"What?"
Tiff had to remain calm, lest she give anything away. She steeled herself as she gave the salesman a look up and down once more, looking for any possible tricks or weapons.
"My boss." He repeated, scratching the side of his head. "The wizard. You know him, and I know he's here."
Oh, eNeMeE definetly sent out a distress signal somehow. He had to have had. Maybe he'd made one before Tiff had even been (unfortunately) acquainted with him, or maybe he'd found- whatever. It doesn't matter. They're here to collect, and Tiff knew she'd have to make that as hard as possible for them.
"eNeMeE hasn't been in Dreamland since he tried to corrupt the Fountain of Dreams," Tiff narrowed her eyes, "he couldn't be here, I would've seen him! You're obviously here for something else."
"Do you not recognize me?"
The man crooned, brushing his fingers on his lavender skinned face, as though he couldn't get enough of touching himself. It made Tiff recede slightly, just because of how odd it was.
"He's my boss," he continued, "and if you don't think he's here.. Then I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with letting my friends search the area for him."
The salesman open-handedly gestured to the long-hat Noddy next to him, who stared through Tiff blankly.
"Yes, I do have a problem!" Tiff stomped. "What makes you think that we're just going to let you find 'your boss' and let the two of you get back to selling monsters to people?! Of course you're not allowed to run around town, turning over any rock and person looking for him!"
The Noddy by the salesman's side slammed the bottom of its staff into the dirt. He smiled cattishly.
"My friends outnumber you, hundreds to.. Four? Four. Well, I can't say I didn't try. You made their leader mad."
The Noddy with the cane jumped and hopped back into the army, disappearing amongst the crowd. The salesman took a moment to process what was going on, then he took another moment to process the feeling of his jaw being dislocated by Tiff kicking him straight in the face.
He yowled in pain, and the army charged forward. Kirby, Sword, and Blade dashed forward valiantly to meet them. Tiff already had her dukes raised, but even she doubted the four of them could do anything much here. They were like four stones amongst an ocean; bound to be flowed around.
Meta Knight's inner thoughts had begun to yearn to do something. Anything. He so wanted to read a book, or watch some television, anything to distract him from the babbling of eNeMeE. He, of course, would not indulge himself. He would sit in darkness until he starved if it meant the demon couldn't harm any more people.
How nice it would be to cook something, right now. The smell of home cooking which— Sword and Blade despised— but Meta couldn't get enough of. The fresh ingredients from the farmers and fishers here were truly something to revel in. So healthy.
What was eNeMeE talking about? Oh, war stuff. Again. Oh? Another monologue meant to make him despair? Eh, Meta Knight will just block that out. He's had enough of those for the past millennia or two. eNeMeE probably found some new material to yak about, but Meta found it was all just blending together, nowadays. Some of his older monologues were positively chilling. They lost appeal after Meta had to hear them nightly.
The castle rattled with cannon fire.
He sat up slightly.
"Oh, so the cannons you care about, but not me? Your nemesis? The person you hate more than anything?" eNeMeE bitterly grumbled.
"Yes." Meta Knight replied.
Meta Knight listened intently. With his hearing, he figured he could catch wind of something, but.. Well, he had good hearing. He didn't have magical ears. The cannon fire, though, was coming from the south side of the castle; the gate. Not that there were many other places to approach, but there was some land threat the Waddle Dees were ordered to fire upon.
Hmm.. Perhaps Susie or Magolor got out of prison? No, their term in the dungeon was from within the castle itself, not in Chief Bookem's little hovel. Perhaps the Cappys were revolting? No, they were far too complacent for that. He only could wonder.
He laid back down.
"Aren't you going to go do something? Hop into the fray?" eNeMeE asked.
He didn't respond.
"Meta Kniiight," eNeMeE whined, "I want to go kill someooone. C'mooon."
"Your whining will not convince me to do anything, demon."
"Do you really just want to sit here, in the dark, doing nothing, while your little 'fwiends' go do everything for you?"
"Yes. They are capable, and I am proud of all of the people who I consider to be my friend."
"Meta Knight. You've had to save Kirby how many times?"
"Five at most. Out of two years of you sending countless monsters to destroy him. Most other times, he has been the one saving me."
Silence, momentarily.
"Okay, but, uh.." eNeMeE paused. "What about.. Uh.. That one time? Ugh, you- you did something for him! Right?"
"No. I kept my distance so he could learn by himself."
eNeMeE growled in frustration. If Meta could see him, eNeMeE would surely be stomping around in circles if he had the capacity. He'd growled some more, and some more, then a little more, then quieted into mumbling and grumbling that Meta didn't care to decipher.
He was more focused on the creaking of his door.
