Chapter 5

Part 2

Finally, Meta Knight thought in relief. He spotted the town just a few blocks away. That was where he would get the lights and wires for the Brawl Mansion. It was where they had purchased them before. The Smash Store, named in honor of them, was basically a super store. It had almost everything you could imagine.

As Meta Knight was about to start looking for the supplies, King Dedede whistled at someone. Meta Knight shot him a questioning look and then looked in the direction the king was staring. Meta Knight simply walked away as he saw that King Dedede was whistling at Zero Suit Samus. The king pointed at the bounty hunter with both of his index fingers and winked at her; adding, on top of that, a clicking noise.

Samus shot him a glare and cracked her electrical whip on the ground. King Dedede nevertheless walked off, feeling dignified. "Didn't know that she was coming here," he commented, catching up with the masked knight.

"I didn't know you would be stupid enough to try hitting on my girl," commented someone else with a chuckle.

King Dedede whipped around to see another Brawler. "Oh, it's you," he stated flatly.

Snake walked around the obese penguin; apparently examining the king as he did so. "Hitting on Samus?" He crossed his arms and scoffed, "Ha!"

King Dedede stepped closer to Snake and said to him while poking the man's chest, "Like she hasn't turned down your sorry behind enough!"

"At least she talks to me," he argued, narrowing his green eyes.

Meta Knight whirled around, getting sick of their naïve bickering, "You both are acting foolish. Fighting over a girl in such an immature way."

The two were silent. They quickly ignored Meta Knight's statement and returned to fighting. Meta Knight then decided to just leave King Dedede. King Dedede would do nothing but complain. "Kirby, I don't want you to touch or eat anything. We're looking for Christmas lights and some electrical wires. Understood?" He turned around when he didn't get an immediate 'Piyo!' from his student.

"So buzz off, fish breath!" Snake insulted the king.

"You think you're such a hotshot. You're nothing but a-" King Dedede stopped as they both heard Samus saying something.

"Thanks, Kirby," the woman said, taking the fake rose from Kirby. The rose may have been man-made and plastic, but it was a sweet gesture.

"Piyo!"

The fighters then glowered at their new competition. "Kirby..." they slowly growled.

As Kirby was about to skip back over towards his mentor, King Dedede and Snake pulled Kirby aside and into the windows aisle. "Hey kid! Lay off!"" Snake ordered the puffball.

King Dedede held his chest out-as much as he could with his injuries-and gave Kirby an icy look. "You're too young for this stuff. Why don't you go chase after a bunny or something?"

"You're just a kid!"

Kirby looked at the two sadly. He trudged away as he received their message loud and clear. He looked back glumly as he was now slumped over, his stubby arms hanging down loosely. The two weren't budging. They simply pointed ahead for him to go away. Kirby continued to walk off, dragging his round, red-orange feet on the floor.

Meta Knight spotted yet another Brawler. I guess today's a grocery shopping day, Meta Knight thought. Master Hand would always send certain people out to go grocery shopping. Very rarely, one person would go out to get the large supplies of food needed for all the Brawlers. It was more likely that one person went out if they had forgotten an item.

Group shopping was never an enjoyable experience. Endless arguments about what to buy, how much, and purchasing 'extra' items for their own enjoyment. Meta Knight would always try his best to avoid having to go and shop with the other Brawlers. The usual everyday antics of the fighters were enough. Having to spend extra time with any one of them was too stressful.

Luigi was hunched over, struggling to read the small print on the box of crackers. The plumber dressed in green turned from the box after hearing the sound of Meta Knight's armor faintly clanking as he walked. "Oh, Meta Knight. It's-a you," Luigi said in relief. Just by looking at him, he looked worn-out. "You-a here to help out with-a the grocery shopping?"

Meta Knight glanced over to the right, where he could hear Snake and King Dedede bickering at the top of their lungs. "Actually..."

Luigi interrupted him. He put his gloved hand on his hat and tipped his head back. "Ohhh, that's-a right! You got into a fight with King Dedede! You're-a looking for the Christmas Lights?"

Meta Knight answered simply, "Yes."

Luigi pointed off into the distance. "Aisle-a seven!"

"Thank you," Meta Knight said before leaving.

He stopped for a brief moment and looked back at Luigi, wondering what he was having trouble seeing. He snapped out of it when someone let out a cry. All of a sudden, King Dedede went flying across the store and crashed into some shelves with different flavored coffee. King Dedede opened one eye and grit his teeth as he struggled to get up. His body was already sore from last night and with the sudden attack from Snake it only made it worse.

