Chapter 68: No Longer Knightly
A few yards away from the burning wreck that was once a weaponry ship, there lay a writhing figure that was emitting enough utterly obscene profanity as to, if it was printed, raise the suitability rating of this story to an "R".
Captain Birdbrain had broken his wing.
"For God's sake, Cap!" yelled Sasuke above the racket. "Stop swearing! This is more painful than Meta Drone's voice!"
The generals, all of which were present, seemed to share Sasuke's sentiment. Those that had ears were holding them and the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General was hiding inside his helmet. Those that didn't have ears, well, it wasn't pretty.
Meta Knight lay a few feet from Captain Birdbrain, unconscious.
Meta Drone seemed to be okay. He was currently inspecting the horrendous damage done to the weaponry ship.
It wasn't until Captain Birdbrain finally collapsed, crying, that the others fully realized just how bad the situation was.
THEY HAD LOST THE WAR AND THE REST OF THE META ARMY HAD BEEN TAKEN BY DARK MATTER.
"We're not winning, are we?" asked the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General, emerging from his helmet.
Silence. The only noise was Captain Birdbrain's soft whimpering.
No one could quite grasp their defeat.
"Um, so," said Sasuke hollowly, "what do we do now?"
Most of the generals gave Sasuke hate-filled looks. His voice always sounded casual, no matter what he did with it, and a casual tone of voice was sure to touch nerves in such seriousness.
"We kill Kirby," said a voice.
"Meta Knight!" gasped a number of the generals.
Yes, it was indeed Meta Knight who had spoken. He had awoken and gotten to his feet moments earlier. His mask was still intact, but otherwise he looked terrible. He had dirt marks all over his body, his cape lay burning on the ground a foot away from him, and he didn't seem to quite be standing straight.
"Kirby is the reason we are in this fix," he said. His voice sounded more gruff than usual. It seemed to cost him some effort to speak, but his voice was full of determination as well. "Kirby is the reason we have not achieved our goals. Kirby is the reason Dark Matter is now more powerful than ever. Kirby is the reason why this whole Galaxy is doomed without my guidance." His voice started to sound a bit insane. "Kirby is the incarnation of evil sent to make everything in the universe go wrong. He may look innocent, like all the other pathetic Dreamlanders, but wherever he goes, he leaves behind a path of destruction and mayhem. He must be stopped at all costs! For only then will the world be at peace!!!"
Meta Knight turned to the side and strode over to an insignificant-looking patch of mud on the ground. He then pushed his hands into the slime and pulled out Galaxia, which was still in its activated state. Meta Knight's eyes flared red once more and now they seemed to burn with intense fire like nothing the generals had ever seen.
Well, the generals were in no mood to go on a wild goose chase after Kirby, but they had no idea what they did want to do. Luckily, they were saved from answering.
"What about me?" shrieked Captain Birdbrain. "My wing! It's not supposed to be bent at this angle!"
As if to respond to the Captain's cry, the ground began to shake.
Suddenly, a gigantic drill emerged from the ground some distance from the surprised generals. Once out of the ground, the drill fell over and stopped. Attached to it was a cube-shaped machine, which evidently powered the drill, a spherical capsule and a long cargo car.
The capsule opened and out jumped...
"Have no fear! Escargoon is here!" said the oversized snail. He then looked around. "Is the battle over?" he asked disappointedly.
"Yes," answered Meta Knight, "AND WE LOST!!!"
The sides of Escargoon's mouth fell and his eyes widened.
Silence. By the way, Escargoon was no longer covered in blood. He looked as good as ever, except for the exaggerated frown that was now drooped over his face.
"Well, don't just stand there!" squawked Captain Birdbrain at Escargoon. "Do you have a cast in that thing?" He motioned towards the cargo car.
"Why do you need a cast?" asked Escargoon.
"Can't you @!$#ing see with your @!$#ing eyes how @!$#ed up my wing is?!!" With the use of his good wing, Captain Birdbrain lifted up his bad one.
For some reason, this seemed to cheer Escargoon up.
"Say no more," he said, rushing back to the cargo car. Once there, Escargoon opened a door, went in, and came back out with a yellow-and-orange bottle in his hand.
"This is an invention of mine," he said. "I'm very good with chemicals and have created an all-purpose healing solution! I call it Peppy Tonic."
"I think your dubbing could use a little work," commented Yamikage.
"It sounds good to me," put in the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General.
