Dark Reflections
A/N: This is just a boss-fight scene between Kirby and Dark Mind in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. I hope I haven't lost all the people following Flamma Wies, Megaman ZX Advent fic, so consider this an apology.
At last, Kirby had found all eight shards of the Amazing Mirror. Almost as soon as he'd placed the last one, though, the sky turned dark, and an evil, laughing face peered out of the Mirror back at him (them). If the four of him could beat whatever this presence was, they could probably recombine, and save Meta-Knight in the process! Kirby jumped through one by one...
And found themselves in the burned husk of an amphitheater. Ahead was Meta-Knight, with his back to Kirby. He turned and thrust his sword in challenge. "En garde, Kirby! I'll finish you!"
"No, Kirby!" another voice of Meta-Knight called from a ledge, located above and behind Kirby. "That is not me! It is Dark Meta-Knight! I hate to admit to such weakness, but you must defeat him yourselves! Show him your combined power!" Meta-Knight threw four simple swords from above, one to each Kirby: Pink, Yellow, Red, and Green. Each inhaled their sword, and transformed into Sword Kirby!
"This isn't over, Meta-Knight!" Dark Meta-Knight's voice took on a metallic distortion as his illusion of the chivalrous Meta-Knight fell away like a cape fluttering in the breeze. He looked much the same, but his color was more washed out and gray, his eyes were narrower vertically and tilted in an evil glare, and his sword, Dark Galaxia, was silver with razor-like serrations sticking out where the true Galaxia had horn-like curved spikes. He swung once, twice, then slammed his sword into the ground. "Let's go, Kirby!"
Kirby immediately attacked from four directions in perfect synchronization, chipping at Dark Meta-Knight's armor with flurries of blows. Oddly, their foe just stood there and withstood the assault with sword raised high, coursing with lightning as he charged up for...
Too late, Kirby saw their enemy's plan. Dark Meta-Knight stabbed his sword into the earth with enough force to make the ground shudder, and unleashed an enormous column of sheer power that swept Kirby away, depositing them a long distance from their foe. Kirby rose, gathered their swords, and met their enemy's blade in turns as he shot forward with supersonic speed. They'd had practice fighting the actual Meta-Knight, though-on at least three separate occasions-so they knew how their foe's blade would travel. As Dark Meta-Knight left one Kirby, he would be stabbed in the back as the next Kirby parried his strike. Eventually, Dark Meta-Knight collapsed. "Heh, heh, heh, heh..."
"What is so funny, doppelganger?" Meta-Knight called.
"You actually thought I would be the end of it? No, that is not to be. Every Knight should have a lord, and mine will destroy you!" With an evil cackle, Dark Meta-Knight raised his hands above himself. "Dark Mind! Now is the time! Drown these pathetic mortals in darkness, and the Mirror World after!" Dark Meta-Knight floated upwards to the center of the ring, then glistened and shattered like glass.
Like a mirror.
The shards of their former foe floated in the air for a second, and between them, a point of foul blackness grew into a portal that coursed with lightning. The distortion sucked in the shards, Kirby, and most of the arena, but when Meta-Knight dove at the gate to assist, he was repelled.
Not missing a beat, he drove Galaxia into the barrier that had thwarted him, and with the last of his strength, pushed through just enough to hurl his sword inside. He was just in time; Kirby, Galaxia, and the portal all vanished into Dark Mind's domain.
Darkness. Stygian blackness as far as the eye could see, which wasn't very far. There was a small arena of the stuff seen in Candy Constellation, and Galaxia fell into the center of it. Pink Kirby poked the sword, then drew it from the ground. It filled his mind with all the ways he could use it to defeat whatever foe was waiting for them here. The rest of him readied their swords, and their foe floated down from above, wreathed in darkness. When the darkness lifted to reveal Dark Mind's appearance, Kirby started. That looked awfully like the Cloaked Nightmare that had terrorized Dream Land a while back. He wasn't quite the same, but Kirby figured he could be fought the same way. Two mirrors blinked into existence beside Dark Mind, then rotated around him like a shield. Attacking the mirrors proved useless, and Dark Mind's cloak repelled attacks, even those of Galaxia. But then he struck back, revealing an orange mass with a single red eye. The eye shot red stars out at Kirby, and they dodged them all.
