(My apologies: I meant in the last chapter to say Waddle Doo, not Waddle
Dee. That is all. Thank you, and enjoy the chapter.)
Meta Knight's 'old' friend came closer, and touched Meta Knight's face. "You look exactly the same, the same way the day we found you, and Kirby removed your mask . . ." Meta Knight smiled sadly. "All in the past." He whispered to him. Waddle Doo turned to me.
"Who is this?" He asked. "My name is Magnum." I told him. Meta Knight continued for me. "He is my latest student. You could say perhaps, that he is Kirby's successor."
Waddle Doo nodded appreciatively, though he still seemed confused as to how Meta Knight was alive. "How is Kirby?" He asked. There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Dead." Meta Knight finally said. "But I have a feeling that Magnum here will be an even greater warrior with some more training." Waddle Doo was momentarily saddened, but a sly light shone in his one, milky eye.
"Did you say your name was Magnum?" He asked me. I started to say something, but shut my mouth. ("Don't say anything to him. I believe that over the years, his memory has gone bad.") Meta Knight sent to me. I sent him the image of a nod.
Waddle Doo glowed with quite a bit of pride in himself. "Yes, yes . . . it was Magnum. I suppose that would be short for Magonumous?" I nodded wondering how he knew. I do NOT have a common name, though my mother once mentioned my father named me after a fighter Meta Knight once spoke of.
Waddle Doo stared at me. I was beginning to wonder if he ever blinked.
"I've been nursing a man in my pantry for sometime now. He told me to watch out for his son, Magonumous."
"WHERE?" I shouted. I coughed, and repeated my self. "Sorry. Where is the pantry?" Waddle Doo actually 'waddled' over to a door in the wall. He opened it to reveal a medium sized room, in which the walls were laden with jars and boxes containing various root vegetables and dried meats. The electric light overhead was a simple hanging bulb.
I didn't notice any of this. My attention was on the man on the cot in the middle of the floor. His decimated eyes stared up at me. "Father!" I cried. I pushed past Waddle Doo, and dropped down on my knees next to him.
Dad wrapped his still muscular arms around me. "I'm so sorry Magnum." He told me. "Sorry for what?" I asked. "I'm so, so sorry son . . ." His left arm wrapped tightly around my neck, pulling me close. I couldn't move. Still, in the corner of my eye, I saw him draw a blade from beneath the cot. He was dry sobbing now: he was too tired, too physically spent to really cry. "I'm so very sorry . . ." the blade arched up to my side.
(Out side) Masadona, who was sitting on a stump, suddenly sat up straight. "Magnum!" She cried. Garther turned to her. "What?" Masadona looked worriedly towards the trapdoor, which had closed by itself quietly moments before. "Magnum's in danger . . ." She whispered to herself.
I saw the blade coming, and jerked away from his grip. I moved with that strange, liquid speed from my first and final fight with the clone. This speed was still something I hadn't figured out. But now I wasn't about to start complaining about it now. But instead of the serenity I felt before, I just felt a strange, malignant anger.
I whipped around behind my father's back, and grabbed his wrist. The blade dropped from his hand. His other arm came up to hit me, and I grabbed it also. He grappled with me furiously.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled. He tried to look over his shoulder at me. "I can't stop myself!" He forced himself up and turned, and pulled from my hands. He picked up the blade again.
"I can't stop!" He repeated. Waddle Doo confused and frightened, entered the pantry. "What are you doing?" He asked quietly. He touched my father's back. A kick sent him flying backwards. Meta Knight shoved into the room. "Tuff! Stop this!" Tuff ignored him, and approached me again. I ducked down, and swung my right leg out. I tripped him up and followed through with my left leg. I kicked as hard as I could, and landed a hit to his midsection. I sent him sprawling to the other side of the pantry, leaning against a barrel of pickled roots. His eyes closed and he stopped moving. "Dad?" I asked. I regretted hurting him instantly.
There was no answer. When I reached out to help him, Meta Knight stopped me from getting closer. He walked to dad's side, and with his sword, probed his head. Dad's head lolled limply to the left. Meta Knight dug the tip of his sword into my father's head. "Wait! What are you doing to him?" I asked.
