King Dedede was hesitant as Bandanna Dee left the throne room quietly. He hadn't exactly told the full truth to his subject, he thought sadly.

As he began to tug on a corner of the long, rolled-out carpet adorned in his throne room, he stared mellowly at his makeshift creation in the middle of the throne room. It looked almost like some sort of elevator, except that instead of a deep corridor above or below the large disk on his floor, it was instead stuck in place, wires and circuits haphazardly placed around the strange creation by the King himself. He let out a long, thoughtful sigh, thinking about the object in front of him.

"Obviously Meta Knight was a little tipsy when he said that this thing could have been some kinda… Warp. Thing." The King grumbled to himself, wrapping a wire around a screw as he ensured the connection was stable. He had yet to actually try the device, as he had been attempting the entire time to figure out some sort of way to control the stupid thing. He had attempted to read some of the old texts from his library, but the strange writings of the ancients had only left the king more confused than he was when he had started. But it was just the concept that had gotten the King excited. With the knowledge and power of the ancients, this crummy little 'warp' device could be his key to finding great powers and technologies, far beyond even his own great comprehension. Or, y'know, even just figuring out multi-dimensional travel that didn't get him eaten by an evil void monster would be cool. He would take what he could get at this point.

Dedede let out a sigh as he finished wiring a part of the device. He had been thinking a lot about the past few years of his life. Robot invasions, bug invasions, and the most recent, weird magical-super-demon-wizard invasions had made the supposed 'Great King' grovel before, in his own personal way of putting it, 'show-offs' that had made his own brand of antagonism look almost friendly in comparison.

Well, it was friendly, the penguin contemplated. Sure, he had made some selfish decisions here and there, who doesn't? He took his defeats in stride, he used them to better himself. He always had, and as far as the King was concerned, that was all he needed to do to be better than the ones that would consider his home, his kingdom as some playground they can just trample over entirely because the big penguin in charge isn't a complete prick.

But that was the problem; That was what enraged the king so much.

They all were so close to success.

He had been snatched by the weird bug guy and had to be saved by his nemesis for what felt like the hundredth time. His subjects were mechanized and enslaved against their will after that, again, he had to be saved by the little squirt. His world, no, his galaxy was nearly destroyed, more than once had it not been for the little puffball he had wanted gone many times. He begrudgingly had to respect it. After all, the wad of gum was shockingly more effective than any of HIS attempts. The thought made the penguin clench his tool tightly, squinting to himself as his brain began to wander to dark memories yet again.

Possessed. Controlled. Treated like some sort of weapon to swing at his own friends. It happened a lot. Too much, in Dedede's opinion. Something had to change, and this-

The King's own thoughts began to take hold of him as he worked, the large penguin almost not noticing as he accidentally slit himself along the hand with his trusty screwdriver. A tiny bubble of blood had built upon his hand before he had even taken the time to notice, the wound sobering the King back into reality.

"...oh. Crud." He grumbled, slowly standing up as he placed his free, non-bleeding hand over the small cut, sighing as he wandered behind his throne to pick up a roll of bandages. They lay in a crate set very precisely behind Dedede's throne, along with a few spare food items, and a weapon, the mighty hammer. He didn't take kindly to not having his weapon of choice where and when he needed it, especially after… certain incidents.

He sighed, slowly sitting back down on his throne as he wrapped his hand in the bandage. He had to stop getting so deep into his own head. This was why he hasn't been able to get anything done on the device, anyways. Who would think that King Dedede, ruler of Dream Land, would be so… weak? He couldn't bear to let his sentiments show, not to his Waddle Dees, not to Meta Knight, and as much as he had recently grown fond of Kirby-

"USER REGISTERED. -. KING DEDEDE OF DREAM LAND. WELCOME TO N.M.E." a mechanical voice suddenly shot out from the room. The penguin, startled, jumped, the King's throne falling backward as Dedede's eyes nearly shot out of his head. He poked said eyes out from behind the now flipped throne, the King's trusty hammer already clenched in his hands, a sharp pain stinging from his accident. He scanned the throne room, looking for any sort of threat that would surely attack him at any moment. Instead, all that sat in front of Dedede was a shining light, a hologram coming from the device he had spent nearly months working on.

