Chapter 25: Passage Granted

The warpstar arrived moments later, smashed through the door, disappeared and left its cargo on the floor. Kirby thankfully ate the maximum tomato and entered inside the Halberd.

Over the phone, "Kirby's inside! What now?"

Captain: "I have an idea. We'll confuse him. Open up all valves and ducts."

Kirby then heard what sounded like thousands of doors, etc. unlocking and/or opening. He went into the next room and there were about ten doors, passages and tunnels to choose from. He entered the one just across from him: a valve. This was a big mistake. When he came out, he heard more voices on the phone.

"Kirby's in the rocket valve!"

"No! He's actually behind the nozzle!"

"Fix him!"

"Prepare secondary stage of take off! Blow Kirby away!"

"OK! Main engine ignition!"

Suddenly, the breeze around Kirby got a little stronger.

Captain: "Go!"

A powerful wind hit Kirby and flung him into the air, away from the Halberd.

Kirby quickly shouted into the phone, "Gooey! Warpstar! Now!"

The ground was coming up fast.

"NOW!" Kirby shouted. "NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!"

He was falling too fast to inflate. He was feeling the heat of the atmospheric friction. The ground was nearly upon him...

"Gotcha!" yelled Gooey as a warpstar saved Kirby an instant before he would have become just another meteorite gone wrong.

The voices on the phone continued.

"Kirby's not dead! Something caught him!"

Captain: [censored]

"He's flying back toward us!"

"Main cannon's ready. Shall we blast him?"

Captain: "All right. Shoot him!"

Oh, no. Not again, thought Kirby as the cannon unleashed another bomb. However, Kirby had had a lot of practice by now at dodging on a warpstar and managed to get close enough to the Halberd to board it before the cannon shot him.

"We shot down Kirby's craft!"

"Look! He's back onboard!"

Meta Knight: "Remain calm. Let's come up with a plan."

Captain: "All soldiers! Get Kirby. Now!"

After battling his way through more "soldiers", Kirby reached a door. He entered. The door closed behind him and locked. Kirby looked up and saw two figures on a ledge above him.

One was as short as Kirby and wearing a blue cape. That figure had its back to Kirby. The other was a large pelican over three times the size of Kirby that was facing him and wearing a captain's uniform. Kirby immediately realized that they were Meta Knight and the captain, respectively.

Meta Knight: "Kirby! Got ya!"

Captain: "Now you'll get a taste of our power."

A door opened behind them and they retreated into it. It closed after them. Then it opened again and the Meta Clan came out. They each used the cliché of saying their names as they entered.

"Meta Axe!"

"Meta Sword!"

"Meta Blade!"

"Meta Lance!"

"Meta Chain!"

"Meta Drone!"

Kirby tried inhaling them, but he couldn't. Without any power, how the heck would Kirby beat the Meta Clan when outnumbered six to one?