He managed to get up from the shelves-that were now dented from the impact-and tightened his grip on his hammer. Snake came running at the penguin, his arms covering his face in case of a sudden attack. King Dedede swung his hammer at Snake, sending him flying. He chuckled and twirled his hammer that was still in his gloved hands. "Did'ja like the taste of my hammer?" the King taunted.

Snake slid across the clean floors of the super store on his back and crashed into an artificial Christmas Tree. More people were watching them after the uproar caused by the tree being knocked down and the glass ornaments shattering. Snake didn't hesitate to get back up. He grabbed a grenade from his utility belt and set it off. He raised his right arm to hurl it towards King Dedede, who was now rushing his way.

"Eat this you obese penguin!" Snake called out, throwing it at him.

King Dedede stopped in his tracks as he spotted the grenade flying through the air. He quickly grabbed it with his right arm and flung it back. Snake raced towards it and then tossed it back at him. Soon, the two were playing 'hot potato'. People watching the scene ran far from the two. They were all getting ready for the explosion to come. They didn't want to be anywhere near the blast; fearing for their own safety.

The two were tossing the grenade faster and faster to one another as the time passed; the explosion would come quickly. "Quickly, throw it outside!" Samus ordered the two.

"Please everyone, get-a back! It'll blow any-a second now!" Luigi called out, making sure that everyone who was still standing now had a place to take cover. Luigi looked over his shoulder to see the two Brawlers were still at it.

"You take it!" Snake shouted.

"It's yours! You take it!" King Dedede replied hastily.

"Give it to me!" Samus yelled, going towards the two. She needed to help these people before something went horribly wrong. Before she could grab it, she saw a blur of blue and then it was gone; as well as the grenade.

Everyone then heard a loud explosion outside. Everything was quiet afterwards. People were unsure whether to go about their business or not. They weren't sure what had happened. Zero Suit Samus then looked back at the two fighters with an icy glare. "Where is it?"

Meta Knight then teleported beside her, panting. "It's gone."

Zero Suit Samus was silent for a few moments, still giving the two Brawlers a stern look. When she finished, she turned to Meta Knight. "Thank you," she then walked off to finish the grocery shopping she and the others needed to do.

Snake and King Dedede's attention shifted from each other to Meta Knight. "Show-off," Snake muttered. "Now, don't you talk to her," he added to the penguin.

"We'll just see who she'd rather talk to," King Dedede replied.

"Dedede," Meta Knight said angrily. "We are looking for Christmas lights and electrical wires. We are not here to hit on bounty hunters." The knight pointed towards aisle seven, where Luigi had told him to go. "March," Meta Knight said in a harsh whisper.

"You're not the boss a m-" was what the king started out with. It ended with Meta Knight yelling, "MARCH!"

King Dedede held his stomach with his left hand and scurried over there quickly. Meta Knight gave a sharp glare at Snake, who pretended to be looking elsewhere. Meta Knight wouldn't put up with this anymore. Endangering the lives of everyone around them to hit on someone was ridiculous. He would simply have to treat King Dedede like his knaves if he must.

Meta Knight walked over to the aisle where King Dedede had scurried off to and spotted the penguin looking at some multi-colored lights. The Star Warrior glanced down at the note he had kept safe in his Dimensional Cape and back at the shelves. "Master Hand instructed us to get both multi-colored lights and plain white ones."

King Dedede looked over at the note Meta Knight held to see how much they needed. Meta Knight saw King Dedede's eyes open wide for a few seconds once he saw the amount. "That's not too much," King Dedede said, his voice cracking because of the obvious lie.

"You get the multi-colored ones, I'll get the white ones," Meta Knight said, handing him the note. He looked over at where the white lights were. They were much higher than the multi-colored lights. As King Dedede began grabbing the amount of lights needed for the Brawl Mansion, he noticed Meta Knight's problem. "I don't mind getting them," King Dedede said, surprising Meta Knight slightly.

Meta Knight contemplated over his offer. He could still feel the sharp pangs in his back from last night. Sleeping in his condition was no easy feat, but he managed. It wasn't too different from resting after battling some of Nightmare's army. They would attack out of nowhere and use any means to come out victorious.

"Thank you," he replied, glancing over at the self-proclaimed king.