I heard a click. There was a flash of plastic and tiny circuits, as a microchip popped off of my dad's head, and landed on the floor. Meta Knight leaned over and picked it up. "Thought so." He threw it to me, and I caught it easily. It was no bigger than a small coin. I looked at him confusedly.
"Electronic mind control." He said matter-of-factly. "NME's soldiers must have planted it on him when they captured him. He was programmed to kill you." I understood now. Dad had acted that way because he couldn't control himself. But now I was highly relieved. Now that the chip was gone, I was sure that he would be just fine. I stared at the tiny machine. It seemed slight broken. A little piece was missing off the corner. But it didn't matter. I slipped the little mechanism into a pouch in my belt, and silly me: I completely forgot about it. It wouldn't comeback into play for me for a while.
(Unknown to Magnum and Meta Knight, a tiny fraction of the microchip remained on Tuff's skull. Mechanical fibers drifted from its edges and wavered in an almost living way. The hair thin fibers spread out from the fragment, and buried themselves in Tuff's skin. The fragment was then pulled beneath the surface of his skin . . .)
Meta Knight paused over Waddle Doo. "Are you Ok?" He asked. Waddle Doo stared up at him in his unnerving way. "I've seen better days. But I want that man out of my house." He got to his feet. Meta Knight tried to speak to him. "It's OK, he's fine now. We solved the probl-" "I don't care. I want him OUT!" Meta Knight shrugged. We began to move my dad.
We finally got him outside, and Masadona examined him. Every few minutes, she would glance at me. I was confused, but thought nothing of it. Meta Knight spoke in hushed tones with Waddle Doo. Waddle Doo stared at me the entire time. His one eye had gone dark. He seemed unhappy. He finally closed the trapdoor, and Meta Knight walked to my side. "Is everyone ready to go now?" He asked. Brutus hefted Dad up onto his shoulders, staggered slightly from light pain, and righted himself. The others nodded.
Meta Knight nodded back. "Good. Then let's get moving." And so we started back down the eastern side of the mountain, missing a trip to my house, and with my father.
I shared a small cabin on the FEDERATION II with my teacher. Was he sleeping? I wasn't sure. He made no noise, but he was often silent. I was facing the wall, turned away from him on my own bed, but I was almost sure I could feel his eyes on my back. I sent a mental probe to him, a slight questioning thought.
It was of course, not verbal. I couldn't control verbal messages like Meta Knight yet. What I sent was a feeling, like the ghost of a thought: in it was the question of his consciousness, and what had taken place today in his conversation with Waddle Doo.
Meta Knight rolled over, but sent nothing back. He was asleep. I started to sleep also, but an echo of my probe came back to me. I had struck something involving my question.
I focused on the bed in the dark where I knew Meta Knight slept, and closed my eyes. I saw Waddle Doo in front of me. Meta Knight's memory voice came from my mouth: not aloud, but in my head.
"What do you know about the shadows?" "Nothing. I've been keeping to myself but for taking in the injured man over there. Is it really Tuff? He wouldn't tell me his name." "It is Tuff." "Hmmm . . . yes, I remember him and that sister of his." "Waddle Doo, before we depart, I want you to keep this."
I handed Waddle Doo a letter.
"Keep it safe. Don't open it, don't read it, do nothing but hide it. It will not be long until my student comes for it. It is important."
Waddle Doo closed the door.
I didn't notice that at that point, Meta Knight was starting to stir. I searched his memory. The one I wanted seemed to find me, rather than vice/versa.
Dedede's castle was alive with fire. Meta Knight ran through the flames, with his cloak wrapped about him. Blade Knight was dead: he had died from laser fire from one of NME's soldiers. Sword Knight was struggling to keep up as he carried the body of his fallen comrade. Meta Knight could feel the tears and pain that Sword Knight carried, and felt something a bit like fear. Was it the death touch? Star Warriors were often said to share extremely close mental connections with a close friend or warrior right before death. He had done everything he could for Kirby, but he still didn't want to die. Not with the chance to help destroy NME one last time looming ahead . . .
