(To slightly reduce confusion, this chapter will be starting from Meta
Knight's point of view.)
I departed from the ship as quickly as possible. I would have to hurry if I was to stop the process . . . . But I was still torn by what had just happened.
Magnum had been taken by NME. So many years of work with Kirby, my help in honing his powers and giving him the key to control the fury, and now all that power had been handed over to NME in the form of ZAPP. And strangely, because ZAPP was using the body from a new angle, he wouldn't be limited in his use of it as though he was the original owner. He would be able to unlock all of Magnum's abilities. "All that power . . ." I thought again. It may be too late, and I knew it. One wrong move and goodbye Popstar . . .
How would Popstar be destroyed, you ask? From my radio monitoring in private, and the reconnaissance work I'd done over the year of Magnum's training with me, I knew well that NME had a base in the old town ruins, and that the destruction would start there. NME would start and operation he called "The Black Hole."
But still you wonder. Even though I am a highly revered Star Warrior, why would I go on such a vital rescue mission by myself? I knew I couldn't save Magnum on my own, it would be almost impossible to get near him. But I couldn't risk everyone else's lives in one, unlikely shot. I had to go it alone.
I turned the corner into a familiar street. A poster flapped against me, barely hanging on to the old building I hid against. I read it. "Kawasaki's hot curry! Hot hot hot!" I turned away and looked down the street. The old department store down the road had been rebuilt. In its place was a towering factory. Smoke billowed up from the stacks, clouding the sky over the town. I took advantage of the darkness the smoke caused, and crept closer, hidden from view.
I looked in through a blackened window. Empty. But why? I entered the building, watching for surveillance cameras and guards. I slunk around the wall, and felt why there was no one here. The outer building was a fake. These walls were hollow. I walked calmly out into the middle of the room. Even with the huge, coal burning smog machines producing the over head shadow, I was in no danger. I found a trapdoor in the floor beside one of the giant furnace-like contraptions, and pried it up.
I found I was looking down into a man made cavern, in which thousands of test tubes the size of trees lined the walls and filled the room like aisles. I hopped down and fell a great expanse: then landed softly on the pads of my feet. I gazed around me. Most of the shapes contained in the gargantuan test tubes were hardly recognizable, but I could see that they were all past monsters. Splice'n'dice, Mr. Sun and Mr. Shine, Rocky, etc. . . .But they were different: bigger, stronger, and there were more of all of them. I continued wandering in this museum of horrors, and stopped. The last test tube, the biggest one, seemed highly important. what was in there?
(In rooms further back . . .) NME laughed. "It's finally coming to a close. This world shall be destroyed, and with my only enemies gone, I've nothing to worry about when I leave."
ZAPP laughed nervously. "But sire, this body's memory informs me that the multitude of warriors that have arrived call them selves the "Star Federation II." NME laughed all the harder. "Those fools? I've already taken care of the problem!"
(At the base . . .) Masadona screamed for help again. Mandela foamed and spit, and screamed horriffically. He pinned down her shoulders, and tore into her neck with his teeth: he then turned to the ship. Masadona, thanking the heavens that Mandela had gone for her mechanical side (her head was half machine down to the chest). She wasn't seriously hurt. Mandela rushed onto the ship; screaming and bellowing like a mad creature the entire way. All of the warriors onboard the ship heard him racing up and down the corridors, and rushed to see what was going on. He ran back out side, followed by the entire crew: Tiff included. He suddenly stopped, and paused. There was silence (broken only by Mandela's pants and grunting) as everyone waited.
"Mandela! What are you doing here?" Shouted Marthen. Mandela turned his rabid gaze on him, and Marthen flinched. Mandela smiled crazily. Mechanical wings tore from Mandela's back, spraying Masadona with his infected blood. The bite didn't get her, but the blood seeping into the opening the bite made did. Mandela flew high above their heads.
He began to pulse, throbbing like one big, cankerous heart. Marthen was the first to figure it out. "Everyone run for cover!" he yelled. He'd seen this tactic on other worlds, in one form or another. One word easily described it: Kamikaze.
