Chapter 2
A few peaceful days had passed and it was a normal day. Tiff, Tuff and their family were sitting around the television, although Tiff wasn't watching the show, she was reading a book instead.
"This show is getting boring!" Tuff groaned, getting up from the couch. "I'm gonna go out to play."
"I'll come with you." Tiff said, closing her book and following Tuff.
"Have fun!" Their mom said.
They made their way through the castle and down the path to Kirby's house. The sky was cloudy and there was a small wind. When they reached Kirby's little round house, they knocked on the door.
"Do you think he's awake?" Tuff asked. He knocked on the door again.
Kirby opened the door, rubbing his eyes. Tokkori fluttered behind him, muttering about being woken up.
"Hey, Kirby, wanna come play with us?" Tuff asked. "We're going to go find Iroh and the others and see if they want to play with us too."
"Poya!" Kirby agreed and ran out of the house and the three friends walked down to Cappy Village to find their other friends.
When they reached the town, they found a small gathering of people by the tree in town square, with Iro, Spikehead, and Honey in the center.
"I'm telling ya, there's something weird going on over there!" Iro insisted. The other friends they usually played soccer with nodded in agreement. "We saw a monster creeping around there!"
"Oh come now. I'm sure you're mistaken and just saw a wild boar or some other animal." The mayor replied.
"But it's true, it was a monster with a spiked head!" Iro insisted. The crowd of adults dispersed, shaking their heads and Iro called after them, "Wait, where are you going! It's true!"
"Hey, what's going on?" Tuff asked Iroh as they approached.
"We went out to play soccer and.." Iro stammered.
"Something is wrong with the woods!" Honey exclaimed fearfully.
"A monster?" Tiff asked, alarmed.
"No, the whole forest looks like it changed! It looks really creepy!" Iro answers.
"We ran so fast we forgot the ball." Spikehead adds.
"We'd better go investigate." Tiff decided.
"So much for our soccer game." Tuff sighed.
"Oh relax, they just said they lost the ball and I doubt Kirby would volunteer to be its replacement anyway." Tiff replied, crossing her arms.
"Puyo!?" Kirby asked.
"Well, come on, let's go check it out." Tiff said. She motioned for Kirby and Tuff to follow her as she ran off.
They headed to the spot where Iro said that they'd been playing soccer, which was the same place they'd been picking berries in two days before.
When they could see the woods, they gasped in surprise. Even from a distance, they could tell the forest had changed. The tree's trunks had twisted and knotted, with spiky branches reaching into the dense leaves, which were so darkly colored they almost looked black.
"Woah, it looks completely different!" Tuff exclaimed.
"But how? We were here two days ago and it didn't look anything like this!" Tiff added in shock.
"I suspect that there is something else causing this." Meta Knight's voice made them turn around. He was standing on a stump that was behind them, wrapped up in his blue cape. He looked beyond them at the forest.
"What are you doing here, Meta Knight?" Tuff asked.
"I heard about something strange happening to the woods, so I came to investigate." Meta Knight answered.
"That's what we came to do too. We heard about the woods from Iro." Tiff explained. "What do you think is going on?"
"I'm not sure. I don't believe King Dedede has ordered any more monsters." The knight replied. He paused and looked around, "Wait, did you bring Kirby with you?"
"Huh? Yeah, he's right.." Tuff looked next to him and he and Tiff looked around them to find that Kirby had vanished.
"Kirby?" Tiff called out. "Kirby?"
"He was right here! Where did he go?" Tuff said.
They all turned to look at the woods and gazed at it for a moment.
"Oh no! You don't think he went in there looking for berries, do you?" Tuff asked.
"This is not good. He could be in danger." Meta Knight jumped off of the stump and started running to the woods.
—-
While his friends had been talking, Kirby had spotted Iro's soccer ball and went to get it. It was just inside the woods, so he wandered in mindlessly.
When he finally reached the ball, he hit it with his foot on accident because he wasn't paying attention. The ball rolled away from him and down a short slope, so he gave chase, following the rolling ball down the hill.
The ball came to a stop and Kirby picked it up with a cheerful sound. Before he could leave, he heard a rustling sound from one of the bushes and turned to face it curiously.
Suddenly, a herd of large boar-like creatures covered in spikes came charging out of the bushes at him and he yelped in surprise, doing a full 180 and bolting the other way as the creatures gave chase. They made grunting and snuffling sounds from behind him as they herded him deeper into the woods.
