Terminal Paralysis

by OwlsCantRead

When the Jambastion Cult learns that Void Termina has been reborn, it's up to Kirby to put a halt to their schemes by finding the resurrected demigod first. Tracking him down to Cappy Town, how will Kirby and his friends cope with an alternate Dream Land which seems so familiar at first glance, yet upon closer introspection… is vastly different from their own? Game/Anime Crossover.

10. Pecking Order

Chapter 10: Pecking Order

My Adventure Log, Entry #4: A Dee-lightful Reunion
(I'm not sorry for the pun! Hee hee!)

Hai!

No, literally… I would like to give a very big hai to my good friend, Bandana Dee! My trip to Candy Mountain might have been cut short due to some rather unfortunate circumstances, but surprisingly that had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Who would I run into as I recuperate in Castle Dedede but my good friend, Bandana himself!

I must say that it is relieving to finally meet with someone who I truly know in this foreign world. But to be frank, I think I better jump back to reality and put this adventure log aside for now. We've definitely got a lot of catching up to do!

Meeting with an Old Friend,
Kirby

Finishing up his entry for his adventure log, Kirby proceeded to keep away the leather-bound book and his pen. Once his hands were freed up, he wasted no time in greeting his friend again, cheekily beginning to wave them in front of Bandana's eyes to try and stimulate a response from the Waddle Dee. "Heellloooooo? Are you still physically here with me, Bandana? Or have you been lost to the void? Ah, don't freeze up on me now! You're acting as though you've just seen a ghost!"

Bandana finally managed to spit back a response to Kirby's vitriolic teasing. "B-b-but… there's two of you! There are two of you, Kirby!" he exclaimed in a hushed voice, flailing his arms wildly about.

"Heh! You aren't the only one to notice that little detail." Kirby clucked his tongue at the obvious statement. "So I take it that you only just happened to take notice of my doppelganger?"

Bandana nodded at his friend to give him the affirmative. "Y-yeah…"

Kirby simply chuckled in response at the rhythmic nodding that Bandana was giving him. "Hahaha! I guess it's no surprise that you found him, really. That guy really isn't subtle, not in the slightest," he commented as he gestured towards the studio door, "Yep, the pink puffball in that room's my alternate dimension counterpart, I would assume."

"But… but there's another you!" Bandana raised his voice in exasperation, stunned to see that Kirby was being so relaxed about the whole situation. "There's literally another version of you standing less than ten feet away from us! I just don't get it! How can you be so calm about this?"

"Bah, lammeeeeeee~" Kirby gave a small teasing wink, his style of response rather opposite to that of the panicked Bandana. "Having more of me has already happened before with the Amazing Mirror incident. Honestly, it's no biggie at all in my opinion, Bandana," responded Kirby in a dismissive manner. "Anyway, have you seen the television? If so, you've probably already noticed that this universe's Dedede is different from ours, so what's so surprising about there being double of me?"

"I don't know…" Bandana admitted in a soft tone that was rather unlike his typical enthusiastic demeanor. He pointed his spear towards the studio room door as he looked down at his toes. "It just feels awkward for me. Even with there being double of you, there's only one Kirby who I'll consider truly you!"

"Quite certainly!" Kirby nodded as he closed his eyes. "I mean, you don't really expect the guy in the room to have the exact same personality as me, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" Bandana argued. "He's literally a carbon copy of you! Wouldn't you two end up being rather alike?"

"Oh, on the contrary. You'd be quite surprised, actually. Even two identical peas in a pod won't turn out to be exactly the same when you sprout them…" Kirby replied to his friend with one of his cryptic answers.

A tilted head from Bandana clearly showed the Waddle Dee's confusion. "I'm sorry? I don't really understand what you're driving at."

"What I mean is that from what I've personally observed myself, we're both very different creatures indeed." Kirby glanced at the door, before segwaying into a different topic as he turned back with an unhappy expression. "Sigh… it's confusing, don't you think? Having to clarify which Kirby is which whenever you talk about one of us?" Bandana raised his head at Kirby's words to see a knowing grin on the puffball's face.

Seeing Bandana slowly realizing what his point was, Kirby pressed on. "But not to fret about this minor issue. I've already foreseen this ahead of time and thus have already managed to come up with a fancy solution to our problem! Simply put, I've given the other Kirby a nickname so that you won't be confusing between us anytime soon!"

"A nickname? That's an amazing idea!" Bandana's eyes sparkled with pride as Kirby once again proved exactly why he was the savior of Dream Land with his shrewd mind. The solution that Kirby had come up with was so obvious in retrospect, and yet it had never crossed Bandana's mind, not even once.

"From now on, I've decided to call my alternate Kirby counterpart…" Kirby dramatically paused, beating his hands together to simulate a drumroll effect before he concluded his sentence in tune with the crescendo. "…Carby!" He took a bow as the single word escaped from his lips in a triumphant manner. "That will be his name!"

Bandana could only blink in response as his ears registered Kirby's declaration. "Carby?" he repeated in confusion. He was aware that Kirby absolutely loved to nickname his friends, but that didn't mean that he was good at dishing out those identities. Just what sort of a name was Carby?

Kirby didn't notice the uncertain thoughts on Bandana's face and hence merrily went on with his spiel. "That's right! From now on, he shall be known as Carby! So what do you think of that huh, Dee?" he asked, enthusiastically giving the Dee a hearty pat on the back as he seeked Bandana's opinion. "It's a great name, am I right?

"Y-yeah…" Bandana stumbled on his words as he "concurred" with Kirby, in spite of the fact that he wasn't exactly feeling that it was the perfect name for the alternate Kirby as of now. He supposed that he still required more time before he got used to it.

Kirby frowned, noticing Bandana's slight apprehension as the Waddle Dee stuttered slightly on his words. "Oi! Just relax, Bandana. It might take a while for you to not mix up the names, but I assure you that Carby's an excellent name! I put work into that name, y'know? You get the pun, don't you? It's pronounced kaa-bii, so it sounds almost like the name Kirby!" Bandana Dee let out a muffled 'oh' as he nodded at the puffball's explanation. To be honest, he hadn't even thought of it in that manner until Kirby had pointed it out to him.

"Plus, Carby also happens to sound like a short form of the word 'carbohydrates'. That would make it quite the sneaky reference to food!" Kirby said as he smiled brightly. "Aw come on, admit it! It's the perfect name for him, Bandana!"

Bandana fiddled with his spear as his eyes went over to the closed studio door, imagining the other Kirby within.

Carby…

He supposed that when his own Kirby had put it so eloquently, he couldn't help but to agree. Like Kirby had said, the name did make quite a fair bit of sense. And he wouldn't admit it to Kirby, but in addition to it being intelligently crafted, the name Carby was pretty catchy as well.

"Yeah… I suppose I could call him Carby."

Kirby gave a sly grin in victory at Bandana's you-dragged-me-into-this-again face. "Heh! I knew you'd come around to it eventually, Dee!" His smile then fell as he apprehensively looked up the vacant stairs that led back to ground level. "But all that said, there is something else that's on my mind right now…" Kirby admitted, a serious expression crossing his normally jovial face as he said two words that shifted the entire tone of the conversation.

"…Void Termina."

Bandana instinctively flinched, the Dee's widened eyes avoiding Kirby before he repeated the name of the destructive god in a hushed whisper. "V-Void… Termina? The Jambastion Cult's Destroyer of Worlds?" Man, that was one of those names that he'd hoped he would never have to hear again, although Zan Partizanne had already ruined that dream rather quickly when she name-dropped the name of their god during their scuffle back at Cookie Country. "What about him, Kirby?"

"I dunno. My mind's basically just a swirl of marshmallow paste regarding him…" Kirby shrugged. "Void Termina has just been on my mind a fair bit as of late. After all, he's like, the entire reason that we're even here right now. If it weren't for the return of the Jambastion Cult, we never would have gone up to Floralia. And if we'd left Floralia and Taranza alone, I never would have unintentionally activated the Dimension Mirror as a last-ditch attempt to escape Taranza's clutches. But fate had other plans, I suppose, and now you and I are the first are the first explorers of this brave new world as a result!"

Bandana could only nod at Kirby's detailed analysis of the turn of events that had transpired. "Well, when you say it like that I can't help but to agree with you! You're one hundred percent right, Kirby! Void Termina is the real instigator of all of this!"

Kirby smiled at the praise. "He certainly is. Or at the very least, the plan of the Jambastions trying to bring him back is the ultimate cause behind everything." He then sighed as he began to complain about the situation, "But the troubling thing is… I'm unsure of whether Void Termina had really been reborn yet, like what that mage had claimed. Because if so, I would have thought that Void Termina would be, y'know, a little easier to find? I mean, he was ginormous when the Jamba Heart unleashed him into Gamble Galaxy! By right, I should be able to spot Void Termina from over ten miles away if someone like Hyness managed to summon him anywhere in this galaxy, which would make stopping a potential resurrection easy!"

"Wait, why wouldn't you be able to spot Void Termina if he was already resurrected?" Bandana cocked his head. "He was so big that we had to use the Star Allies Sparkler just to break through his armor! He's gotta be easy to find!"