The hidden machine in Mandela's chest exploded. His blood evenly sprayed everything, covering all with the new virus NME's engineers had created. It was Ebola, it was SARS, it was yellow fever, it was the black plague: but it was effective in moments, and much stronger than the diseases it had been created from. Masadona, already affected by the new plage, was lying on the ground: She was unable to breathe, and blood had begun to seep into her lungs. It didn't matter by then though: Her swollen neck couldn't take in air. But she wasn't the only one: 99% of the crew had been infected. The one survivor, who had managed to get away? Cinsta. Guided by forces he didn't understand, he ran towards the ruins.
(In the containment room: Meta Knight.) I just didn't want to believe what I saw. I struggled to contain my rage. NME was creating a child. Not a clone: this was an heir in the creation. It was still just a fetus, but I recognized it right away. I searched for a data chart to get at more information. I found it, and looked it over to see the genetic mother. I seethed further. Some how, NME had gotten and egg from Claris. I read further and found the child would be male. He already had a name, too. Darkness. And if I didn't act soon, that would be what he would spread. But this was Magnum's half brother. Did it matter? I couldn't risk another, greater evil, I decided. I raised my sword.
(The throne room, with NME and ZAPP.) "Sire!" a black robed soldier appeared. "We have an intruder!" NME turned to look at the large screen appearing in the wall. Meta Knight raised his sword towards his unfinished son. "YOU FOOL!" he roared. "STOP HIM!" the soldier cowered. "Yes sire!" He cried. He disappeared again. NME stood. "ZAPP!" He bellowed. "TAKE CARE OF THE INTERLOPER!" Magnum's face stretched into an evil rictus. "My pleasure!" he said, and sauntered off.
(Meta Knight) I brought the blade down into the glass. It shattered, and support liquid and shards of glass sprayed into the room. The fetus kicked once, suspended by it's artificial umbilical, and was still. I heard a small noise and turned.
Magnum, backed by several hundred dark soldiers, stared down at me. I felt my mind surging with energy. I was thrown into the depths of Magnum's mind, the still human part. This was the real death touch. I'd felt it before dying with Kirby, and I felt it now with my possessed student. I would die this day.
I felt for my lost student, and found one, last shred of consciousness inside of him. He was trapped in a dream. He was again a child, held close by his mother. He was safe and warm in this fantasy. I felt a pang of guilt. I would have to tear him from this vision of love. I was sad for the kid, but now was not the time for sympathy.
("MAGNUM!") I shouted, stirring his dream. I felt ZAPP recoil. It was then that I realized that he was like the radio Masadona possessed. He could catch psychic waves, tuned into the right frequency. I used a mind blast, and felt him weaken and recoil again.
Magnum shook his head slightly, and I saw a small lump bulge out from his side. I encouraged Magnum to fight. I blasted ZAPP again. The bulge rolled out from beneath hi shirt. It was ZAPP! He was mechanical octopus: He had a golf ball sized main body, with impossibly long legs, and too many of them at that. He was helpless all alone. His black, glass-lens eyes stared up at me, filled with apathy.
I destroyed him with my foot. My recovered student moaned, and he came back to reality. Magnum looked at me, ready to fight but still confused. "Where the hell am I?" he realized it was me. "Oh, sorry. I meant, 'where am I sir?" I laughed grimly. For the both of us, there wouldn't me much to laugh about for a while.
"You're in the middle of a fight. And I'm going to show you how to do something I could never do, but something you can: seeing that your much more powerful." I sent him the command and instructions. He smiled with determination, and turned on the troops. They all suddenly looked terrified. Some clutched their heads in pain at the sudden, high-pitched whistling that seemed to come from no where. The whistle built up to a shriek. "PSYCHIC EXPLOSION!" Yelled Magnum, and unleashed his blast.
(Cliffhanger end! I'm so evil! Keep reading to see how the story ends! ONE CHAPTER LEFT!)
