NOTE TO THE READER: I AM NOT GOING TO STOP WRITING THIS STORY UNTIL IT IS OVER! If I don't update for longer than expected, it will be because of school. I apologize if this happens, but just know I'll be back eventually. Once again, I'll try to maintain my one-chapter-per-week schedule.
Chapter 83: Behind NME Lines
Kirby opened his eyes. He recognized where he was immediately. It was the bizarre landscape of Marx's mind.
What?! thought Kirby. How the heck am I back here?
A large ring of Marx copies suddenly materialized around him. Then more began appearing outside the circle; more and more. Soon Kirby was standing on the only patch of land in a never-ending sea of Marx.
Rain began to pour from the sky, though no clouds had formed.
Then the world acquired a faint purplish tint. Then reddish. Then blue, yellow, brown, and finally it settled on greenish.
A single Marx stepped toward Kirby from the circle. Kirby stepped back slightly.
"Kirby," said the Marx, "welcome back... We've missed you."
Silence.
"Like what I've done with the place?" added the Marx.
"I shouldn't be here, Marx," said Kirby. "Aren't you... dead?"
"I am," replied the Marx. "So, now what would that make you?"
The Marx copies in the circle began moving. Some gnashed their teeth, some cracked their knuckles, and some got into stances that clearly meant that they were ready to fight.
Kirby couldn't remember what he had been doing before he appeared in this place. Was he really...
"I'm not dead..." he asked tentatively, "am I?"
"No," replied the Marx. "Not yet."
The Marx copies in the ring took a step towards Kirby.
Kirby tried to summon an ability, but couldn't.
"It's payback time, Kirby," said the Marx.
The Marx copies took another step.
Kirby tried to inhale, but couldn't.
The Marx continued, "We're here to take from you what you tried to take from us..."
The Marx copies took yet another step.
Kirby tried to scream, but all that came out was a stifled squeak.
"...sanity."
The Marx copies pounced.
King Dedede surveyed the scene. Dark Matter was not expecting the N-Z army to defeat Meta Knight; it was simply a test to see how the old warrior would fight without Galaxia. Blast after blast from those glistening spheres shot hundreds of those grey drones in every direction.
Now that Castle Dedede had been destroyed, Dark Matter had set up base in Lololo and Lalala's fortress, that is, after it had repossessed the two inhabitants. The fortress was then landed on the ruins of Butter Building. Dark Matter had summoned an N-Z sea to fill the packaging room, which had been emptied. The packages were currently being inspected by all the possessed Dreamlanders other than Kirby. Meta Knight was then dumped into the packaging room as an experiment. His wing had been put in a cast.
Nightmare floated over to King Dedede, who was watching Meta Knight through one of the windows near the ceiling of the packaging room. There were upper floors of the fortress, after all.
"How's the test running?" asked Nightmare.
"He never gives up," replied King Dedede, speaking Dark Matter's words. "I can say that much. Any progress with Galaxia?"
"No." Nightmare held up the sword. It was inactivated, nothing more than an orange blade. "Nothing I do can force it to transform."
"That is disappointing, Nightmare. I would very much like to use its power to further my possession of the Starred System. Although, I suppose said conquest won't be too difficult after all, now that the anomaly is out of the way."
"Speaking of Kirby, how's he holding out?"
"I've given him a very high dose of nightmare-enhancing serum. He'll be paralyzed for about a day in a semiconscious state, feeling as though his horrific dreams are real, though he is still under my control."
"But, won't that cause chronic pain and irreversible brain damage?"
"Probably. Your point is?"
"That was pretty much it. Oh, wait. I've just gotten an idea. I'll go see if maybe one of the bodies of the Meta Clan in your possession will be able to activate Galaxia."
"Very well. I shall transfer some of my thoughts to each at the appropriate time. That is all I needed you for."
"Thank you, Dark Matter. But, I have one more question. After this whole Galaxia ordeal has been taken care of, can I perform some tests on Sir Meta Knight? Maybe I can find a way for you to possess him. Are you sure you have no idea why he is not under your hold as of this moment?"
"Quite sure." King Dedede shifted his gaze from Meta Knight to look at Nightmare. "It's strange. It is as if his nerves are being blocked by some stagnant signal. I can't even communicate telepathically with him as I could the anomaly." King Dedede looked back down at the N-Z army. "Yes: once Galaxia has transformed, you may experiment with Meta Kn- Wait. Why has the action stopped? Could Meta Knight have actually given up?"
It was then that King Dedede noticed the hole in the far wall and the detached cast on the ground.
"He must be able to heal himself!" growled King Dedede. "He was just fighting so that we would eventually lose interest and look away. Then when I did, he escaped! Oh, well. There's no use going after him now. We'll never catch him and he wasn't really of any use to us."
"But, Dark Matter," interjected Nightmare, "what about what was keeping you out of his mind? If there is another way by which someone can protect themselves from you, we must find a way to either overcome it or stop it from being reproduced."
"I'm telling you it is unimportant. Now go find a way for us to activate Galaxia. I will reward you with leave for a short vacation in Pinball Land. I know how much you enjoy that place."
"Thank you, Dark Matter. As you wish, Dark Matter."
Why hadn't I thought of this sooner? thought Tac. Infiltrating the NME base is a snap! I'll bet those idiots had no idea that, with the right hacking skills, their Internet-transfer teleporters could be reversed from "download" to "upload"! I just wish there was a light switch in this place.
Tac had gotten bored sitting on the "green star" and using the Meta Clan's telescope on that planet to view the action on Pop Star, which was now completely black against the rest of the galaxy. The telescope, by the way, was so long that it penetrated the light-absorbing magic field around the "green star" (remember how the world was dark inside?) and that allowed it to view the rest of the Starred System. Tac now knew that Mecheye had been destroyed and that the Meta Clan had somehow fallen.
