This chapter got longer and longer... Hope you enjoy anyway.
7. Curio's Curious Discovery
"Why did I agree to do this again?"
"Because you are such a nice guy and do everything Fumu asks of you?"
"Of course, how could I forget that? Now try again and this time seriously."
"Maybe because Fumu will be angry at you if you don't do it and all but threatened you to help her?"
"That seems more like a reason though I am not sure why I let myself be threatened with anything. I don't even know what she threatened me with, but I am pretty sure it is nothing I could not handle because seriously this is... how shall I phrase this?" The one speaking paused for a while before speaking again. "It is not exactly something I would normally indulge in in my free time."
The other person nodded in agreement.
"Can you two stop complaining already? This is important and the more people help the faster it will be finished!" Fumu all but shouted at Meta Knight and Bun, who had dared to complain about their task, which was essentially digging around in the sand.
Meta Knight's mood had been anything but good the last two weeks and it was a wonder he had even agreed to help. After Bugzzy had knocked him out he had been angry ever since and had disappeared right after Dedede, not to be seen by anyone for some time.
His mask still had the crack above his left eye and although no one could actually see his face and confirm his expression he practically radiated anger whenever someone had asked about that until now. The fact Chef Kawasaki had generously offered Meta Knight (black) duct tape to fix the damage had also not been well received. Meta Knight had displayed an amazing self-control and had not attacked him outright but simply snapped at him that he didn't want it.
That had been the highlight of Fumu's day and she hadn't stopped laughing for quite some time. No one was even sure if she had laughed because Chef Kawasaki had offered it, because of the look on his face after Meta Knight had snapped at him or because she pictured what it would look like for Meta Knight to fix his mask with duct tape.
Meta Knight had been seething with rage and had consequently stopped talking to her (and Kawasaki) for three days, even when he saw her, and had, in every sense of the word, ignored her for that time. Fumu had merely smiled (albeit strained) and enjoyed that now she had made Meta Knight angry and not the other way round. But she was careful because she was skating on really thin ice right now and she knew it.
"As I was already saying this is nothing I would normally do. In fact I would certainly find more enjoyable things to do right now. Speaking to Dedede for example would be among those things." That of course was a lie, but Fumu didn't have to know that fact. She now was angry, which was really the only thing Meta Knight had tried to accomplish with his comment.
Meta Knight was talking to Fumu again, even helped her right now, but he had not forgotten the past. It was one of the reasons he was currently angering Fumu again.
"Oh for heaven's sake! Do you hear Kirby complaining? No! He is quietly helping Mister Curio and I!" Kirby was quiet, but helping them he was definitely not. And he was only quiet because he had drifted off into sleep ten minutes ago. Meta Knight had noticed of course, but hadn't felt like telling Fumu.
"It is not that boring, is it Kirby?" And turning in Kirby's direction Fumu saw exactly how boring Kirby thought it was. The result was frustration on Fumu's side and smirking on Meta Knight's side.
"So much for it not being boring." Meta Knight almost whispered those words, but Fumu seemed to hear him anyway. The glare she sent him suggested that.
"I still don't get what we are even doing." And it wasn't the first time Bun had said that and Fumu had angrily reminded him what they did. This time it was Curio who told him.
"Ah... we are searching for really old and valuable artifacts from the past. They can tell us a lot about what was happening in Dreamland before our time."
"And?" That response was not to Curio's liking or to that of Fumu.
"And? Bun that is really fascinating and helping us understand more of our past!"
"Really fascinating."
"Yes it is." Fumu chose to ignore Meta Knight's obvious sarcasm and started digging again, soon getting excited by the... rock she found.
"Oh! Look at this Mister Curio, I found something!" Now Bun couldn't resist anymore and had to see for himself what Fumu had found. Only to be disappointed.
"That's a rock. What's so special about it?" Both Fumu and Curio didn't quite agree with that and had disapproving looks on their faces.
"That is a valuable artifact and not some rock! This will give us important information about the past!"
"Uh-hu." And Bun wasn't the only one that couldn't care less. Kirby had done the smart thing and was still sleeping. Bun and Meta Knight however would have to endure the 'valuable artifacts' for quite some time to follow. And Meta Knight still wasn't sure why he even had agreed to help Fumu in the first place...
By now Fumu had even taken out her camera and started taking pictures of the rock she had found, seemingly from every angle possible and making Meta Knight wonder why she even took these pictures.
"That is still really fascinating, but don't you think we should continue searching for more ah... valuable artifacts? There surely are more than one here." Bun made a miserable face, but Fumu and Curio started digging again.
