Chapter Two: A Day Interrupted

Whenever the sun rose over Pupupuland, it dyed everything above the horizon an indescribable shade of orangey-pink that looked as if it might be the most unappetizing flavor of juice in the world. It was a color that balanced tentatively on the fine line between abstract beauty and intriguing ugliness, and few enough people in town were ever awake early enough to see it. But Sir Meta Knight had watched that pink transform into gold and eventually sky blue almost every day since his arrival in the country, which was almost eighteen years ago now. Before that, every sunrise had been different, depending on which planet he was on and how long it took to become morning there. It was admittedly nice to be able to ground himself with at least one consistency in his life, even if it was just the inevitable ascension of the sun.

He was always up this early, not because of any desire to abolish sleep on his part (although he did detest laziness) but because it was his job to patrol Castle Dedede and defend it against hostile invaders. He stood out on his favorite terrace, gazing down at the still-sleeping Pupu Village; it looked so distant from his current perch atop this tall stone tower, so helpless. In another hour or two, the townspeople would awaken and begin their daily routines, as would he.

Sometimes, if he was in a particularly stormy mood, Meta Knight would internally curse the villagers for their passive stupidity, for the fact that they allowed King Dedede to remain in power even though they knew that he was cruel and greedy and used Nightmare's demon beast stock as his own personal toy box. But most of the time, the masked soldier simply ignored them, walking into the village and disregarding how utterly out of place he looked, unable to care less about the people who lived there. He had long since mastered the art of not caring much about anything.

He drew in a deep breath. Even though this was the only time of day that the temperature was crisp and bearable in Pupupuland, he was not refreshed, for the air had to pass through his mask first…and it was always lukewarm and slightly metallic-tasting by the time it reached his lungs. There had been a time when he hadn't minded showing his face to the world, but that was long ago, now.

And things hadn't been the same since the Century War.

As he stood out in his solitude, his concentration unwavering even though there was nothing really to focus on, a streak of red suddenly cut across the sky, like a dagger's slice drawing blood in bare flesh. Had the sun been shedding off just a little more light, even he, with his enhanced eyesight, might have missed it. As it was, his eyes tracked the path of the crimson object as it gradually descended behind the horizon. It was falling, he felt certain of that, and it was close enough that it might touch ground somewhere nearby.

He listened hard, anticipating the telltale boom that would indicate a crash, but none came. Strange. Whether that red streak was a nomadic asteroid or yet another extraterrestrial, visitor, he wouldn't have expected it to land gracefully. He leaned against the terrace's balustrade, scanning the village, the forest, and the surrounding countryside, but nothing seemed out of place. No spurt of flame singled itself out, no trees bent or snapped from an abrupt onset of weight…not within his line of sight, anyway.

But now the pink of the sky was giving way to yellow, and it was time for him to begin his first patrol of the day and put the red streak out of his mind.

…

Working for King Dedede had always been a thankless job. The penguin dictator had hired Meta Knight and his two followers, Sword and Blade, for the task of protecting the castle from potential threats and invaders. But at that time, there had been no danger to deal with. No neighboring nations would have bothered to attempt a takeover, and the king's subjects were too cheerfully dimwitted to rebel against the tyrant who ruled over them. Meta Knight's time had been spent treading through the mostly-vacant halls of Castle Dedede, weathering his new employer's temper tantrums and sudden whims. It seemed to him that he half-remembered another lifetime in which he had been content, if not exactly happy, but he never dwelled on that. He was not one to wallow in self-pity, and besides, it was best to ignore the past as he looked towards a hope in the future.

After many years, his routine had been disrupted by King Dedede's installation of the demon beast delivery system – and, shortly thereafter, by the arrival of the baby Star Warrior named Kirby. Meta Knight had successfully survived to see the next generation rise, even if Kirby hadn't been the Nexgen that he was expecting. Now he had someone to train and protect, if indirectly and from a distance. Now he was once again doing what his kind was meant to be doing, taking a stand against Nightmare's menace. The half-emptiness in his mind didn't matter, the things that he'd seen and done during the Century War didn't matter, and the fact that there were days when he felt that he barely had enough to keep him sane mattered least of all. He was giving everything that he had and doing all that he could, and it would be selfish to ask for anything more than that.

