Chapter 7: Trial by Fire

When Ledo regained consciousness, he didn't recognize where he was. The room was spinning so much that he couldn't even tell if he was at the base anymore. He lowered his head to prevent himself from becoming dizzy. His throat burned, and he felt awful. He was a soldier in the military, how could he have left his guard down?! No, berating himself won't make this situation any better. When his mind began to slow down, he realized that he was in the bunker connected to the outdoor testing ground. He tried to move his arms, but they were tied behind him with what felt to be rope. He tried to stand up, but his legs buckled as a sharp pain surged through his abdomen. It was probably a bad idea to try moving so soon after waking in his condition. He then noticed there was some gauze taped to the small nick he received earlier. Good to know his captor was at least kind enough to make sure his injuries won't become infected. Or maybe that's only because they needed him alive to use as some kind of bargaining chip. Seeing how it looks like he won't be going anywhere anytime soon, the young man decided to piece together what he remembers before being knocked out. He remembered dueling Meta Knight, breaking his mask, briefly seeing a white eye as he covered himself, the power going out, the squeaking invaders, and the almost gentlemanly voice of who or whatever knocked him out. Everything else after that he couldn't recall. He had several questions right now: what's going on? Is everyone in the base okay? Who or what invaded the base? What do they want? Unfortunately, even if he wanted to ask someone these questions, he wouldn't be able to understand the answer since the device that let him talk to Chamber was with Sailor Dee. Or, at least, it should be…

His thoughts were interrupted when the door opened, and three mouse-like creatures entered. One was yellow and wore sunglasses and a scarf, another was massive, blue, and wore an eyepatch, and the last one rode in a flying craft. They were talking between each other, but, of course, Ledo couldn't understand what they were saying. Furthermore, none of them sounded like whoever knocked him out in the first place. The ensign tried to stand up again but collapsed upon realizing how stiff they felt. The noise ended up drawing the attention of his captors, who turned over to meet his gaze. They began to talk with each other again, but they appeared to be debating something. After a few minutes, the one in the flying craft floated over and a claw came out of his machine holding a piece of paper. He spent a good five minutes clearing his throat before the yellow one yelled at him. He grumbled something under his breath before beginning to speak

"Hel..lo…we are the…Squeaks… we are a group…of intragalactic teives…"

Wait, is this mouse trying to speak to him in his language?

"We have taken…everyone… im this base… for ransom…" the mouse mumbled.

"We…are waiting…for negotiations… do not approach… the main con-trol room until it is…don." Ledo tried to hide his shock.

Everyone in the base is being held hostage? Is that why they were able to attempt to talk with him? Because they made Chamber translate their words so he could understand what was going on? Why would they do that anyway? If they're thieves, couldn't they just take what they wanted and go? It seems he'll need to get the answers himself. The mouse creature shook his head and floated off to speak with his allies, leaving Ledo to reflect on everything. If everyone is being held hostage, he'll have to figure out a plan. To him, the best option would be to contact someone from the outside, so the first location he should head to is the communications room. There should be a way to send out a distress signal in there. But there were two major flaws with that plan: he doesn't know where the room is, and he can't speak or read the language. It's a massive risk, but it's worth trying. As he watched his captors carefully, he began to turn his wrists to start loosening them from the restraints. Thankfully, they didn't seem to be too tight on him.

By the time Ledo freed himself, only the large mouse was in the room. The noisy snoring indicated that he was asleep. Slowly, the ensign stood up and tiptoed to the door, briefly stopping when he noticed the noise died down. It's too much of a risk to keep him conscious. The young man carefully walked up behind the giant mouse and locked him in a sleeper hold for ten seconds. Confirming the mouse's unconscious state, he used the rope that bound him to tie him tightly against the chair. On the console in front of the mouse was what appeared to be a map. While he couldn't read the writing on it, the drawings had markings that seemed to indicate where various rooms were. Just what he needed. He took the map and stashed it in his pocket. The next order of business was to find a way out of the bunker. The ensign remembered seeing an air duct in the room that he could probably fit through, he just needed to open the grate. It was quite convenient that the room he was in was the bunker next to the testing ground he repaired the Heavy Lobster on. The toolbox he used should be somewhere in this room. He opened one of the cabinets to find it sitting on the shelf.

