A/N: Ehh... I'm having a difficult time trying to stay interested with the story. Maybe it's because I'm not writing too much action right now, but I hope that you'll be interested with this chapter for now. I also don't plan on letting this story die early.
Also, there are several swears in this chapter, along with refrences to alchol and smoking. I'll increase the rating to M, in case, you know, those kind of things aren't really accepted in T rated stories.
Anyways, onto chapter 3...
------------------
Rise of Dark Matter
Chapter 3
Meta-Knight, along with Kirby, Crystallis, and Will, followed Sir Charles as he led them towards Dedede's throne room. As they walked down the halls, Sir Charles turned towards Meta-Knight.
"May I ask what kind of urgent business you have with His Highness?" Charles asked.
"I've been concerned about that attack last night. Why would they attack Castle Dedede, of all places?" Meta-Knight replied and Charles nodded in agreement.
"That's been bugging me too, mate. Nothing ever came by that was unusual, and I know that there is nothing of possible value to those creatures in this castle."
"Are you certain? What about the treasury?"
"I'm the captain of the Castle Guard; it's my duty to make sure that the castle is safe and sound, along with its treasures. And as far as I know, there is nothing we haven't seen anything unusual around here."
Meta-Knight was now more concerned about the matter as he thought more about it. He was at one time employed under King Dedede, and he remembers nothing of that sort ever around either, but that was many years ago. He knew that things change along with the times, but he couldn't help but think that something was missing.
"Something bugging you, sir?" Crystallis asked as he placed a hand on Meta-Knight's shoulder.
"It's nothing, Chris." Meta-Knight replied as he didn't want Chris to worry over something like this either. The group continued to walk down the halls as they searched for Dedede's throne room.
In a town nearby, Kage sat in a bar, drinking a bottle of alcohol and smoking a nearly entire lit cigarette. He is similar to Kirby in appearance, being a puffball creature himself, except he was a brownish color instead of pink. He fancied a red headband and wore tan shoes as well.
"I'd like another drink," Kage stated to the barkeeper, a Waddle Dee in a suit. The Waddle Dee nodded and dashed towards where all of the back, where all of the alcoholic drinks were, but then went back a little bit.
"What do you want?"
"Whiskey on the rocks." Kage replied to the Waddle Dee. The Waddle Dee looked somewhat confused, but he quickly prepared the alcoholic beverage for the brown puffball. There was a green bugzzy seating beside Kage.
"Hey, Cid." Kage greeted as he puffed out some of the cigarette smoke.
"Yo, Kage." Cid replied as he asked for a beer. "I see that you didn't quit smoking, as usual."
"Who the hell cares?" replied Kage as squished the cigarette stub into a nearby ashtray. "I've been smoking for fuckin' three years, and I ain't dead yet."
The barkeeper came back with a bottle of beer and a mug of whisky, which he gave to each and quickly went to serve another customer.
Kage looked at his whiskey, as he quickly realized that the Waddle Dee actually put rocks into his mug of alcohol, and he sighed in aggravation.
"Fuckin' idiot..." Kage cursed softly as he drank the whiskey anyway. "What kind of a bartender does not know what 'whiskey on the rocks' means?"
Cid shrugged, "Cut him some slack, man. He didn't even have to give you that whiskey."
Kage gave out another sigh, "If he didn't give me that whiskey, he'd lose his fuckin' job for not serving the fuckin' customer!"
Cid could tell that Kage was in a fowl mood, and he wanted to stop the argument before it became ugly, "Alright, whatever."
Kage and Cid finished drinking, payed for their beverages, and started to leave the tavern. Until something caught Kage's eye, a fight inside the bar! Kage dashed towards it and joined in the fury of punches and kicks. Cid gave a glance at the bartender, who tried to protest towards the people fighting, but his words fell on deaf ears as he went to fetch something underneath the counter, and it was actually a shotgun.
"If you don't stop that fighting right now, there WILL be several fatalities!" the bartender shouted in anger as he pointed the firearm towards the area where there was fighting. Everyone, even the clearly drunk customers, stopped what they were doing and sat back down in silence. Kage walked back towards Cid.