"And I still think it's only a rock..." Bun made sure only Meta Knight could hear that. "I'll go see if Kirby is alright!" That was for everyone to hear and before anyone could stop him Bun went in direction of Kirby, leaving Meta Knight behind.
He sighed and continued digging though with far less enthusiasm than Fumu and Curio. And he imagined what would happen if he used a Sword Beam to get rid of the sand. Every valuable artifact would probably be destroyed - or rather definitely be destroyed, but he still considered doing it.
His thoughts were interrupted when he hit something hard with his shovel. Another valuable artifact he feared and his fear proved to be correct after some time of digging. At least he assumed the box he had dug out held something valuable for Fumu and Curio. Then again even the box could be valuable because it seemed old.
"Oh you found something." That much had been obvious and Meta Knight simply handed Curio the box and made his escape to where Kirby and Bun were playing in the sand. They were building a sand castle, though it was still pretty small.
"Are they done?" Meta Knight turned around and looked in Curio's and Fumu's direction. They both looked fascinated at the box Meta Knight had given Curio and hadn't even opened it yet.
For Meta Knight it simply looked like any other box with some, for him totally irrelevant, ornaments, that seemed to have a meaning to Curio at least. Fumu seemed fascinated, but Meta Knight wouldn't put it past her to actually fake that.
Then the highlight followed when Curio opened the box and whatever was inside had him exclaim in joy.
"Ah! I can learn so much from these!"
Meta Knight turned back in Bun's direction, who in turn attended to his sand castle again. There was no need to answer the question, Curio was captivated for now and was most certainly not done. After he had admired his box for some time he would continue digging and Fumu would help him.
And he was right, for the next few minutes Curio only had eyes for the box and its contents. Fumu was again taking pictures, apparently of every single object inside and some time after the tenth object Meta Knight had stopped counting and observed Kirby and Bun.
They had completely ignored the other two and were calmly building their sand castle. That is until Kirby decided to destroy it. Well, it wasn't exactly a deliberate decision, it was more like Kirby tripped and landed atop the sand castle. Either way it was almost completely destroyed, Bun was unhappy and full of sand, Kirby was confused and also full of sand, Fumu and Curio hadn't even noticed and Meta Knight had at least been far enough away to not be hit with any sand. He was also the only one slightly amused by the whole thing.
"Aw Kirby... Now we have to build the whole thing again..."
"Poy?" Kirby looked confused at the place were the sand castle used to be and where now only piles of sand were left. "Kirby you destroyed it!" Kirby either didn't understand or ignored Bun and started building again, much to Bun's annoyance.
And the next annoyance was already on the way. Fumu had decided to come over and would certainly bully them into helping her again. Bun and Kirby, however, saw her and Bun grabbed Kirby and the two of them ran off.
Meta Knight had been staring somewhere into the nothing, far away with his thoughts, and hadn't noticed her. The result was Meta Knight digging in the sand again a few moments later.
And he didn't even know why. In the past he had always outsmarted Fumu or had ignored her until she left him alone (a rare case for sure), but now she had annoyed him for only a while and he had agreed just to shut her up. Something had to be wrong.
So grumbling Meta Knight continued digging, his mood decreasing rapidly. If it had at least been interesting he wouldn't even feel the need to send Fumu disapproving glances every once in a while, but he didn't care for the things he was searching for. He didn't care for Pop Star's history in the slightest.
Thus it didn't come as a surprise when Meta Knight didn't shout in joy when he hit something hard again. In fact he gave no reaction at all, except for a sigh, and simply continued digging.
An hour later he had dug out a big stone coffin. In this time both Curio and Fumu had noticed Meta Knight had found something, but instead of helping had watched as Meta Knight was digging. This was the only reason it had taken him that much time - he had been digging slowly on purpose to annoy them. Had they helped he would have been faster.
But an hour later the coffin was above the ground and waited to be opened. Only for Fumu to run off and declare she wanted the whole village to see that Dedede was not their rightful king.
Meta Knight was annoyed and Curio seemed nervous, what did not help to improve Meta Knight's mood in any way. If the day continued like that someone would die - killed by Meta Knight in a fit of rage.
"This is a coffin of one of our ancestors?"
"Yes."
Fumu had returned and with her many villagers, all that could be found. All of them were now standing before the coffin, staring fascinated at the cracked stone surface. Whatever Fumu had told them, it had captured their interest and they waited eagerly for someone to open the coffin.