"Well, that requires a lot of assumptions, namely that the Jambastions will summon him using the Jamba Heart again… and as far as I know, it took them long enough the last time and we actually have a significant headstart on them this time round. But to be fair, all the information that we currently have on Void Termina was what Zan had told us, which is definitely a biased viewpoint since it comes directly from one of the top brass of the Jambastion Cult," Kirby pointed out before placing one of his hands to below his lips. "That said, looks can be deceiving. As a matter of fact, I actually have a hunch as to Void Termina's current whereabouts, and it's not where you'd expect…"

"Wait… you do?" Bandana exclaimed with a shocked voice, gripping tightly onto his spear at Kirby's stunning claim.

"That's right, Bandana!" Kirby confirmed with a whistle. "Just keep in mind that it's only just a hunch, so I might be wrong. But if I'm actually correct, then Void Termina is actually right here, in Dream Land itself! But whoa, let's not jump the gun, Bandana," he said as he gestured for the excited Bandana to stand down. "We shouldn't play our hand so early. Let's wait it out and have some situational awareness in mind before doing anything hasty over here. After all, this place isn't our home. To behave recklessly in a place like this would be an unwise move."

"I agree. This Dream Land really is different from ours…"

"Hey, Bandana…" Kirby shut his eyes momentarily, frowning as he shot a concerned look at his friend. "Apologies in advance for asking this out of the blue, but why exactly are you feeling so down, anyway?"

"W-W-What!?" Bandana flusteredly tried to deny his friend's accusation by waving his hands frantically about, unintentionally swinging his new spear in a wide arc as he did so. "Me, upset?" he nervously chuckled. "W-Whatever are you talking about, Kirby? I'm perfectly fine, I swear—"

"It's about Dedede, isn't it?"

Bandana jolted back, staring at the solemn Kirby. Was the puffball a mind reader?! How did Kirby know what he was thinking?

"Heheh!" Kirby snapped his fingers upon seeing Bandana's expression of surprise. "You didn't even have to tell me, Bandana! It's clearly written all over your listless face!" he replied, answering Bandana Dee's unspoken question. "I just wanted to confirm my suspicions, that's all."

A sigh escaped Bandana Dee's lips. "Okay. I admit it." He huffed as he broke eye contact with Kirby. "It has to do with not-Great King."

"Not-Great King?" Kirby now had an amused smile as he waved one arm in a circular motion to beckon his friend on.

"Yeah, not-Great King. I mean, he's not the same as the Great King whom I know…" Bandana flung his hands out to express his unhappiness to Kirby. "Not-Great King's so mean in comparison to Great King! They look alike, but they are basically two completely different people! I can't really describe the emotions that I feel about the whole thing, but it's just so… jarring! I can't get used to it!"

"Oh, don't you worry yourself silly. I know what it's like, Bandana…" Kirby consoled the distraught Dee. "If it makes you feel better, you are not alone. I feel very much the same way. In fact, my first encounter with this King Dedede was seeing him actively trying to finish off my counterpart."

"Uh… didn't Great King try to do the same to you?"

"But the key difference here is that this Dedede has no honor at all! He didn't even have a traditional hammer fight with this universe's Kirby! Can you believe that? Absolutely disgraceful!" Kirby shook his head in disappointment. "All he did was resort to using sneaky tactics and tricks to win. He's poles apart from our world's Dedede, and that's inclusive of when he was more on the mischievous side."

"You know… I can't help but to feel bad for the Dream Landers who live over here." Bandana Dee turned to the window to look out at the surrounding town below the castle. "The local Cappies here deserve so much better than this! Maybe it's my loyalty to Great King, but I just can't stand seeing them suffer under this tyranny! Great King would be a much better king here rather than Fake King!"

"Fa-Fake King?" Kirby's let out a snort at Bandana's nickname before eventually falling into a flurry of laughs. "Hahaha! You know, that's actually an excellent name, Bandana! It's even better than not-Great King! After faking the news and faking his superiority, I think that is the most suitable title that we can bestow on this Dedede. You're a genius, my friend!"

"Thanks…" Bandana sheepishly rubbed the top of his head, shifting his bandana around in the process. "I don't really mean it as too bad an insult, it's just that I firmly hold the opinion that not-Great King is conducting blasphemy in Great King's name. He's ruining the good name and reputation of my Great King!" Bandana said angrily, slamming the bottom of his spear on the stone ground, the impact of which echoed around the area.

"Hey!" A female voice rang out, which both Kirby and Bandana identified as belonging to the Cappy girl who went by Fumu. "What was that noise just now?"

"You think it's Dedede? I think we better investigate, sis." That was the Cappy boy, Bun.

"And I think that's our cue to go," Kirby muttered as multiple footsteps crept towards them from the other side of the shut door. "Bandana! We don't have the luxury of strolling up the stairs, the pitter-patter of our footsteps will give us away. To not blow our cover sky-high, you'll have to Helicopter Spear us both up to the top of the stairs! Make them think that the noise they heard was just from their imagination!"

Bandana quickly followed the order, feeling himself take off from the stone floor as he spun his spear atop his head like a helicopter rotor. The force of the resultant torque caused Bandana to spin slightly to the side as well, but Kirby grabbing ahold of his feet put a stop to that. They made it to the top of the stairs in record time, the two rounding the corner just in time, as the door to the studio swung open only a mere second after they managed to get out of sight.

SLAM!

"Hey! There's nothing here, sis!"

Kirby heaved a sigh as he peered around the corner from the top of the stairs to see the two Cappy children—and Carby as well—look out onto an empty flight of stairs where they had been standing ten seconds prior.

"I don't get it, Kirby." Kirby turned around at Bandana to see his friend shaking his head as he fiddled with his spear. "Why don't you want to let them know about us?"

"As I said… this place isn't our home. For all intents and purposes, Taranza is right about the fact that we have to keep them in the dark. To act out of line here would be the equivalent of someone like Haltmann Works Company invading us without warning, and I doubt the citizens here would appreciate that."

"Yeah," Bandana's face turned despondent. "I guess with not-Great King around and all, despite how similar this Dream Land is, it's not the same…"

"If it makes you feel any better, you can be a bit more optimistic about everything. Look at it on the bright side — you and I are blessed to have a Dedede who we can truly call a friend."

"I guess you're right about that…"

"Right I am! Just relax, Bandana!" Kirby reassured his friend as he looked out to the horizon. "Your Great King's quite a capable person. I am quite sure that King Dedede is managing just fine without you by his side!"

---

"Argghhh! I am not managing fine without my trusty Bandana by my side!"

Marx blinked at Dedede's outburst, before letting out a vicious giggle that screamed of smarminess at the king. "Awww… too bad, too sad!"

"You shut your big mouth!" Dedede growled. "You are not in the position to make any comment about this, Marx!"

Marx chuckled at the raging Dedede as he switched his voice to a formal one. "I wholeheartedly disagree with that statement. As the new elected chairman of the 'Peace Between Friends' conference, it is my solemn duty to care about my members' state of mind."

Dedede slammed his hand down on the desk, causing cans and glasses all across the long table to topple and spill carbonated water over the surface. "In my opinion, you should first worry about your mental state, Marx! You damn hypocrite!"

"Relax, King Dedede! I assure you that I am thinking perfectly clearly right now." A slimmer of viciousness crept onto his charming smile as he cheerily continued, "To emphasize on my sound state of mind, allow me to say that I already have the agenda of the meeting all planned up in my head well in advance…"

"You sneaky, conniving son of a…" Dedede cursed as he heard Marx's confession. "So you're telling me that you already planned this out in your twisted little head beforehand? You've got some guts to admit to my face that you wanted to take over the conference before you even stepped foot in my castle!"

"Hush now, Dedede. Please remain silent. Do not disrupt my peace conference."

Dedede shot daggers at Marx as the jester told him off in the same way that a school teacher would lecture their rowdy students. Honestly, Dedede couldn't believe the nerve of that guy. Marx had no shame or self-restraint whatsoever.

If only Kirby was here… he lamented as he clenched his fists. Or Bandana. Or Meta Knight. Or anyone on Popstar that can put this damn clown in his place! Heck, I'll even take Prince Fluff at this point! Someone just shut him up!

"Now that you've finally calmed yourself down," Marx said, unaware that Dedede was anything but, "please remain that way and allow me to speak up." The jester proceeded to clear his throat and bounce his ball around to turn it to the right so that he was facing towards all the Helpers. "Hello?! May I have your attention, everyone? Are you still there or have you all already nodded off to own your little dreamland?" He suddenly broke into laughter, bouncing rhythmically on his ball as he chuckled at his own joke. "Get it? Dreamland? Dream Land? Y'all get the pun, right? Ahahahahahha!"

A collective series of scoffs and groans instantly filled the room.

"Ouch." Brenda grumbled as she leaned down to pick up her broom, which had fallen to the ground from her shock. "That one physically hurt me… and probably dirtied the floor as well."

Snowy shook her head as even more groans echoed around the area. "Well, what do you think, Drebly?"

"Nope, nope, nope." The Driblee shook his head with a sad smile. "That was not good at all…"

"You don't say! That was somehow worse than one of Leonard's puns!" Bennett scolded.

A fireball shot across the room, the Beetley only barely dodging it. "Take that back, Bennett!"

"Never! Your jokes freaking suck!"