—-
Meta Knight found a round footprint in the dirt and determined which way Kirby went, and they quickly ran after him. They arrived at the bottom of the slope and the knight knelt down to examine the ground.
"Hmm." Meta Knight looked to one side.
"What is it?" Tiff asked.
"There's been a stampede through here." Meta Knight noted. "It looks like Kirby was chased that way."
He ran off after Kirby's trail and Tiff and Tuff followed him through the trees. Suddenly, he looked to his left.
"Stop!" He ordered, holding out his arms to block Tiff and Tuff from running any further just as a monster burst out of the woods in front of her.
"Oh!" Tiff and Tuff shouted in alarm.
"Stay back!" Meta Knight ordered as he drew his sword. The monster was twice his size, brown, and had rows of jagged quills on its back.
The monster launched a horde of quills towards them, and Meta Knight deflected some of them with his sword while Tiff and Tuff both ducked behind a tree with a shout. The quills struck the tree and stuck out of the bark.
"Go, Meta Knight!" Tuff cheered as Meta Knight sliced a number of the monster's quills off its back. The knight made the monster retreat back a little ways before launching another quill attack, which he dodged, all except for one quill that cut through his cape. He attacked from the side and landed a blow on the monster's back.
"Run, now!" Meta Knight yelled to Tiff and Tuff.
Tiff grabbed Tuff's arm and pulled him along, darting behind Meta Knight. They had barely made it behind a tree when the monster launched another quill attack, sending them flying in all directions. Meta Knight took action and sliced several out of the air and ran at the monster. He jumped off the side of a tree and used his special blade attack to slice the monster down the middle of its forehead. The monster growled and then disappeared into a cloud of lightning.
They heard Kirby's voice shouting somewhere in the distance and didn't waste any more time. They ran towards the sound of Kirby's voice.
—-
Kirby had been chased by the stampede into a more open part of the woods. He fell off a short drop as he was trying to run away and landed on his face. The creatures that were chasing him fell down the drop as well, hitting the ground where they were stunned for a few seconds. There was a large, monstrous sound as the ground shook.
"Puhpuhya!" Kirby exclaimed as he was nearly shaken off his feet. He looked over to see the cause of the disturbance and saw a ginormous plant in the center that was raising its thick vines into the air. The area around it looked dry and drained, as if the monster was taking everything out of the forest and warping it.
The monstrous plant took a swing at Kirby with one of its vines, also wiping out a good number of the smaller monsters that were pursuing Kirby a few seconds earlier. Kirby shouted in alarm and dodged the attack. There were small buds at the bases of the vines, and one shot a cloud of yellow pollen toward Kirby, who ran away from it. He couldn't escape the fight because the plant blocked his only exit with a wall of vines.
"Puh puh poya!" Kirby screamed for help as he did his best to dodge the vine and pollen cloud attacks. "PUH POYA!"
—-
"We're coming, Kirby!" Tiff shouted. "Hang in there!"
The group ran towards Kirby's screaming and yelling, and Meta Knight already had his sword drawn. In his haste to find Kirby, Tuff almost ran off the ledge and into the range of the attacking monster, but Meta Knight pulled him back from over the edge.
"Whew, thanks." Tuff said, looking relieved.
"Kirby!" Tiff shouted as she saw her pink friend running for his life from a giant plant monster. Kirby looked up at them and then almost got crushed by a vine.
"What is that thing?" Tuff asked, pointing at the giant monster.
"It reminds me of the Pukey plant. Remember the one we needed to fight to wake Kirby up after King Dedede tricked him?" Tiff said.
"Pyuoh!" Kirby's shout brought their attention back to the battle as he was knocked aside by one of the vines. The center buds of the flower trembled and suddenly ejected round, spikey balls into the air. They landed and unfolded before charging at Kirby.
"Those things are monsters!" Tuff exclaimed as he watched the spiky spheres running after Kirby.
"Torple Flower." Meta Knight said quietly.
"Huh?" Tiff and Tuff looked at him.
"The monster." Meta Knight explained vaguely.
Kirby was being swarmed by the tiny monsters shooting needles at him, and the plant produced more to replace any that it crushed on accident. Kirby was now trying to dodge the swings from the plant's vines, the pollen attacks and running from the monsters.
"It's too strong." Meta Knight muttered in quiet alarm.