The hinges whined, the wood practically scraped against the frame as it opened. Meta's eyes widened, wincing painfully against the pouring light. He was paralyzed by what he was seeing, experiencing. eNeMeE seemingly was too.
A Noddy was in the doorway.
Meta Knight only had time to grab Galaxia's hilt before eNeMeE ripped out of the room like a lightning bolt, his oily and ectoplasmic-esque body streaming from the shadows and into the precious torch light. He splattered against the wall with a loud and thick 'thwap', and Meta Knight was close behind with a reverberating 'CLANG' before he fell unconscious once more.
"Are you serious?" eNeMeE lamented. "You already rested, and you can't even survive one WALL?!"
eNeMeE growled and balled his fists, slapping the orb with a meaty 'thwack'. Not sure what he expected, but Meta Knight did not wake up. The Noddy looked on at the display vacantly.
"How did I never kill this guy, right?" eNeMeE said, humored now.
The Noddy waddled towards him, and eNeMeE caught sight of a few more waddling down the hallway towards him. How curious.. How convenient. He smiled, his grin seeping with tar 'drool'.
Tiff watched almost in horrified awe as the Noddys worked together to form a collaborative tide over the castle walls; flooding into the courtyard and other such places. They were like ants, only smarter. She'd punched as many as she could off of her. The little buggers were trying to practically trample her to get over to the castle.
She had to keep them off her, Sword, Blade, and Kirby. Though, she was catching less and less sight of them, and more polkadot hats and sleepy faces as they bounced about, trying to crunch her and her allies under their squishy boots. Just as all seemed to be the end, and they were so overrun that there was no way to fight them off.. A magical spell exploded all of the Noddys off of them with some weird electric forcefield!
"Gryll!" Tiff gasped, looking up at the broom-riding onion.
"You guys look like you're having fun."
Gryll said, nonchallantly as they landed in the forcefield. Noddys toppled around it and ontop of it like a splashing ocean. The monsters 'thunked' against the semi-sphere, smooshing their faces against it as they slid by.
"Did you find out how to do all the shadow stuff?" Tiff asked. Gryll looked befuddled.
"You have way bigger things to worry about than all that shadow stuff right now." Gryll gestured at the Noddys. "What's going on?"
"We uh, we don't really know." Tiff bit her lip. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, right uh, I wasn't actually here for you guys. I found the guy I knew from college, he's been posting nonstop on his blog and stuff. I asked him where he was, and he said he was in Cappytown."
Tiff would've seen someone who looked like Gryll, if they genuinely were in Cappytown. No one but Cappies and Kawasaki were around here nowadays. Maybe they were hiding out somewhere? But where?
"I'm going to track him down by magic signal, if that's alright by you guys." Gryll was about to take off again.
"Huh?" Tiff cocked her head.
"Magic signal is like.. Uhhh, like a- I don't have time to explain, I have to go find him!"
"Me and Kirby will come with you!" Tiff offered.
Gryll gave it some thought, then invited the two onto their broom with a determined smile. The broom stretched out to accommodate the extra passengers, and Tiff got on directly behind Gryll while Kirby sat up front.
They took off, bursting through the tide of Noddys and up until the sky. Tiff clung to Gryll the best she could, whilst Kirby held to the broom like a little monkey. As they soared mulitple feet above the ground, Tiff could get a proper view of all the destruction below. The Noddy army's enormity hadn't properly hit her until now. She doubted even the GSA nowadays held a candle to the numbers these guys had.
Gryll navigated around. Some Noddys were jumping up or launching themselves up at them, but Gryll was a real skilled broom pilot, swerving around the living anti-air missiles. Gryll seemed to know where they were going, somehow; directly back to where Tiff and that long-hatted Noddy and that salesman had met. Gryll descended slightly, and Tiff had begun to panic. What was Gryll doing, flying into the heart of the storm!?
Gryll cast another shockwave and forcefield, then flew directly into it; much like they had before. Now, they stood before the purple salesman again. Gryll narrowed their eyes incredulously, and the salesman stumbled back, falling directly onto his butt.
Kirby flopped off of the broom, but quickly regained his standing. He looked just about ready for battle, sword brandished and pointed out to his purple foe.
"Barby, what are you doing?" Gryll growled.
Tiff looked between the two of them with her mouth agape. This.. What? How? Tiff went to go stand by Kirby, just in case she needed to tell him to stop or start attacking.
"Gryll, I didn't expect.." The salesman's smile stretched. "Uh, it's nice to see you? How are you? How's the uh.. The gaming career going?"
"Barby." Gryll repeated.
"Gryll?"
"What did you do? What are you doing?"
The salesman gulped, but he got up. Gryll's expression twisted further as he took a moment to collect himself. The salesman held his hands out infront of himself.