He spotted a huddled shape in the corner. It was a person, wrapped heavily in cloth: trying to protect themselves. They were shivering even in the unbearable heat, whimpering with fear. Unlike Blade Knight, this person could still be saved: and Meta Knight knew it. He swept him up, and carried him. The trio and Blade Knight's body burst from the burning castle and into the cool night. Meta Knight didn't stop running until they were far from the castle, and neither did Sword Knight. He set down the bundled person. They struggled weakly in the thin blanket, and the cloth tore. Waddle Doo rolled out. He stared up at Meta Knight, with a huge tear glistening in his shining eye. "Thank you, Meta Knight . . . friend."
I pulled out, not realizing that my teacher was directly in front of me. It was too dark, and it seemed darker. Even though it had been only a memory, I had gotten so deep into it that the flames seemed bright and real. Thus, the dark room was made darker by my eyes trying to adjust. Meta Knight placed a hand on my shoulder, making me jump. Looking up, I saw his eyes glowing green: like a flame in which copper had been placed. The strange light of his eyes danced.
"Next time Magnum, wait until Morning and ask me what you want to know. I don't appreciate trespassers in my mind."
He walked back to his bed and lied down. I followed his example and tried to sleep; though I couldn't stop thinking of my father lying down in the infirmary.
Tuff's eyes opened, though he saw nothing at all. The artificial intelligence programmed into the chip was not just a machine: it was one of NME's newest and smallest monsters. Tuff sat up, and turned his unseeing eyes on Masadona sleeping not 3 yards away. He pushed back the blankets, and got up. He opened a drawer, and picked up a medical scalpel that had been stored inside.
Back in Magnum and Meta Knight's room, the chip in Magnums belt pouch had swollen to the size of the warpstar beside it. The warpstar, in fact, was the only thing keeping it from growing any larger. The chip did what it could though, and dug into the leather behind it. The tiny chip, actually a monster called ZAPP, lied in wait for it's next host to appear so that it could destroy those who opposed its master. It would take the next person the put on the belt: That being Magnum. But it mattered not to ZAPP. All hosts were temporary. It took so much life energy from its victims that they died usually only a week or so later . . . unless it got too deep inside. Like into the mind . . .
(And so ends the chapter! Scary, huh? Masadona's in danger, and so is Magnum. Tuff could very well die soon, and think on top of all that, Mandela is wandering back to the base! He is not himself though, as you will soon see . . . review please, and tell me what you think!)
Meta Knight's 'old' friend came closer, and touched Meta Knight's face. "You look exactly the same, the same way the day we found you, and Kirby removed your mask . . ." Meta Knight smiled sadly. "All in the past." He whispered to him. Waddle Doo turned to me.
"Who is this?" He asked. "My name is Magnum." I told him. Meta Knight continued for me. "He is my latest student. You could say perhaps, that he is Kirby's successor."
Waddle Doo nodded appreciatively, though he still seemed confused as to how Meta Knight was alive. "How is Kirby?" He asked. There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Dead." Meta Knight finally said. "But I have a feeling that Magnum here will be an even greater warrior with some more training." Waddle Doo was momentarily saddened, but a sly light shone in his one, milky eye.
"Did you say your name was Magnum?" He asked me. I started to say something, but shut my mouth. ("Don't say anything to him. I believe that over the years, his memory has gone bad.") Meta Knight sent to me. I sent him the image of a nod.
Waddle Doo glowed with quite a bit of pride in himself. "Yes, yes . . . it was Magnum. I suppose that would be short for Magonumous?" I nodded wondering how he knew. I do NOT have a common name, though my mother once mentioned my father named me after a fighter Meta Knight once spoke of.
Waddle Doo stared at me. I was beginning to wonder if he ever blinked.
"I've been nursing a man in my pantry for sometime now. He told me to watch out for his son, Magonumous."
"WHERE?" I shouted. I coughed, and repeated my self. "Sorry. Where is the pantry?" Waddle Doo actually 'waddled' over to a door in the wall. He opened it to reveal a medium sized room, in which the walls were laden with jars and boxes containing various root vegetables and dried meats. The electric light overhead was a simple hanging bulb.
I didn't notice any of this. My attention was on the man on the cot in the middle of the floor. His decimated eyes stared up at me. "Father!" I cried. I pushed past Waddle Doo, and dropped down on my knees next to him.