Now, Kirby was no genius, but they'd been poked in the eye before, and they knew it hurt quite a bit. They merely had to wait for the next attack, and charged right through the star projectiles with Galaxia leading. It drove deep into Dark Mind's true body, pushing him back until he disappeared. The fake face screamed silently in pain, and Dark Mind attacked again. Pink Kirby managed to dodge between the swirling mirrors and deal another powerful spinning charge attack. Their foe cracked and broke like another mirror. A fake!
The darkness around them closed in, and when Kirby could see again, the arena had changed. It looked like Radish Ruins, almost, with two narrow platforms floating at the sides. This would give them a few new vantage points with which to attack Dark Mind. The abomination reappeared, but lasted even less time than it had before. This illusion also shattered, and the new arena was a slice of Cabbage Cavern with pools of water on either side. Dark Mind didn't enter the pools, and Galaxia was in no way hampered by the water, so that was also an easy fight. Finally, Dark Mind took them to a slice of caves behind Peppermint Palace, frozen all across to make movement difficult. The evil being dropped a sphere of dark energy, which began to shake. Red Kirby inhaled it, however, and used the destructive energy contained within to transform into Crash Kirby!
The next time Dark Mind revealed his eye, Red Kirby struck with the force of a nuclear bomb, tearing off the cloak of darkness protecting the fiery ball within. They expected it to explode, but instead, a voice spoke in their minds...
"HA, HA, HA, HA, HA! I AM FREE! FREE AT LAST! YOU HAVE TORN OFF THE CHAINS THE ANCIENTS BOUND TO ME, AND NOW MY POWER CAN GROW...!"
With the last word, Dark Mind Reborn began to literally grow, until he was three times bigger than Kracko the Thundercloud. He then unleashed an attack, a blast of catastrophic proportions that tore apart the darkness around them and knocked Kirby away. How could they fight against a power like that?
Then, there was an instinctive feeling of something being off. Kirby had felt it before, when his own shadowy doppelganger briefly appeared to throw something at him. Sure enough, Shadow Kirby appeared, picked up Galaxia, and handed it to Pink Kirby, the only Kirby left. The others had been smashed together by the blast, and Kirby was whole once more. With a smile, Kirby took the sword, and Shadow Kirby vanished. Maybe the Mirror-World copies weren't so bad after all... As determination to defeat his foe and save the land grew in Kirby's heart, light and power filled Meta-Knight's blade. Kirby dove headlong into battle, knocking aside a mirror that tried to slice him. He noticed that Dark Mind flinched from that more than from having Galaxia thrust into his eye. So the mirrors were no longer invincible!
Dark Mind used his immense power to warp space and disorient Kirby, then blasted the already-ruined area with lasers. Kirby drove past a laser blast and jumped to strike Dark Mind, cutting off another blast. Power surged from the disrupted laser all through Dark Mind's form, dealing severe damage and blowing off most of his body's mass, leaving behind a smaller orange sphere that glowed white-hot.
"NO! I MUST NOT FAIL! I WILL RETURN, AND WHEN I DO, YOU WILL ALL DIE!" Saying this, Dark Mind fled to the sky with blinding speed! Kirby didn't miss a beat. He pulled out his Cell Phone, and dialed for a Warpstar. Kirby's faithful ride arrived in seconds, and in no time, Kirby had closed the distance to his foe. He was still holding Galaxia, but now he channeled its power into the Warpstar. It fired off as his own star-shaped projectiles, countering Dark Mind's desperate assault. Maneuvering cleanly around hundreds of dark projectiles, Kirby peppered Dark Mind with more and more stars. His foe would not get away!
"NO! NOOOO! Noooo..." And in a burst of flame, Dark Mind exploded.
And so, Dark Mind was defeated, and his dream of conquering the Mirror World was shattered. Now, at last, peace will return to the Mirror World...
But they remain on guard...
After all, who knows when another evil may arise? Don't worry, though. Mirror-World Kirby will be there to keep them all safe!