Escargoon handed the Tonic to Captain Birdbrain, who immediately dumped the whole contents of the bottle into his large pelican beak.
As he swallowed, Escargoon backed slowly away. The Captain gave him a quizzical look.
Then there was a snapping, cracking sound.
Captain Birdbrain let out a loud shriek of pain as his wing straightened itself and healed good as new.
"Works well, doesn't it?" said Escargoon smugly.
"THAT @!$#ING HURT!" shouted Captain Birdbrain. "IF I'D KNOWN IT WOULD HURT SO !#@$ @!$#ING MUCH, I THINK WOULD HAVE KEPT THE @!$#ING BROKEN WING!!!"
Escargoon didn't look so happy after that. Not only had Captain Birdbrain hated something Escargoon had made, but the Captain's shouting had also sprayed Escargoon with an uncanny amount of spit.
Meta Knight, his patience at its limit, interrupted.
"Sasuke," he said impatiently, "we are commandeering your ship. Captain, you take the wheel and get us to Kirby by any means necessary. I have many plans for getting rid of him and most require a group effort. Escargoon, Sasuke, Captain, Generals, I enlist you all as temporary members of the elite Meta Clan."
"Cool!" cheered yellow-suited Poppy Brothers Senior enthusiastically. "Can I be Meta Bomb?"
"But what about CDHG?" asked Meta Lance.
"He can be Meta Donut," answered yellow-suited Poppy Brothers Senior.
"Sounds good to me," said the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General.
"Then I shall be Meta Ninja," said Yamikage.
"And I Meta Cutter," added Silver Kibble.
"I guess I'll be Meta Wheel," put in Big Wheelie.
"No!" interrupted Meta Knight. "No name changes! You keep your old names! No more delays! Kirby must be eradicated immediately!!!"
"Aww," whined yellow-suited Poppy Brothers Senior. "I wanted to be Meta Bomb."
"Let's go," grunted Meta Knight, hopping into the ship. The now larger Meta Clan followed suit.
Kirby and Chuchu had already fled the scene.
Chuchu was crying and Kirby was on the verge of doing so as well. Their entire mission seemed to have failed.
"This is all your fault Gooey!" sputtered Chuchu between sobs. "If you hadn't told Kirby to use Light, Dark Matter wouldn't... Dreamland wouldn't..."
Chuchu wavered off and Gooey didn't reply.
Kirby knew what was happening. Dark Matter was headed straight for Neo City to claim the Dreamlanders within it. After the feast, Dark Matter would grow so large that its essence would be able to envelop Pop Star. Then it would be unstoppable.
Kirby and Chuchu were headed for Neo City themselves, in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the above from happening.
Yayaya, a yellow-orange Dreamlander, had just found Nununu, his forest-green friend, on the roof of a building, finishing the round of Hide-and-Seek.
Now it was just about dinnertime and the two pals said their good-byes before heading back to their respective houses.
But something was wrong. Yayaya could see something black creeping towards the city, some sort of ooze. As it drew closer, the darkness slowly covered the sun, which had already begun to set. This caused a great shadow to fall over Neo City.
Panic erupted. Yayaya, along with all the other Dreamlanders of Neo City, started to run. Where they were running to, they didn't know, but they could feel that the blackness was bad and they didn't want to end up under it.
Your attempts at escape are futile, thought Dark Matter to itself, watching the multicolored mass flow away. It will all be over soon. If Dark Matter had a mouth, it would have grinned.
Yayaya was jostled this way and that as he did his best to run along with the great mass around him.
And now the sinister shade had quickened its pace, flooding Neo City with its essence.
The Dreamlanders were uncoordinated when in mob form. Disorder caused many to fall on their faces and maybe even be accidentally pushed backwards by their fellows.
The Dreamlanders couldn't stop. They were running blind.
Yayaya stumbled and the Dreamlander in back of him jumped over him to keep going. But that Dreamlander then landed on the head of another and a domino effect caused about fifteen of them, including Yayaya, to fall down.
"GOTTA KEEP MOVING!" screamed the Dreamlanders' instincts.
Yayaya tried to push himself up, but the crowd was too dense. Paralyzed on the ground, he could only watch as that strange shade covered Neo City.
Darkness enveloped him. A jolt of pain caused his body to spasm, his eyes bugging out. Then he knew no more.
"Dark Matter!" shouted a voice. "Stop!"
The great red eye turned and narrowed.