Dad wrapped his still muscular arms around me. "I'm so sorry Magnum." He told me. "Sorry for what?" I asked. "I'm so, so sorry son . . ." His left arm wrapped tightly around my neck, pulling me close. I couldn't move. Still, in the corner of my eye, I saw him draw a blade from beneath the cot. He was dry sobbing now: he was too tired, too physically spent to really cry. "I'm so very sorry . . ." the blade arched up to my side.
(Out side) Masadona, who was sitting on a stump, suddenly sat up straight. "Magnum!" She cried. Garther turned to her. "What?" Masadona looked worriedly towards the trapdoor, which had closed by itself quietly moments before. "Magnum's in danger . . ." She whispered to herself.
I saw the blade coming, and jerked away from his grip. I moved with that strange, liquid speed from my first and final fight with the clone. This speed was still something I hadn't figured out. But now I wasn't about to start complaining about it now. But instead of the serenity I felt before, I just felt a strange, malignant anger.
I whipped around behind my father's back, and grabbed his wrist. The blade dropped from his hand. His other arm came up to hit me, and I grabbed it also. He grappled with me furiously.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled. He tried to look over his shoulder at me. "I can't stop myself!" He forced himself up and turned, and pulled from my hands. He picked up the blade again.
"I can't stop!" He repeated. Waddle Doo confused and frightened, entered the pantry. "What are you doing?" He asked quietly. He touched my father's back. A kick sent him flying backwards. Meta Knight shoved into the room. "Tuff! Stop this!" Tuff ignored him, and approached me again. I ducked down, and swung my right leg out. I tripped him up and followed through with my left leg. I kicked as hard as I could, and landed a hit to his midsection. I sent him sprawling to the other side of the pantry, leaning against a barrel of pickled roots. His eyes closed and he stopped moving. "Dad?" I asked. I regretted hurting him instantly.
There was no answer. When I reached out to help him, Meta Knight stopped me from getting closer. He walked to dad's side, and with his sword, probed his head. Dad's head lolled limply to the left. Meta Knight dug the tip of his sword into my father's head. "Wait! What are you doing to him?" I asked.
I heard a click. There was a flash of plastic and tiny circuits, as a microchip popped off of my dad's head, and landed on the floor. Meta Knight leaned over and picked it up. "Thought so." He threw it to me, and I caught it easily. It was no bigger than a small coin. I looked at him confusedly.
"Electronic mind control." He said matter-of-factly. "NME's soldiers must have planted it on him when they captured him. He was programmed to kill you." I understood now. Dad had acted that way because he couldn't control himself. But now I was highly relieved. Now that the chip was gone, I was sure that he would be just fine. I stared at the tiny machine. It seemed slight broken. A little piece was missing off the corner. But it didn't matter. I slipped the little mechanism into a pouch in my belt, and silly me: I completely forgot about it. It wouldn't comeback into play for me for a while.
(Unknown to Magnum and Meta Knight, a tiny fraction of the microchip remained on Tuff's skull. Mechanical fibers drifted from its edges and wavered in an almost living way. The hair thin fibers spread out from the fragment, and buried themselves in Tuff's skin. The fragment was then pulled beneath the surface of his skin . . .)
Meta Knight paused over Waddle Doo. "Are you Ok?" He asked. Waddle Doo stared up at him in his unnerving way. "I've seen better days. But I want that man out of my house." He got to his feet. Meta Knight tried to speak to him. "It's OK, he's fine now. We solved the probl-" "I don't care. I want him OUT!" Meta Knight shrugged. We began to move my dad.
We finally got him outside, and Masadona examined him. Every few minutes, she would glance at me. I was confused, but thought nothing of it. Meta Knight spoke in hushed tones with Waddle Doo. Waddle Doo stared at me the entire time. His one eye had gone dark. He seemed unhappy. He finally closed the trapdoor, and Meta Knight walked to my side. "Is everyone ready to go now?" He asked. Brutus hefted Dad up onto his shoulders, staggered slightly from light pain, and righted himself. The others nodded.
Meta Knight nodded back. "Good. Then let's get moving." And so we started back down the eastern side of the mountain, missing a trip to my house, and with my father.
I shared a small cabin on the FEDERATION II with my teacher. Was he sleeping? I wasn't sure. He made no noise, but he was often silent. I was facing the wall, turned away from him on my own bed, but I was almost sure I could feel his eyes on my back. I sent a mental probe to him, a slight questioning thought.