I departed from the ship as quickly as possible. I would have to hurry if I was to stop the process . . . . But I was still torn by what had just happened.
Magnum had been taken by NME. So many years of work with Kirby, my help in honing his powers and giving him the key to control the fury, and now all that power had been handed over to NME in the form of ZAPP. And strangely, because ZAPP was using the body from a new angle, he wouldn't be limited in his use of it as though he was the original owner. He would be able to unlock all of Magnum's abilities. "All that power . . ." I thought again. It may be too late, and I knew it. One wrong move and goodbye Popstar . . .
How would Popstar be destroyed, you ask? From my radio monitoring in private, and the reconnaissance work I'd done over the year of Magnum's training with me, I knew well that NME had a base in the old town ruins, and that the destruction would start there. NME would start and operation he called "The Black Hole."
But still you wonder. Even though I am a highly revered Star Warrior, why would I go on such a vital rescue mission by myself? I knew I couldn't save Magnum on my own, it would be almost impossible to get near him. But I couldn't risk everyone else's lives in one, unlikely shot. I had to go it alone.
I turned the corner into a familiar street. A poster flapped against me, barely hanging on to the old building I hid against. I read it. "Kawasaki's hot curry! Hot hot hot!" I turned away and looked down the street. The old department store down the road had been rebuilt. In its place was a towering factory. Smoke billowed up from the stacks, clouding the sky over the town. I took advantage of the darkness the smoke caused, and crept closer, hidden from view.
I looked in through a blackened window. Empty. But why? I entered the building, watching for surveillance cameras and guards. I slunk around the wall, and felt why there was no one here. The outer building was a fake. These walls were hollow. I walked calmly out into the middle of the room. Even with the huge, coal burning smog machines producing the over head shadow, I was in no danger. I found a trapdoor in the floor beside one of the giant furnace-like contraptions, and pried it up.
I found I was looking down into a man made cavern, in which thousands of test tubes the size of trees lined the walls and filled the room like aisles. I hopped down and fell a great expanse: then landed softly on the pads of my feet. I gazed around me. Most of the shapes contained in the gargantuan test tubes were hardly recognizable, but I could see that they were all past monsters. Splice'n'dice, Mr. Sun and Mr. Shine, Rocky, etc. . . .But they were different: bigger, stronger, and there were more of all of them. I continued wandering in this museum of horrors, and stopped. The last test tube, the biggest one, seemed highly important. what was in there?
(In rooms further back . . .) NME laughed. "It's finally coming to a close. This world shall be destroyed, and with my only enemies gone, I've nothing to worry about when I leave."
ZAPP laughed nervously. "But sire, this body's memory informs me that the multitude of warriors that have arrived call them selves the "Star Federation II." NME laughed all the harder. "Those fools? I've already taken care of the problem!"
(At the base . . .) Masadona screamed for help again. Mandela foamed and spit, and screamed horriffically. He pinned down her shoulders, and tore into her neck with his teeth: he then turned to the ship. Masadona, thanking the heavens that Mandela had gone for her mechanical side (her head was half machine down to the chest). She wasn't seriously hurt. Mandela rushed onto the ship; screaming and bellowing like a mad creature the entire way. All of the warriors onboard the ship heard him racing up and down the corridors, and rushed to see what was going on. He ran back out side, followed by the entire crew: Tiff included. He suddenly stopped, and paused. There was silence (broken only by Mandela's pants and grunting) as everyone waited.
"Mandela! What are you doing here?" Shouted Marthen. Mandela turned his rabid gaze on him, and Marthen flinched. Mandela smiled crazily. Mechanical wings tore from Mandela's back, spraying Masadona with his infected blood. The bite didn't get her, but the blood seeping into the opening the bite made did. Mandela flew high above their heads.
He began to pulse, throbbing like one big, cankerous heart. Marthen was the first to figure it out. "Everyone run for cover!" he yelled. He'd seen this tactic on other worlds, in one form or another. One word easily described it: Kamikaze.