"You're too late, Kirby," replied King Dedede from atop a building, speaking Dark Matter's words. "I have just taken the last of the life in Neo City," ("NO!" screamed Chuchu.) "but it seems I have yet to possess the entire Dreamlander race. I thank you for coming. Your essence will make my collection complete!"
Five of Dark Matter's tentacles sped out towards Kirby, and before he could even react, the warpstar was destroyed and Kirby was covered by the tentacles. He only had time to emit a terrified shriek from within before it was over.
"Kirby!" screamed Chuchu.
Silence. This was it. Dark Matter had won. Chuchu started to sob again.
But for some reason, Dark Matter wasn't moving. It was just holding Kirby in a black ball of tentacles. One might have expected King Dedede to emit an evil laugh at this point, but something was clearly wrong.
Chuchu stopped crying, yet stayed put. She knew that touching Dark Matter would put her under possession, but she couldn't understand what was going on.
"Why can't I possess you?!" growled King Dedede. "Maybe you need to be broken first."
Dark electricity surged across the tentacles and disappeared into the ball that contained Kirby.
Silence.
Dark Matter sent another jolt down to Kirby... and then another... and another! Now a continuous stream of dark electricity flowed like fire across the tentacles into the ball at the end, but no effect was noticeable.
"Stop it!" shouted Chuchu. "I don't know if you're hurting Kirby, but I won't let you do this any longer!"
"Chuchu," said King Dedede, looking over, "your will shall be mine again!"
Four more tentacles shot out to wrap around Chuchu, but she had much better reflexes than Kirby.
Chuchu swerved away from the tentacles, flew around to the building on which King Dedede stood and flipped over onto it. As she flipped, she held onto one corner of the warpstar. On landing, she used the momentum of her flip to send the warpstar spinning directly at Dark Matter's eye, which did not close fast enough.
The warpstar exploded on contact, blasting the eye a couple feet backwards in the air.
"That should be enough to hold you for a while!" called Chuchu to Dark Matter.
The tentacles released Kirby, who fell towards the ground far below. Luckily, Dark Matter had left no damage on Kirby at all and he inflated to float over to Chuchu.
King Dedede fainted in front of them, but his eyes remained open and the pupils slitted.
"Thanks," said Kirby, panting. "I owe you one."
"I think we're even," replied Chuchu.
The pair watched as Dark Matter's eye sunk slowly down into the black essence around it.
"Kirby! Chuchu!" said Gooey from the phone. "My sensors are detecting an explosion of anti-matter particles at Heat Top! Go there immediately! It may be Marx's current location."
Two warpstars arrived beside Kirby and Chuchu.
Captain Birdbrain was piloting as usual and the arsenal ship was headed for Neo City. Escargoon's cargo had been loaded onto the top.
"Do you have any weapons up there, Escargoon?" asked Meta Knight. "Everyone needs to be armed, with one exception."
"Sure, Sir Meta Knight," answered Escargoon. "Definitely."
"What kind of weapon will I get?" asked Captain Birdbrain. "Can I have one of those high-tech laser blaster things?"
"Captain," replied Meta Knight, "you are the exception. Remember the last time we gave you a weapon?"
Captain Birdbrain made an expression that looked like he was trying to bite his lip, which is a difficult thing to do when you have a beak.
"A bazooka is not a toy," continued Meta Knight. "Besides, you always shoot first and ask questions later."
"But, Sir Meta Knight," protested the Captain, "that's what he does!" He pointed at the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General, who replied, "Sounds good to me."
"Oh... very well," submitted Meta Knight. "You can have a blaster, but don't misuse it."
Captain Birdbrain smiled and returned his focus to piloting.
"Bazooka..." murmured Escargoon. "That reminds me. I have a missile launcher up there that I want to try out."
"That just leaves you, Sasuke," said Meta Knight. "Do you have a weapon preference."
Sasuke thought for a bit and then answered, "Well, a flame-thrower would be nice."
"Got it," said Escargoon.
"Excellent," said Meta Knight. "Now to discuss my first plan. Once within range, we shall send a message to the kaboomba in Heat Top, telling it to detonate if it sees Kirby. Since I know how Kirby thinks-"
No you don't, thought Meta Axe.
"-I can predict that he will go to Heat Top to try to disarm the bomb. When he enters, KABOOM!"
"Wahahahaha!" laughed Captain Birdbrain.
