Tournament of the World
By: JadeDragonKnight
Chapter I
It was turning out to be a beautiful day in Dream Land. As always, the villagers are going about their normal routines as the children found things to keep themselves entertained. The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cold. Fluffy clouds rolled by in the deep blue sky. However, a perfectly normal day doesn't make much of a story, does it?
King Dedede sat in a lawn chair outside on his balcony. He had big, dark sunglasses covering his eyes. A stripped umbrella stood next to his chair, shielding his face from the bright sunlight. It seemed like nothing could break him out of his relaxed state.
"Your majesty, your majesty!"
A loud familiar voice echoed through the halls and quickly approached.
"You have to see this!" Escargon screamed as he ran out onto the terrace.
"This is really import-"
He stopped short when he ran too fast and almost threw himself off the balcony. He screamed in fear as he looked down at the land hundreds of feet below. He seized struggling for a moment and rolled himself from the precarious position.
"Calm down, you're being noisy in the presence of the king of evil," King Dedede stated calmly. He frowned for a second and muttered, "Whoa, déjà-vu."
"Look at this," the attendant said as he ran over to the lounging king.
He held a piece of paper that looked like it had been ripped off in a hurry from where it was hanging.
"It says a kingdom in the east is holding a tournament," Escargon stated excitably.
"What makes that important?" Dedede asked taking the flyer from him.
"The challenge is for the greatest fighters in the world," Escargon explained, "and the person that wins earns the title 'Champion of the World'."
The king suddenly sat up and shouted, "Forget that! Look at the size of this trophy!"
He was pointing to a picture of the trophy in the middle of the paper. It was solid gold with a polished wooden base. It was in the shape of a cup with golden branches forming a circle in the middle. The symbol of the kingdom that was hosting the tournament was between the branches. The base had a golden plate on it that had 'Champion of the World' engraved on it. There was an empty space below it for the winner's name.
Dedede looked at the empty space on the base and imagined his name neatly engraved on it.
"Do you know how much that trophy is worth?" Dedede asked excitably. If you looked hard enough, you could see dollar signs in his eyes.
Escargon crossed his arms and disappointedly muttered, "I knew you'd only be interested in the prize."
The king jumped up and exclaimed, "I got to enter and win that trophy!"
"Wait!" Escargon shouted stopping the king in his tracks, "we don't even know how many matches there are."
The king chuckled a bit, looked at the paper and said, "There's probably five, ten… ONE HUNDRED!"
"What?" Escargon shouted as he took another look at the flyer.
The king slumped back in his chair in despair.
"There is no way I'm going to survive that," Dedede concluded.
"There's still a chance," Escargon stated reading off the paper, "It says royalty can enter their strongest subject to compete. The winning king gets the trophy and the subject will earn the title."
"That's even better," the king said jumping back up, "I'll get the prize and I won't even have to fight!"
"But who are you going to enter?"
"Don't worry, I got the perfect person."
Fumu and Bun continued to walk through the corridors. Kirby walked behind them, carrying a laundry basket filled with clean clothes on top of his head.
"Thanks for helping us with the clothes Kirby," Fumu said happily.
"Yeah, but next time don't try to eat the detergent," Bun suggested.
"Piyo," Kirby cheerfully replied.
Then, they saw King Dedede and Escargon walking towards them. They stopped and waited to see what they wanted. Kirby placed the basket on the ground next to him.
"We need to see Kirby for a second," Escargon stated as he came close. He was holding out a rolled up piece of paper.
"What for?" Fumu asked suspiciously as she snatched the paper from the attendant.
Escargon glared at her from her sudden action as she read through the flyer.
"A hundred match tournament?" Bun asked when he leaned in to look at it.
"Oh no," Fumu said angrily throwing the flyer aside, "you are not entering Kirby in that tournament!"
"We didn't ask you, you little brat!" Escargon replied, pointing at her.
"For your information," Dedede explained, crossing his arms, "we weren't going to enter Kirby."
"What," everyone asked in surprise, even Escargon.
"You can keep the paper," the king said as he turned and left.
The attendant looked at him in surprise for a moment then followed him.
"What are you doing? We were going to enter Kirby," Escargon whispered.
"You saw their reaction," Dedede replied, "they weren't going to let us use Kirby. They'd probably mess things up anyway."
"We don't have anyone better than Kirby! He was our only shot!"
"Not true, we have the knights."
"How are they better than Kirby?"
"You'll see," King Dedede reassured.
The castle's knights were practicing in the courtyard. All their swords were drawn and posed for attack. Blade and Sword stood facing Meta Knight. A red cloth was tied loosely on Meta Knight's left arm. Then, Blade and Sword split up and charged at him. Meta Knight glanced at both at them and readied himself. Sword raised his sword and came down on him. Meta Knight blocked it and pushed him away. Then, he dodged Blade's attack from behind. His subordinates continued to attack him. When Meta Knight's weapon locked with Sword's, Blade lunged at the red cloth. Meta Knight noticed and quickly moved his left arm out of the way. When Blade got close, he elbowed the top of his helmet, sending him to the ground. He then turned to Sword, threw both blades up, and shoved him away. Sword fell to the ground from his loss of balance. The subordinates panted.
"Are you two tired already?" Meta Knight asked.
"This is hard," Blade complained.
"You made it sound easy when you said we just had to get that cloth," Sword added, sitting up.
"Well, this training is working," Meta Knight stated while removing the cloth, "your teamwork is improving."
He tossed it aside. Sword and Blade stopped panting and looked at it. Suddenly, they sprang up and raced toward it. Before either of them could get it, they slammed their heads together. The sound of metal hitting metal rang through the air. They both collapsed and held their skulls in pain.
"Then again, maybe it's not," Meta Knight sighed.
Then, they noticed the king and his attendant enter the courtyard. Sword and Blade stood up as they stopped in front of them.
"Meta Knight, I got to ask you something," Dedede smirked.
The knights looked questionably at him.
Escargon grabbed the king and said, "Could you hold on for a second?"
The attendant turned around and yanked Dedede down to eye level.
"Meta Knight? Are you serious?" he asked quietly.
"He's just as tough as Kirby," Dedede whispered back.
"But he's not as adaptable! He won't last ten rounds!" Escargon murmured angrily.
"Calm down you old geezer, he'll be fine."
They got up and faced the knights.
"Meta Knight, you've heard of that tournament some kingdom in the east is holding, right?" King Dedede asked.
"I've heard about it," he replied.
"Good," Dedede grinned, "Because I'm entering you as my fighter."
"No way," Sword and Blade objected, running up between them.
"That tournament is a hundred matches!" Sword added.
"Entering it would be suicide!" Blade argued.
"Sword, Blade."
The subordinates turned to their lord. He looked at them as if acknowledging their outburst.
"I accept," Meta Knight stated to Dedede.
"My lord," the knights muttered in surprise.
King Dedede laughed and said, "That's what I like to hear!" He clapped his hands together and added, "That's settled. We'll set out as soon as possible!"