But no one seemingly planned to do that, everyone that Fumu had taken along with her was waiting, Curio was fidgeting nervously and Fumu was standing beside the coffin and looked as if she wanted to make a speech first. Some would say they couldn't wait any longer, Meta Knight wouldn't wait much longer.
He had dug out the damn thing and though he did not care for Dreamland's history in the slightest he wanted to get over with everything right now. He had waited for Fumu to return, but he wouldn't wait for her to deliver a speech about something totally irrelevant. If the coffin wouldn't be opened in the next five minutes he would smash the thing to pieces himself.
Thankfully there hadn't been that many questions and Meta Knight hadn't even listened because he was making plans to smash the coffin. And when Fumu wanted to speak she was interrupted, what would certainly delay opening the coffin further, but at least things would become interesting because it was Dedede who interrupted. As always.
"Outta the way!" No one was stupid enough not to get away.
Dedede's tank came to a halt with screeching tires right in front of the coffin. Dedede looked disapproving at the coffin, Escargon seemed at least mildly interested. Everyone else was standing around the tank, waiting for Dedede to speak. They didn't have to wait long, almost instantly after looking at the coffin Dedede started complaining.
"You didn't come to my coronation anniversary, but all of you are here to see some stupid coffin!" Meta Knight wondered why exactly anyone should have gone to a coronation anniversary and was pleased to know that no one had attended. Another proof how popular Dedede was among the villagers.
"Maybe that is because you are not the rightful king and this is an ancient stone from our ancestors." The villagers were whispering among themselves, clearly displeasing Dedede because he could guess what they were saying. Meta Knight's mood was still far from good, but seeing Fumu speak to Dedede like that improved his mood at least a bit.
"So what? What's so special about that thing?" And finally, finally someone else had spoken the words Meta Knight had thought since he first saw the coffin. What was so special about it?
"It belonged to our ancestors! Now it will be made clear who Dreamland really belongs to!" Dedede seemed suspiciously calm as Fumu not so subtly hinted he wasn't the rightful king. He seemed to notice this as well because a few seconds later he was shouting right back at Fumu.
"I am the rightful king! My ancestors ruled for generations before me!"
"Really? So why don't you open the lid for yourself?" Now things would become interesting. Fumu and everyone else obviously hadn't noticed Dedede's lack of reaction for the first few seconds. Meta Knight had and he had a vague idea what would happen now.
"Yeah, I will do just that!" And with that Dedede grabbed his mallet and jumped out of his tank. He made his way over to the coffin and stopped right in front of it, inspecting it before actually doing anything. Then he smirked, swung his mallet and smashed the lid.
"Ha!" Before anyone even saw what was inside Dedede had already stated his opinion of the coffin's contents. And as 'ha' from Dedede wasn't exactly a good thing most of the time, everyone hurried to see what was inside.
All the villagers - strangely sans Curio - took position behind Dedede and tried to see what was inside the coffin, resulting in much shoving around because Dedede was in the way and everyone had to find a way to look past him.
"What does that mean?" Meta Knight hadn't bothered taking a look himself. Fumu's question, however, along with Dedede's smirk and his earlier suspicions was enough to tell him he was at least partially right. He would have to investigate if his other suspicion was right later.
Whispering broke out among the villagers and they looked uncertainly at each other. Fumu seemed frozen and couldn't say another thing, so it was Bun who spoke next.
"That dead guy looks like Dedede." Now Meta Knight even had proof that he had been right. Dedede had smirked when opening the coffin and he wouldn't do that if he didn't know what was inside. Now he only had to prove to the others Dedede had done something. But knowing Fumu he wouldn't even have to do anything himself.
"This... this means the rightful owner of Dreamland..."
"Is the Dedede tribe! That means I am the rightful king!" Dedede hadn't even waited for Chef Kawasaki to finish his sentence. He declared for everyone to hear what was right - in his opinion at least.
"That's ridiculous!" At least Fumu had another opinion. She didn't believe it and angrily shouted at Dedede, now not so frozen anymore.
"Ridiculous? Look at that! There's proof right there!" Dedede gestured for everyone to take another look at the coffin and Fumu's shoulders sagged when she did that. Meta Knight couldn't see her face because he was some distance behind her and she had her back to him, but he imagined her look of confusion.
"Good job, Curio." All people present looked at Curio, but he appeared tense and didn't give an answer. He simply accepted Dedede's praise, who promptly went to ignoring him again.
