Nightmare Gear

"'NG meanwhile is, at the moment, basically just 'Kirby is Steampunk and also a certain villain is involved you'll never guess who I mean lol'' - Fright, about her own AU, #discussion" NOTE: This page is a work in progress.

Nightmare Gear is a Kirby AU conceived on February 5th 2020, but wasn't made official until September 9th, 2020. The AU is chronologically behind many other AUs, and some events are reordered. For example, the events of Crystal Shards have taken place, but not those of Super Star and (more importantly) Adventure. The Kirby of this timeline (nicknamed Gear) is relatively new to the ways of the Multiverse Hub.

The Verse Code of this timeline references the Nightmare Gear (the namesake/macguffin of AU), the debut of the Dreamy Gear Toyline (November 18th 2019), and Steam, referencing the Steampunk Aesthetic.

Canon History
The Japanese Dreamy Gear novel is considered NON-CANON. The events of Nightmare Gear are mostly inspired by Kirby: Right Back at Ya.

The Ancient Age/Halacandrian Age
No one quite knows how the universe began. Some debate that it was spontaneously brought into existence, but others argue that a higher power created the universe...

The earliest recorded events take place when the Ancients, who were extremely powerful and mostly benevolent beings, were in power. The events in this period are called The Ancient Age, or The Halacandrian Age based on the fact that most resided on Planet Halacandria. These beings were considered to be in power due to their superior abilities in terms of technological advancement and magical prowess. They made many magical artifacts in their time, the two most important being the Star Rod and the Dreamy Gears. The latter items were imbued with magical powers to make dreams come true as long as the user was pure of heart.

While most of the Ancients had the best interests of the universe in mind, some did not. One of these few would be their downfall...

There was a particular Ancient of incredible power, whose name is lost to history. Yet, he could not be satisfied with the power he possessed. Even though he was more powerful than most of the other Ancients, he wanted more. This resulted in him studying the dark side of magic and creating the Nightmare Gear, a counterpart to the Dreamy Gears which only he could use. Howbeit, this power came with a price...his sanity. The dark magic corrupted his heart and body, turning into a being that called himself Nightmare. He then unleased an attack on the remaining Ancients and eventually wiped out most of the Ancients that resided on Halacandria.

However, there were a very small amount of Ancients remaining, and one of them had managed to escape with the Star Rod and the Dreamy Gears. She rushed to Planet Popstar and hid in Rainbow Resort for a time. She eventually realized that she couldn't hide forever, as Nightmare would kill everyone in the galaxy to find the Dreamy Gears and finish the genocide of the Ancients. In order to keep Nightmare from killing innocent people and getting what he wanted, she gave up all of her life energy to create Popopo, the first Star Warrior. Popopo eventually managed to keep Nightmare at bay for a period of time, in which he constructed the Fountain of Dreams, in which the spirit of the Ancient that created him now resides in.

The Nightmare War
Nightmare eventually returned and declared war on the Star Warriors, which by that point, there were a multitude of. The first recorded battle of the war occurred over 15,000 years ago and the war continues to this day.

Popopo's Retirement, Birth of Kirby, and Birth of Void
Popopo fought in the war longer than any other Star Warrior and somehow has managed to survive until modern day. The warrior, however, eventually grew tired of the battle field and decided to retire to live on a set of islands he found on Planet Popstar, which he creatively named the Popopo Islands.

He eventually married a native of the island named Leimomi and had a child with her, which he named Kirby. This child would go on to become known as Gear in the Timeline Hub.

The three lived happily on the island until the Jambastion Cult attacked the island due to it being a heavily populated, yet inconspicuous set of islands which Popopo thought only he knew about. The Jambastion Cult began to slaughter many of the natives as blood sacrifice to their god Void Termina in an attempt to reincarnate him. When Liemomi was brutally murdered by a certain yellow haired mage, Popopo knew he had to get his son to safety, so he grabbed Kirby's Warp Star and Kirby himself and sent him into the stars, hoping that would protect him and that the other Star Warriors would find him. He sent one last message to the Star Warriors telling them that if they found Kirby, they were to protect him at all cost until he was ready to fight. The mage entered the house, electrical spear in hand, ready to strike...

...Only to be interrupted by the cult leader calling for her to be present at the arrival of their Dark Lord. Popopo decided that he would try to prevent the reincarnation of Void Termina, by using his own power against the Crystal Heart they had constructed.

He failed to prevent the reincarnation. However, it didn't go according to the cult's plans either. Void reincarnated as a puffball with no ability to speak, nor the planet destroying power the cult was promised. They escaped in defeat and Popopo took in the strange puffball. The two have managed to live peacefully with the survivors of the attack ever since.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Kirby spent a little under 200 years floating through space on his Warp Star, which guided him softly through the galaxy. However, a strange being attacked Kirby as he was floating and caused the boy to crash on Dreamland. He was lucky to be found by an explorer named Magolor, who happened to be passing by. The traveler took Kirby to the Steamland Plaza, where the boy began to settle into town by meeting the people, getting a bite at Chef Kawasaki's Restaruant, and beating King Dedede of Dreamland in a Gourmet Race. The famed warrior Meta Knight was witness to the event, and noticed a few similarities to Popopo, which caused him to believe Kirby was the great warrior's son (which admittedly was true). Due to this, Meta Knight came to Kirby and told him about the history of Popopo and the Star Warriors, and then offered to train the young boy. Kirby agreed, wanting to make his papa proud...

Ripple Kingdom
Meta Knight received a distress signal from the Ripple Kingdom on Planet Ripple Star. It turned out that a group of entities known as Dark Matter were attacking the peaceful kingdom. The two quickly dealt with the infestation and were showered with praise upon doing so. The Princess of the Ripple Kingdom, Ribbon, ended up falling wing over heels for Kirby and Kirby noticed her and got a bit of a crush too. The two are currently dating.

Timeline Hub History
Kirby eventually found himself wandering into the Multiverse Hub in early September 2020. He was fascinated by the strange dimension and quickly acquainted himself with the other hims. The Kirby of the Technician Uprising timeline, also known as Tech, ended up calling the newbie Gear after a conversation where the later revealed knowledge about the Dreamy Gears.

He's participated in every New Era Arc up to Acro and the Ocean Oracle, as due to lore reasons, he was busy at the time.

Actual History
Fright was inspired to create the AU upon viewing the Dreamy Gear toyline, as she loved Kirby and Steampunk, so the two together was a dream come true. The anime, Kirby: Right Back at Ya, was a major inspiration for the plotline of Nightmare Gear and TubularSpace. She also adapted some concepts from other individuals into Nightmare Gear, such as the Tumblr trend of involving the character Popopo in actual canon and Learner's using Void in a protagonistic role.