"But the eruption will still destroy Neo City," replied Escargoon. "Yeah, I know Dark Matter will have taken all the life from there by now, but the destruction of Neo City is a large price to pay for the destruction of a simple Dreamlander. I mean, seriously, he's just..." Escargoon pronounced the rest of his sentence slowly and exaggeratedly articulated, "one... single... insignificant... little... Dreamlander. How hard would it be to kill him?"
"You don't know Kirby," replied Meta Knight. "If our nuclear bomb back at the base wasn't so excessively dangerous, I'd consider using that."
"Okay... Um... I'll go up top then... and get the weapons."
"Wait," asked Sasuke, "why do we need to be armed? This plan of yours doesn't seem to require the use of artillery."
"Oh, don't argue with him," interjected Captain Birdbrain. "Go get my blaster, Goonie!"
Escargoon decided to let the nickname slide.
The darkness receded from Neo City, leaving it as desolate as a ghost town.
Kirby and Chuchu arrived at Heat Top and entered via the cave-like entrance that they had used on their first visit, but this time the tunnel itself was coated with ice. Was Marx really that obsessive? Well, whatever the case, there was still enough gravel on the ground for Kirby not to slip and fall with every step.
When they got to the central room, however, a wall of ice prevented them from entering.
Kirby pressed his face up against it to see that the room inside was now solid ice. Not only that, but stuck frozen in there... was Marx.
"What happened here?!" exclaimed Chuchu.
"I don't know," replied Kirby.
"You are currently standing," said Gooey, "in a concentrated cloud of anti-matter particles."
"The whole room ahead is solid ice!" said Kirby into the phone.
"Ah, well that would explain it," answered Gooey. "Here's my theory: The blast of light that occurred when Dark Matter was hit in the eye temporarily stunned it. Then of course all of Dark Matter's forces were stunned as well. I'm guessing that this caused Marx's body to have a seizure, during which he fired off an explosion of anti-matter particles before blasting the area around him with ice bombs."
"But why is he, like, here?" asked Chuchu.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Gooey. "He was hiding from you. He figured that you would never return here with the threat of a kaboomba explosion to deter you. I'll bet that if you look hard enough through the ice, you'll see the kaboomba in there, frozen as well. Anyway, it was a pretty good plan."
"Until now," said Kirby. "So Dark Matter now has complete possession of Marx?"
"Yes."
Chuchu was tugging at her ribbon.
"Um... What should we, like, do?" she asked.
Silence.
"Oh!" said Chuchu, clearly remembering something. "Kirby! Why couldn't Dark Matter possess you?"
"I have an answer to that," said Gooey. "It seems that Kirby has enough of the star rod in him to keep Dark Matter out. He only needs one more shard and it's currently frozen in the ice in front of you. I'm sorry to say this, but Marx must be released."
"Or destroyed," said Kirby, summoning Needle and Stone abilities to become Drill Kirby! "I'll drill right through his skull!"
With whirring, scraping, crunching noises, Kirby bore into the ice.
"Yo, kaboomba dude! You need ta, like, go boom... an' all when ya, like, see... Kirby. Yeah... make a tubular explosion, dude."
Chuchu watched as Kirby disappeared into a cloud of ice and dust. The loud noise of the drilling against the shattering ice was almost unbearable.
After about eight seconds, however, Kirby came running out of the ice tunnel he had created.
"Run!!!" he yelled as he took off down the hall. "The kaboomba's about to explode!!!"
Chuchu's eyes widened and she chased after Kirby.
There was a rumbling, shattering noise behind them and Chuchu looked back to see an avalanche of sharp ice flowing toward them in the tunnel.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" she screamed, still running.
Kirby joined in the screaming, his feet carrying him as fast as they possibly could.
Chuchu began to feel stinging pain on her back as the glass-like shards of ice stuck in her. She knew that if she stopped, she would be crushed.
The whole volcano was shaking now.
The tunnel twisted and turned. Every time it did so, there was the fear of not turning fast enough.
Run, run, run, run, RUN!
Chuchu bumped into Kirby, who was, for some reason, wearing a pair of goggles.
"Hold on tight!" said Fan Kirby, activating the ability that he had summoned moments before.
The gigantic fan once again appeared on Kirby's back. Then it whirred to life, shooting Kirby and Chuchu through the ice tunnel at an insane speed.
Chuchu sat on Kirby's head, grasping it as hard as she could with her tentacles.
Suddenly, they were out.
"There you have it!" said Meta Knight triumphantly as the Meta Clan watched Heat Top erupt in an explosion of smoke and fire. "My previous plans against Kirby may not have worked, but this one couldn't have been more successful."
