PART 6: Exceeding Space-Time
Kirby woke up early. 6 hours early, which meant it was midnight. Climbing to the top of the tree, he sat on the branches and looked at the stars.
"Meta..." he cried. He thought about his mentor, his teacher, and his friend, and a single image popped into his head. An image of Dark Matter destroying Meta Knight, an image that cause hatred to pulse through Kirby's veins.
"Dark...Matter..." Kirby growled. He jumped down from the tree, landed on the ground, and ran off. Vengeance was all he could think about, and Kirby definitely had a plan boiling in his young mind. As he began to run down the hill, a shrill voice spoke into his ear.
"Where ya goin', chump?" said the voice of Tokkori. "It's midnight, breakfast isn't for another 6 hours!" Kirby ran past him, ignoring him. Tokkori gave chase and continued to taunt him.
"Honestly, are you ever not hungry? All you ever do is eat, sleep, and breathe." he taunted. Kirby turned around and faced him, rage glowing in his eyes.
"Go...away..." Kirby growled menacingly. Tokkori looked shocked.
"You...can talk?" he whispered. "OK, so eat, sleep, breathe, and TALK. What else can you do?"
"This." Kirby growled as he opened his mouth and took an enormous breath of air, inhaling anything in front of him into his gaping mouth like a black hole. Kirby pulled Tokkori in and spit him back out in the form of a star, sending the bird sailing.
"Stay away. My hill." Kirby said triumphantly as he ran the rest of the way down the hill.
Kirby reached the top of the hill and bounded into Cappy Town, and running into a few people who were out at midnight in the process, bounded out of it and up the pathway leading to the castle. Just as he reached the doors, he was stopped by two Waddle Dees, each carrying spears.
Kirby didn't have to think twice. He inhaled both of the Dees and swallowed them. Nothing was going to stand in his way, for Dark Matter was his, and his alone. He raced past Meta Knight, Tiff, Tuff, and everyone else's rooms, waking them up in the process.
"Kirby, stop!" Meta Knight yelled. He was too late, though. Kirby had already turned the corner and reached the landing place of the Halberd.
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Quietly, Kirby looked for an entrance. He found the giant rockets at the back end of the ship, and quickly, he climbed into one of them. He discovered it was sealed tight, so he turned around and came face to face with a Waddle Dee. The Dee lifted it's spear, but Kirby inhaled the Dee and spit him back out into the door as a star. The door (and the Dee) exploded on contact with each other, and Kirby entered the ship's engine. Upon entry, he ran through the engine room, bounded up the stairs, and reached the doors to the deck. They were locked. Frustrated, Kirby slammed his fists against the door.
He suddenly had an idea. He ran back towards the engine and jumped out, then he turned around and took a huge gulp of air. He began to suck up the entire engine, using all his strength and power until the entire ship began to move towards him. One of the rockets ripped off of the back of the ship, and Kirby swallowed the entire thing whole.
Kirby began to spin around rapidly and glow. This happened for a few seconds, until Kirby had become a living rocket. "MISSILE!" Kirby screamed as he launched through the roof of the castle and into space.
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Meta Knight finally arrived at the Halberd, where he discovered that one of the rockets had been destroyed, and an unconscious Waddle Dee. Tiff ran into the room.
"Where's Kirby?" she asked him.
"Where destiny chooses for him to be." Meta Knight answered thoughtfully, looking at the moon through the hole in the sky. With those words, he left. Tiff looked at the moon.
"Good luck, Kirby." she whispered to the wind.
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For the past hour, Kirby had been flying through the wonders of the universe, to the edge of where so many had only dreamed to be. But he had no time to appreciate the wonders of the solar system...
For someone had hell to pay, and Kirby was going to deliver.
Kirby ran right into an asteroid field, and found himself having to narrowly avoid asteroid after asteroid. The Missile ability was incredibly quick, but reckless, and hitting anything would cause him to lose the ability, which would cost him his life. He quickly moved right to avoid one, but almost hit another in the process. Quickly, he spun northwest while still moving forward to avoid them both. Another asteroid sailed at him, and he narrowly squeezed under it and above the one he had just dodged. He moved right again to avoid another, but another one flew toward him at the same moment....