"I'm going to roast you!"

"Bad pun! Bad pun!" Lil' Pop furiously bobbed up and down, ignoring the fireballs that were being thrown about the throne room. "Blow it to deep space!"

Even Dedede had cringed at Marx's take of humor, the penguin tightening his grip on his hammer hidden beneath his robe. The king swore that he was only maintaining whatever grip he had left of his sanity by imagining himself repeatedly clobbering Marx over the head with it like a game of Whack-the-Moley. Whack, whack, whack, he smirked as he mashed another imaginary Marx over the head — with an imaginary upgraded Jet Hammer for bonus points. Eat my mallet, Marx.

"Ah, nice to see that you're all still awake! Good day, gentlemen." Marx took a small bow as everyone's attention was focused on their new unpredictable host. Making great effort to ignore Dedede's nasty scowl, he carried on with a jab solely directed at the king, "I have interrupted our dear ol' King Dedede here to bring you all a stunning announcement that must simply be heard first-hand!"

"What is this blasphemy?" muttered Dedede with a low voice. "That's what this is all about? Some mere announcement!?"

"Hey! I resent that remark, Dedede! Please do not jump the gun and call my words a blasphemy before your ears partake in the glorious orchestra that is my delightful voice!"

"Yeah, if your orchestra was conducted by a tone-deaf conductor, resulting in it having an output of garbage even worse than white noise being generated over a surround speaker system!" Dedede shot back, not showing any mercy whatsoever with his words.

Marx frowned, snorting out a tsk at Dedede's insult. "How very rude! Whatever happened to good form and parley, gentlemen?"

"Good form and parley? That sure doesn't exist with you! I'm real patient with tons of people, but you're one of those rare exceptions!" Dedede declared as he pointed at Marx, wishing more than ever that he could whack him out of the conference with his hammer. The only thing that was stopping him was the fact that if he did that, the remaining Helpers would take the attack as a sign of hostility, which would lead to complete pandemonium as a result. The worst part of it all was that Dedede knew that Marx was only acting this way and going this far because the jester himself was well aware of the fact that Dedede couldn't lay a finger on him in front of all the Friend Heart Helpers.

Marx put on a pitiful face, fake crocodile tears brimming from his eyes. "Oh, please just listen to what I have to say, Dedede! In my personal opinion it's certainly… VERY ENTERTAINING!"

Dedede and many of the others flinched back in their seats when Marx's personality abruptly shifted a complete one-eighty, the clown suddenly raising his voice for the last two words, momentarily making him sound like the demonic jester that Kirby had told him horror stories about. The king had waved the puffball's tale off at first since he hadn't been around during the Milky Way Wishes incident to see it firsthand, but now the king was starting to see just where Marx had amassed that reputation from.

Meanwhile in the present, Marx continued to howl to the crowd in a mad manner, without a care in the world. "Ahahahaha! This is perfection, Dedede! Perfection, you hear me?! It is like the angels have descended from above to grace us with thee!"

Good grief, Dedede grimaced as the jester hogged the spotlight with his unhinged voice. Kirby was absolutely right… Marx really is one crazy nutjob!

"It's the most glorious thing to ever be bestowed on the shores of Popstar!" Marx jumped onto the floor, kicking a paper flyer that he'd meticulously placed there in advance up into the air. "I'll tell you what it is! It's an upcoming concert play, sponsored by a new startup manpower management company, the Heta-Wocky Corporation!"

"Wait a minute! Concert play? Do you mean the annual Dream Land theater play that's conducted every year?" Dedede felt a smile creeping up his face as he grabbed the paper flyer as it sailed across the room, looking down to take a quick glance at the contents. Here he was getting worried about nothing. Dedede had to admit that he felt rather silly getting all worked up now. "Well, well… it actually is. I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested. But based on this year's scenario, I think it would be for the best if I abstain from attending it this time."

"I HAVE HEARD ABOUT THIS. THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT ABOUT A YEARLY PLAY THAT DREAM LAND HOLDS ONCE PER YEAR." Robert flicked his robotic wrist, flinging his yo-yo out as he spoke. "AND IT STATES HERE THAT THE NEXT PLAY IS COMING SOON AND LOOKING FOR PARTICIPANTS TO ACT IN IT."

And once again, chaos reigned supreme as the topic was not-so-subtly diverted.

"Participants!?" echoed multiple Helpers at the same time.

"Marx! You little scumbag!" Dedede raged at the chuckling Marx the instant he heard the unified cry from the others. Now he knew exactly what the jester was up to. All of his hollering and personal attacks had been a distraction from his true motive… bringing up the recruitment drive for the concert play. Sure enough, the various Helpers soon began to state their interests for the play and thus ruined any semblance of progress for the meeting.

"Sounds interesting to me!" the Jammerjab nodded, his yellow eyes shining brightly.

The Sword Knight partner drew his sword from his sheath. "Yes, do count me in as well!" Edmund spoke with a formal, polite accent. "This scenario will certainly be intriguing for me to act out!"

"Ohhhh… I bet I get to use my bombs to blow a whole lotta stuff up with this one! Fun, fun, fun!"

"Dammit!" Dedede howled over the chattering Helpers. "Marxxxxx! I hate you! This was supposed to be a peace conference, not a headhunt for actors in a play!"

The limbless jester gave his best impression of a shrug. "Well, it is now. Too bad, Dedede!"

Dedede struggled to keep his face neutral and not snarl at the cheeky jester, something which his self-control was sorely lacking in. "So let me get this straight, Marx. You effectively took over control of my conference for a brief instant, giving me and everyone else in the room a heart attack… just to advertise about a damn play that I knew was coming anyway!?"

"That sounds about right, although I must say that you are rather forgetful. You've missed out the part where me taking over had the additional effect of ruining your planned meeting schedule as well! Muhihihi!" Marx giggled, prompting Dedede to let out an elongated groan.

"Alright! I've heard more than enough nonsense from you for the remainder of the month! Everyone, listen up!" Dedede slammed the wooden table with both of his hands to take back everyone's attention. "Enough idle chit-chat! Let's take all of this offline for now and get back to our main topic, pronto!"

"Ah yes, I must agree with that sentiment." Snowy smiled as she adjusted her icicle cap. Just as Dedede was about to praise her for having at least a fractional amount of common sense in a room filled with people who was lacking them, the Chilly completely proved him wrong by beating a dead horse. "So, let us return back to the debate about canned drinks on Popstar…"

"Screw the freaking canned drinks!" Dedede stood up, yelling at the Chilly with a bellow that was so loud that a few of the glasses that stood on the table vibrated from the sound waves. "Let's actually discuss about something that will actually be productive now! We've sidetracked for far longer than I'd have preferred!" The king shot an unmistakable glare at the jester as he announced that fact, leading to Marx mischievously sticking his tongue out, as though that cheeky response would lead to forgiveness.

Of course it wouldn't, but he was still doing it anyway for the sake of trolling. Damn that jester, Dedede seethed.

Although Dedede was still highly skeptical of Marx granting him some leeway, he wasn't going to pass up this chance to finally have some order. If there was any advantage that Marx's ploy had, it was that the rowdy Helpers were now mostly under control after his little stunt. Dedede cleared his throat, looking firmly at everyone. "It is time for me to inaugurate all of us into a Cabinet, a combined ruling party governing all of Planet Popstar."

"You want us to group up to form up a cohesive government just like that, your majesty?" Bennett waved his horn skeptically as he held his head up high. "And you expect all of us to finish undertaking this task in a few hours? You must be absolutely bonkers!"

The Bonkers helper at the far end of the room muttered something unfriendly under his breath. Five seats away, Snowy nodded along in agreement with Bennett. "Now that's certainly a fair point."

"Ughhhhh…" Lil' Pop yawned, the Poppy Bro idly kicking his feet around as he leaned back and forth in his seat. "You want me to do legislation and paperwork stuff? How boring! Where's the fun in that?"

Dedede wasn't all that surprised when the crowd before him became unwilling to listen to him. That being said, he had one last trump card to maintain order.

And it looked as though he was going to be forced to use it.

"If you're all going to act like immature babies, then I'm calling the whole conference off!" Many of the others seated around were surprised by those words until Dedede finished his sentence as he puffed up his belly. "But if that happens, then you'll all miss my epic, awesome topic…"

Dedede let out a smirk when he saw that his threat had the intended effect. All the chattering around the room quietened down at the drop of a hat.

While curiosity was often unfairly blamed for leading people down a slippery path due to the famous "curiosity killed the cat" quote, using it effectively by trying to lead a person to find out more about the unknown can lead to their innate curiosity overcoming many obstacles in their path. And in this case, said obstacle was keeping their own mouths shut, something the members seated all around promptly did. Now that attention was once again squarely focused on the chairman of the peace meeting, Dedede's face turned grim as he began to speak about the new agenda of the meeting.

"You know, before yesterday, this Cabinet thing and having a legislation was meant to be for peace. But now, things have changed for the worse. The situation has turned dire." Eyes narrowed into slits as he glared out of the window. "Now, this meeting's whole purpose has turned on a dime. Once it might have been for peace, but now it is to prepare our defenses for an inevitable onslaught… a war meeting, you could say."