"Now we know I am the rightful king. Search for more things left behind, dig them out!" Almost everyone hurried to obey and only Fumu, Bun, Curio, Kirby and Dedede were left behind before the coffin. Escargon hadn't shown much interest since the coffins contents had been revealed and observed everything from the tank and Meta Knight was content watching everything from afar. Either Dedede hadn't even noticed him or he ignored him.
"So Dedede really is the rightful king."
"I always said he was!" Now wasn't that just hypocritically? Obviously no one had appeared to that coronation anniversary (most likely to honor the king or something similar), but now that Dedede was 'proven' to be their king they all knew it from the start.
Meta Knight had the urge to laugh, but decided against it to not attract any attention to himself. As long as no one remembered he was there he could observe what would happen.
"Oh a former king's mask!"
"A vase!"
Everyone found something when digging around in the sand and Meta Knight only felt anger. Why did he have to dig around far longer to find anything and every last one of them found something in seconds? The fact that the box he had dug out was in all likelihood no fake did not cheer him up in the slightest. The only thing that somewhat pleased him, was the fact sooner or later someone (Fumu) would figure out those things had to be fake and Dedede had something to do with it.
"You can take everything you find. It's a present." And if no one had been suspicious before they should be now because Dedede gave them something for free. Of course not one of them had any suspicions and they ran off.
Not soon after Curio went in direction of the village and Fumu, Kirby and Bun watched as he did so. Dedede was dancing around, obviously happy, and Meta Knight clearly saw Escargon facepalm. That was enough.
"What is this thing? You told me to call it 'Warp Star', but what exactly is it?" Why did Fumu have to ask now when he was like that? Meta Knight was obviously not in the mood to talk to her and answer her questions. She had noticed that, of course, because his tone was icy and he had told her as much.
"Fumu I already told you, don't bother me!" But an icy tone wasn't enough and so he also shouted at her. Fumu flinched back, but refused to drop it. Meta Knight had ordered her around when Kirby fought Bugzzy and she had obeyed, but now she wanted to know what all this was about.
"And I told you I want to know!" Both stared at each other, equally furious, and neither wanted to give in. Fumu was the first to look away, intimidated by Meta Knight, but she still wouldn't go away. She looked up again when Meta Knight made a sound similar to a growl.
"Will you leave me alone if I answer you?" It was voiced as a question, but Fumu knew it was not. It was an order to leave him alone if she didn't want to end up hurt or worse and Fumu was perfectly aware of that. For the first time she really, really could imagine him to be a demon beast. And she remembered what Dedede had told her in the past, the thought making her shiver.
She nodded numbly and Meta Knight's previously clenched fists unclenched. Fumu would never admit it, but she was seriously scared, even though his fists were no longer clenched, because the look he gave her was still far from friendly. Really far.
"Good. But first I have a question for you that I already asked before. When did you take the Warp Star?" Fumu tried to speak, but nothing came out and she had to clear her throat first.
"I... That Warp Star was on your shoulder, wasn't it?" Fumu got no answer. "It must have fallen when... when you were knocked out." Still no answer. "I picked it up because I saw it blinking and wondered what it was." Fumu couldn't interpret Meta Knight's silence and waited for him to say something, at the same time wondering if that had been the wrong answer.
"Huh." Meta Knight was silent after that and didn't speak again, simply looking at Fumu. She waited, but when she was sure he wouldn't say anything else to that she decided to speak herself.
"So what does it do?" Fumu shifted uncomfortably under Meta Knight's piercing gaze. Then he decided to answer.
"The Warp Star is the source of a Star Warrior's power. It also enables Kirby to fly as you will have noticed." Fumu nodded and kept standing on the spot. Meta Knight glared at her and went to move past her, after all he had answered her question and she had agreed to leave him alone if he did.
"It's Kirby's, isn't it?" Meta Knight had already passed her, but stopped and answered her question.
"Yes."
"Then why did you have it?" That had bothered Fumu the whole time since she had seen Kirby use it. After all Meta Knight had had it since he first came to Pop Star. Had he stolen it from Kirby in the past? But that seemed unlikely, Meta Knight didn't seem the type and Kirby obviously knew him before and would certainly not have reacted the same way when he first saw Meta Knight had that been the case.
Fumu hadn't turned in Meta Knight's direction and when she did turn he had left without answering her question.
She had gotten an answer, a hidden death threat (at least she interpreted it as one) and a glance at the demon that Meta Knight had once been and obviously could still be. She regretted her curiosity right now.
He saw Fumu running through the streets with a backpack from his place on top one of the houses. She was coming closer to Curio's place, but stopped when she saw what he was doing. He was dragging a cart with some... things on it, covered so no one saw what it was.