"It… It works?" Dedede squinted, his head extending out from behind the throne just the slightest bit more. He hadn't expected something like this to just suddenly talk, let alone know his name. It was a bit… Strange, to say the least.

"INDEED. - USER REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT FINALLY MET. AGREEMENT MADE." The mechanical voice responded, Dedede slightly squinting. He got out from behind his throne, pointing his hammer nervously at the intruder.

"Hold on, pal, I don't know what this 'reggie station' thing is, but I know for certain that all I did was what I've been doing for months now," Dedede growled, pointing the hammer at the disc-shaped object on the floor with a slight shiver.

He didn't understand the words before it, but one word he sure recognized was 'agreement'.

"What did I do so differently to suddenly wake you up now?!" The penguin barked, demanding an answer from the machine. Suddenly, the symbols adorning the original ancient device began to glow a sickly, unnatural purple, a light-emitting from the very bottom. It flowed out of the machine like a waterfall, Dedede watching with a twinge of uncertainty as the light eventually created a picture. It appeared to be a human. This took Dedede by a morbid surprise. According to Meta Knight, humans were a species that was in much more dense parts of the galaxy, typically keeping to themselves on their own worlds as they fought amongst themselves, rather than on other worlds. What was one of THEM doing here talking to HIM?

The guy looked like nothing but trouble, with a very spiffy-looking suit and tie in the camera frame. The human's eyes were covered by an extremely thick pair of yellow glasses, so thick that the King couldn't make out any form of eye shape behind them. It bugged the penguin slightly, although seeing that the Man didn't pose any sort of direct threat calmed the king at least. He leaned against his hammer, an untrusting look plastered on his beak as he watched the man begin to speak.

"King Dedede, I take it?" The human asked in a very sleazy voice. Dedede would have visibly cringed, had he not been trying to figure out this holographic intruder's deal. The penguin slowly nodded in response to the question, a very familiar twinge of uncertainty taking hold of the Great King's mind.

"Great! Glad that the contributor is an old friend!" The man chortled, leaning into his camera. His figure was very square, his shoulders constantly propped up in an angular fixture. His steely gaze gave the King a slight uneasy twinge of familiarity.

"...hold on, contributor? Friend? Agreement?! I haven't seen your chiseled mug an inch across… Well, now that I think about it, anywhere! The hell do you think you are?" The penguin grumbled, clenching his hammer with annoyance. The man on the other side of the screen didn't flinch, slowly leaning backward slightly in what seemed to be ponderance.

"I'm a happy, honorable salesman of a… Slightly less of an honorable corporation." The self-dubbed salesman explained, his shoulders slightly raising to indicate his indifference. "It simply fell through. Now I'm just a lonely corporate executive with nothing to do!" He sighed sarcastically, his voice sickly sweet with attempted sympathy. Dedede on the other hand grimaced, squinting with immediate suspicion.

"Riiiight. So you're one of those haltwork mooks." The penguin took a step forward, glaring deeper into the holographic haze the ancient device was now emitting. The salesman stared back, frowning slightly as he gave the King a shrug.

"I, unfortunately, have no idea who these 'mooks' of yours are, Triple D! I, sincerely, from the bottom of my dear little heart have NO connections to any of your old foes!" The suspicious man chortled, the penguin across from him staring holes through the holographic projection. "But I can understand the glare, especially from someone with such… History as yourself." The salesman chuckled.

This sparked the King's rage more than much else in the past few months, the hulking end of a hammer blurring through the green-hued picture in front of him. The salesman didn't react, nor did he laugh. This enraged Dedede even more, the King slamming his hammer to the ground, a few things rumbling with the force of the impact. Still, the salesman remained undisturbed.