"If you folks are confused, perhaps I can explain on his majesty King Dedede's behalf." Coo interrupted King Dedede before anyone else around the table could. The owl shuffled his feet, wincing as he felt static electricity discharge from his wing to the ground. "After all, this incident is arguably the most personal to me."

The Birdon seated next to Coo giggled as she saw the feathers on the owl frazzle up. "Oh, do tell! This is getting rather exciting! Hee hee!"

Coo's lower beak dropped open, the bird placing a wing to the top of his forehead in exasperation at the Birdon's antics. "Like the second act of a waltz, it unfortunately appears that an old enemy has returned for revenge," the owl said with words that practically screamed "drama" to the crowd, and yet he did so with such a mundane voice that it almost seemed as though Coo was bored with the whole affair. "And now, the Jambastion Cult has risen from the ashes anew, with a vengeance rivaling that of some of the most brutal enemies that Popstar has ever seen…"

"The Jambastion Cult!?"

Everyone in the room stared at the one who had interrupted Coo's dramatic speech. Most were unsurprised by the identity of the one who had the outburst, with even Dedede forced to admit that he wasn't surprised by who had spoken up either. It was certainly more predictable than Marx from earlier on. Nothing was going to beat that trainwreck of a topic derailment.

"L-Lord Hyness and his three generals are back?" The Jammerjab flung his chair back, standing up with terrified yellow eyes under his gray hat. "I-I-If you're trying to emulate the previous clown guy, this isn't funny!" he stuttered, breathing heavily. "Please, tell me you're joking!"

Dedede exhaled as he shook his head sadly. Like he'd thought, Jackson had been one of the most violent reactors to the news, which made sense since the Jammerjab was originally part of the Jambastion Cult. After all, he was the first Jammerjab that Kirby had befriended with a Friend Heart while patrolling the Jambastion's Eastern Wall.

"I'm afraid not. Unfortunately, it is the truth." Dedede cut in with a grave tone, coldly shattering the Jammerjab's preconceptions that he had heard wrongly. "I hate to admit it, but the Jambastions managed to survive the final showdown at Jambandra Base."

The room was now quiet as the implications of the announcement rang through their heads. After a moment of silence, the Dream Land ruler proceeded to slam his hammer on the table, shocking quite a few of the seated helpers. "So now, we have a new agenda to discuss. Lasting peace for you and all your people in Planet Popstar is an impossibility with them back in the picture. Therefore, we are left with no choice but to deal with the source of the problem."

Dedede's eyes hovered around the room as he posed the dreaded question. "So… how do we fight back against the Jambastions?"

---

Kirby had to admit that this was one of his hastier plans.

Bandana's deadpan stare towards his good friend as they found themselves surrounded by a mess of angry Cappies was pretty much the proof of that.

Perhaps I shouldn't have led Bandana to charge headlong towards Dyna Blade's nest… gah! I can't believe that I forgot about the villagers! Passing through this place was a mistake…

"How could you do this, Kirby!?" Honey cried as she looked at Kirby with a disappointed expression. "We trusted you!" she sniffed.

"Yeah!" Chief Borun added. "I blew a fuse when I saw what was broadcast on Channel DDD this morning! You definitely bit off more than you can chew by provoking Dyna Blade! Ohhhh! What were you thinking!?"

"Where did you leave Dyna Blade's chick, Kirby?" Iroo questioned in a stern voice as he tapped his foot. "Maybe we can still salvage this disaster if we bring it back…"

Hohhe raged, hopping up and down. "My father's crops are on you!" he yelled, the straw-hat kid unusually furious about what he perceived as a complete betrayal.

Kirby raised his arms in surrender, steadily backing away as the villagers slowly edged forward. Yeah, choosing to walk back to Dyna Blade's nest with Bandana was not a good plan.

"Don't let Kirby get away!" Kawasaki yelled to the crowd as the chef pointed his frying pan at Kirby. "Dyna Blade's wrecked my restaurant when it flew past Cappy Town! If King Dedede isn't going to give me any compensation, the least I could get in return is to hire Kirby for free for weeks on end to pay back the damages!"

"What about my store!?" The toy store owner Gangu folded his arms at Kawasaki. "Dyna Blade's trashed that too, y'know? I need Kirby to pay me back as well, Kawasaki!"

"Don't forget about my farm!"

"My fortune telling shop as well!"

"The police station's a pile of rubble!"

Kirby's face turned contemplative as the townspeople began to argue among themselves. He didn't want to hurt the villagers, but if push came to shove…

"Kirby!"

"There you are!"

With surprised expressions, Kirby and Bandana glanced up to the sky to see two small floating creatures. Even though Bandana might not be familiar with them, Kirby on the other end was certainly able to recognize the two floating orbs that had saved them.

Lololo and Lalala, the fearsome fiends of Castle Lololo.

Fact was, he had already just seen the two very recently, during the Meta Knight brawl a while ago. That had been a very nostalgic sight to Kirby — after all, he hadn't interacted with the duo in what seemed like eons.

"What are you doing over here?" Lololo asked as his eyes fell on the murderous crowd below his feet.

"Yeah! It isn't safe for you here in Cappy Town!" seconded Lalala. "Come on! Let us get you to safety!"

Bandana was about to give a reply, but then quickly realized his current position as Kirby shot him a hasty look that said 'Don't blow it!', and then thought better of it.

"Poyo!" Kirby said, firmly pointing to Bandana as Lololo and Lalala swooped down to grab him.

"Lololo! I think Kirby wants the Waddle Dee as well."

"I've no qualms with that." Lololo broke away from Lalala to grab Bandana by the knot on the back of his blue bandana. Not noticing Bandana flailing about in wild panic from Lololo's grip, he returned to his counterpart. "Now I think we better go! Let's make a move on before the crowd turns nasty!"

Kirby snorted before he laughed out loud at Bandana's uncomfortable position, which caused his friend to huff and look away. That however, only caused Kirby to laugh even louder and prompt Lololo and Lalala into wondering just why he was laughing at almost getting butchered by the Cappy Town villagers.

To be honest, Kirby realized that he could have simply just floated up to escape the crowd. But he supposed that this way was fine as well.

"Oh no!" Gangu cried out as he pointed to the sky, "Kirby's getting away, you guys!"

Chief Borun blew into a whistle, directing the Cappies in their general direction. "After him!" he ordered. It was a futile effort, though. If only land-dwellers like them could fly.

"Are you just gonna run away after causing Dyna Blade to attack our town? Are you, Kirby!?" Kirby winced at Tuggle's remark, directing his eyes away from the yelling Cappies below.

As they were carried away from the fuming Cappies, Kirby's eyes widened as he managed to catch sight of another pink puffball sneakily hiding behind a trash can in the vicinity.

"Carby…" he mumbled under his breath in awe, making sure that Lalala couldn't hear him from above.

---

"Looks like all the villagers are gathered at the town square of Cappy Town!" Bun pointed as they hid behind a trash bin in the main street of the town.

"Hey!" Fumu turned to Kirby and her brother, "This is our chance! While they're all distracted, we can make use of the opportunity to sneak back to Dyna Blade's nest unnoticed!"

That had happened an hour ago, and surprisingly that hasty plan had worked. Honestly, the permanently wary Fumu was rather surprised that their return trip had gone this well so far. After an hour's trek, they were practically almost at their destination.

"Look at that huge nest, sis!" Bun pointed to his front to see a nest perched on a rock face a few meters above them. "Think it's Dyna Blade's?"

Fumu grumbled under her breath as she climbed up the steep cliff. "If this isn't Dyna Blade's nest, I'll eat my shoe." The sarcasm was very obvious there.

"You're on!"

"Poyo!"

Fumu could only shake her head as she reached the top, with Bun following shortly behind. Kirby simply puffed up his body to overtake the duo, the Star Warrior running ahead of them, heading straight for the large nest.

Before he could approach any closer to the nest, Kirby suddenly found his feet stuck firmly to the ground. "Poyo?" he quipped, looking down to see a sticky substance coated on the rocky floor around the area.

Bun had to tilt his head at the unusual sight. "Is that spider web? What would that be doing way up here?" he asked out loud, the Cappy boy literally tempting fate.

If only he hadn't opened his big mouth.

"That's right, kid… a spider web. What a surprise. Whoopie-doo."

All three of them whirled around as they heard an eerily familiar voice that they would rather not hear again. Their eyes widened in shock as the person spoke again and proceeded to walk within their range of vision, "I knew that you'd eventually make your way here to the peak. How very nice of you not to disappoint my expectations, Kirby." A confident Como strutted up from behind an inconspicuous rock next to the nest, chuckling at the trio.

"You!" Fumu pointed a trembling finger at the newcomer who was calmly strolling towards them. Webby the Como. Now that was certainly a face that neither one of the three wanted to see at the moment.

Bun clenched his fist, the boy not forgetting about the time that he had been trapped in a web cocoon by this clown. "Hey, you! What do you think you're doing here, you jerk!?"

"That's right!" Fumu added as Kirby gave a stuart nod. "Are you following us around? Because you have no reason to be up here at Dyna Blade's nest otherwise!"

The commander merely shrugged at their outcry, letting out a small laugh as he responded to the Cappies. "No reason to be here? Hahahaha! Unlike what you think, I do have a legitimate purpose for being this high up, kid."