King Dedede gave a short nod and began pulling out more and more strands of lights. While King Dedede continued gathering the lights, Meta Knight went to get a cart for all of these wires. As he began to walk back towards the penguin, he realized that Kirby wasn't by his side. The chaos with the grenade had occupied his attention; as well as everyone else's attention.

He gave a quick scan of the area around him before he went back to King Dedede. King Dedede scooped up the abundant amount of lights he had placed on the floor and dropped them in the gray cart. The blue penguin let out a sigh as he gazed at the mess of lights before him. "I wish they'd wrap these things around some cardboard or something. It'll be a pain to straighten them out," King Dedede complained.

"Where is Kirby?" the knight asked.

King Dedede pondered over the question for a moment. "Wasn't he with you?"

Meta Knight didn't panic. This had happened too often to take him by surprise. Kirby could always be found someplace near some food. "Stay here. I'll find Kirby."

Meta Knight went over by the produce section. Kirby's favorite food were tomatoes, after all. When Meta Knight approached the stack of neatly piled tomatoes, Kirby was nowhere to be found. Through the array of colors, he couldn't spot the famous pink blob.

He began looking through each aisle, in case Kirby was playing a game of hide-and-seek with him. "Kirby?" There was no answer. He tried calling out louder, "Kirby?"

Meta Knight then turned to asking people who were shopping if they had seen the puffball. They all claimed they never ran into or spotted this 'Kirby'. As Meta Knight was about to ask King Dedede for assistance, he spotted the young Star Warrior. He was sitting on the beams that helped hold the structure together. He was staring down at his big, red-orange feet.

"Kirby! Get down from there!" Meta Knight called out to him.

Kirby didn't respond. He gave a depressed sigh and began moving his feet side to side while grabbing onto them. The knight called out to him once more, but the puffball was still lost in his own grief that he didn't notice Meta Knight at all.

Meta Knight sighed and grabbed the end of his cape, prepared to warp himself over onto the beam that Kirby was sitting on. When he had warped up onto the metal beam, Kirby was still staring down at the people and items below. "Kirby, you need to come when I call you."

Kirby slowly turned to face the knight. His baby blue eyes were watery and his lower lip seemed to quiver. Meta Knight was silent. He didn't understand why Kirby was upset. Kirby simply kept looking at Meta Knight; seeming to plead to the knight to comfort him. "What's wrong?"

Kirby closed his eyes and turned away. His stubby arms wiped away the tears that streamed down his soft, pink face. Meta Knight still waited to see if he would answer. He wasn't sure if he had said something to cause Kirby to be so distraught or if something else happened that was too horrible to recall. "Kirby," the knight said gently.

Kirby sniffled and looked over at his mentor. "Piyo...," Kirby said in a quiet voice. Meta Knight looked down at the aisle where he had just warped from. King Dedede was standing there, smiling sheepishly at him. The king had just arrived when Meta Knight went up to see Kirby and he knew why Kirby was so upset. The knight gave him a flat and annoyed look. Meta Knight then turned back to Kirby, who was now on his feet and holding something.

Kirby gave his mentor a weak smile and handed him the piece of paper. Meta Knight grabbed it and regretted it once he got a better look at the paper within his gloved hands. It was covered in saliva. He really wished Kirby wouldn't store some things in his stomach. Nevertheless, he silently read the paper. It was another one of Kirby's activities for him and Kirby to do. The writing was too messy to understand, but the picture could determine what he meant.

It showed a pink ball sitting on a man's leg. The man was in red with a large, white rectangle below his chin. A blue ball-with an oddly familiar mask-was sitting on the other leg; all of them seeming ecstatic.

Meta Knight looked up from the paper to see Kirby pleading with the same watery eyes and quivering lower lip. He sighed and agreed to do so tomorrow. Kirby began jumping up and down with excitement; his sadness washed away. Meta Knight wasn't thrilled about this idea, but he wasn't thrilled with the others either. He would simply have to follow Master Hand's instructions and tolerate it.

Meta Knight glanced down at King Dedede; who had caused Kirby to become so depressed. Even though Meta Knight would've had to have done this sooner or later, he would've preferred to do this a couple days later. He would have a chat with King Dedede later.

Sooo, that's the other half. I hope you didn't mind this uneventful chapter. I promise I'll whip something else much better next time! Don't forget to Review. Creative criticism is much appreciated. :D