"The entire toolbox will be too heavy to take, so I should just take the tools I might need…" the ensign thought as he put on a headlamp. He chose a hammer, two types of screwdrivers, and a wrench. "There's a chance this mouse's allies will return here if they notice he hasn't said anything in a while. I should work quickly…" Ledo thought as he unscrewed the bolts on the vent. The cover came off quite easily, allowing the ensign to slip into the vent undetected.

It was dusty and dark inside the vent. Bringing the headlamp was a good call. Ledo was thankful he wasn't claustrophobic, otherwise he would've probably had an even harder time. The young man crawled for a decent amount of time until he reached a wall. The only way to go from there was up. Taking advantage of the room he now had, he slowly began to stand up, putting his hand above him to check for anything. There was nothing above him, meaning that the vent continued upwards. Sighing, the ensign put his foot against one of the metal walls, his back against the other, and began to crawl like this up the vertical vent. It briefly crossed his mind that he could've just used one of the tools from the box as a weapon, but he snuffed it out upon realizing that he had no idea how guarded the thieves made the base and what they were capable of. As Chamber would've likely told him, the reasonable course of action would've been to proceed with caution by trying to act as stealthily as possible. He then felt himself be pushed into another vent by his feet. Looking up, the vent he was now in continued straight. The young man flipped himself over so he could crawl on his stomach and proceeded until he reached another grate in the ventilation system. Looking outside, he saw many tiny mouse creatures walking back and forth. There were various colors of them including yellow, green, blue, and even a few red ones. They spoke in high-pitched voices, but the young man could not understand them, of course. They appeared to be panicking, that he could tell.

"They must've discovered that I escaped…"

There's a chance those blobs were climbing their way through the vents after him. He'd have to work quickly. He pulled out the map from his pocket to take a look at it. The closest room to where he believed he was approximately had a telephone stamped onto it, likely indicating that this was the communications room. It seemed to just be ahead, so the ensign continued forward. After a few minutes, he reached another vent. Taking the hammer out of his pocket, the young man slowly widened the slots enough to fit a hand through before using a screwdriver to loosen the bolts. With one more push, the metal grate came off, allowing him to slip into the room.

To Ledo's surprise, there was no one inside the communications room. This would be one of the first places he'd expect those thieves to be if they were holding someone for ransom. The likely case was the main control room could fit more people, which is why the hostages are in there. The ensign dusted himself off and took the wrench out of his pocket. It would be good to have some kind of self-defense weapon just in case. Seeing that the coast was clear, he walked over to the computer. Next to the computer was a console, likely used to transmit radio signals. One of the buttons on there should send out a distress signal that can be picked up. His eyes fell upon a red button with an upside-down triangle on it. He pushed it, and a red light next to it turned on. The computer next to it turned on and looked like it was loading something.

After a few minutes, the familiar face of a Waddle Dee appeared on the screen. It seems that King Dedede's castle is the first emergency contact. Hopefully his army is decent. The Waddle Dee seemed panicked, likely knowing that being contacted this way was not a good sign.

"Nore'to tee lotafa? Notalo' metanaito? Nore' zobii ka?" the Dee spoke quickly.

While Ledo couldn't speak the language, there was still a way to communicate what was going on.

"Everyone on the Orange Island base is being held hostage. Please send help." The young man said slowly and calmly, using his hands to try and communicate with gestures, such as hugging himself to emulate rope tying himself.

The Dee seemed confused by this response, likely from both the game of charades and lack of language knowledge. It was then that Bandana Dee ran into the room, skidding across the floor and running to stand next to the Dee operating the device.

"Redo? Lore' refade re re reto?" Bandana's tone was calm, but it was clear that he was on the edge of full-on panic. Ledo repeated himself, using the same gestures he used when speaking to the other Waddle Dee.

"Everyone on the Orange Island base is being held hostage. Please send help."

For a moment, Bandana was confused until his eyes began to widen with horror.

The Dee ran off screaming "Nore de! Noreto' re katareto irereta re kaito irei reto!" unfortunately, it seemed to be a bit too loud, as the door behind the ensign opened and the sunglasses-wearing mouse stood there with the mouse blobs he saw earlier.

"I'to ka lo no!" the mouse charged at him with an animal claw, which the young man dodged, hitting him on the back of the head with the wrench.