"Oh yeah? What is it!?"

Webby ignored Bun's unfriendly question and Fumu's glare as he glanced towards the horizon, watching the speck that was Cappy Town far off in the distance. "The reason I'm here at the summit of Candy Mountain? Why, it's to finish off what I started, of course," he stated in a voice that made it seem as though the answer was as plain as day. "I swore that I'd be back for you, and I am one to keep my promises. This time, I fully intend to finish this feud between us, Kirby. You're coming back with me!" he declared with a boisterous voice.

"Not likely! I refuse to let you take Kirby!" Fumu warily eyed the arachnid as she saw his lips curl upwards at her defiant remark. After his near-victory at Whispy's Forest, she knew better than to underestimate the little critter.

"Hah! Now that's a joke if I ever heard one! Honestly, what do you think you can possibly do to me?" Webby laughed vicariously as he sneered at Fumu with a glint in his eyes. "I told you before, girl… you know absolutely nothing about me or Kirby!"

He gestured towards Kirby, who had an unhappy expression on his face when he realized that he was singled out by the Como, "I definitely already said this before and probably sound like a broken record, but I must emphasize this fact because I simply do not get you people. Why put your safety on the line to protect someone who you know virtually nothing about? Hmph! It boggles my mind. Just make my job easy and scram already, you insignificant Cappy!"

Fumu held her hands up to shield Kirby from Webby's piercing gaze, with Bun quickly copying the motion. "Never!" she firmly retorted, remaining obstinate on the matter. The girl held her stance, deciding that she wasn't going to be influenced by his taunting jabs. Just like with King Dedede, she adamantly refused to listen to a single word that Webby had to say.

The Como helper could only grumpily shake his head in response. "Some things never change, huh? To think that you already managed to amass allies here in this godforsaken place… you certainly are quite the charmer, Kirby!" Webby murmured to the Star Warrior, who wasn't sure if the statement was meant to be a praise or a stealth insult.

As a result, Kirby chose to be optimistic and let out a merry "Poyo!" in reply, letting Webby know that he took it as a compliment.

He appeared briefly shocked by that, before recovering and gently shaking his head. "Why… thank you. I appreciate that, Kirby…"

Fumu and Bun were surprised to see that Webby had a genuine smile on his face as he thanked Kirby. Even so, she frowned at that unusual response. It certainly gave some credence to the idea that Webby knew Kirby somehow… as though his words hadn't done enough to convince her of that.

"You've been quite the naughty little rascal, Kirby." Webby continued on, snorting as he gazed at the large empty nest. "To think that you took Dyna Blade's kid just to try and protect this miserable little carbon copy of a place. But alas," he shook his head with a wry smirk, "it appears that your pre-emptive strike was all for naught, since all you managed to accomplish in the end was successfully bringing down her full wrath upon all of Dream Land!"

"Her?" Bun yelled as the boy heard the gender-specific pronoun. The Cappy shook, wracking his head with shock before turning to the arachnid and asked Webby a question that no one had thought to ask before this point. "Wait, wait, wait! Hold up! Dyna Blade's a girl?" he cried with a fair amount of disbelief in his voice, "The giant bird that is capable of all of that destruction is actually female?"

"Yes…?" muttered Webby in a snide tone of voice, before quickly struggling to keep his face straight as he found himself forced to ignore Fumu hitting her brother for his insensitive and somewhat-sexist remark.

He would have laughed at their little skit, but that would have sent a signal to the duo that he somewhat enjoyed their company, and he certainly wasn't going to hint that to them as he knew that the Cappy girl would instantly rub it in his fangs, taking his amusement as a victory. Thus, he instead rolled all three of his eyes at the siblings' antics before reaffirming his answer. "Yes, boy. Dyna Blade is indeed female."

Bun rubbed his shoulder, redirecting his glare from his sister to Webby as he shot the spider an obvious question. "How do you know actually know that for a fact?" Even Fumu had to concur with Bun on this query, since it didn't make any sense to her as to how Webby would know of Dyna Blade's gender… and how he even knew about Dyna Blade at all to begin with.

"You see, where I come from…" Webby's eyes suddenly widened, abruptly stopping his sentence short when he realized that answering the question would put him in a very bad spot. Already he was treading on thin ice by physically interacting with the duo of Cappies, but he had only done that since Kirby had beat him to it. Revealing that he knew of a second Dyna Blade in his world would be tantamount to verbal suicide. The less that this world's inhabitants knew about his Planet Popstar, the better.

Deciding not to unintentionally dish out any more information, he quickly switched topics. "Enough talk. I see what game you're pulling — the distraction game. Too bad you can't pull the wool over this spider's eyes!" He took a single step forward. "I'd been holding back for far too long. Your visit on this planet will soon draw to an abrupt close! Let's resume our fight, Kirby!" The sudden change of the conversation led to everyone being caught off guard when Webby jumped and launched out three small webs that he spun from his limbs.

"Poyo!" Kirby managed to free himself from the web on the floor to dodge to the side and avoid the Web Scatter attack. Getting to his feet, Kirby's eyes frantically darted around for anything that he could use as a weapon against this persistent nemesis.

He found it, rather surprisingly, inside Dyna Blade's nest. There was a small yellow feather that conspicuously stood out among the brown branches which made out the nest. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot, he sucked the small feather into his mouth, grinning when he felt the signature warmth that came when something he inhaled an object that granted him a Copy Ability.

Oh, yes! How he relished getting a Copy Ability, yearning for the taste of power it granted him. He thoroughly loved the sense of empowerment it granted him — how it made him feel strong… how it made him feel nearly unstoppable. Simply put, for Kirby, inhaling a Copy Ability was a euphoric feeling that the Star Warrior simply could not describe in mere words.

Rather, it was an experience, one he always looked forward to.

Alright! Now let's see what Copy Ability this feather grants me!

"Look! He's transforming!" Kirby heard Bun cry. Sure enough, as he jumped into the air, he felt himself landing on a giant white feather that materialized out of thin air. He merrily bounced on it multiple times, jumping on it like it was a trampoline. The third bounce then propelled him high up, with a spontaneous explosion of feathers surrounding the puffball.

"Whoa! What kind of ability did Kirby get from that?" Bun asked as Kirby was obscured by the flurry of feathers.

"I'm not sure, Bun—"

"Wing Kirby!?" Webby hollered as he stared upwards in shock, unknowingly answering Fumu's question for her. Shaking his head vehemently, he then shrieked at the sight. "Nooooooooo! Anything but that!"

"Wing Kirby?" Fumu echoed after Webby. Somehow, Fumu felt that Webby's curses seemed rather different compared to when Sir Meta Knight was the one announcing the Copy Ability transformation.

Bun looked up in awe. "Wing Kirby? That sounds awesome!"

When the feathers no longer covered Kirby, the three on the ground could see the new Wing Kirby, currently flapping his newfound wings in the air. He had a large greenish-white headdress that emblazoned his entire forehead, as well as large red-tipped white feathers that extended from his arm.

"You blooming jerk, Kirby! You of all people should know that I vehemently despise the Wing Ability, especially after meeting with Alma…" He shuddered as he remembered the damned leader of the Birdons, letting out an involuntarily groan as he remembered her constant teasing remarks directed towards him, "How, Kirby… how could you do this to me!?"

Kirby fluttered down to the ground, nonchalantly grinning at Webby. "Poyo!"

"Never mind! After all those times that Dream Land's nearly been decimated, all's fair in love and war, eh?" He ignored the confused 'Dream Land's been what?' coming from Fumu and Bun, letting out a growl at the happy-go-lucky Wing Kirby. "If you're going to play dirty, then so shall I!" Webby began to ramble as his pinkish fangs chattered.

He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath to compose himself before staring at the feather-adjourned Kirby. "Heheheh! Get yourself ready, Kirby! Time for me to unleash my Friend Power!" he laughed as he lifted two arms above his head.

Fumu and Kirby both unanimously decided that they didn't like the sound of that, their paranoia growing more paramount when they saw that Webby had a smug grin on his face. "Watch out, Kirby!" she signaled uneasily as a warning, moving closer to Kirby to give him her unwavering support. Wing Kirby simply gave a tense nod back in acknowledgement, keeping his eyes on his opponent and narrowing them slightly when he saw Webby stepping forward to make his move.

"Behold!" Webby cackled sadistically as a humongous web began to form over his head. He continued laughing as he brought his hands down with fire in his eyes, preparing to fight in earnest. "Friend Bou—"

"Kehhhhhhhhhh!"

---

"There you go, Kirby!"

"Don't run off again! Just stay here!"

"Poyo!" Kirby mock-saluted with a relieved smile as Lololo and Lalala flew off to another part of Castle Dedede.

"Why are the villagers so mad at you, Kirby?" Bandana asked when Lololo and Lalala were out of earshot. "I don't understand…"

"Oh, I know exactly why they're angry at me," Kirby muttered with a hint of irritation as he glanced out of Castle Dedede. "You've seen the newfangled television sets, right? Did you happen to see a recording of me taking Dyna Blade's chick from her nest?"

"N-no!" Bandana vigorously shook his head. "What recording? How did you know about it anyway?"

"An annoying runt by the name of Tokkori—" Kirby hissed the name, "—managed to record me snatching Dyna Blade's hatchling using a video camera. Yeesh, this bird has some sort of grudge against me!"

