Characters: Dedede, Bandanna Waddle Dee, Mace Knight, Captain Falcon, Fox, and Marx

Settings: Castle Dedede, Fort Magolor

King Dedede had sat, lounging in his throne. It had been many years since the fight against Galeem, and since then, he'd returned to his lazy existence as the king of Dreamland. It was a good life, the king had promised himself over and over again. But since the disbanding of the Smash Brothers, Dedede had felt the need for another adventure, and another chance at redeeming his more dubious actions earlier into his career. He had since made sure to have the Waddle Dees train extensively in combat, having seen what opposing factions, such as Galeem's could do. He'd hired a band of knights to lead this training program known as the Meta Knights. They're members consisted of the best warriors Planet Popstar had to offer, and their leader, was the best possible ally to have. The Meta Knight was the most stoic, astute, and powerful warrior on Planet Popstar, besides Kirby, but Kirby's allegiance to the king was still up in the air, due to him being a neutral force that only acted when evil arose. Seeing as the Meta Knights were loyal to the crown, however, gaining their support was not a hard feat, and they had turned Dedede's army into a force to be truly reckoned with.

However, even with an enhanced army, he had no war. Dedede had at one point, had so much lust for another adventure or battle, he contemplated starting one of his own, against even some of his allies, such as Hyrule or the Mushroom Kingdom. He had to constantly shut thoughts like this down. I'm trying to redeem myself. I cannot stoop to the level I once was.

The king's thoughts were interrupted however, by an out of breath Waddle Dee that had entered his chamber. His expression was full of panic. "My li-lie-liege!" He stopped to take a long hard breath. "Attack...attack at Fo-Fort Magolor!"

Dedede stood up. Well isn't this great timing? "By whom?!"

The Waddle Dee had finally caught his breath. "We don't know sir. Some kind of portal thingy opened and...Marx...he came out of it."

"Marx?!" Dedede was incredibly confused now. Marx had been dead for years, due to the aid of Kirby. How had he come back? "How is this so?"

"I don't know sire. I'm in no place to give you orders, but you should come see for yourself", the Waddle Dee said meekly. Dedede nodded and followed the Waddle Dee to the fort. The terrain of Dreamland was rather smooth, as always, however, a stench of smoke could be detected. Something was definitely wrong.

--

Upon arriving at For Magolor, Dedede was greeted with a troublesome sight. The building was in shambles, craters appearing surrounding the fort, and large chunks of brick having been blasted off of the walls. On the ground were Waddle Dees bandaging their comrades, of whom had been injured. The center of attention of this sight however was one of the Meta Knights. The Mace Knight had apparently arrived on the scene, and was roaring with laughter, presumably at the battle they'd just fought, next to the commander of the Waddle Dee faction at the fort, Bandanna Waddle Dee. Bandanna was looking at the Mace Knight in a disgusted manner, however, the expression did not hide the awe in his eyes, much to Dedede's humor. He'd always known Bandanna as an avid fan and admirer of the Meta Knights. However, Dedede's humored mood soured at his curiosity. How had Marx come back to do so much damage to his fort. As he walked on the scene, the Waddle Dees and the Mace Knight had all fallen into a bow.

"At ease", Dedede boomed to the legions of bowed Waddle Dees. He then turned to the Mace Knight and Bandanna. "I was told that the one who caused", Dedede waved his hand at the destruction, "was Marx. Is this true?" As Bandanna took in a breath to speak up, the Mace Knight had interrupted.

"Yeah, it-as him, alright. Little bugger nearly killed all these blokes", he gave a small laugh. "I heard some blabber over-ere, and put me fuckin mace in his head. Split it in 2, I did"

Bandanna Waddle Dee gave the knight a sharp look of disgust. "That is no way to talk to your king." The Mace Knight waved his hand at the Waddle Dee and walked away chuckling to himself. For a knight, he had no knightly attributes besides his adept combat skills. Bandanna shook his head and turned to look at his king. "Marx was brought here by some portal. We don't know where it came from, but...the moment Mace Knight took out Marx, another portal opened to remove his body from the scene"

Dedede nodded. His mind was racing. Should these portal attacks continue, there was sure to be a large amount of distruction. However,he had a newly trained army at his disposal. Now is the time to rally them all. "Well we know the clear course of action. I will call upon the Dreamland army to rally at the castle to fortify our kingdom."