"WHO ARE YOU!? You're either a HUGE liar or a horrible salesman, cause I'm not buying any of this crap. Who are you working for?!" Dedede snarled, refusing to swing at the projection again, despite how he was holding his hammer. The salesman stared for a flat minute, eventually smiling even wider.

"Lie? Me? Nothing I've said has been a lie." The salesman laughed, slightly adjusting his thick, almost fogged-over glasses with a slow sigh. "And as for my work… Well, again, I'm not familiar with any of your adversaries." He shrugged yet again, slowly leaning in. "Of course, except for you."

Dedede paused in his gradual build of aggression, the penguin tilting his head.

"M-me? What?"

The stars glistened from the window of the Great Fox almost a little too brightly. Typically the sheen of the far-off worlds was enjoyable, even relaxing to the eyes in circumstances. Never did they feel as… Uncomfortable as they did tonight, setting the mood on the great metallic ship to one of discomfort.

"Hey, Pep, you've been staring at yer feet for like. 20 minutes now… I went n' grabbed you a coffee." A snide voice mumbled from behind. Peppy O'Hare jumped nearly 5 feet off the metallic, shining ground, turning around to his much younger co-pilot, Falco Lombardi. The bird looked down at the older rabbit with a sigh, the latter taking one of two cups of hot coffee in Falco's wings. The two respectfully nodded at one another, drinks being quietly drunk as the stars outside rolled by, the space of the room becoming slightly calmer to Peppy.

"...Thanks." The rabbit sighed, placing his cup of coffee on a nearby counter, slowly strolling down to the main deck of the ship he had called home for quite a long time now. The cool, gray hue of the inner design was typically enough to keep Peppy's nerves down, but today something was very obviously wrong, especially if he was faltering enough to make his crewmates aware of his recent mood. But what was wrong? He couldn't put his finger on it, considering the galaxy had been at peace for quite a while, at least since the defeat of Andross.

Not many men heard the name 'Andross' and survived, before Star Fox's large intervention in the Lylat System's conflict, a fact Peppy took slight pride in. Comparing how an average conversation a few years ago would have gone compared to how they did now were night and day; Star Fox had done the impossible job of giving Lylat hope. But that was the thing.

And now what?

"Uhhh. Pep?" Falco mumbled again, a feathery hand on Peppy's shoulder taking him back from his own thoughts… Again. The older man let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead with his hand.

"I'm sorry, Falco. I don't know what's come over me today." Peppy gradually frowned, stroking his chin with a look of conflict in his experienced eyes. This wasn't like him; Was he just getting old? He looked back out into the window, slowly sighing. Falco rolled his eyes, kind of sighing.

"You're good, pops. It is a bit late for you, maybe you just need to start hittin' the hay a bit faster." The falcon snickered to himself, smirking as he looked away from Peppy and took a sip of his drink. The whirring of the air conditioner blowing in his face soothed Falco; Peppy acting strange wasn't a typical thing. He was a rickety old coot, but if Star Fox didn't trust the old hare's eyes and ears, he wouldn't be standing right next to Falco; the rabbit's ears propped down in fear as he stared out at the window. Good old Peppy.

Hold on a second; fear was Slippy's thing.

"Falco." Peppy rasped, nervously putting a shaky hand on the Falcon's much more sturdy arm. Falco stared back, slightly tensing up a bit himself as he watched the old rabbit's figure quake like a shattered asteroid chunk. Falco's eyes slowly darted along Peppy's outstretched arm. Curving around his shoulder, Falco's gaze followed out into the window in which Peppy was staring. The stars glistened brightly, and this slightly annoyed the bird, who glared over at his co-pilot, his eyes now only crackling with a waning seriousness.

"The hell's your problem? I see nothing." Falco squinted, following Peppy's gaze. The rabbit let out a quivered sigh, attempting to keep himself calm.

"Falco," He rasped;

"I think the stars are blinking."