shone… and an orange star flew out of it, arching up to be welcomed into Star's hands.
A portal near the back of the mountain warped them to an enclosed ledge in Gearville. It was just above the platforming section from the entrance. "Hey. Wanted posters." Star glanced at the lineup sloppily strung posters. One depicted Rick, as expected. There was one for Squanchy, worth 5,000, for Gearhead, worth 7,500, and for Birdperson, worth 8,000. "Huh?!"
"It's that guy! He's… a criminal?"
"A member of the Freedom Fighters and close associate of dangerous scientist Rick Sanchez…" Star needed a moment to process this. "Does this mean… we basically helped a potential enemy?"
"But he said he owed us one."
"I know. …Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Star Haven
The boys returned to the sanctuary to receive some more clues from Goombria. Observing a pillar with a barren planet, which had purple lights around it, the Goomba read, "'Pillars of evil rise from the crust. Crush them back in the dirt.'"
"Which planet is that?" Star scanned it. "…It's Naxzela from the Quintessa Galaxy. I guess we're going back again, awesome!"
Returning to Quintessa, the boys parked on Thayserix. There had to be a hidden rift somewhere that could take them to Naxzela. It would be closer than they anticipated. Left from the starting needle they had parked on, there were some floating electrical asteroids that Star could spin with his lightning, facing their bare parts upward to serve as platforms. They led to a new needle that was covered in stalagmites, which channeled constant beams of lightning. Star could bend the Space Lightning off the stalagmites, negating the electric field so he and Kid could cross peacefully.
There was a rift on the other end leading directly to a barren landscape with numerous mechanical pillars. "This is it." Star knew. "Last year, I heard Naxzela was made into a superbomb by the Galra. Designed to wipe out Voltron and their allies. Of course, a weapon of this magnitude would take several years to make."
"It's not gonna go off NOW, is it?!"
"No, Team Voltron dismantled its core components. …Huh?!" But they quickly noticed the array of smaller pillars popping up around the valley, glowing purple lights. "Or not?! Wait, is this what the riddle meant?!"
"What do we do?!"
"It said 'crush them back in the dirt.' Your S.M.R.I.N.G.! Try using that!"
"Ah!" Kid shot a single spring out. It targeted and mashed three pillars back in. "It worked!"
"Let's hop to it, Kid!" Star picked his friend up to boost around the valley and press every pillar in sight. Many of them were hidden behind the giant pillars, which made them tricky to find.
It took about 5 minutes, but no pillar was left unpressed. However, the larger ones glowed… and their lights culminated into a purple star. Star and Kid shared a delighted expression and leapt to collect it. Just three more stars to go!