Despite the mysterious red comet (if indeed that was what he had seen), today didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary for him. He was striding briskly through the corridors, on his way to meet Sword and Blade in between patrols, his armor clinking rhythmically with each step…and then a bizarre feeling began to creep over him. He stopped up short. It was several long moments before he realized that the strange sensation was not physical but mental, and that it was gradually beginning to come on stronger.

A voice spoke in his mind, faintly, as if his connection to it was weak from disuse. He couldn't tell how far away its owner might have been, nor detect what emotions it carried as he had once been able to do. It only said one word: Meta?

He stiffened. Near the end of the war, Nightmare had dispatched demon beasts with the ability to crudely duplicate the mental signatures of fallen Star Warriors, and Meta Knight had seen many of his comrades lured away by what they thought were the calls of their dead doubles. Grief could be a powerful persuasive force, he knew that much. What he didn't understand was why His Majesty Dedede would have ordered such a creature, or why it had chosen to work its tricks on him when he was clearly not anguish-stricken. Either way, he would not be easily fooled by a cheap ploy, and he closed up his mind as best he could. The voice was barred out, but its presence still lingered, like a tickling itch inside his brain.

It had been at least three hundred and twenty-five years. He probably wouldn't have recognized his own double's mental signature if it had burst through a wall and ripped the mask right off of his face.

Unfortunately, his common sense didn't change the fact that something had access to his mind. He started walking faster, as if he could shake it with speed alone, but the faceless entity still persisted, nudging gently against his barriers. Its weight on his shoulders made him excessively wary, almost jumpy. It must have had something to do with the crimson streak in the sky, he reasoned. These two things had happened in such a short space of time that the possibility of a coincidence was almost nonexistent.

But what was it doing, and why was it doing it to him?

He opted out of meeting Sword and Blade after his first morning patrol. They were used to the occasional mood lapses that struck him at odd intervals, and they would know not to wait or come looking for him. He needed a moment of solitude, and a place where he could puzzle out the thing making mental contact with him without being bothered. In the almost empty castle, being alone was no grand challenge, and he settled on a quiet little alcove nestled within the space between two pillars, where he sat down with his cape tucked snugly around himself, and thought, and waited.

What exactly am I waiting for?, he wondered. For someone to go on a search for him? That wouldn't happen; he was never missed, and besides, everyone knew about his habit of vanishing for hours on end. No one would chide him for neglecting his duties. His services were hardly needed, since all danger originated from King Dedede himself, in the form of demon beasts fresh from the transporter. Meta Knight sometimes warned those who would listen when a threat was afoot, and in the most dire of situations he might even interfere in one of Kirby's battles, but there was no need for that right now. The day was turning out peacefully so far, and no disturbance had made itself known to anyone but him. He supposed, then, that he was waiting for a revelation to strike him. But as the morning wore on and daylight began to chase away the shadowed safety of his hiding place, he had reached no conclusions and was feeling more profoundly confused than he had in quite a while.

When he heard voices moving down the corridor in his direction – auditory voices this time, not mental ones – he stood up and moved back against the stone wall, unsure of whether or not he wanted to reveal himself. Young, energetic footsteps pattered closer and closer. "It's kind of early for a picnic, don't you think, sis?" asked someone who sounded like a little boy. Bun, Meta Knight thought.

"We won't eat when we first get there. We'll explore a bit first," replied a girl. That would be Fumu. A chirping response of "poyo" soon confirmed that Kirby was with them as well.

Meta Knight stepped into the corridor discreetly, placing himself directly in their path. "And where are you three going?" he inquired coolly. He never placed much inflection on any of his words; this habit, coupled with his hidden face, made him a very difficult individual to interpret.

Fumu stopped up short, and the wicker basket dangling from the crook of her arm wobbled uncertainly. "Meta Naito Kyou," she greeted him respectfully. "We're just going on a picnic in the forest."

He dipped his head in a slight nod. "Whispy's Woods, I'd imagine?"

