Metaknight stood slowly, resting on his sword. DDD waddled over to him, and lifted him off the ground by his cape, bringing him to eye level.

"What the hell are you talkin' about?" DDD said.

Metaknight sighed. He took a deep breath… and began to talk.

…

When he finished, both DDD and Metaknight stood up, and went inside the Halberd. The ship took of silently, and flew towards DDD's castle at hyper speed.

Meanwhile in the forest…

Kirby and Gooey were walking to the Green Greens. The only thing that kept Kirby walking was thoughts of food. He wanted to go home, kick George's ass, and eat a nice plate of beef, salad, ham, eggs, potatoes, cheese, pizza, and… you get the idea.

Gooey's tongue had healed, and he was almost understandable. After an hour, they saw something strange in the distance. A large silhouette rose silently above the trees, towering over the two wanderers.

"Hey, isn't that Metaknight's starship?" Kirby asked. "Why is it way out here?"

"Gee, Kiwby, I dunno. Maybe we thould go an' invethtigate!" Gooey happly exclaimed.

"Gooey… that's always gotten us into trouble In the past. What makes you think that something won't go horribly wrong? Haven't you learned anything about the past? How many times have we gone to 'just take a look,' and ended up fighting for our lives? Gooey, I- HEEEYYY!!!"

Gooey was already happily bouncing towards the ship. "I hate it when he does that…" Kirby muttered. "Oh well… Maybe I can get some food." His mind full of thoughts of delicious potato salad, he decided that a little adventure wouldn't hurt.

Kirby ran to catch up to Gooey, who had already reached the base of the ship. As he got closer to the warship, Kirby noticed the ship had gotten a new paint job. It was now gray and black, and had a new emblem on the side. Hmm, Kirby thought, that doesn't look right…

When he arrived, he noticed that Gooey was standing very still, and very quiet, staring at something perched on the bow of the ship. Kirby slowly followed his gaze, and his eyes locked on to a dark shadow.

The sun was directly behind whatever was sitting on the ship, casting its features into darkness. The thing on top of the ship hadn't seen them yet, and was quietly staring off into the forest.

Kirby warned Gooey to stay out of sight, inhaled, and floated silently behind the unaware being, and gently set himself down a few feet away from it. Kirby slowly walked up to it… and hit him with a potato. The figure cursed, and looked behind him. When he saw Kirby, he stood up, startled.

Kirby could now see exactly who the mysterious person was: Shadow Kirby!

Kirby had first met Shadow Kirby on his trip to the mirror world. He and Shadow had fought, both thinking that the other one was the enemy. After the defeat of Dark Mind, Kirby and Shadow Kirby shared stories, and found that they were both on the same side. Shadow Kirby and Kirby's three clones stayed in Mirror World and helped guard it from an assaulting brigade of potato references. Kirby left soon afterwards, but not before being infected with the dreaded "Potatitis," a condition involving a person not being able to control frequent references to potatoes… Like turrets syndrome, but more Irish.

"Shadow! What are you doing here? I thought you were the guardian of the Mirror World!" Kirby blurted.

"Kirby! I finally found you! I've been looking for you for days!" Shadow cried out happily. Kirby, Dark Metaknight is loose in your world, and you've got to help me stop him! This is his ship, but there's nothing inside but crates and boxes."

Things are starting to come together, Kirby thought.

"So it was you that I saw outside that window at King Dedede's palace!" Kirby said. "You kidnapped me, didn't you! Why, I oughta' punch you in the face!!"

Shadow Kirby stared at Kirby with a puzzled expression on his face. "What are you talking about? This is the first time I've seen you since you left the Mirror World. By the way, who is King Dedede? I don't think I've ever heard of him before."

Never mind, Kirby thought. I'm still confused.

Kirby remembered that in the Mirror World, there was no King Dedede. In fact, during his time there he hadn't seen any evidence of a ruler at all. He explained to Shadow who Dedede was, and his many encounters with him.

"So," Shadow continued, "you thought I kidnapped you or something? What was that about?"

"Someone pretending to be my friend George had me kidnapped and brought to Kind Dedede's castle… and the weirdest part is, king Dedede didn't know anything about it at all! It was like-"

"Hewwo, up thewe? I'm thtiww down hewe! Kiwby? Do you need hewp up thewe? I'm getting weawwy bowed!!" Came a cry from down below.

"OH CRAP! I FORGOT GOOEY!" Kirby shouted. "GOOEY, DON'T HURT YOURSELF!!"

"AAAAAahhhh! I HIT MY TONGUE WITH A WOCK, AND IT WEAWWY HUWTS!!"

"OH GOD GOOEY, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Kirby jumped off the Mirror Halberd, and ran to Gooey. Shadow Kirby watched in appuzzlementation.

"Every time I hang out around Kirby," he said to himself, "I have the strangest urges to make an allusion to the book 50027 Potato Recipes for Swedish People…" Weird. He went off to follow Kirby.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

/\//\/\\/\//\/\\/\//\/\\/\//\/\\//\//\\/\\//\//\\/\\

Kirby and all related stuffs are © of Nintendo.

Ooooh, what's going to happen? Did Metaknight kidnap the kirbster? Was it really George behind the whole thing? FIND OUT NEXT CHAPTER!