The siblings had all discussed the trip prior. While Kirby had almost entirely been ignored, he still managed to have people leave in different vehicles. He'd be damned if he let that happen to any more than one person.
They still had him sit in the back of a transport. No more than two people per car. Every car had to be top quality and reinforced.
"Hey, Chloe?"
"Yea?" Replied Chloe, tersely.
"What do you think the trees smell like?"
"What sort of question is that?"
"I don't know, nobody really posted anything but fluff in regards to how trees smell. The internet is just super pretentious about that stuff." Kirby said while anxiously waiting for the gates to open.
"I uh… I guess so." Chloe remarked
Their dialogue was interrupted by the loudspeakers.
"Five, minutes, until, gates, opening."
They went silent as the voice droned on for a solid twenty seconds.
"How likely are these gates going to crush us again?"
Chloe sighed. "It's a non-zero chance, basically lottery levels of uncommon. Calm down."
"Right, sorry. I'm just making sure. Tense… I'm only just a little tense okay?"
"Calm down Kirby."
"Sorry, Chloe."
*Ah, I don't want to do this but It's just tying up some loose ends.* Kirby thought to himself, further psyching himself up for the thrilling short drive to a nearby destination.
The loudspeakers crackled to life for one final time.
"Gates, opening, in, thirty, seconds."
Slapping himself on the cheeks he sits up and looks out the window.
As the vehicles filed out of the city the group broke off of the main traffic to head down a side road.
Looking around, Kirby took in the landscape. Entirely red and pink fleshy carpeting covered anything not man-made or writhing. There where writhing masses of unknown flesh moaning, seeming to curse the world they were unfortunate enough to be born into.
After about five minutes he realized that's all that this world had to offer he went back to looking around.
Distracting himself he asked. "How fast are we going right now?"
"Mach 2" Chloe replied curtly, "we're nearing the equator."
"Cool, thanks."
*This is… uncomfortable for her, clearly. Is it weird that I'm not grossed out by this? Ah well, we're not really normal people so I shouldn't be judging.*
As mused to himself he reclined his chair. Looking up, through the small window in his roof he saw something. Something big. Something round. Something approaching him.
"Hey, Chloe! What's that above us?"
"What do you mean above us?"
Chloe leaned back, looking through the same window as Kirby.
"Looks like an asteroid or something," Chloe muttered.
An awkward silence filled the can as soon as she'd stopped talking.
Keeping his eyes on the "asteroid" Kirby quickly realized that it was getting larger.
"Hey, the asteroid is still growing."
Chloe leaned back and looked, raised an eyebrow and sighed. She pressed a button on her dashboard and waited.
A voice filtered through the surround sound speakers and filled the car. "Hello, New Hope help and safety. How can we assist?"
"Yeah, this is citizen #2997718357, Chloe Svero."
"Received, what's your request."
"We're in the…"
The conversation faded into the background as Kirby kept his eyes on the rapidly expanding space rock. The rock, now noticeably blue and taking up so much space one can now see it and nothing else in the sky.
*Oh come on, am I going to die again?*
Chloe started to panic as the sky was entirely blotted out. The already overcast sky dimmed until nothing was visible outside of the car.
A sense of weightlessness took over Kirby's stomach. The beams of the headlights began to point downwards, showing that they were a kilometre above the ground and were speeding up.
Below them the ground started folding up, rocks, debris, fleshy waste, and all slowly ascending like some sort of mentally deficient judgment day.
They couldn't say anything over the roar of them exiting the atmosphere.
It took a moment for them to exit the shadow of the new planetary body. Looking up they saw a huge, gorgeous planet. Covered in all the hues a human can see and some more. Crystalline blues, emerald greens, even the poles looked like they were coated in diamonds. Compared to the sickly pinkish and black planet they'd just left, they, even in this moment felt underwhelmed by its appearance.
The new planet was many times larger than Earth. Twice, maybe even three times the size. They couldn't tell from the location they were in.
Then the two watched in horror as the new planet didn't collide with Earth. It looked to be still as the rotten planet smacked into its side, sticking, like a snowball against a metal pole.
They watched as everything below the equator just got deleted. The force vaporizing it. That's it. The rest of the planet stayed still. New hope still visible from space, undisturbed.
It was all surreal. A toddler playing with toys can to mind as they watched their world resume its normal activities. Satellites stayed orbiting, the city still bright, just… half the planet, gone.
"What… what is this?" Chloe said, with an expression most likely never worn before by any human slapped cleanly across her face.
"I don't know." Replied Kirby, equally confused.
*Am I going to live?*
The shuttle shifted slightly before it started rattling. The new planet becoming more and more prevalent while their old planet faded behind the horizon of the new giant.
The nearby debris was falling to the newly introduced planet as it had somehow managed to beat them to the deadly descent.
Kirby realized in that second he probably could get to say his last words.
*Let's make this cool.*
As the shuttle began to heat up, Kirby saw the desperation in Chloe's eyes.
"Chloe!" Kirby had to shout over the gyrations of the sealed land vehicle.
"Yeah!?" Chloe replied, both eyes closed and gripping her armrests tightly.
* I have to make this count…*
The shuttle had fully entered the atmosphere at this point and tears started to appear in the armour of the transport.
"The first one to die loses!"
With that final statement, the shuttle promptly divided itself in half. The front half flung into the horizon as the back half Kirby was in hurtled downwards.
*Well, that sounded a lot cooler in my head.*
Pulling the seat cushion he was sitting on over his head he prayed that both of them managed to win the new game.