But the asteroid was colored black. Before Kirby could respond, it turned around, opened an enormous red eye, and headed for Kirby. Kirby went straight down to avoid the black cloud, but it followed him just as easily. Hoping to lose it, Kirby sailed right back into the asteroid field again, narrowly avoiding getting hit. He heard an explosion, and realized without looking that the cloud had just destroyed the asteroid. Kirby sailed straight up, then right, then straight down. The cloud predicted this and flew in front of him, blocking his way. Kirby tried to run, but the cloud got him first. It phased right through him, causing his missile ability to explode. Kirby, now back to normal, fell on top of an asteroid. The cloud then opened ANOTHER red eye. It had TWO.
The cloud flew at him in a rush and Kirby jumped off the asteroid just as it phased through it, destroying it. It then phased through Kirby, who suddenly felt weak and disorientated. He landed on another nearby asteroid with a crash. The cloud got ready, and sailed at the unconscious Kirby, phasing through both him and the asteroid. Kirby lost consciousness just as the asteroid he was on exploded.
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It had been a week since Kirby had left, which meant two more planets and two more satellites had been hit by the black fog during his absence. Curio looked through his telescope. He could just barely make out the enormous shape of the black fog, coming ever closer to it's next destination.
Tiff was worried sick about Kirby. Literally. For the past week, nobody had seen her outside of her room, for reasons nobody could guess. She barely slept, she barely ate... she always awaited Kirby's return...every day and every night.
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"The 'Black Fog' could be here in about three days." Curio announced. "It was last spotted on a planet right next to us. This means that all of Dreamland may have to evacuate...very soon. Unless Kirby arrives, the universe as we know it is doomed."
These words were met with panic and fear the likes of which Dreamland had never seen. Their star warrior had abandoned them, and now, they had three days to escape...or they would be destroyed with their planet.
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Tiff whispered something under her breath, praying that it would work.
"Warpstar..."
Somewhere far away, Kabu opened his mouth and echoed the words "Warpstar", and a warpstar flew out of his mouth and sailed into space, looking for Kirby.
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"BWAHAHAHA! I told you Kirby was a liar! He betrayed you all when you needed him most!" Dedede laughed. Meta Knight grabbed Dedede by his throat.
"Kirby is not a liar, you bloated, lazy, self-centered jackass!" he roared. "As if you've done anything for this planet when WE needed you most! All you did was buy those damn demons from the enemy, all you did was make things worse!" Rage boiled in Meta Knight's eyes.
"Then why did he leave, then?" DeDeDe asked nervously. At those words, Meta Knight stopped.
"...He left because I left and didn't return. He presumed me dead and he swore revenge." he replied.
"Then..." DeDeDe said smugly. "It's your fault! Go tell all of Dreamland that the real reason they are all going to die is because YOU had to go inspect things!" At this, Meta Knight put his sword to DeDeDe's throat.
"I'll go find Kirby myself. That's a promise." Meta Knight said, letting go of Dedede.
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The warpstar finally reached Kirby after a full day, and it found him floating in space only half alive. The warpstar flew under him and lifted him up, then slowly, it began to sail back home. The warpstar sailed through space, carrying the slowly dying Kirby with it. It flew through the asteroid field, past stars and planets...
It had flown for about a half-hour when it slowly passed by the black fog. The fog opened not one, not two, but THREE huge eyes, and three small clouds split from it and flew after the warpstar. The warpstar tried to escape, but they were catching up and Kirby was slowly falling off..
"OVER HERE!" yelled Meta Knight's voice. The warpstar noticed Meta Knight, flying on the repaired Halberd, and it flew towards him. The warpstar landed on the deck while Meta launched a missile at the clouds from the cannons on the ship. The missiles homed in on the eye of one of the clouds, hitting it dead-on 5 times. The eye exploded into chunks and the cloud decinegrated. The other two gave chase and Meta launched another missile as he set the ship to go towards Dreamland. The clouds easily rolled around the missiles and continued to relentlessly chase the ship. Meta launched another missile at them, but again, they both dodged it effortlessly. The clouds flew straight up, and Meta watched as they flew down like missiles... right towards Kirby.
Meta screamed in rage, and his cape transformed into a pair of wings. He flew towards the clouds, sword drawn, and flew right into them. They phased through him and exploded, and Meta Knight fell back onto the ship. He dropped his sword just as his blood ran cold.