"Huh? Who's this Tokkori?" While Bandana knew the name of most counterparts that he'd seen around the area, this name was one that eluded him.

Rather surprisingly, Kirby chose not to entertain his question. "Ah. You don't need to know, Bandana," the puffball said as he folded his arms and let out an exasperated sigh, "As far as I know, Tokkori doesn't have a counterpart, at least not one that I can think of right now. He looks a little like Pitch, if Pitch was yellow and as annoying as a swarm of Gordos, that is."

"But I don't really see what's so bad about that…" Bandana knew that he was playing devil's advocate, but it was so rare to see the ever-jovial Kirby actually genuinely upset about someone that the Waddle Dee couldn't help but to probe further, poking the metamorphic lion with a sharpened spear.

Kirby sighed, a forlorn expression decorating his face. "Let's put it this way, shall we? We didn't get along the instant we laid eyes on each other. Things escalated until he pulled this stunt. But the thing that irks me the most was that it was an out-of-context recording. That bird didn't know why I took Dyna Blade's hatchling, and yet he still wanted to catch me on tape just to cause trouble!"

"D-Dyna Blade's hatchling?" Bandana gasped in horror. "You took him from the nest?"

"I took her, actually," Kirby corrected with a sly grin. "Don't be so surprised, Bandana! Surely you must be aware that I've faced off against Dyna Blade before. Albeit it's a different Dyna Blade, but that makes no difference in the long run since I know the reason why she's attacking the town. So with that knowledge in mind, I made the choice to preemptively snatch Dyna Blade's child away and feed it on my own accord so that its mother doesn't have to wreck half of Dream Land to look for food. Heh, babysitter Kirby! That actually kinda has a nice ring to it, I gotta say…"

Before Bandana could raise his hand to bring up an embarrassing incident, Kirby quickly carried on. "But now thanks to that stupid Tokkori, everything has gone way wrong!" He folded his arms, letting a frown tug on his lips. "I had a feeling that the recording would be spread, to be honest, and coming back to this town and seeing television sets everywhere that were airing an advert which welcomed citizens to submit headline-worthy recordings just proved me right."

"An advertisement… on Channel DDD… that welcomes incriminating recordings?" Bandana stuttered when he realized that he knew exactly what Kirby was referring to. How could he not, when it was those exact same words from the mouth of not-Great King's assistant last night that almost made him destroy the broadcast saucer in a rage.

"Send in your amateur tapes to Castle Dedede and our loyal judges will see if it's fit for airing. You can send in anything — from documentaries, prank videos, and even incriminating footage of Kirby-I mean, your fellow citizens doing something bad. You stand a chance to win up to four hundred deden of prize money if it is accepted and broadcast on live television!"

Bandana had known that the announcement was bad news from the start, and now less than a day later the fruits of not-Great King's labor were apparent — he had already gotten the nasty scoop that he wanted.

"I know that commercial!"

"I bet you do, Dee." Kirby placed on of his hands by his forehead, closing his eyes shut as he reflected on the situation. "I guess that in retrospect, my plan was a little ill-conceived. But I hadn't expected someone to actively sabotage it! And now, what can I say? There's nothing I can do to salvage this mess. Besides, it's too late for the citizens of the town anyway. I've failed in protecting them from Dyna Blade, and now they all think it's my fault. Perhaps it is…"

Bandana looked down when he saw Kirby's upset expression. "So what now, Kirby?" he finally asked.

Kirby looked out of the castle, fearing for the safety of the town that he'd unknowingly endangered. The memories of the townspeople accusing him for their plight were still fresh in his head. "I don't know, Bandana. I don't know…" the hero of Dream Land mumbled softly as he gazed out to Cappy Town.

---

"Kehhhhhhhhhh!"

"W-What?!" Webby stopped his attack as his ears heard the screech, looking around in a daze as he realized what was happening. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

"Sis!" Bun yelped as he saw a huge shadow loom across the mountain peak. "I don't think we're gonna like this!" he gulped, with Fumu swallowing a healthy dose of saliva as well about two seconds later.

Webby repeatedly yelled in a flustered panic as the winds began to howl and accelerated like a racecar. "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" The gale forced the Como to hold on to the rim of his bowler hat to prevent the purple headwear from being blown off the side of the mountain. "Please… not here, not now!" he begged, his formerly calm composure evaporating into nothingness.

Unfortunately for him and the others on the mountain peak, his pleas had no effect on the state of reality. With terrified eyes, his ears heard a second deafening screech that echoed across the entire mountain range.

"Kehhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

All four of them froze at the screech. They had all heard that horrible sound before while they were in Whispy's Forest. But with no trees around now, the canopy cover wasn't going to be their salvation this time. That, and it was much louder in amplitude compared to the previous occurrences — rather fittingly, because the one making those noises was fast approaching them.

"Oh, screw this! Dealing with Alma the Birdon is enough for me! I refuse to be a giant bird's lunch!" Before anyone could stop him, Webby quickly ran to the side of the cliff and went over the edge.

"Wait! Don't jump!" Fumu yelled as she sprinted to the side of the cliff. Despite everything, she didn't want to see him end up as a splat on the rocky path twenty feet below.

She needn't have worried. As Bun and Kirby stopped besides Fumu, they managed to glimpse him using Pod Guard as he began to fall out of sight. The cocoon wrapped around Webby's body, shielding him all the way until he hit the ground, at which point he released his guard and ran off in a frenzy, a little dizzy but otherwise unscathed.

And completely safe, too. Very much unlike her, who didn't have an ability like that which could break her fall from this height. Sure, Kirby could float, but Fumu doubted that he could support both her weight in addition to her brother's. As a result, they were rather unceremoniously trapped by the nest, with a very angry bird headed their way.

As the winds around them began to pick up speed, Fumu, Bun and Kirby could see a huge black shadow loom across the entire area. Straining her head to look up, Fumu gaped at the sight ahead of her.

An enormously large avian glistened in the sun, its wings reflecting off rays of light and refracting the sunlight so that it seemed to bask and glow of its own volition. When the clouds covered the sun a few seconds later, only then were they able to get a good look at the creature without being blinded by the sunlight that it was reflecting.

Rainbow feathers adorned her huge wings, these wings themselves creating breezes of winds as it soared in the air. After beating those wings once to slow down, it proceeded to swoop down to the mountain range down below and land ahead of them. As she gently flapped its wings to plant her talons softly on the cracked mountain ground, only then did the three register just what they were looking at.

They were actually witnessing the legendary rainbow phoenix with wings of steel right in the flesh — Dyna Blade herself.

This was so not good.

"Man, Dyna Blade's even more colorful than Professor Curio made her out to be…" Bun muttered as he stared at the bird in question. "It almost looks like she came straight out of some artist's canvas or something…"

---

"Achooo!"

The young artist scowled when she saw that her sudden sneeze had caused drops of saliva to land on her canvas. "Ah, drat! My painting's all ruined!"

A bubblegum pink-hair fairy giggled as she saw the predicament of her human friend. "Awwww! Getting cold, Adeleine?" she asked with a cheeky tone.

"I-I'm not cold, Ribbon!" Adeleine pouted, the artist placing down her wooden pallet on her canvas so that she could fold her arms in all her angered glory. Too bad things never went as planned — her piercing glare would have had the intended effect had there not been a trail of mucus dripping down her nose.

Ribbon placed her hands to her mouth to suppress a chuckle upon seeing the humorous sight. "Oh, you've got to toughen up a little! You're here on my warm and merry Ripple Star, not freezing your hands off in barren Shiver Star!"

"Ribbooonnnn!" Adeleine whined, flinging her arms to her sides as she squeezed her eyes shut with mild irritation at Ribbon's teasing.

"Okay, okay!" Ribbon grinned mischievously as if to say 'no hard feelings'. "I admit, that was a little uncalled for. But let's get back on topic, shall we?" The fairy mischievously flew up to Adeleine and knocked her beret away so that she could ruffle the girl's silky black hair. "So why are you feeling cold, huh? You aren't even painting a picture of the cold!"

Adeleine waved Ribbon off, grumbling as she wiped the excess mucus away and flung the viscous substance away to the grass with a flick of her finger. "I don't know why I sneezed like that, Ribbon. But I bet it's just someone talking bad about me." Picking her trademark red beret up from the ground and placing her back where it belonged (atop her round head), the artist then wasted no time in sticking her tongue out at the hovering Ribbon. "Who knows, maybe it's actually you who's been talking behind my back!"

"Nonsense!" Ribbon wagged a finger as she frowned disapprovingly at the very idea. "No one can talk bad about you, Addie! Least of all me!"

"Well, then perhaps they're talking bad about me from halfway across the universe," Adeleine suggested with a circular wave of her paintbrush, the movement matching the slow and deliberate roll of her eyes. "Or maybe it's King Dedede, y'know?" she took a wild guess, with Ribbon chuckling at the thought. "He was a grumpy grouch the whole time he went with us to piece back the Crystal Shards scattered all around Gamble Galaxy during our adventure seven years back!"

Of course, Adeleine had no idea that her outlandish suggestion had actually been the truth. Well, at least the former part, that is…

---

"I don't get it, sire. Why go after Whispy Woods?"