"Kirby's really in trouble now!" Tuff said, but Meta Knight had taken action before Tiff's brother could finish speaking.
Meta Knight jumped down, drawn sword in hand, as he navigated through the chaos and he used two consecutive sword beam attacks to slash through a vine that Kirby hadn't seen because of the spiked monsters swarming him. The vine fell and crushed a few of the spiked creatures along with shaking the ones on Kirby off.
"Kirby! Here!" Meta Knight used his sword to swat one of the mini monsters at Kirby, although at the cost of him being knocked aside by one of the monster's vines. He landed on his feet a distance aways.
Kirby got in his ready stance and sucked in the little monster and then transformed into Needle Kirby. Tiff and Tuff cheered him on.
Meta Knight quickly took care of many of the smaller monsters, though they weren't very strong, they did get in the way and slow him and Kirby down by crowding them or blocking their paths, he also started sawing through any vines near to him. Meanwhile Kirby was throwing needles into the sides of the monster, trying to break through the inner wall to get to the center.
Kirby was using his needle attacks to cut into the thick sides of the flower monster, even taking out a few of the pollen blasters. The monster shrieked and produced more needle monsters, and the vines that had been sliced off started to glow and grow back.
Tiff and Tuff gasped.
"That's one strong monster!" Tuff exclaimed in disbelief.
"Poyo!" Kirby shouted and launched a flurry of needles at the monster, ripping through some of the vines and through the thick walls of the flower.
"Kirby! Look out!" Tiff screamed as one of the remaining vines hit Kirby from behind, knocking him back. He hit the side of a ledge and coughed up the needle enemy he'd swallowed before transforming back into his normal self. The pollen blasters on the side started to swell and expand.
"Kirby!" Meta Knight pushed Kirby out of the way as the pollen blasters exploded and shot it in every direction. The knight got a facefull of pollen, and felt glad he was wearing a mask. He blinked the pollen out of his eyes and lunged towards the center of the flower.
Kirby's last attack had carved him a clear path, so all he needed to do was avoid the incoming vines and make his way to the center. He jumped onto one of the vines and it launched him into the air. He focused all his energy into his sword and launched two sword beam attacks into the center bud of the monster, splitting it into two.
The monster shrieked and exploded into a giant cloud of smoke.
"Kirby! Meta knight!" Tiff shouted as she and Tuff ran down into the clearing to look for them.
"Over here, Tiff." Meta Knight's voice said. They spotted his shape through the smoke as it cleared and he was standing next to Kirby's round, pink shape.
"Kirby!" Tiff explained, running over to her pink friend.
"Poya..?" Kirby sat up and blinked.
"Thank goodness you're okay!" Tiff said, giving him a hug.
"Poya poyo!" Kirby said, bouncing up and down. He looked around and then stopped and said, "Poya?"
"The monster has been defeated. I suspect the change in the forest stemmed from this monster. It should return to normal soon." Meta Knight stated. His mask was covered in the yellow pollen from the flower monster.
"Gee, Meta Knight, maybe we should find you something to clean your mask." Tuff suggested.
Meta Knight let out an unamused, "Hm."
Now that the monster was defeated, they started on their way back through the woods, which slowly returned to normal around them. Kirby even found the missing soccer ball on his way out.
—-
Sword and Blade were patrolling the castle when they spotted the silhouetted shape of their lord, Meta Knight, turning the corner ahead of them. They hurried to catch up with him.
"Meta Knight!" Blade called out.
"Hey, Meta Knight!" Sword repeated, hand outstretched to get Meta Knight's attention.
Meta Knight turned around, mask still mostly covered in pollen. "Hm? What is it?"
"Ah, what happened to you?" Sword asked.
"It's nothing. I was on my way to wash it off." Their leader responded.
"Wtah atuob teh strange things at the woods?" Blade asked.
"The root of the problem was a monster. We took care of it, so the woods should return to normal." The knight replied.
"Huh? But the king didn't get any more monster deliveries today." Sword said.
"Hmm. Interesting." Meta Knight looked thoughtful for a moment before turning and walking towards his chambers to wash the pollen off his mask. Sword and Blade watched him go and then resumed their rounds.
Author's note: The story continues! Hope you all liked chapter 2 and there's more to come! I'm still working out what I should do for Blade's speech though, because he has that thick accent. I might have him speak normally around Meta Knight and Sword, but have some of his words a little scrambled around everyone else but we'll see. :)