...Falling...
...Falling...
...Falling...
...More falling...
...Even more falling...
...Way more falling than that...
...And more Falli-
"...POYO!"
Kirby's eyes shot open upon no longer feeling cold from being out in space and falling from the ship.
Still shaken from what happened (and from just waking up), he glanced around. He was still falling (meaning that either his falling was quite slow or he wasn't out for very long), sooooooooo that was something.
Though what came to his attention besides the fact that he was falling was the appearance of the world around him. The one that he was about to crash into in a matter of minutes.
It was almost exactly like his homeworld, Popstar... with some differences. The similarities were that it had bright blue skies, lots of adorable little white clouds, and the land was big... and green. The water also was as blue as it was when Kirby saw the planet from space. There were lots of colorful birds and bugs flying about, and the sea was so sparkly from the sunlight shining upon it. On the ground beneath him, there appeared to be a small village on top of a spiral-y with lots of little buildings and little cars and trucks driving around on the roads paved around the many buildings. Pretty typical, if you ask me.
"Wow..."
That was the only word that was able to come out of Kirby's mouth at that moment as he saw how beautiful the planet's surface was. He wasn't exactly expecting to come down to the planet, but he DID expect to expect the unexpected, so he was expecting to feel like that.
Huh, that's actually a very good tongue twister if you put it one way.
Anyways, Kirby had no time to dwell on the situation now, as he was going to crash at any second. Not gonna lie, but THIS was gonna hurt. Panicking as the planet's surface rushed up to meet him, Kirby let out one little scream...
"POOOOOOOOOOOYOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...!"
...Before CRASHing into a small pond in between two of the buildings.
A loud SPLASH sound could be heard as he laded in the water of the small pond, his body hurting from having come into contact with the water at such high speeds AND due to falling from OUTER SPACE of all places.
Surprisingly, nobody noticed him fall and all seemed to be distracted by whatever it was they were doing.
It was amazing how unobservant the people were! Like, they literally didn't notice an otherworldly being crash into a smol body of water in their very town. And they didn't hear him screaming as he fell, either. So either they were deaf, or didn't notice that scream, either.
After about 5 or so seconds of being underwater, Kirby floated to the surface until all of his face was out of the water. A small lilypad was on his head when he came out, because he happened to be underneath one while floating upwards.
Spitting some water out of his mouth and gently removing the lily pad, he looked around.
There were so many people around this place! They... well, they certainly didn't LOOK like how Kirby had pictured them, however. And they didn't match all those rumors' descriptions of them, either!
They all looked... Actually, they looked like those anthropomorphic animals that one would see in some animes and cartoons. However some of them had connecting eyeballs, and a few of them were taller than others. They came in a variety of colors, and they were all different types of animals. Some of them also had similar-shaped muzzles, and others had beaks instead. And SOME even had weird-shaped noses. How strange!
"Maybe I should ask them where I am!" Kirby finally said out loud to himself as he came up with an idea.
He started to climb out of the pond but then stopped because he realized...
"Poyo... people here think that people from other planets aren't real. If I show myself, they might get scared of me." He said to himself out loud yet again even though nobody in particular heard him.
So of course, he just backed away and hid in the shade of a nearby building, hoping nobody would see him. Though to be honest, he sort of forgot about the wet footprints he left when he had crawled out of the water. Thankfully, these people seemed pretty dumb. So of course they didn't see the footprints. Right? Right.
What Kirby had ALSO noticed on the road nearby was none other than the remains of the little robot that had caused him to fall and lose all the Energy spheres. Kirby was still pretty salty with that robot, but was grateful that it was destroyed so that it would not cause him any more harm.
So to sum it all up, he was just taking pictures up in space, that robot had torn the ship open, the Energy spheres had flown out, and Kirby had also fallen out of the ship, meaning he was stuck down here. The ship would be able to beam him back up to it if he ever called it with his cellphone (which he thankfully didn't drop), but it wouldn't have enough fuel to take him home.
Still, there was no use dwelling on it now. Kirby knew that for a fact, as he had read many fairy tales and nursery rhymes when he was a toddler with lessons regarding that. So the only thing to do now was look for the Energy spheres that had fallen down to this crazy planet, and get home safely. Plus, he had to hurry before someone stole them or broke them... or worse.
Now that he had a new goal in mind, Kirby looked around. It seemed more than safe, seeing as there weren't many people near the building that he was hiding close to.
Stepping out of the shadows, Kirby got ready to explore this new world-
THUD!
BAM!
"POYO-!"
Kirby's wandering came to a screeching halt when a large part of the buildings suddenly collapsed right in front of him in front of him. Thankfully, Kirby was not too close to it, meaning he wasn't hurt at all by what had happened.