"Actually, we thought we'd try the woods behind Kabu Canyon. We haven't been there in quite a while, and Kirby's never been there – "

" – so we're going to go exploring," interrupted Bun. "I bet there's tons of stuff that we've never seen before, like maybe some cool caves or something!"

"Poyo!" agreed Kirby.

Meta Knight frowned, although of course they couldn't see it. he didn't like the idea of the children going off by themselves into an uncharted forest, particularly not while they had Kirby with them. The woods behind Kabu were dark at all times of the day, stuck in the shadow of the immense stone idol, and there was nobody around to respond to cries for help if one should run into trouble there. It seemed a likely spot for a demon beast to be hiding, especially one that had been sent without the knowledge of His Majesty. Granted, Whispy Woods was just as easy to get lost in, but at least the children would have the willing protection of the forest guardian there. What they were doing was risky, and he disapproved, but he knew that he'd never live it down if he showed any concern towards them.

"Be careful, then," he stated. "There may be something lurking nearby."

Fumu tilted her head. "Something…? You mean, a demon beast?"

For once, he wished that he was able to provide her with a concrete response, for Kirby's sake if nothing else. He could have let down the defenses in his mind for a moment to see if he could discern the identity of the voice that had spoken his name…but his common sense and self-preservation instincts were far stronger than his curiosity. It hadn't been his double who had reached out to him, he knew that much, and that was reason enough for him to be concerned.

"Just something," he responded briskly, and then he turned and strode off, his cape swirling behind him. He could feel the children's eyes on his back as they stared at him in that typical dumbfounded way.

…

Fumu did not allow her encounter with Sir Meta Knight to deter her from her mission. She was a rather stubborn girl (although she preferred to think of herself as "driven" or "determined") and besides, he was always offering them strange, cryptic advice unbidden. So she would continue on her way and do what she had to do. After all, she was the only one who could.

Although her brother and Kirby weren't aware of it, her trip to the uncharted forest had a greater purpose beyond a picnic and some casual exploration. She was on a scientific mission, and possible outcomes were surging through her head, teasing at her desire for knowledge. As a matter of fact, she was so preoccupied that she didn't realize that Bun was on to her until they were actually making their way behind Kabu, when he declared:

"This is about that red comet, isn't it?"

Fumu paused and looked back at him sharply. They were just beginning to tread through the first ring of vegetation, and with one of her hands still parting a fern so that they could pass, she demanded, "What do you mean?"

"C'mon, sis, I saw it too," he scoffed. "There was a weird red light in my room this morning that woke me up. When I went to the window, I saw a comet!"

"Poyo," agreed Kirby softly, as if to say that he had also seen this cosmic body from his little house outside of the village.

"It's a meteorite, not a comet," corrected Fumu. "At least, I'm pretty sure that it was a meteorite…according to my calculations, it probably landed somewhere around here."

"So you set up this picnic so that you could go looking for it," declared Bun smugly. "I knew it!"

She patted her wicked basket. "We're still going to have the picnic. I just want to do a little hunting along the way. I've never had the chance to examine space rock up close before, so this should be a good experience for me!"

"Rocks aren't exciting, even the ones from space," retorted Bun with an eye roll. "Besides, what if you can't find it? Or what if it's not a meteorite at all – what if it's an alien?"

"Yeah, right," his older sister jeered.

"I bet it is!" he insisted in a singsong voice. "You agree with me, don't you, Kirby?"

There was no response, not even a lone poyo. When Fumu glanced behind her again at where Kirby had been waiting just a second ago, her green eyes widened in shock and dismay.

"Kirby!" she cried. Her shout hardly echoed at all, quickly devoured by the vegetation around them. She hurriedly bounded forward into the tree line. "Kirby! Kirby, where are you?! I can't believe that you lost him, Bun!"

Bun reared back indignantly. "I didn't lose him! He was right there a second ago! Besides, wasn't it your idea to come here in the first place?!"

She ignored him. "He can't have gotten far. Look for broken branches or something, so that we can figure out where he went!" With that, she dashed forward to check the nearest clump of bushes, deserting her clunky basket along the way.

"Check for broken branches, yeah, right," muttered Bun, although he scurried away obediently. "It's so dark in here that I can't see anything!"