"At least he knows how to deal with fights." Kage said, obviously somewhat disappointed.
"Well, let's go already." Cid replied. The two walked away from the bar and walked around town.
"Hey, aren't ya one of those Castle Guard chumps now?" Kage asked, sounding rather rude, but Cid knew him better than anyone else.
"Yeah, I work at the Castle Guard now. The pay's pretty good, and I like the guys there." Cid replied. "Why, you thinking about joining?"
Kage seemed to look somewhat interested in the offer, but he let it down anyway, "Nah, that's just not for me. Although I did hear that there was a big fight last night."
Cid nodded, "There was a fight last night, yes."
"Whacca fight?"
Cid placed a hand on chin, as if trying to remember, or describe, what exactly they fought. He didn't really know how to describe them.
"Well? Was it goons?"
"No, they were like demons or something…"
"Are you fuckin' serious? Demons again?"
Cid looked at him, "You've heard of other stories?"
"Damn right, I've heard a shit load of other stories like that. Course, I never believed that crap, but if they attacked here too…"
Cid looked at his friend, as if looking for an answer.
Kage slammed his fist into his other hand, "That must mean that they are pretty strong, right? Then I'd like to face some of those suckas."
"Are you going to join the Castle Guard then?"
"Fuck that shit. No offense, but I'm going to find them and face them all myself."
"Well, the king is probably going to organize a party to find them. It might be easier to join them, if he does decide to form one anyway."
Kage grinned at his friend, as he lit himself another cigarette. "Alright then, let's get goin'!"
The two friends then walked towards Castle Dedede.
"WHAT! Are ya accusin' me of taking somethin' of value of them freaks that attacked hea last night!" Dedede yelled, throwing a tantrum much like a selfish child.
"I'm not accusing you of anything, your highness." Meta-Knight replied, trying to keep his patience with the king. "I'm only asking you if you have anything like that, since I see no other reason why those demonic creatures attacked last night."
"And I've told you that I ain't got nothin' of that sort 'round hea! Do you understand me, Meta-Knight?"
Meta-Knight quickly figured that the king was lying; he knew how much he lied about these kind of things better than most. "I hate to tell you this, your highness, but I don't believe you. I will need some proof of this."
"Ya want some proof? Then look everywhere ya want! Ya'll find nothin' of that sort 'round hea!" Dedede yelled angrily as he sat back onto his throne. Meta-Knight sighed as he turned to leave, as he met back with his companions. Dedede continued to sit there, thinking.
Why did Meta-Knight think I had somethin' like that 'round hea? Maybe I'll gather a search team to find anythang like that, Dedede thought to himself.
Meta-Knight was back outside the throne room, looking at his companions, shaking his head at the group of four.
"It's no use, he doesn't seem to know of anything that could interest them." Meta-Knight stated.
"He may not know of it, but something like that could very well be hidden inside the castle. We should investigate this." Charles suggested.
"That's a good idea, Sir Charles. We should check the entire castle to find whatever could interest those demonic creatures."
"Hold up one damn minute."
The group turned and looked at Cid and Kage, who happened to hear the conversation so far.
"Just what the hell happened? I'd like a good explanation." Kage asked, talking with a cigarette in his mouth.
Meta-Knight, although somewhat surprised by their presense and even more confused about Kage's presense, explained to Kage the reason why he was here.
"Ah, so you're gonna leave every stone unturned until you find anything that could interest those demonic bastards that attacked here yesterday."
Meta-Knight nodded, "That's the plan, but may I ask just who you are?"
Kage puffed out some cigarette smoke as he began to introduce himself. "The name's Kage, and don't you forget it!" Meta-Knight already didn't like Kage, mainly because of his rude and cruddy behavior.
"I'm Meta-Knight, and these all my companions, Crystallis and Kirby. He's the captain of the Castle Guard, Sir Charles, and that's a member of the Castle Guard, Will."
Kage looked at them all; he's heard of some of them in some way. Kirby and Meta-Knight, he knew, were the heroes that ended the war with Dark Matter, and Charles was a well-known and highly-respected warrior of this region. He didn't know who the other two, Crystallis and Will, were, but he really didn't care. He dropped the cigarette stub onto the floor and stepped on it with his left foot.