The hidden machine in Mandela's chest exploded. His blood evenly sprayed everything, covering all with the new virus NME's engineers had created. It was Ebola, it was SARS, it was yellow fever, it was the black plague: but it was effective in moments, and much stronger than the diseases it had been created from. Masadona, already affected by the new plage, was lying on the ground: She was unable to breathe, and blood had begun to seep into her lungs. It didn't matter by then though: Her swollen neck couldn't take in air. But she wasn't the only one: 99% of the crew had been infected. The one survivor, who had managed to get away? Cinsta. Guided by forces he didn't understand, he ran towards the ruins.
(In the containment room: Meta Knight.) I just didn't want to believe what I saw. I struggled to contain my rage. NME was creating a child. Not a clone: this was an heir in the creation. It was still just a fetus, but I recognized it right away. I searched for a data chart to get at more information. I found it, and looked it over to see the genetic mother. I seethed further. Some how, NME had gotten and egg from Claris. I read further and found the child would be male. He already had a name, too. Darkness. And if I didn't act soon, that would be what he would spread. But this was Magnum's half brother. Did it matter? I couldn't risk another, greater evil, I decided. I raised my sword.
(The throne room, with NME and ZAPP.) "Sire!" a black robed soldier appeared. "We have an intruder!" NME turned to look at the large screen appearing in the wall. Meta Knight raised his sword towards his unfinished son. "YOU FOOL!" he roared. "STOP HIM!" the soldier cowered. "Yes sire!" He cried. He disappeared again. NME stood. "ZAPP!" He bellowed. "TAKE CARE OF THE INTERLOPER!" Magnum's face stretched into an evil rictus. "My pleasure!" he said, and sauntered off.
(Meta Knight) I brought the blade down into the glass. It shattered, and support liquid and shards of glass sprayed into the room. The fetus kicked once, suspended by it's artificial umbilical, and was still. I heard a small noise and turned.
Magnum, backed by several hundred dark soldiers, stared down at me. I felt my mind surging with energy. I was thrown into the depths of Magnum's mind, the still human part. This was the real death touch. I'd felt it before dying with Kirby, and I felt it now with my possessed student. I would die this day.
I felt for my lost student, and found one, last shred of consciousness inside of him. He was trapped in a dream. He was again a child, held close by his mother. He was safe and warm in this fantasy. I felt a pang of guilt. I would have to tear him from this vision of love. I was sad for the kid, but now was not the time for sympathy.
("MAGNUM!") I shouted, stirring his dream. I felt ZAPP recoil. It was then that I realized that he was like the radio Masadona possessed. He could catch psychic waves, tuned into the right frequency. I used a mind blast, and felt him weaken and recoil again.
Magnum shook his head slightly, and I saw a small lump bulge out from his side. I encouraged Magnum to fight. I blasted ZAPP again. The bulge rolled out from beneath hi shirt. It was ZAPP! He was mechanical octopus: He had a golf ball sized main body, with impossibly long legs, and too many of them at that. He was helpless all alone. His black, glass-lens eyes stared up at me, filled with apathy.
I destroyed him with my foot. My recovered student moaned, and he came back to reality. Magnum looked at me, ready to fight but still confused. "Where the hell am I?" he realized it was me. "Oh, sorry. I meant, 'where am I sir?" I laughed grimly. For the both of us, there wouldn't me much to laugh about for a while.
"You're in the middle of a fight. And I'm going to show you how to do something I could never do, but something you can: seeing that your much more powerful." I sent him the command and instructions. He smiled with determination, and turned on the troops. They all suddenly looked terrified. Some clutched their heads in pain at the sudden, high-pitched whistling that seemed to come from no where. The whistle built up to a shriek. "PSYCHIC EXPLOSION!" Yelled Magnum, and unleashed his blast.
(Cliffhanger end! I'm so evil! Keep reading to see how the story ends! ONE CHAPTER LEFT!)