"Look, it's not what it looks like. I just caught up in some trouble. How am I supposed to say no to a whole army of people who want my help?" The salesman talked quickly. "You know I'm a real sucker for, uh, that sort of stuff. Really just wanna help people. Yeah, that's me. Now."
Gryll pointed at him with the blunt end of their broom.
"The costume. Take it off now. This isn't funny, dude." Gryll commanded.
"Can you black out the forcefield?" The salesman tapped his fingers together.
With a gesture of Gryll's broom, the outside world had been blacked out. They couldn't see the Noddy army anymore, but the interior was still perfectly lit up. The salesman inhaled, exhaled, and did a strange gesture with his hand.
In an instant, the salesman had faded away, dissolving into a new form; a little onion-person that looked like Gryll. He was purple, and wore a witchy hat much like Gryll's. Tiff knew she shouldn't have been surprised, that salesman he was masquerading as was long, long gone. Though, she'd always wondered if he had survived..
"Tiff, this is the guy I was talking about. His name is Barby." Gryll's mood lifted slightly. "He knows illusion stuff, shadow stuff, mostly magic you usually use for spooky seasons and stuff."
"Look, I needed money." Barby explained. "Noddys had it, they just needed my help. Also, I got threatened! They threatened me! How is one guy supposed to say no to an entire army? So, I helped them. Is that so bad?"
"What did you help them do?" Tiff squinted.
Barby tapped his gloved fingers together again.
"Well.. Maybe I helped them.. With a summoning that I messed up. It was a bit hard, the circle was too hard to draw too, and it had to be big and the person we summoned isn't exactly weak or anything, so.. It's not my fault?" Barby spouted all that magic jargon, but even Tiff had gotten suspicious.
"Who did you summon?" Gryll wondered, innocently.
Tiff's eyes went wide. This guy. This guy, he summoned- he's the reason why Meta Knight's stuck with eNeMeE now? He messed- he- Tiff's fists clenched hard enough that she swore she was going to hurt her palm.
She stomped up to him, and in an instant, slapped him. He flopped to the ground like a wet sack of potatoes. Kirby looked like he was about to join in, but Tiff held out her hand to tell him to stay there.
"Woah! Violence! Tiff !" Gryll gasped.
Tiff held herself back. She really didn't want Gryll to be involved, but since Gryll was so close to the person who caused all of this in the first place, they needed to know. They deserved to know.
"Gryll, your friend summoned eNeMeE."
"What? No?" Gryll looked at Barby, hopeful. "There's no way, right? You can't summon him? You didn't."
Barby got back up, stumbling over his own feet as he got back up. He backed away from Tiff, nursing the new bruise on his face. He deserved that, and if he was going to whine, Tiff would knock his dumb self again just out of spite.
Barby's silence was telling. Gryll's confusion and shock narrowed their eyes as they darted between Barby, Tiff, and the ground.
"Wow, ok, so.. This is way too heavy for me." Gryll managed.
Tiff knew they weren't exactly ready to deal with anything that heavy. Exactly why she didn't want them over during all of this. But, well, now Tiff couldn't do anything but tell them the truth and just hope they'd be on their side.
"We need to get eNeMeE out of Meta Knight's shadow and trap him. Barby, if you really want to help people, you will help us, got it?" Tiff knew she was being mean, but she felt it only was justified after Barby had knowingly assisted the universe's worst colonizer, genocider, and capitalist tyrant in all of galactic history.
He was a civilian, sure, but so was she. And she would've never done that. If she did, she would've deserved that slap and that rudeness too.
"Sure, yeah.." Barby agreed, timidly. "But on one condition. I need to stay in that salesman form. We have the best chance of uh.. Trapping eNeMeE while I'm like that. I heard from uh, the Noddys that he trusts that guy."
"Fine." Tiff stated.
Barby was back looking like the salesman again. Purple, tired, and smiling. Gryll removed the blackout from the forcefield. Noddys still tumbled over the top and around it as they made their way to the castle. Even from here, the carnage was clear. Cannons had stopped firing, and the entire place was swarming.
They were heading for eNeMeE. They were headed for Meta Knight.
"What're they doing?" Tiff glared at Barby.
"They're trying to help their creator get power again." The salesman scratched his face. "They're going to him to go.. You know, serve him. It's their purpose."
"Serve him how?" Tiff pressed.
"Make sure he's as powerful as possible." Barby shrugged. "I don't know."
Gryll looked puzzled, and tapped their broom handle against their nonexistant chin, before coming to a chilling conclusion.
"Barby! Don't you remember anything about demonic studies!?"
The cat salesman hummed, a little caught. Then he guessed, "Uh, we took it together?"
"Monsters are made of magic, eNeMeE is made out that same of magic, he's powered off of it! They're going to feed themselves to him!" Gryll shouted.