"How do you two know each other?" Charles asked.
"Kage and I used to be sparring partners back in the old days. We used join fighting tournaments, and win them!" Cid replied.
"Until this sissy decided to join the Castle Guard." Kage stated. "But enough of that introduction crap, let's get started." Kage then walked forward, shoving Will to the side in the process. Charles lifted up Will and placed him back on his feet, while glaring at Kage's back.
The entire group looked at Cid, almost somewhat angerly. Cid looked at the group, and shrugged, "He might be fowl-mouthed and a little rude, but he's actually a nice guy deep down inside him."
"Maybe so, but I don't like his attitude at all." Charles replied rather bluntly.
The group then began searching the entire castle to find what they are looking for, but just what is it that they are looking for, and does this object even exist?
Darksol stood on the balcony of the ruined palace that is his headquarters. The wind blew his mantle towards the left of him, onto a railing, as he looked at the world. His loyal servant, a white and red garbed ninja named Hydra, submerged from the door behind Darksol.
"How fares the reconstruction of the Shadow Saber?" Darksol asked Hydra.
"Thing are going well with the Shadow Saber. We already have the basic shape and materials ready. All we need now is an alchemist and the artifact inside Castle Dedede to make it." Hydra replied.
Darksol growled softly, remembering Hydra's failure to capture the item last night, but he dropped the subject form his mind quickly. Even the best of men make mistakes sometimes. "But we do have an alchemist in mind, don't we?"
"We already found him, if that's what you mean. Reveal yourself!"
A dark blue Kirby like creature submerged. He wore a pair of glasses, along with a black long coat and matching gloves. He also wore a brimmed leather hat. "I'm Alan, pleased to meet you all." He greeted as he grinned at the two men.
Darksol already didn't like this man, he was too easygoing. And this is an alchemist? He looked like something from the streets. Well, he didn't care, as long as they found someone. "I'm Darksol, and this is my most trusted servant, Hydra." Hydra nodded in reposance.
"So, what is it that you two want me to do?" Alan asked, looking more serious now.
"Well, we'd like you to recreate our Shadow Saber and Celestial Body for us. But, the problem with that is that we don't have Kuragima, the Demon Scythe, that'll modify your abilities to the level you'll need to recreate them as we'd like them too. Doing such a thing without the Kuragima could be... disastrous."
Alan then looked at Darksol. "The Shadow Saber and Celestial Body? From ancient legends? Even with Kuragima's powers, I'm not sure if I have that kind of power…"
Darksol started to grow impatient, but he tried to the best of his ability to keep what's left of his patience. "I'd like you to at least try, after we the get the scythe, of course."
Alan grinned once again. "Alright then, it'll take me awhile though if I were to succeed. All of those stories you've heard about alchemy taking only a matter of seconds are false. Creating effective weapons and armor is extremely difficult and takes quite some time. Unless you wanted useless pieces of crap for weapons and armor."
"I understand, I'll give you all the time you need after we have gained Kuragima. You may leave now." Darksol concluded, unitentional sounding impatient. Alan then left the room to begin reviewing his upcoming work.
"I already don't like this man." Darksol whispered to Hydra.
"Do not fear, we'll deal with him if he tries anything stupid." Hydra replied, unsheathing his black katana called Muramasa.
Darksol nodded. "Question what he's doing before you do anything, though. I don't want to sacrifice important things if those sacrifices were not needed."
"But of course, sir." Hydra then sheathed the blade and turned to leave.
Darksol looked back at the world around his headquarters. He laughed softly to himself.
"I'll let you off the hook for now, Crystallis, since I now know where you are. But tomorrow, I'll bring you back here… where you belong, along with Kuragima!" Darksol laughed evilly and then went back inside the dark palace.
-----------------------
A/N: Still no action yet, but you are introduced to a few more characters. Anyway, I promise you action of some type on the next chapter, whenever it will be released. Anyway, comment if you want to. I'm off to do other things. (disappears)