~Chapter 9~

The battleship's doors lowered with a loud whirring sound, and Kirby watched as Fumu and Bun mounted inside. He saw the King and Escargon trying to get on, but Kirby lept to intercept them. Perhaps it was just the fact that the mission could be dangerous, or the fact that he wouldn't trust either of these two with his life, but Kirby did not want them coming with him. Dedede glared as Kirby barred the way in,

"Out of the way, pinky." he growled. Kirby shook his head, undaunted,

"You stay at castle." Kirby said firmly, pointing at the exit. The pair still tried to move by him,

"That little girl's got a world of pain coming at her. Let us in!" Escargon said, but Kirby still refused to move. To his relief, Fumu came out behind him. Hopefully they could get through this without much trouble. His blonde friend shook her head,

"Maybe you two should stay behind." she said. Before either of them could argue, Fumu continued, "If Gothara comes back, thinking you are still frozen, she will try to take over. You need to protect the castle, and the village." she said. Dedede looked thoughtful for a second, and Kirby breathed silent thanks for Fumu's interference.

"That's right! She'll probably be bringing a whole army of invaders. We'll need to be ready." Dedede agreed, and he and Escargon moved away from the Halberd. Fumu retreated back inside, and Kirby found himself waving goodbye before disappearing inside as well.

As of right now, a large opening in the cave ceiling was visible, enabling the Halberd to fly out. Kirby stepped uncertaintly up to the helm of the ship, gripping the steering wheel with paws shaky with nerves. How could he possibly pilot a ship with kids on board? He barely had any expierience in the matter. He remembered sadly how Meta Knight had shown him the ship while it was still in repairs, and how he promised to show him to pilot it in case of emergancy. He recalled a possible tone of regret in his friend's voice from the memory. And Kirby felt even less sure of himself.

What if he'd condemned him and his friends to death?

Just then Fumu and Bun walked in, and as he turned to see them, Fumu stepped up to him, patting him reassuringly, "You can do it, Kirby." she murmured. Kirby blew a sigh of still uncertainty, and hardened his eyes. His grip tightened, and carefully, he reached for a nearby lever to change the ship's gears. His paw traveled over the dashboard, recalling the ignition, and activated it. The Halberd roared to life. The floor beneath his feet trembled as the engine started. There was a creak as the cave began to scroll past the windshield, slowly at first, with growing speed. Kirby felt a bump and heard a scrape as the ship nudged the walls rising. With a panicked start, Kirby tried to steer the ship to cease the clumsiness of the ascend.

A few more shrieks against the cave walls, a sudden flash of sun and then...

In the air.

Kirby turned the wheel, feeling the lightness of the air support the Halberd body, and turned skyward. He tried his best to keep the ship on track. Fumu's eyes were wide with surprise and relieved fright. She smiled warmly at her pink puffball friend, "You're doing okay, Kirby. Just focus on the sky. We're flying smoothly." she said encourangingly. Kirby suddenly realized they had no idea where Gothara could have flown off to. With a sinking feeling, Kirby tried not to think that he would have to land or simply fly blindly out into space,

"Poyo! Where fly to?" Kirby cried. Fumu gasped at the realization, and she too looked hopeless, until Bun suddenly ran up,

"I might have something to help." he said, placing something on the dashboard. Kirby looked at it, identifying it as some sort of chainless locket resembling half a heart. He recalled some kids back at Cappy Town had similar lockets, two with halves that fit into each other and would spell 'Best Friends,' or something. This piece had no designed writing on it, except for some words scratched into it that said 1grid unit=10astro. miles, and when Kirby turned it over, he saw a screen. On the tiny screen was a green grid, with blinking red and blue dots. The red dot appeared blinking over a landscape, moving steadily away from it. The blue dot was cruising in a completely straight line, save for a few turns, quite a distance from the red dot. Kirby noticed that the scratching on the charm's front was some sort of equation, and he looked at Bun,

"Where get?" he asked.

"That Gothara dropped it when she was herding the ice sculptures. I thought I saw the other half dangling out of her pocket. I think it's a tracker. What luck!" he replied with growing optimism.

Kirby sighed. How convienient. Here he was, with the options of either give up or go on nothing, and Bun comes up with a tracker. An actual tracker! One could laugh at how smooth and convienient this was going, but one could also suppose that it could all be a coincedince. Whatever, no one can blame Kirby and his lot for being lucky. Somehow, something else will probably go horribly wrong to make up for their good fortune, but saying that would spoil the ending. Anyway...