This only confused Kirby further, however. Were there people on this planet who could fight or something?
He had no idea!
Sooooooooooooo that also meant he had to be careful of anyone he may encounter. VERY careful, as he had no idea what anyone on this world was capable of.
Then two new figures stood atop the rubble.
It was shady, but Kirby was able to see that one of the figures was a medium-sized anthropomorphic skunk-looking thing with teal and cream white fur. He has a tall, cream white Mohawk that extended down to his back. He had cheek tuffs on the sides of his cream fur-covered muzzle and had a scruffy hairstyle along with a long, cream white-striped tail that extended over his own head. He also had a teal V-shaped patch on his cream white-furred chest. He also had fangs, and red eyes with yellow sclera along with black outlines.
For attire, He wore orange boots and gloves with red lining and light tan volar surfaces.
The second one was a muscular and tall anthropomorphic skunk-looking thing with white and light gray fur. He also had a Mohawk that ran down his back with white stripes reaching the ends of a stub where what seemed like a tail once was. He had quite scruffy fur, too. And his chest and muzzle looked connected. He had a pink nose with a triangular shape and short ears. He had a "W"-shaped patch in the center of his chest and had fangs in bis mouth. Around his black eyes with red sclera, there was a purple streak.
For attire he wore two black, spiked bracelets with gold buckles on them and black and gray boots also with golden buckles.
Kirby's was about to just ignore them and move on when he suddenly noticed something.
One of them was holding an Energy sphere. Well, at least this made finding them a lot easier. Maybe they knew where all the other ones could have landed?
The two of them looked at the energy sphere as the shorter one dusted himself off, and began looking around.
His eyes eventually fell upon Kirby, who froze right then and there upon being noticed.
The short skunk-looking thing let out a 'Huh?' sound upon noticing the little pink puffball, and only stared at him.
The larger one, who happened to be the one holding the energy sphere, was also quick to notice Kirby right away. I mean, little pink puffballs DO kinda stand out in large towns, especially one like this.
The short skunk-thing just kept on staring at Kirby until the other one took notice of something else, mentioned for their partner to go, and then the two leaped away quickly.
But they still had the energy sphere! Kirby needed that thing to power his ship, or else he couldn't go home. Plus, maybe these two knew where all the others were. So, getting up, Kirby dashed after them. He didn't try calling out to them, though. They seemed to be in a hurry, and they would most likely think he was trying to eat them if they saw him tailing behind them AND heard him calling out to them at the very top of his lungs. So he decided he might as well keep out of sight.
And off the little puffball went.
He just hoped he wasn't too late.
Loud footsteps could be heard as two mercenaries were running through the valley. They had been on their way to this location for hours, and they were both very tired. They had to get to that base in the Mystic jungle (which was VERY far from their previous location, Spiral hill village), and they were pretty much tired from all that walking and hiding from the authorities. They had to grab something for the doctor and give it to him, but they unfortunately had no luck and were forced to retreat.
Thankfully, the base was straight ahead. So they were back (though unfortunately had some explaining to do), and home free with nobody following them... right?
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
A certain pink puffball was following behind them for the past few hours, watching their every move.
OK, Maybe not EVERY move. But still, watching them.
The reason was because they had carried off something that belonged to him. He DESPERATELY needed it, so he was trying his hardest to not lose them.
The duo entered the base's only entry (which was concealed by a bunch of vines), and dashed inside. Kirby had just caught up to them by the time they were on their way in. Unfortunately, the door was slowly closing... mostly cause it wasn't in the best condition.
'Oh no! I'm gonna lose them!' Kirby thought as he rushed for the door.
The door was halfway closed...
'I can make it'...!'
3/4 closed...
'I can do it!'
Almost closed entirely...!
And SWOOPMPH-
Kirby was able to squeeze in before the door closed entirely, barely missing him by an inch. It was enough to send a chill down the Puffball's nonexistent spine.
"Eeeeeeesh..." he muttered to himself, but tried to remain quiet as there could be someone watching him.
After getting over it, the little puffball sprinted down the hall in search for the strangers who took the energy sphere.
It was very difficult to find the way around. The hallways were all made of some sort of metal, and all the lights were dim. So it was somewhat hard to see. Plus, Kirby's footsteps made weird 'creak' sounds.
Well, it's not like that was the same for the strangers when they got in, so yeah. Kirby most likely didn't have to worry.
The little puffball continued running down the hallway, until-
"Were you SERIOUSLY UNABLE TO DO ONE SIMPLE THING?!"
Kirby skidded to a halt when he heard what sounded like somebody shouting.