Meta Knight had a pretty good idea what it was, he wasn't too sure about Fumu, though. But Curio made it pretty obvious whatever he was doing was something he was nervous about. He looked around, trying to see if someone was near, but saw no one and began walking to the place they had been at earlier today.
Fumu had hidden behind a house and had not been seen, Meta Knight wouldn't let himself be seen, anyway, and Curio had only looked on the ground. Both followed him, Curio noticing neither of them and Fumu not noticing Meta Knight.
When Curio finally stopped it soon became obvious what he was doing. He set up lights and at once started digging. And when he had finished digging his hole he revealed what had been on the cart. A stone that looked much like Dedede did.
Fumu, obviously shocked by that, started taking pictures right away. Meta Knight could be sure she would confront Curio about that later.
And thus his theory was proven.
Meta Knight actually decided to show up the next day. Not because he was interested in what Curio had found (and what he knew to be a fake) and it couldn't even be called 'show up' exactly. He stayed in the shadows from where he could see everything while everyone else would certainly have trouble even noticing him.
He was there nonetheless and awaited the following events as did all the other people present. When word spread around Curio had found something it didn't take long and even Dedede heard it (Meta Knight was sure he knew already before).
Dedede was on the way to see the stone that looked almost like himself right now and everyone knew that. That left little time for Fumu to speak to Curio, so it was no wonder to Meta Knight when he saw her, along with Bun and Kirby, go to Curio.
"Mr. Curio I have to speak to you." She dragged him of before he could protest and Bun and Kirby followed, interested what Fumu had to say. Meta Knight also followed, though unnoticed and he stayed hidden.
But Fumu didn't say anything, she gave Curio the pictures she had taken and let him see for himself. He dropped one and Bun immediately snatched it away and looked at it himself.
"What's that mean?" But both Fumu and Curio ignored him. Fumu gave Curio her best 'I-am-so-disappointed-in-you' look and he visibly squirmed, uncomfortable with that look. She stayed silent until Curio decided to speak.
"I... Fumu..." But he didn't know what to say. He stopped, awkwardly, and looked at her. "Fumu I had to..."
Kirby, oblivious to what was going on, looked from Fumu to Curio in confusion. Bun also didn't get everything that was going on, but he asked.
"What's going on?"
"That stone is a fake. I saw Mr. Curio bury it last night. I never would have thought you would do something like that!" Fumu had looked at Bun while explaining, but had looked back at Curio at the end. He apparently felt guilty, but didn't answer Fumu.
"Keep those pictures and decide what you want to do with them." Fumu made her grand exit, closely followed by Bun and Kirby, only to be stopped. Dedede came around the corner and blocked their way, his look promising nothing good.
"Too bad you found out. Now I will have to shut you up." Meta Knight could have intervened right now. No one had seen him (thanks to the shadows) and his appearance would surprise everyone. But he didn't do anything, it was much more entertaining to watch.
The three children backed away, turned around and wanted to leave in the other direction, only to have their path blocked again. This time Waddle Doo stood in their way and even though he didn't look threatening it was clear he would obey Dedede's orders. And these orders were to capture the children.
They were dragged off into a chamber (Waddle Doo apologizing the whole time because he just did as ordered) and Dedede left them there, bound and gagged. And Meta Knight still could have intervened, but decided not to do it.
He would leave Fumu, Kirby and Bun alone for now and would observe the other things that were going on. If they hadn't managed to escape in thirty minutes he might consider helping them.
They hadn't escaped in the last thirty minutes or if they had they hadn't shown themselves. But knowing them the first thing they would have done would have been appearing on the stage and shouting at Dedede.
So they still were bound to a rock.
Meta Knight really had to consider his options now. Let carry things on as they were now (Curio about to take the stage in a few minutes) or play killjoy for Dedede and save the children? There were pros and cons for both and he had to decide which option would provide more entertainment.
He was pretty sure Curio would tell the truth, he still had the pictures and he seemed even more nervous than before. He was about to do something and the only thing he could do and could possibly be more nervous about was telling everyone the truth.
That is if he didn't decide to flee first. Waddle Doo had gotten the thankless task of telling what would happen now and he had to be the worst choice ever. He had lost the thread minutes ago already and since then had not said anything that was relevant. Dedede was becoming impatient, Curio became even more nervous (almost impossible, but he did) and everyone else was bored.
Meta Knight had ignored the whole thing, still trying to decide what to do, but his time was running out. Dedede would soon order Waddle Doo to stop and Curio would have to take the spotlight. Save them or not?