Fumu parted tree limbs, peeked through the brush, and investigated every hidey-hole where a little pink ball might be able to fit, but she had to agree with her brother. Very little sunlight reached all the way to the forest floor, turning the landscape into indistinct smears of deep green. Had she anticipated this setback ahead of time, she would have thought to bring a flashlight.

After several minutes of frantic searching, Bun called over to her, "Um, sis, does this count as broken branches?"

She scowled as she turned to face him, slapping her hands together to rid them of the accumulated layer of pollen and soil grains. Bun was standing a few yards away, spotlighted by a patch of rare dappled sunlight. "Does what count as broken branches?"

He pointed above his head. "That."

Her eyes lifted to follow his finger…and she gasped.

Now she could see the reason why light was able to penetrate in that area: something had torn through the top of the forest canopy, something that must have been huge, for it had left a trail of snapped tree boughs and desecrated foliage in its wake. Fumu saw places where once-mighty wooden limbs now revealed raw green wounds, and she imagined all of the woodland animals and birds that had been unceremoniously evicted from their homes when the source of this destruction had rumbled by. The carnage stretched out ahead of her in an unnaturally straight path, as if the hand of a giant and casually swiped down and grazed the uppermost layer of the forest. Her heart pumped excitedly, saturating her brain with blood and adrenaline. Surely Kirby couldn't have caused so much damage, so it must have been…

"The meteorite!" she blurted, dashing forward.

Bun stared at her in awe. "Do you think that it passed by here?"

"It must have! What else could have been big enough to do this?" Almost immediately, she answered her own question, though not aloud: a demon beast. Perhaps there had been something to Sir Meta Knight's warning after all.

Bun wasn't thinking quite that rationally, however. "An alien," he proclaimed.

She groaned, exasperated. "Enough with the alien stuff already! Come on, let's investigate. Just walk carefully, and hopefully we'll be fine…"

It was easier to find their footing here, in this wide ribbon of yellow sunlight. At least they knew that nothing would be able to sneak up on them under cover of darkness. And they hadn't gone a hundred paces before a familiar pink ball toddled towards them, happily squealing, "Poyo poyo!"

"Kirby!" exclaimed Fumu and Bun in unison, both of them equally relieved.

They'd been expecting their friend to come over to them immediately, but instead he stayed where he was, hopping up and down as he jabbed a stubby arm at the sky. "Poyo! Poy-oo!" he repeated emphatically.

Fumu's eyes lifted slowly, and it wasn't long before she caught sight of something large and silver, its exterior gleaming with almost searing brightness under the full force of the late morning sun. It had apparently become wedged within a cluster of particularly old and sturdy trees, unable to drop or move forward any further. It was not a meteorite. The distinct five-pointed shape and the glass dome capping it were more than enough for her to ascertain that.

Bun gripped her arm. "Woah, sis…" he breathed.

She felt a slight tug on her jumper and looked down to see that Kirby was now at her feet, vying for her attention. "Poyo poyo poyo-poy," he said, obviously waiting for her to express pride at his discovery.

She could only nod. "Yes, Kirby, I see it. It's a starship…just like yours."

Her younger brother began shifting from one foot to the other with an uneasy combination of eagerness and anxiety. "Okay, so, where did it come from? How did it get here?"

"Well, obviously, its pilot must have brought it here." Fumu's eyes crawled over the trail of wreckage leading up to the silver craft. "And I guess that they had a bit of trouble."

"Its pilot?" He took a step forward, mouth still agape, but she tugged him back; there was no telling if those straining trees might suddenly drop their load. "But if it's a starship, wouldn't its pilot have to be a – "

A twig snapped behind them.

That was the only warning they got – Fumu barely had enough time to spin around, grab Kirby's hand, and scream as the armored figure, with its dark swirling cape and predatory yellow eyes, lunged forward with its sword pointed directly at them.

A/N - Wow, thanks for all the favorites, follows, and reviews, everyone! I was pleasantly surprised by the reception I got! If you wouldn't mind doing that again for this chapter, please, I'd be ever so grateful. All of your feedback will be considered, so yeah, talk to me and let me know how I'm doing!