"It was just a bit much," murmured Meta Axe and Escargoon together.
"Sounds good to me," said the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General. He then added, "Are we winning?"
"Against Kirby," replied Meta Knight, still watching the lava as it flowed towards Neo City," we have wo-" Meta Knight cut himself off, looking at the base of Heat Top's other side. "Hold it!" he shouted. "Kirby and Chuchu are right down there!!!"
"Hoo-hah!" cheered Captain Birdbrain, aiming his blaster out the window. "Targets! Gahahahahahahahaha!"
"Wow," said Chuchu. "That was... intense."
"Yeah," said Kirby, who had already trashed his ability.
Pzz!
A red beam of light had just struck the ground next to Kirby, leaving a blackened burn mark where it hit.
"What the..." said Kirby. He then looked up to the arsenal ship and Captain Birdbrain leaning out the window, aiming to take another shot.
Kirby rolled over just in time.
Pzz!
A second red beam of light struck the ground right in the center of where he had been sitting.
Then, in another explosion, Marx burst flaming out of the top of Heat Top. The lava hadn't killed him, but his entire body was on fire.
"Get us warpstars, Gooey!" shouted Chuchu.
"Okay!" replied Gooey. "Now, Kirby..." he continued.
Pzz!
Kirby had dodged another shot.
"What?!" asked Kirby frantically.
"If you'd just listen, I'll tell you" said Gooey. Pzz! "Kirby, there's lava pouring down the side of Heat Top that is opposite the one you are on. If that stuff gets-" Pzz! "-to Neo City, the whole place will be-" Pzz! "-destroyed. The only way to stop this is to power up Ice plus Plasma all-" Pzz! "-the way and unleash a blizzard. Chuchu can tail Marx on this warpstar while-" Pzz! "-you're at it."
A single warpstar arrived. Chuchu got on it and streaked off toward Marx with a yell of, "I'll get him for you, Kirby!"
Pzz!
"See you soon!" replied Kirby, summoning Plasma and Ice abilities to become Hyper-Ice Kirby! He then suffered a shot in the foot from Captain Birdbrain's blaster and shrieked as he toppled over. It really burned!
Escargoon now appeared on top of the arsenal ship. He wore an aiming mechanism over one eye and carried a missile launcher.
Kirby ran behind a rock and concentrated on the glowing icicles on his head. (The only difference between the Ice Kirby hat and the Hyper-Ice Kirby hat is that the icicles on the latter glow. This is the case with almost all Hyper/normal hats.) Kirby then felt a wave of cold sweep over him. He shivered and knew that he had charged up for the first time out of the necessary four.
Pzz!
KABOOM!
The rock was blasted apart by a missile that had been sent Kirby's way by Escargoon and the shrapnel seared Kirby's back.
Kirby ran for cover again.
"I have estimated the time until the lava reaches Neo City and starts a fire," said Gooey. "You have approximately ninety seconds!"
Meta Knight watched the rock get destroyed by Escargoon's missile launcher.
Well, this is working, thought Meta Knight. We can just sit here and fire at Kirby long-range.
"Sasuke," said Meta Knight, "man the ship's lasers! Fire at Kirby as well!"
Marx was flailing about in the air, blinded by the smoke and fire all around him. But as Chuchu flew up to him, he sped off northwestward.
"Oh no you don't!" called Chuchu after him as she began the chase.
Kirby dived behind another rock to avoid the subsequent explosion of another missile, which blasted a small crater in the ground a few yards away.
Kirby focused on his Ice and once again felt the chill that signified another successful charging up.
Kirby got up and quickly ran away from his hiding place. This was a smart move, because that rock was then destroyed by a missile, just like the first.
Pzz!
Another blaster shot narrowly missed Kirby. It struck right in front of him and he swerved to the left.
Prrrrziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...
Kirby hid under a crevice in the side of a boulder and watched a new bright red continuous laser slice by. He instantly knew it must have been the ship's guns. This noise didn't stop.
Pzz!
Kirby focused. Charge 3! Only one more to go!
KABOOM!
The boulder didn't even budge against the explosion.
"Thirty seconds!" shouted Gooey.
"I got it!" shouted Kirby back, charging up for the forth and final time.
Kirby jumped out of the crevice and ran towards the other side of Heat Top.
"Kirby's getting away!" shouted Meta Knight. "Follow him!"