But finally Dedede had enough. He grabbed the microphone from Waddle Doo and announced Curio himself.
"Now Professor Curio will tell ya about his great discovery!" Dedede went back to his seat beside the Cabinet Minister and his wife and waited for Curio to take the stage. He hesitated, but then decided to step to the microphone.
There he hesitated again and waited for some time to begin speaking. He took a few deep breaths and when he finally began speaking it was with great reluctance.
"Ah... there have been found a lot of... things in the last few days, here where I have been searching for a long time already. All of these things are connected to the Dedede tribe. That means... That... These valuable artifacts..." Curio completely stopped, causing confusion and whispering among the people before him.
The smirk Dedede had had on his face had vanished and was replaced with a frown. He knew as well as Meta Knight did what Curio would say next.
"These valuable artifacts aren't valuable at all! They are fakes!" Curio's nervous expression had suddenly been replaced by a determined one and he kept on talking. "I put them there myself. What I really wanted was to keep researching. However, I was getting poor because no one bought anything and Dedede offered to help me.
I agreed to what he wanted and buried the fake artifacts here in the sand. Here is the evidence!" Throwing pictures into the crowd was certainly not what everyone had expected, but after their surprise the villagers quickly took them and looked at them.
Dedede's frown had deepened and he was frantically looking around, trying to find a way to escape. Waddle Doo beside him was no help with that, either he didn't understand what was going on or he didn't care. Considering he seemed to have somewhat spaced out Meta Knight assumed he didn't even know what was going on.
"Those pictures are fake!" After receiving glares from everyone present Dedede saw the need to defend himself and what better way than denying the accusations? Unfortunately for him no one believed him and they all shouted at him.
It was totally beyond Meta Knight right now why Dedede had chosen to bring Waddle Doo along. Escargon would have been a far better choice. Meta Knight doubted Escargon would have been able to calm the villagers, but he would have tried at least. Waddle Doo, however, was totally useless for that and he wasn't even there anymore. He had disappeared somewhere in the last few moments.
"You are an awful person!"
"Apologize to Mister Curio!"
Dedede certainly wished he had disappeared. The situation was getting out of hand for him and he was about to explode and he would do something stupid - again.
It didn't help that Meta Knight couldn't stop himself from laughing anymore. That went exactly as he had expected and certainly not in favor of Dedede. His whole plan had been doomed from the start and Meta Knight had known it.
Dedede couldn't hear him laughing, the others were simply too loud for that, but Meta Knight made it pretty obvious. That was the final straw and Dedede had enough.
"Everyone is against me! I'll take everyone out!" He gestured to the stone Curio had buried last night. "Come on, Dedede Stone!"
To the surprise of everyone the stone started trembling, eyes emitting an eerie glow, and became bigger with every passing second. When it finally smashed through the ceiling everyone ran for their lives as to not be hit by the falling rocks.
Fortunately everyone managed to escape unharmed. Unfortunately that included Dedede as well. The stone had transformed and looked exactly like Dedede (only much bigger) and Dedede himself was standing on its left shoulder now.
"Demon beast..." Meta Knight spun around, surprised to hear that voice from behind. Behind a rock were Fumu, Kirby and Bun, all of them looking at - and what had been obvious before Fumu's comment - the demon beast.
Now that was interesting. How had they managed to escape? Certainly better someone had saved them or they had saved themselves than the alternative. Which would have been being crushed by falling rocks.
"Go, Dedede Stone! Let's punish them!" And again a demon beast with a ridiculous name. At least Meta Knight hadn't known this demon beast and couldn't have known the stone was one. Still he was taking pity on it, Bugzzy and Blocky certainly were not creative, but Dedede Stone was not a name he wished anyone.
The Dedede Stone started moving and Meta Knight hurried to get out of the way. He took shelter behind the same rock Fumu, Kirby and Bun did and he certainly surprised them with this action.
"Wha-"
"Just like you will certainly be, I am not too fond of the idea of being stepped on. And I do not think Dedede will care if his stone steps on me so better escape before he gets the idea to actually order that."
"Can't you just destroy that demon beast?"
"I could."
"Then why-" But Bun's and Meta Knight's conversation was interrupted by a surprised shout from Fumu.
"Is that Mister Curio?" And indeed the person Fumu pointed at was Curio. That was unexpected because Meta Knight had thought Curio was one of the more intelligent people in the village, but he did something stupid right now.