It was of course, not verbal. I couldn't control verbal messages like Meta Knight yet. What I sent was a feeling, like the ghost of a thought: in it was the question of his consciousness, and what had taken place today in his conversation with Waddle Doo.
Meta Knight rolled over, but sent nothing back. He was asleep. I started to sleep also, but an echo of my probe came back to me. I had struck something involving my question.
I focused on the bed in the dark where I knew Meta Knight slept, and closed my eyes. I saw Waddle Doo in front of me. Meta Knight's memory voice came from my mouth: not aloud, but in my head.
"What do you know about the shadows?" "Nothing. I've been keeping to myself but for taking in the injured man over there. Is it really Tuff? He wouldn't tell me his name." "It is Tuff." "Hmmm . . . yes, I remember him and that sister of his." "Waddle Doo, before we depart, I want you to keep this."
I handed Waddle Doo a letter.
"Keep it safe. Don't open it, don't read it, do nothing but hide it. It will not be long until my student comes for it. It is important."
Waddle Doo closed the door.
I didn't notice that at that point, Meta Knight was starting to stir. I searched his memory. The one I wanted seemed to find me, rather than vice/versa.
Dedede's castle was alive with fire. Meta Knight ran through the flames, with his cloak wrapped about him. Blade Knight was dead: he had died from laser fire from one of NME's soldiers. Sword Knight was struggling to keep up as he carried the body of his fallen comrade. Meta Knight could feel the tears and pain that Sword Knight carried, and felt something a bit like fear. Was it the death touch? Star Warriors were often said to share extremely close mental connections with a close friend or warrior right before death. He had done everything he could for Kirby, but he still didn't want to die. Not with the chance to help destroy NME one last time looming ahead . . .
He spotted a huddled shape in the corner. It was a person, wrapped heavily in cloth: trying to protect themselves. They were shivering even in the unbearable heat, whimpering with fear. Unlike Blade Knight, this person could still be saved: and Meta Knight knew it. He swept him up, and carried him. The trio and Blade Knight's body burst from the burning castle and into the cool night. Meta Knight didn't stop running until they were far from the castle, and neither did Sword Knight. He set down the bundled person. They struggled weakly in the thin blanket, and the cloth tore. Waddle Doo rolled out. He stared up at Meta Knight, with a huge tear glistening in his shining eye. "Thank you, Meta Knight . . . friend."
I pulled out, not realizing that my teacher was directly in front of me. It was too dark, and it seemed darker. Even though it had been only a memory, I had gotten so deep into it that the flames seemed bright and real. Thus, the dark room was made darker by my eyes trying to adjust. Meta Knight placed a hand on my shoulder, making me jump. Looking up, I saw his eyes glowing green: like a flame in which copper had been placed. The strange light of his eyes danced.
"Next time Magnum, wait until Morning and ask me what you want to know. I don't appreciate trespassers in my mind."
He walked back to his bed and lied down. I followed his example and tried to sleep; though I couldn't stop thinking of my father lying down in the infirmary.
Tuff's eyes opened, though he saw nothing at all. The artificial intelligence programmed into the chip was not just a machine: it was one of NME's newest and smallest monsters. Tuff sat up, and turned his unseeing eyes on Masadona sleeping not 3 yards away. He pushed back the blankets, and got up. He opened a drawer, and picked up a medical scalpel that had been stored inside.
Back in Magnum and Meta Knight's room, the chip in Magnums belt pouch had swollen to the size of the warpstar beside it. The warpstar, in fact, was the only thing keeping it from growing any larger. The chip did what it could though, and dug into the leather behind it. The tiny chip, actually a monster called ZAPP, lied in wait for it's next host to appear so that it could destroy those who opposed its master. It would take the next person the put on the belt: That being Magnum. But it mattered not to ZAPP. All hosts were temporary. It took so much life energy from its victims that they died usually only a week or so later . . . unless it got too deep inside. Like into the mind . . .
(And so ends the chapter! Scary, huh? Masadona's in danger, and so is Magnum. Tuff could very well die soon, and think on top of all that, Mandela is wandering back to the base! He is not himself though, as you will soon see . . . review please, and tell me what you think!)