The mouse was knocked unconscious by the blow. He then proceeded to do the same thing to the other mouse blobs in the room. The best option would be to wait for what he assumed would be Dedede's Army to come help them, but it would likely be too much of a risk. He might have to go to the main control room himself. That was when his solution came. He put the unconscious mice inside of the nearby closet and locked it. Now all he had to do was wait.

It was half an hour later when the mouse in the flying craft entered the communications room, seemingly calling out people's names. This was Ledo's chance. He took his wrench and hit the craft's side, hard. This caused the small mouse inside to panic as he was launched out of the vehicle. The young man grabbed him and then began to run through the hallways of the base. It seemed like a reasonable course of action; the mice blobs shouldn't attack him if he was carrying one of their own as a hostage. He had studied the map in order to figure out the path to the main control room. However, with all the adrenaline pumping through his body and the amount of split-decisions he had to make on each path, the whole base seemed to have turned into a labyrinth. The mice blobs chasing him only seemed to make it worse. They were likely being drawn to the noise his hostage was making. There were even a few running at him, which he batted away with the wrench. After several hours of running, he saw the door to the room in sight. It was a large door with a single light illuminating it, bright enough to see even though his eyes were blurring from sweat dripping into them. It was like a heavenly beacon. With one final sprint, he reached the spotlighted area, slamming his fist on the button. The door lock released, allowing Ledo to run inside. Entering the room was when the dizziness began to kick in. The young man hadn't realized it until now, but he was running on fumes this entire time.

Other than his panting, he could hear multiple voices in the room, but the one that was closest to him startled him the most. It was the exact same as the one who knocked him unconscious. He gripped the wrench and gave a mighty swing, only to be grabbed by his wrist.

"Kata, refa' to?" the voice said.

Ledo blinked a few times until his mind put together the image of a grey mouse in a red cape and hat in front of him. He tried to move his arm, but it would barely budge. It was at that moment he noticed the mouse hostage slip out of his arm.

"Chenba, lo so rede i no?" the mouse in red spoke.

"Ensign Ledo, please discontinue your attack."

The ensign's eyes widened "Chamber?!" he turned towards the voice to see an unexpected sight.

It was a large round table with a half-eaten cake in the middle. There was also a teapot, teacups, and other utensils used for teatime, but it was who was sitting there that surprised Ledo. Kirby, Meta Knight, and Captain Vul each stared at the young man with an expression equally as confused and surprised as the one he himself gave.

"I heard there was a hostage situation here…" Chamber translated for Ledo, once he was finally able to process this new information.

"HUH?! THERE'S A HOSTAGE?! WHERE?! IS IT DEDEDE!?" Kirby panicked, shooting up from his chair. He was about to run off until Meta Knight grabbed him, lifting him off the ground just enough so he couldn't walk away.

"Kirby, we were supposed to be the hostages…" Meta Knight sighed.

"Huh? Is having cake and tea what hostages do?" the pink puff asked.

"No, that's not it." The red caped mouse said, shaking his head.

This whole situation just further confused Ledo.

"Just take a seat and have a bite, kid. You look like you're about to pass out from lack of energy." Captain Vul said.

"Agreed." Chamber then spoke to Ledo. "Faitoka reto, yasuku sa na."

The young man nodded and sat at the table across from Meta Knight, putting the communication device on his collar. He pulled up the holographic screen he used to read translations.

"How do you take your tea, ensign?" the knight asked, pouring a cup for the young man before he realized something. "You've never had tea before, have you?" The ensign shook his head. "I see." The blue puff put in two cubes, a bit of cream, stirred it, and then passed it to Vul, who reached across the table to give it to the ensign.

"Thank you." The AI translated as he began to take a sip.

"Wait, be careful it's…" the lava-like liquid made the ensign nearly spit it out "it's still hot…" The young man could only glare in annoyance.

"You should blow on it if it's too hot! That's what I do!" Kirby exclaimed.

Now that he was brought down to a more relaxed state, now would probably be a good time to talk to him.

"Ledo, is it? I'd like to apologize for knocking you out earlier. My name is Daroach, the leader of the Squeaks." The mouse said with a bow.

"Would you care to explain why you knocked me out, Daroach?" Chamber's calm translation was a sharp contrast to the annoyed tone of the young man.

"Meta Knight and I will explain in a moment, but first…" he walked over to a cupboard. "Like Vul said, you should have something to eat…" as he opened the doors, there was suddenly a loud bang on the main control room's door.

