Ch. 9 Was that a Cliché?

Tuffy tilted his head to the side.

"So, do we kill Gobbler or what?"

Kirby shrugged.

"Why not?"

The four Kirbys uttered various battle cries and launched themselves at Gobbler. But the giant shark had other ideas.

"WAIT! STOP! I JUST WANNA HELP!"

"HUH?"

The Kirbys stopped in mid-air, Matrix style, slowly drifting towards the cowering shark.

"I'm not the one who stopped the music! It was…It was…"

Tuffy detached himself from the floating mass of Kirbys and landed in front of Gobbler.

"Yes? Who caused us all this trouble?"

Gobbler pricked his invisible shark ears and started shaking.

"Oh no, He's on to me…"

Suddenly, the wall was ripped open and a strange dark red mass of something snatched Gobbler and crushed him in a fine silver dust, then waved at Tuffy and walked away.

The three other Kirbys stopped slowly jumping forward and fell down to where Tuffy was standing.

"That was weird…"

Tuffy groaned.

"Damn clichés. The person always gets killed moments before they can give the information needed to assist the heroes, a.k.a. us, so that the aforementioned heroes have to figure it out on their own."

The other three blinked.

"That was…what was that?"

Tuffy whipped out a Sword power.

"BIG DARK RED SCARY THING, HERE I COME!"

And, true to his headstrong nature, Tuffy left the other behind in a cloud of dust.

Kirby watched him go, Sheeby shook her head and rolled her eyes and Magicalrandomhappyvampirepuff Geeby picked up a music note and a shard from Gobbler's dust.

"Music…"

He threw the Mirror shard at Tuffy's really small silhouette. Tuffy sensed it coming with his special ninja powers he didn't know he had and caught it without slowing down.

Magicalrandomhappyvampirepuff Geeby flopped down onto the floor, and the purple and black stripes on it diverted their course and went around him.

"Now what? I'm getting bored of saying that all the time."

Sheeby squinted, but she had lost sight of Tuffy.

"Do we sit here until he comes back or follow him? Guys? Hello?"

She turned around and saw Kirby and Magicalrandomhappyvampirepuff Geeby running in the opposite direction.

"HEY! DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND! THAT'S KIRBY'S THING!"

Sheeby ran after them, eyes narrowed, and Kirby and Magicalrandomhappyvampirepuff Geeby stopped to wait for her. Sheeby was about halfway there when a trapdoor opened in front of her. She stopped, and stared down into its depths.

"Was I supposed to fall into that?"

Kirby and Magicalrandomhappyvampirepuff Geeby came up and stared too.

"Oooh…"

"Oooh… wait, is this another one of those shortcuts?"

"Probably."

Kirby thought for a moment, scratching his non-existent chin.

"Maybe it leads to whatever stopped the music."

"Dive time!"

Magicalrandomhappyvampirepuff Geeby dived expertly in and disappeared from view. Sheeby and Kirby shrugged and followed.

Once they were gone, Meta Knight materialised (by stepping out of the wall) and pressed a switch. The trapdoor clicked back into place and he walked off whistling 'Bicycle' by Queen.

…

Tuffy burst dramatically through the door, pulled out a machine gun and blasted everything in sight – well, that what he wanted to happen once he actually got to the secret end of the tunnel. He heard wings behind him and glanced behind. Meta Knight was winging his way up the tunnel. Tuffy frowned.

"What do you want?"

Meta Knight drew level with him and put a finger to his mask.

"I know whose stopping the music, but I'm not prepared to get killed for trying to reveal it to you."

"Hmm. I suppose that makes sense. So why are you following me?"

"Because if I follow the others, Sheeby will try to flirt with me."

"Ah. Yeah, she's annoying."

"Damn right."

"She tried to go out with Kirby."

"…Okay."

"Yeah, weird. Hey, here's the end of the tunnel!"

"Your welcome."

"What?"

"I kept you entertained while we were travelling."

"Oh. Thanks."

They emerged from the dark tunnel into a brightly-lit room surrounded by flames. Tuffy recognised it.

"It's the place we defeated Dark Mind in before we chased him on Warpstars."

Meta Knight landed and his wings vanished.

"But he's not here."

"He's not, but I am!"

The two swordspuffs turned and looked at the other occupant of the room curiously.

…

Mwahahahahha! Cliffhanger! Well sorta. I'm back! And I hope to finish this story in the next chapter. So long for now. Review if you like holidays. Good holidays.