Escargon asked the most ridiculous questions at times. At least, that was what Bandana Dee thought. But then again, this also was a ridiculous turn of events. From moping about Dyna Blade to eavesdropping on not-Great King again in the span of five minutes. If he hadn't spotted Escargon walking down the corridor in a fluster, he supposed that he and Kirby would still be lamenting about Dyna Blade elsewhere in the castle.

"Hmph! His stupidly large forest is messing with the reception for Channel DDD!" Dedede folded his arms. "And when I tried to cut his forest down, that tree ran me out. Grrrrr! That gnarly Whispy's gotta go!"

"Hm… you were right about Dedede being a fake king. Of course, I knew that already after the Meta Knight duel, but just needed more reassurance, heh."

"Meta Knight duel?"

Kirby looked at a shuddering Bandana Dee with a raised eyebrow. "Hm, I suppose you weren't there when that went down. But yeah, that totally happened by the way." His words were dismissive, with Kirby literally hand-waving the matter away with both his words and an arm.

Besides, now was not the time to be distracted. Currently, the two of them were huddled together, peering from outside the double-doors of the throne room to spy on Dedede, or as Bandana put it — not-Great King.

"Those two will pay for interfering with the great King Dedede! Now, I'm gonna get rid of both Dyna Blade and Whispy Woods in one fell swoop! It'll be like killing two birds with one stone."

"You mean 'a bird and a tree' with a stone, your majesty."

Dedede scowled at Escargon, brandishing his hammer at the snail. "No one asked you, ya smart alec!" Although the correction was somewhat correct, he was still angry that Escargon had to explicitly point it out.

"Well then, no need to fight now, Triple-D," Customer Service interrupted their feud with his serenading voice.

"Who's that guy?" Kirby questioned with a questioning look.

"I don't know." Bandana gazed up as he tried to jog his memory for anyone who looked like that, only for his mind to turn up a blank.

"Well, Bandana. I have just one comment. His glasses are so old-fashioned."

It was rather unfortunate that Customer Service was unaware of Kirby's thoughts on his fashion sense as the puffball's voice was not audible inside the throne room. "Since you're aiming down two targets instead of one, how about a delightful two-in-one special deal that I've got just for you?" he offered to Dedede.

Dedede shot his usual are-you-trying-to-scam-me face at the screen. "Special deal?" he repeated in an unconvinced voice, one that was earned with ire after he'd had repeated dealings with the salesman and his company.

"That's absolutely right, my good king." He snapped his fingers. "Right now, we have a limited time offer for your consistent loyalty to Holy Nightmare Corporation!"

"Wait a minute here…" Kirby's voice dropped an octave as he eavesdropped on the conversation. He leaned down and whispered to his right, "Did that guy just say Holy Nightmare Corporation?"

Bandana gave a shaky nod, the Waddle Dee echoing Kirby's sentiment on the issue. "Isn't that the guy from the whole Fountain of Dreams incident that happened almost nine years ago? Nightmare's the monster that you and Great King collectively fought together, wasn't he?"

"Excuse me, Bandana? Collectively fought together?" Kirby's face fell as he let out an irritated grumble at Bandana's words. "To set the record straight, the 'help' that Dedede provided was inhaling me without any prior warning and proceeding to launch me out into outer space. He could have at least warned me before pulling a stunt like that! Geez!" Finishing his complaint, Kirby then focused his attention back on the seated Dedede. "But still, this is certainly bad. Very bad, in fact."

"Why?" The question was rhetorical and Bandana knew it, but he still asked it anyway so that he could seek Kirby's opinion.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kirby stood on tiptoes as he lowered his voice, "I must unfortunately concur that you are right. This company does indeed share the same name, which I admit does gives me a sense of foreboding. A name like Nightmare isn't one that some random guy will use lightly, so I definitely don't like the fact that this company has the exact same name as an old foe…"

"But there's no need to worry! You've already gotten rid of Nightmare by using the Star Rod!" Bandana declared as he pumped a fist into the air. "Everyone in our Dream Land knows that Nightmare is dead!"

"Ah, but you see it now, don't you? While it's true that Nightmare is dead, you've witnessed firsthand how this place has counterparts, right Bandana?" Kirby's face turned sour as he sagely pointed out the obvious. "So while our Nightmare is certainly very dead, along with um, well… half of the moon…" he sniggered as he recalled that, before coughing and getting back on track. "As I was saying, while our Nightmare is gone, there is a chance that this universe and second Planet Popstar also has another alternate version of Nightmare haunting them!" Kirby announced with a grim expression.

A spear almost clattered to the floor, only managing to not clack on the ground thanks to Bandana managing to catch his own weapon before it fully fell from his grip. "Another Nightmare out there? I dunno…" He looked to the ground, deep in thought. "That's a little far-fetched, don't you think?"

"And finding another Popstar with another Kirby isn't?" Kirby deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "Regardless, I am not a fan of creepy coincidences, and this is shaping up to be quite the big one. Plus, there's the fact that we're not dealing with a single lone individual, but rather with a company…" Before Bandana could ask him what he meant by that sentence, Kirby hastily appended an addendum. "Haltmann Works had taught me a valuable lesson. Sinister secretaries who represent a corporation are bad news indeed."

"Yeah, I don't like this either…" Bandana nervously twitched as he saw not-Great King glaring at the screen. The king had a nasty scowl on his face and promptly scoffed, unconvinced by Customer Service's smooth offer.

"Loyalty offer? What a load of crap! Just what kinda special deal have you got!?" Dedede placed his hand on the armrest, his finger playing around with the controls on his chair as he implicitly threatened to cut the call like with the Octacon incident. "I've heard enough sweet talk from your stinkin' mouth for an entire week! Just cut to the chase already! What'cha got for me to pummel an annoying bird!?"

Customer Service raised his arms in surrender, although his facial expression didn't change, making one who paid attention note that the salesman appeared to be completely unfazed by his customer's feistiness. "I'm glad you asked, king! Your enthusiasm certainly is contagious. Since your enemy this time is a master of the winds, allow me to promote a demon beast who can blast any aerial bird with its natural weakness — thousands of volts of electricity!"

"Electricity, huh?" Dedede beckoned Escargon forward and whispered something into his ear that was inaudible to Kirby and Bandana from their vantage point.

"That's correct, King-D! Meet our special lightning monster! He's known around these parts as the dreaded Lightning Demon Beast! A terrifying truly monster who electrifies everything wherever he goes, his power so massive that he ionizes the very air within ten feet of his vicinity!"

"Heh! Now that sounds like something I'd like in my possession!" Dedede smirked as he propped his feet up into the air. "What's this guy's name?"

"Ohohoho! I'm glad you asked! This fearsome being goes by the name of…" There was a distinct pause before Customer Service announced the monster's identity with a glint from his glasses, much to the shock of the two outside the room.

"…Kracko."

---

Fumu had to say that she couldn't blame Commander Webby for fleeing from Dyna Blade twice. She truly was a fearsome beast, even moreso up close.

"S-S-Sis…" Bun trembled as he averted his eyes away from the large bird. Fumu glanced to the side and subtly held her hand out to signal him to be quiet so as to reduce the chances of provoking the beast that was in front of them.

Still, it didn't help much. She could hear Bun's teeth chattering, and to be honest she wasn't faring that much better herself. Her brother looked to be absolutely terrified for once, and Fumu couldn't blame him. Dyna Blade looked positively furious.

It was at this very moment that Fumu remembered a statement that she had read before in a biology book. Rather fittingly, it was about the term "pecking order".

"A hen often asserts dominance on its competitors in its herd by pecking them. Those who are lower on the scale know when to submit to a higher-ranked member in a group and allow themselves to be pecked. That is how a social hierarchy is born among hens — a pecking order, so to speak."

Well, that was the perfect statement to adequately describe their current situation. Dyna Blade currently towered over the group as she stood less than a few meters away from them, her sharp wings glistening in the sun as she stared at the trio by her nest. Fumu definitely knew that none of them—except maybe Kirby—were any match for Dyna Blade, and by the bird's sharp glare, she certainly knew that too.

They could feel Dyna Blade's piercing gaze on them. The bird studied the three specimens by her nest, before letting out a piercing shriek at who she perceived to be intruders in her nest.

"Kragghhhhhhh!"

While Fumu and Bun fell on their rumps from the menacing snarl that Dyna Blade emitted from her beak, Kirby had a rather different reaction. He froze, rooted to the spot as he heard a discombobulated voice echoing about in his head.

"Who are you, Star Warrior?"

Wh-what? Who's there? Am I hearing things? Kirby thought as he clutched his forehead.

Seeing the puffball ahead of her in a daze, Dyna Blade reached her right foot out and took a step forward, the claws in her talons crushing the rock beneath her as she let out another screech.

"I asked you a question. Please do respond." A clack could be heard due to an impatient tap of Dyna Blade's talons against the ground as the bird grumpily cocked her head before posing the question to Kirby again. "What is your name?"

This time, as Dyna Blade repeated her query, Kirby knew that he wasn't hallucinating. For some inexplicable reason, he was actually able to hear the translation of Dyna Blade's cry in his head! Her voice was slow and deliberate, yet undeniably female as well.