He was running to the Dedede Stone, pickaxe in hand, and it was obvious he intended to attack it. His attack was stopped by the simple fact that the Dedede Stone almost stepped onto him. But that wasn't even the actual reason Curio stopped, he stopped because there was dust in the air and it was hard for him to breath.
Curio didn't let himself be stopped completely, though. He raised the pickaxe and was about to attack when Fumu stopped him again.
"Mister Curio!" She came running in his direction, Kirby and Bun close behind, Meta Knight a good distance behind because he hadn't run off when the others had.
"Fumu..." Curio turned back to the Dedede Stone, but it took another step and made the whole ground tremble. Curio lost his balance and fell to the ground, but he wasn't the only one. Fumu also fell to the ground and Bun and Kirby, still far enough away to not be affected, ran past her and didn't realize the danger she was in.
They only noticed when it was already too late for them to save Fumu.
The Dedede Stone was about to step on Fumu and she could do absolutely nothing to escape that fate. But the fact she couldn't do anything didn't mean someone else couldn't.
Meta Knight wasn't too happy about having to save her life (again he might add), but he wouldn't let her be killed. He wasn't that cruel and there would be absolutely nothing positive about Fumu's death. That view might be considered heartless (and really, it was), but there was nothing to gain from Fumu's death but sadness everywhere and he could live without that.
So he stopped the Dedede Stone's foot with his sword before it could reach Fumu. The problem with that was he couldn't move now. The Dedede Stone's weight forced him to use both hands to hold his weapon and it would be impossible for him to move away without being crushed. Fumu didn't help when she stared wide-eyed at him and didn't move away. That pissed Meta Knight even more.
"Sorry to cause you the inconvenience, but could you please run away?" Fumu certainly noticed the sarcasm, but she didn't say anything to that. She was more focused on the second half (not only because Meta Knight had shouted that part) and actually did what he told her. Definitely not because Meta Knight had told her to do it, but rather because she saw the need to run away to keep living.
"Yes!" And only then did she run away, leaving Meta Knight to try and stay alive when that stupid thing tried to crush him. He would be able to bear it a while longer, but when he heard the others behind him debating what to do he lost it.
"I don't care what you do, but do something! Now!" Shouting helped again and Fumu told Kirby to inhale the Dedede Stone. Only that was nothing Meta Knight was glad about. If Bugzzy had been too big to inhale certainly the Dedede Stone would also be.
Sadly Fumu didn't consider that and Kirby started inhaling, only to notice neither the Dedede Stone nor Meta Knight himself could be inhaled. Precious seconds were wasted and Meta Knight became more frustrated by the second.
Then Kirby stopped and Meta Knight hoped Fumu had realized that no, the Dedede Stone couldn't be inhaled and would tell Kirby to inhale something else, anything else. But no such luck and instead she told him to try again.
"Do your best, Kirby!" Thus Kirby started inhaling again and Meta Knight's frustration turned into anger because trying to inhale the Dedede Stone was absolutely useless and it was getting more and more difficult to hold the demon beast. When Dedede somewhere above him started laughing Meta Knight knew the demon beast would be destroyed, if possible by himself and in a way that left it in tiny fragments all over the place.
"This is my responsibility!" Now he couldn't see what Curio had done, of course, but a few seconds after that exclamation the Dedede Stone fell back and Meta Knight was free to move again.
Looking around he saw Kirby had transformed into Stone Kirby and he stood somewhere above the place where the Dedede Stone had landed, cheering.
"He did it!" Somewhere else were Fumu, Bun and Curio, also cheering. Dedede, now beside them and on the ground again, was not cheering, but he had a smirk on his face. He knew as well as Meta Knight that the fight wasn't over. That suited Meta Knight just fine, though.
Kirby meanwhile was threatened to be crushed by the Dedede Stone. He hadn't managed to escape and the demon beast had caught him, now squeezing him between its hands. That, however, prompted Meta Knight to interfere with the fight and save Kirby from serious harm.
"Sword Beam!" The attack did far less damage than Meta Knight would have liked (he would have liked the Dedede Stone to explode into a million pieces), but it was enough to free Kirby from its iron grip. It was hit on its right arm and though the attack did not cut right through it left some pretty deep scars. Not like the stone felt any pain, but it satisfied Meta Knight to see his attack had hit the target.
Kirby fell to the ground, but immediately got up again and faced the opponent. It now faced both Meta Knight and Kirby and though it was not that fast it had other qualities. Being able to make the ground tremble was one of those, but Meta Knight didn't particularly care for that. The fact it could destroy rocks with its punches was far more important and caused Meta Knight jump out of the way when the Dedede Stone aimed at him.