Was that one of the Energy sphere-stealers? Well if that was the case, that made Kirby's job a lot easier. He started to run off in the direction of where he heard the shout but then he remembered something.
"Oh yeah, poyo... Don't be seen."
So he began tiptoeing in the direction of where he heard the shout.
The shouting seemed to get louder... he was close. Either that or someone was getting more angry by the second.
Kirby kept on sneaking around, making sure to keep his back to the wall. Until-
"Oh-"
He felt the wall suddenly disappear. He looked over to where he could no longer feel a wall, until...
Oh wait. It was actually just a doorway. Never mind.
The room inside the doorway was really bright, unlike the rest of the place.
Kirby looked down on the ground for a moment.
There were three shadows on the ground coming from the light in the doorway. That meant that three people were in there.
And two of those people were the sphere takers. This DID make Kirby's job much more easier, after all!
Kirby turned around, and peeked in through the doorway to get a better look of what the HECK was going on in there.
The sphere takers seemed to be talking to a third person in there. Kirby remained quiet to listen to what was up.
"Hey! There were too many of em! We had no choice, doc!" Shouted the short, long-tailed skunk-looking one.
The taller skunk-looking thing that seemed to have a nub where his tail used to be just nodded, agreeing with his partner.
And then an angry growling voice could be heard from someone in there.
Nervous, the two skunk-looking people backed up just a bit, allowing Kirby to see the third person that was in the room.
It was a third anthropomorphic animal-person.
This one was a platypus with white fur that covered most of his body. His beak was black-colored and narrow with nostrils on the front, and he had red eyes, black eyelids, and a thick tail. He also has three thick hair turfs on his head that were combed over the right side of his head. His front hair turf also had a li'l gray highlight in it. For attire, he wore a purple and red satin tuxedo with golden cuffs, orange pince-nez glasses, and one webbed brown glove on his left hand that had an odd-looking gemstone attached on the top and golden-tipped fingertips. He also had black boots with golden buckles, red soles, medium-high heels, and upward-turned pointy toes. There were also spikes on the back of the buckles on the boots.
Kirby froze upon seeing him.
"Ugh... you are both going to give me a headache at this point..." The Platypus-person sighed.
"Not like you don't already do dat ta us, Starline..." the Taller skunk-person growled.
Oh, so the Platypus person was called 'Starline'? Whoah. And the short skunk-person mentioned 'Doc' when addressing him the first time, so he was obviously called 'Dr. Starline'. Kirby was able to piece that together.
"Well, Tumble," Said Dr. Starline. "I think it would be wise of you to hold your t-"
Starline paused.
His eyes were now focused on the Energy sphere that the taller skunk-person, who was apparently called 'Tumble' was holding. And apparently trying to hide behind his back.
This was able to make Kirby nervous.
"Well well well... what little bauble have you brought this time?" He snatched the Energy sphere from Tumble's hands.
"Hey! Me and Rough found dat thing first!" Tumble protested the moment it was taken from him.
OK, so the short one must have been called 'Rough'.
"Shut up." Starline shushed Tumble as he continued to study the energy sphere.
He just. Stared at it in his hand. He studied it with the most fascinated expression Kirby had ever seen. He moved it around a bit, to see if the gear inside would react. The gear reacted just a tiny bit (moving with each slight twist or turn the sphere was moved), and it seemed to glow a tiny bit.
Dr. Starline finished looking at the energy sphere, and turned around to look at Rough and Tumble.
"Where did you find this?" he asked them.
Rough and Tumble looked at each other, then back at Dr. Starline.
"W-We found it back at Spiral hill village while we's was lookin' for whatcha asked us to get." Tumble answered.
"Yeah." Rough agreed. "We were fightin' off lots of security bots when lots of em suddenly fell from the sky. We found only one that landed in the town even though I told someone to drop it a while ago." He added while glaring at Tumble.
Tumble put on the guiltiest face ever. "But I thought it looked neat..."
Starline sighed.
"While it may not exactly have been what I asked you for, it is still quite fascinating. Plus, I believe it has something to do with the other little specimen in our midst."
The two skunks looked confused.
"Whaddaya mean?" they both asked at the exact same time.
'Pwai...!'
Kirby, who was still watching everything from the doorway, froze right then and there. He knew exactly what Dr. Starline meant. Turns out he wasn't so perfectly hidden, after all. Shaking, the little puffball's big blue eyes glanced in the Platypus's direction.
It was then that his blue eyes met Starline's bright red ones. The doctor then waved his hand, making a 'come here' gesture. Rough and Tumble looked in the direction that Starline was looking in, trying to see what the doctor was looking at. Then Starline spoke to the pink hero in a calm but intimidating tone.
"Come here, little one."