Tac slunk silently along a pitch-black corridor. Even though he had traveled quite a ways without detection, he still didn't quite know where he was, as he couldn't get a good look at his surroundings. Nor had he managed to program a location into the teleporter.
Finally, Tac got impatient. Reaching into his magical sack, he pulled out a flashlight. Originally, he had not allowed himself to use such an item, as it was of the utmost importance that no one suspect he was there, but he wasn't exactly going to get anything done in the dark.
Tac switched on the flashlight. This revealed only two things. One was that the entire hall was made out of a completely black metal substance. And the other was that there were bars instead of walls. Tac immediately thought that he was in some sort of NME prison.
However, closer inspection revealed that not one of the cells along the passageway contained a single organic molecule. Each one had the remains of a different robot in it. Most of the specimens were covered with dust.
"Who is there?" said a sad voice.
Tac whirled around, but his flashlight couldn't locate the speaker.
"Have you come to take me away?" continued the voice.
"Show yourself," replied Tac.
Clinclinclinclinclinclinclinclinclinclink.
The sound was one Tac recognized. There's a stereotype about those in jail running a cup over the bars.
Tac located the source of the noise. A single robot was still operational. It had a rectangular head with black eyes, which had yellow eyelids. Its body was a long poll, plus another rectangle in the center, off of which extended two arms, and at the end of each arm was a red robotic pincer-hand. Lastly, the robot's lowest part was in the shape of a triangle that had strange red balls at its base. The main color of the robot was grey and it had been using one of its "hands" to make the noise.
NOTE TO THE READER: This character only had a brief cameo in Kirby's Drealand 3, but he looked really cool. So, I looked him up and discovered he was a real android! I'm not kidding! You could play certain old video games with him!
www .vidgame. net/NINTENDO/rob.htm
www .classicgaming. com/kirby/games/dreamland3/heartstar/36.gif
Remember to remove all spaces in the URLs after copying and pasting. Scroll down in the second one to see the completed robot.
"Here I am," said the robot gloomily.
"Why are you here?" asked Tac.
"I am being kept here until reprogramming," continued the robot in the same tone. "However, no one has entered this hall in over 365 years by the Echenemic calendar."
The Echenemic calendar? thought Tac. Never heard of that one, but this must be where NME keeps disloyal robots. NME must not have a reliable technical expert, or these machines would have been repaired by now. Hmm... I've got an idea.
"What would you say if I freed you from your cell and proposed friendship between us?" asked Tac.
The robot's tone of voice changed to one of excitement. "You could really do that?" it said. "I would be eternally grateful."
"Good," finished Tac. He then looked over at the wall that separated the cells. There was a number pad on the wall for code input.
Breaking into places and stealing stuff by manipulating technology... thought Tac. This is what I do best.
Tac reached into his magical sack and pulled out a giant glove. He then held the glove up to the number pad.
The glove laid its palm on the number pad. A clicking noise sounded. Then the glove pulled back and typed in four numbers.
The bars of the robot's cell, creaking and groaning, retracted into the ground.
"This is certainly a joyous day!" cheered the robot, gliding out. The red things on its base were weak anti-gravity thrusters that enabled the robot to glide a centimeter above the ground. "Are we headed to the outside world, O savior?"
"We are indeed," replied Tac, walking back down the corridor he had come from. "Follow m-"
Tac was cut short by a very loud scraping noise. It was the kind of noise like nails across a chalkboard. Tac pointed his flashlight upward at the ceiling to reveal a panel opening. This panel had obviously not been opened in a very long time, as it had rusted over and now only barely functioned. Once the panel was gone, out of the square hole came a flat-screen computer monitor, which pointed at Tac.
The notorious NME sales guy appeared on the screen and a look of uncharacteristic surprise appeared on his face.
"Tac?" he said. "How did you get in?"
"By hacking your internet transmitter, of course," answered Tac. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll be taking the robot." With that, he turned around and kept walking. The robot naturally followed.
"As a matter of fact, I do mind," continued the sales guy, smirking at Tac's back. "We haven't used the area that you're in for hundreds of years, so I doubt Nightmare would mind if I activate its self-destruct system."
An excessively alluring female voice began the alarmingly short countdown, "This area will self-destruct in five seconds. Four... Three..."
The color drained from Tac's face. Don't evil corporations ever give their enemies a chance to escape anymore?! he thought as he turned and sped down the corridor towards the teleporter. There isn't nearly enough time! I'm done for!
"Two... One..."
Clickickickickick.
Tac stopped running.
Where was the explosion? he asked himself mentally. I can't believe it. These corridors must be so poorly maintained that not even the self-destruct works anymore!
The robot glided over.
"This is a very lucky day!" it said gleefully.
Tac took a few deep breaths to slow his heartbeat. He then pointed his flashlight forward. Its light fell on the teleporter at the end of the passageway.
"Yes," replied Tac. "Indeed it is. You will be of much use to me... uh... What should I call you? Do you have an ID number or possibly a name?"
"You can call me ROB," answered the robot, still happy as ever, "your Robotic Operating Buddy!"
"How appropriate," said Tac softly. "Not only does the unabbreviated version describe your exaggerated personality, but I'm ROBbing you from NME. Heh, heh, heh."
Tac looked back at "ROB", who was standing still, seemingly awaiting orders.
"As I was saying," continued Tac, walking up onto the teleporter and using that strange giant glove to input the code for their return, "you will be of much use to me, as you are a robot, and therefore are not susceptible to mind control. Hopefully, we can work together as a team to loot the conquered surface of Pop Star for relics of the possessed Meta Clan, and possibly even Galaxia."