Bandanna nodded. But Dedede wasn't finished. "I have a special task for you however. You must take the Mace Knight, and embark on a journey to inform the other Meta Knights of what's happened. Tell them to rendezvous at Castle Dedede."

"Yes sire". Bandanna was excited to interact with the Meta Knights and most of all Meta Knight himself. They had forever been his idols of a sort. However, Mace Knight was not exactly the ideal companion. He was by far the most sadistic of the knights, and very hard to talk to. But Bandanna's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden revelation. As Dedede started to walk away, Bandanna shouted after him, "Wait!" The king turned around surprised. "Oh I-, I'm sorry sire. I didn't mean to shout. But we're forgetting someone. What about Kirby?"

Dedede hadn't forgotten about Kirby. The exact opposite. He knew of Kirby's immense power, but he couldn't quite muster up the courage to go and speak to him. He had wronged Kirby on multiple occasions, and calling for his help seemed immoral, especially for Dedede, who so desperately wanted redemption. "He is retired. We have no right to his services."

Bandanna wanted to retort, but Dedede was his king and he was to be obedient. As Dedede walked away, Bandanna took a deep breath. Then he jumped in fear as a voice came from behind saying, "boo". It was the Mace Knight. Of fucking course it is. As Bandanna caught his breath from the scare, Mace Knight was reeling in laughter. "So partner... You ready to go and get the others?"

Bandanna Dee nodded. This is gonna be an interesting trip.

--

Dedede entered his chambers once again, to begin writing a call to rally at the castle. This could turn into a nationwide crisis and Dedede had to prepare for war. It was as he'd hit the 2 hour mark of writing, and was mid way through his decree, when another interruption happened. However this one was not from a Waddle Dee.

Out of nowhere, a Dedede heard a boom outside his castle walls. The explosion caused Dedede's ears to ring. There was no doubt about it. More portals had arrived. The explosion was soon followed by another. It didn't take long for screams to follow. Dedede hopped up out of his chair, and grabbed his gigantic hammer. If he needed to fight, he would not hesitate. Slamming Castle Dedede's main entrance open, he looked outside, expecting for another portal to have appeared. However, the disturbance was not caused by a portal.

Outside, almost directly in front of the castle, 2 ships were in rubble and were aflame. They had just crash landed, it seemed. It was not the disturbance itself that had disturbed Dedede. It was the fact that he recognized the ships in question.

They each belonged to members of the Smash Brothers he once fought alongside. One was known as the Arwing and the other, called the Falcon Flyer. The cockpits of both ships had burst open, as their pilots practically fell out, catching their breaths, and were beating the fire off of them. Both were gravely injured, with large burn marks on them, and blood bathing their hides. It was Fox and Captain Falcon.

Dedede ran over to the 2, as fast as he could with his rather "large" body, to try and get an explanation from his 2 old comrades. He kneeled in front of Captain Falcon, who was now trying to cover an open wound with his hand. Before he could say anything, the captain reached out and grabbed Dedede by the collar, fear and anger etched on his face. It was a horrible sight to bear witness to. "Dead! They're all dead!". His words faltered as he fainted.

--

Author's Note: So this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but it's laying the groundwork for a pretty substantial plot line. Also, the Meta Knights are being completely overhauled by me, seeing as they didn't really have too much personality in their limited appearance. This is a creative liberty I'm taking, and there are a few other characters that will have that liberty taken as well, later in the story.

As always, I hoped you enjoyed, and the next chapter featuring Dreamland is going to go over some of the first character death in the story. As it progresses later, as promised, more characters will wind up dying. The next chapter will take place back in Hyrule, and will showcase the meeting of Zelda's Champions, and Arbiter's faction. Stay tuned folks.