Fumu turned the charm over in her hand, and commented, "If this is a tracker, then scratched here is the porportion that represents it. If I can solve it, we can find out how far away Gothara is. May I, Kirby?" she asked. Kirby nodded, glad he brought Fumu along. He didn't much know about math. While Fumu converted the grid units to astronomcal units, and Bun was pretending to be in a Star Wars movie, Kirby focused the brunt of his attention on driving. They were breaking through the atmoshere, and the ship began shaking as it burst upward. Kirby could feel heat seeping inside, and see the plates of the battleship glow red. Still speeding up, everyone gasped as a rough turbulence issued through the ship, "Stratosphere." Fumu murmued.

Another bump, "Mesosphere." Fumu said. It suddenly felt cold.

Another bump, this one stronger than the previous, "Thermosphere..." Fumu gasped. Kirby pushed on the speed, determined to break out of the atmosphere in one piece. There was a final, turbulent wave that sent the interior of the ship shaking and bouncing, and Kirby feared for a climatic moment that the ship was about to give out. Fumu was clinging to the dashboard fearfully, and Bun was clinging to her. Kirby willed the ship on.

There was a roar as the rockets shot a train of flames, and the turbulence subsided abruptly, leaving them gliding through the velvet of space. Kirby cheered in relief, Fumu tried to breath evenly again, and Bun cheered along with Kirby. They were still alive.

But for how much longer? Kirby wondered fearfully.

Soon, the Covet landed. The sky above was gray and the terrain below was rough, rocky, and desolate. A few scraggly trees rooted in the cracks, fed by a bit of stream water that dibbled sparcely through the desert. A stiff wind blew over the land. Gothara stepped out, breathing in the thin air.

Home, sweet home.

She locked the doors of her ship and proceeded to the large facility nearby.

The Institution of Advanced Genetics, it was called. The magical place where innocent animals were plucked from their homes, mutated savagely, brutally. Tested cruelly, and sometimes left to die if a failure, or live in agony if they were successful. Gothara beamed. This was where Daddy worked. "Such a beautiful place Daddy lives," Gothara sighed dreamily.

She strode haughtily up to the double doors, and held out a paw to push her way in.

The doors held. Gothara blinked and pushed the doors, to no avail. She pulled them, and still no result. She realized they must be locked.

But Daddy never locked the doors, in case Gothara would come for him. She pounded the doors and kicked them and shouted in to them, with still no response. Angrily, she let out a scream of frustration into the air, "I can't belive this! Stupid man! He knows I could come whenever I want! This asteroid stinks too! I hate this place, and why does my life always suck? Why do I have to be stuck with a stupid sister, and be fighting everyday for what I want? Why is life so hard?" She flung herself on the ground, pounding fists into the dust, kicking, serving up a full-blown temper tantrum.

She only stopped screeching when a horrid headache inched its way into her head, from lack of decent oxygen. She rubbed her temples, and groaned angrily. Calmed, she only now noticed the sticky-note stuck to the inside of the dark windowed doors. She leaned against the glass, and read her Daddy's handwriting, which were letter tidbits from magazines glued together to form words. Kind of like how murderers and felons write randsom notes. It read:

Dear little Gothie,

Daddy is a very busy man, you know.

Sometimes he can't always be at home for his little angel.

Daddy went to Steam City to look for more animals.

Come by in a few weeks to see what I have obtained!

I'll have a new pet for you by then too.

Hugs and Smooches,

Daddy

Gothara growled in frustration. A few weeks? She would not wait that long for her wings! She knew she wasn't going back to Dreamland without wings. Gothara marched in the dust angrily, ignoring the painful pulse of a headache in her head as she pondered her possibilities, seeing as how her favorite would be to meet Daddy in Steam City. She stomped toward her ship, mumbling curses under her breath. It would make sense for her Daddy to go to Steam City, considering it was right smack in the middle of a jungle region.

Jungles mean diverse with wildlife, which means diverse in mutations. Yes, when Gothara got to Steam City, she'd give her Daddy what was coming to him for leaving at this time. Then she'd recieve a new pet and a new set of wings. Possibilities of her future as queen of Popstar ran through her head as her ship rose from the asteroid.

Like...her Daddy could come to live with her in Dreamland, to be her royal scientist.

...And...Iri would be eliminated once she got back...

And...Kirby would be talked into being her servant...

And Meta Knight would...well...Gothara didn't know that just yet.

Perhaps it was for the best.