Captain Birdbrain ducked back inside the ship and grabbed the controls.
The arsenal ship jerked forward, following Kirby.
Escargoon fired another missile, which missed due to the abrupt movement of the ship.
The laser beam that Sasuke was continuously firing seemed to be catching up to Kirby. In just a few seconds they might hit him dead-on.
But then...
"Is it getting cold in here or is it just me?" asked Meta Blade.
"I daresay it isn't just you," answered Sasuke. "The temperature does seem to be dropping."
"Oh, man!" said Escargoon, reentering the ship. "It's freezing out there! What kind of volcano is this? 'Cause I know chemistry and that stuff cannot be lava if it's making us this cold."
"What's going on?!" said Yamikage angrily, rubbing his arms.
"Now it's even colder," hissed Meta Lance. "Stupid cold lava!"
"There is no false lava," interrupted Silver Kibble, pointing down out the window. "Kirby is the perpetrator."
In case you hadn't already guessed it, Kirby had activated his ability.
A hazy white orb of condensing water had surrounded Kirby as his body temperature dropped very rapidly. Everything he touched froze solid.
Kirby continued to run, absorbing every iota of heat in the vicinity of Heat Top. And yet his temperature never slowed in its nose-dive.
The lasers on the arsenal ship stopped firing. The cold weather was causing them to malfunction.
"Turn the ship around, Captain!" shouted Meta Knight, his breath creating a vapor cloud that issued out the sides of his mask. "If this cold gets any worse, we're sure to go down with it!"
"Yes, Sir!" replied Captain Birdbrain, whose feathers had developed a light coating of frost.
Kirby felt himself contracting, shrinking, as all objects do when they get cold. He finally stopped running and collapsed on the ground. He was only a miniscule fraction of his size now... and his body temperature was approaching absolute zero.
"You're not getting away this time, Marx!" shouted Chuchu as she sped after the flaming monster. "You're mine now!"
Flump.
Chuchu had chased Marx right into the middle of a cloud. They were now in Cloudy Park, the unstable aerial landscape east of Grape Garden.
Ploof.
Chuchu emerged soaking wet from the moisture in the cloud.
"Where aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare you, Maaaaaaaarx," she cooed.
"Marx is not here," said Marx's voice from the clouds. "It is I, Dark Matter! And now that Marx's body is under my complete possession..." Marx surfaced (burnt but unhurt) from the cloud, which had extinguished the flames. "...I shall make you wish you had never been born!"
"Kirby! Wake up! You did it! It's over!"
Kirby opened his eyes. He still had the Hyper-Ice ability, but his body temperature had returned to normal.
"The lava is frozen into rock! You saved Neo City!"
Kirby noticed that there was a warpstar with a maximum tomato on it hovering nearby. Kirby quickly ate the cargo, thanked Gooey, and had a look at the results of his attack.
Hyper-Ice Kirby transformed back into regular Kirby as he viewed the odd rock formation from the air.
The blizzard had turned every bit of lava into solid rock.
"So," said Kirby energetically, "where's Chuchu? She may need my help getting the star rod shard from Marx."
"Well, she's..." began Gooey, but then he stopped.
"She's..." he tried again.
Silence.
"Uh-oh," finished Gooey.
"What?" said Kirby. "Where is she?"
"I... don't... know..." said Gooey tentatively.
"WHAT?!"
"The anti-matter particle trail is gone and my sensors aren't strong enough to locate octopi."
"B-but," stammered Kirby, "can't you see where Marx is or something?"
"No," replied Gooey. "You remember. I only found him in Heat Top because he had let off an explosion of anti-matter particles."
"Isn't there anything you can do?! What if Chuchu's being murdered by Marx?! There'd be nothing I could do to help her!!!"
"Oh, uh, ah, mm... eh... I DON"T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!"
It was the first time since the very beginning of Kirby's adventure that Gooey had burst like that.
The arsenal ship landed in Yogurt Yard.
"I can't believe it!" roared Meta Knight. "We were so close!!!"
"Well, at least Neo City wasn't destroyed," commented Escargoon.
"Sounds good to me," agreed the legendary Crazed Donut Hole General.
"Shut up," growled Meta Knight, fuming. "It's a good thing I have backup plans."
Silence.
"Aw man," said Meta Drone randomly, "it looks like plans C and D failed, dudes." Okay, maybe it wasn't so random.
Silence.
"Well, he's still Meta Drone," said Meta Axe.