Kirby used the opportunity to tackle the demon beast (added weight due to the transformation into Stone Kirby certainly helped) and it slightly lost its balance, but didn't fall completely and only ran into the cliff. The response to Kirby's attack followed promptly and Meta Knight and Kirby hurried to escape the punches aimed at them.
Right after that Meta Knight's response followed with three Sword Beams, all of which left some pretty deep scars, but the Dedede Stone didn't seem to care that much. It just kept attacking and as Meta Knight had been the one to leave most damage he suffered from its attention.
Meta Knight dodged more punches, but he was more and more backed into a corner. When he finally hit the cliff with his back and also couldn't escape to his left or right Dedede was sure that would be Meta Knight's end.
"Go, Dedede Stone!" But Dedede hadn't considered Meta Knight possessed the ability to fly. It wasn't even that important as Meta Knight chose another way to escape, but he could have simply flown away.
Instead he waited until he was attacked and then jumped. The Dedede Stone's attack hit the cliff and Meta Knight landed atop its hand. From there he ran to its shoulder and fired another Sword Beam right into its face.
Meta Knight jumped off its shoulder right as Kirby tackled the demon beast from behind again, this time sending it crashing into the cliff, which sent rocks flying in every direction.
Unfortunately that was still not enough to kill the Dedede Stone and it stood again a few moments later.
"What does it take to kill that thing?" As expected Meta Knight got no answer. What he got was more punches aimed at Kirby and himself, all of them missing because their opponent was too slow.
But Meta Knight finally had enough. He doubted more Sword Beams would kill it and that left one other possibility - using Kirby's stone ability.
He left Kirby behind (hoping he wouldn't be caught) and went to the place where Fumu was.
"Fumu, where is the Warp Star?" He had realized he had actually never demanded to get it back. It was pointless anyway because it was Kirby's and he technically had no use for it.
"Eh... I left it with Kabu..." Fumu was clearly startled by his sudden appearance and almost whispered because Dedede was near and she didn't want him to hear what she said. That was unnecessary, however, because Dedede's focus was entirely on Kirby and the Dedede Stone.
"With Kabu? No matter, summon it."
"Summon it?"
"Just call 'Warp Star'." They already had that so Meta Knight had assumed she knew what to do. Obviously she did not, but at least she didn't question his order this time.
"Come, Warp Star!"
While he had been talking to Fumu Kirby had managed to get into trouble. The Dedede Stone had caught him again and was squeezing hard to crush him. Now Meta Knight could have saved him again, but he could also just wait for a few seconds and Kirby would be saved anyway.
The Warp Star came flying right at Kirby and hit the Dedede Stone's hand. It let go of Kirby and he fell down, but was saved by the Warp Star. Now it was easy for Kirby to evade any attacks, the Warp Star was simply too fast for the demon beast to follow.
Kirby was flying around his opponent for some time, but then decided it was enough. He flew high above its head and then transformed into a stone, just like the name 'Stone Kirby' suggested.
"Stone Kirby!"
The Dedede Stone didn't stand a chance after that. Kirby let himself fall from his Warp Star and crashed right through the Dedede Stone, from top to bottom. The demon beast cracked and shattered into pieces, zero chance of it ever returning.
"He did it!" Bun was cheering, along with Fumu. But then Curio urged them to leave as to not be hit by the falling debris. Meta Knight only followed after he was hit by two pieces. Dedede didn't even go away then.
"That damn Kirby destroyed my Dedede Stone!"
"Your Majesty! Please leave!" Waddle Doo had come back to Dedede some time during the fight, but Dedede wouldn't listen to him. In the end Waddle Doo left him alone, resulting in Dedede being half-buried in debris and Waddle Doo trying to free him.
Meta Knight watched from afar and couldn't help but feel amusement.
"That was to be expected when ignoring other people's advice all the time."
For everyone who didn't read it in my profile (and that will be almost everyone): I don't exactly have the time to write right now. I don't have time other than the weekends and even then I can't be sure I have the time. That will continue until at least April, maybe even May, so expect not more than one chapter per month, maybe not even that, though I do try to manage that at least.
Now to the chapter. So I'm back to using episodes, though you will (hopefully) have noticed there were some changes. The next chapters will all be based on some of the episodes, but, as I already stated in the first chapter, those will definitely not be in order.
A last thing because this chapter got really long. Was it too long? Then I will have to cut some things (though I would rather not) and things like the last scene would clearly suffer. Tell me what you think about that :)