"Poyo!" he replied out loud while simultaneously thinking the translation of his answer inside his head. My name's Kirby!

"Kirby?"

To Kirby's huge shock, it appeared that Dyna Blade had managed to extrapolate the name from his thoughts, almost like the bird was a medium who was able to read minds. "So that is your name. How very interesting indeed…"

"I don't have a good feeling about this…" Bun whispered to Fumu when he saw Kirby and Dyna Blade calmly exchanging poyos and screeches. "This doesn't seem like random timing to me. Kirby is speaking when Dyna Blade isn't, and vice versa! It's too coincidental for the timings of the two to alternate between each other if they were just random calls."

As Dyna Blade leaned forward and screeched at Kirby again, Bun pointed at the bird while stating his hypothesis. "I think they're somehow talking to each other! Don't you think this looks like a two-way conversation, sis?"

Despite how ridiculous it sounded, Fumu had to agree as she glanced at the two. Unless you were witnessing the sight firsthand, Bun's theory seemed to be completely absurd. But as she saw the two visibly react to each other's garbled noises, she realized that Bun had to be correct.

They were indeed talking to one another!

But her newfound knowledge of that mind-blowing fact ironically ended up creating more questions than answers.

Her view of the situation completely changed from that observation. When Curio had talked about the legendary bird, he had made it sound as though Dyna Blade was a phenomenon — a wild creature, so to speak. But what she could clearly see in front of her eyes disproved that theory, one-hundred percent. Now, Dyna Blade instead began to look more like a smart and sentient bird, a far cry from the description of the hostile force that Curio had painted…

…which was arguably much more dangerous for them in the long run. Dyna Blade being able to communicate, even though it was with Kirby instead of using the Cappy language, meant that the giant avian was intelligent and thus posed a much larger threat compared to if it were simply a feral beast with a primitive thought process like Dedede's monsters.

The second problem was that this development led to an even more puzzling question — how was Kirby even able to communicate with a creature like Dyna Blade in the first place? It seemed like an ability that came completely out of left field, considering Kirby's origin as being from outer space.

"You're… right, Bun. It looks like Kirby is somehow able to communicate with Dyna Blade in his own language!" Fumu nervously took a step back as she observed Dyna Blade's tensed-up stance. "And I don't like that we can't understand a word that they're saying!"

"Me neither, sis. I really don't want to know what they are talking about."

Dyna Blade looked down when she saw the pipsqueaks in front of her talking. Although they couldn't understand her, she could understand them. "That's enough banter, I say. No more beating around the bush." Her voice turned fierce as she turned her head up high. "Why did you take my child, young one? Who was the one that put you up to this terrible act?"

Dead silence. Once again, like with Webby, Kirby had no answer. He knew that this pertained to Dedede's faked tape, but it was supposed to be just that, right? A faked incident on the camera sets of Channel DDD.

So then, why did the real Dyna Blade had her kid stolen?

"Poyo!" he shouted back to Dyna Blade. I don't know!

"You don't know?" Dyna Blade shook her head at Kirby's non-committal response, raising her large wings threateningly and causing the two Cappies and one puffball at her front to flinch back. "Don't you lie to me!" she hissed, "I've only seen you and those two Cappies here at my nest! Who else could have taken her!?"

Another response. "Poyo!" It's really not me! You have to believe me!

"Still playing dumb? Peh, I should have known. It is just like what Nightmare swore all those millennia ago, during the climax of the great war. I still remember his words to this very day…" Dyna Blade shook her head before raising her beak to the sky and letting out a haunting shriek that reverberated across the mountain range, one that could be heard from miles around as she quoted those words.

"Every last Star Warrior is destined to be a fallen star… a mere shadow of their former heroic selves…"

What the heck is going on!?

That was the thought that flashed through Kirby's mind as Dyna Blade lamented her thoughts through her screech, clearly reminiscing about something that appeared to be quite important, even if the exact specifics of the situation eluded him for now.

Still, he knew that it was important. After all, Dyna Blade had literally name dropped the term "Star Warriors" like a plane dropping a volley of bombshells! Star Warriors! That was what he was supposed to be, right? A Star Warrior. Fumu had said that to him quite a fair bit, even emphasizing the term when he had first awoken from his slumber!

So then, it begged the question — how did Dyna Blade know at a single glance that he was a Star Warrior? Well, Wing Kirby didn't know, wasn't sure, and uncertain of whether he wanted to find out.

Dyna Blade flared up, extending its wings outwards to show their wingspan in a full impressive display as she snarled at the trio below her with a face that screamed at them just how foolish they were in standing against her. It was clear from her body language that she considered dealing with them to be a trifling matter for her, a minor obstacle at best.

It was certainly an intimidating display. Just the sheer difference in size between him and his soon-to-be opponent made it clear just how clearly outmatched he and his companions were against the metal-coated avian — the pure destructive force of nature that was Dyna Blade.

Nevertheless, he wasn't going to give in.

"Poyo, poyyyoo!" Kirby's voice was filled with vigor as he jumped up and used his wings to soar upwards to the skies. Even though only Dyna Blade was able to understand the full translation of his cry, the implied meaning was obvious enough to Fumu and Bun in spite of the language barrier.

I'm ready for you, Dyna Blade! Come and get me if you can!

Wing Kirby grimaced as he flew, the puffball taking in deep breaths to fight down the feeling of trepidation he felt in his belly as he determinedly prepared to face an enemy more than thirty times his size. Sure, the giant octopus under King Dedede's command technically beat out Dyna Blade by being the first giant beast that he had to face, but the silver-tinted bird appeared to be a much more personal and dangerous foe to face down — seemingly having some role in his past, much like Webby before her.

Dyna Blade angrily narrowed her eyes as she saw her tiny opponent's defiant response. They simply stared at each other for a tense few seconds, from one winged creature to another. However, that moment of peace was not to last. A haunting screech from Dyna Blade then cut through the air, her cry so sharp that it felt like a sword that pierced through the molecules in the surrounding mountain air themselves.

"So you accept my challenge? Hmph! To be fair, I'm not too surprised that someone like you would dare to take me on. It seems to me that history will soon be repeating itself once again. But alas! What can a mere bird like me do? I can't change the choices that the Galaxy Soldier Army made all those years ago…"

The more Dyna Blade droned on, the more befuddled the puffball found himself. Evidently there was some story behind this… which would be useful to him if he had even the slightest inkling as to what the behemoth was blabbering about.

"But since you won't back down, I have no choice but to follow through with my threat." Dyna Blade retorted inside of Kirby's mind as the giant bird stared down at her flying foe, beating her steel wings in a heavy, deliberate manner to generate more lift. "Allow me to be the one who humbles your arrogance. Let us fight this battle to the end, Kirby!"

As she finished, Dyna Blade held her wings horizontally straight, falling from where she was hovering in the skies and rapidly dived down with a swoop, aiming her sharp talons at Wing Kirby as she howled out her brutal intent at the aerial Star Warrior in one terrifying screech that besmirched the skies.

Even Wing Kirby had to admit that he felt cold beads of sweat forming on his forehead in spite of the cooling mountain air that was all around him when his mind managed to telepathically translate the words behind Dyna Blade's angered cry. While Fumu and Bun were only able to make out a simple "Kehhhh!", Kirby was able to hear every last piercing word behind her sinister screech.

"This is for my hatchling! You will pay the ultimate price for your betrayal, treasonous little Star Warrior! I, Dyna Blade, swear that I will slice you in half… right where you stand!"

---

Author's Note:

Surprise! Did you really think that Dyna Blade would be a straightforward fight? Well, if you've managed to read this far and still haven't figured out my writing style by this point, then this is where I tell you that you'd be dead wrong.

Confused by the conclusion? Well, you probably should be, especially since the cryptic words that Dyna Blade says to animeverse Kirby seemingly contradicts the timeline that I'd just established three chapters ago… but there is a reason for that. Besides, Dyna Blade's a severely underrated and underutilized boss in Kirby Super Star, so in this fic I'm going to be giving her the tender love that she deserves.

We've also hit a double-digit number of chapters, so here's a pretty big whammy of a chapter. There's a whole load of stuff here in this chapter that advances the plot, so I hope you enjoy it!

Before anyone asks, Adeleine and Ribbon are gameverse. I mean, it's blatantly obvious, but still. As I've said, Dream Friends from Wave 2 onwards didn't participate in the Star Allies main campaign in this fic. Regardless, I don't think I'd be writing animeverse versions of gameverse characters if they don't actually exist in the show, else I'd go insane.

So, yep… after ten chapters we finally have a name! Carby is the name that I've decided to give to anime!Kirby so as to make differentiating between the two Kirbies easier in-narrative. Although I gave a different reason for game!Kirby naming his counterpart that in the story, the real reason I gave this name to anime!Kirby is because Kirby's name is pronounced Kaa-bii in Japanese. Also, not to spoil anything, but while gameverse!Kirby will refer to his alternate counterpart by this name, it doesn't mean that everyone will…

Thank you all for the support you've rendered in the last chapter, especially on FFN when the site broke a couple hours before I updated which caused the story to not bump up to the front page for about twenty hours or so. I appreciate all your reviews and love hearing your thoughts on how the story is progressing! After all, I'm pretty much in it for the long haul!