Daroach looked over and began to slowly approach it. Another bang, but now there was the sound of metal cracking. Then another one, and another one. This continued until an axe burst in through the door. At that moment, Daroach descended further into a state of panic, now holding a fork as if it was his only line of defense. Meta Knight grumbled in annoyance about how he'll have to pay to fix the door while Kirby looked as if he was trying to think what he should do. With one more mighty swing, the axe broke a hole into the door. A familiar face peeked in through the door.

"HERE'S DEDEDE!" the penguin monarch shouted, sending the mouse into a screaming fit as he tried to stab him with the fork. Thankfully, Dedede was able to dodge that. The door then opened fully as Bandana Dee walked inside. "Huh? What's going on here? Wasn't Ledo trying to tell us there was a hostage situation?" the Dee asked. "It'll be a long story…" Meta Knight sighed as he turned his attention to Dedede and Daroach clashing with each other.

The penguin monarch and mouse thief were practically at each other's throats. While Bandana Dee ran back over, likely to try to calm Dedede down, the young man saw Meta Knight dive towards Kirby, covering two spots where his ears should be. The look on the child's face seemed to say that he doesn't understand why his mentor is doing this gesture. Frankly, Ledo doesn't fully understand why either. Captain Vul simply continued to eat his piece of cake and drink his tea as if this was a normal occurrence. The former mouse hostage only moped in another corner of the room. Throughout all of this chaos, the young man could only stare in confusion.

"Chamber, what are Dedede and Daroach saying?" the ensign asked.

"They seem to be references to excrement and the act of intercourse with one's mother." The AI replied.

"…what savages…" he sipped his tea in disgust.

It took several minutes for everyone to calm down, but soon everyone was sitting at the table passing the teapot and cut pieces of cake around. They seemed to say something as they did it. It made Ledo curious enough to ask.

"Chamber, do you know what they're saying?"

"They are saying 'thank you', it seems." The AI responded.

"Huh…"

The ensign appeared to be making a mental note to himself. After the cake and tea was passed around, that was when the discussion on what this situation was about. The first to start was Ledo, who explained what he did when he heard about the hostage situation.

"So, let me get this straight. Your first reaction to this situation was to escape and get help?" Meta Knight asked.

"Correct." Chamber translated.

"And to get help, you snuck through the air vents and took your own hostage to get to the main control room?" the knight continued.

"Correct."

"…I see." He lifted his mask slightly to take a sip of tea.

"Yeah, you both got a lotta explaining to do! I had things to do today, but you two had to go and ruin it!" Dedede grumbled.

"Great king, you were watching TV when I gave you the news…" Bandana sighed.

"I WAS TAKING A BREAK! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY AN' THAT! HOW'D YA THINK META KNIGHT TURNED OUT THE WAY HE DID!?"

The knight only huffed "Rich, coming from the man who caused a famine by taking all the food in Dreamland and the Sparkling Stars."

Dedede only smirked and leaned on the table. "Oh, you're tryin' to insult me by bringing up my past? How original, Mister "I'm Going to Take Over Dreamland and Change Its Lazy Lifestyle and Get Utterly Destroyed by My Own Student"!"

"He's done more to help Dreamland than you ever have."

"Can it, metal face!"

"A-anyway, Daroach, can you explain everything?" Bandana Dee interrupted the quarrel.

"Certainly." The mouse took a sip of tea before putting the cup down.

He began to speak "I guess you could say this truly started several years ago, when Meta Knight helped me out of a difficult situation. I was thankful for his assistance and asked him to call me if he needed help with anything so I could pay him back. Fast forward to three days ago, fairly late at night, when he called me up and said he wanted to ask me a favor. I agreed to it, seeing how I could finally pay him back, and then he asked me "how good are your men with acting". I gave the most reasonable response: "Excuse me?". He repeated himself, "how good are your men with acting?". Again, I gave the most reasonable response: "You have fifteen minutes to explain yourself before I hang up this phone"."

"The most reasonable response would've been to hang up…" the ensign thought.

Daroach continued "He then explained that there was this kid from the military who was planning on joining the Halberd crew and had to do some tests to be accepted. One of these was a test on how he would react to emergencies, such as…say…a hostage situation. I was hesitant to agree to it, seeing how he said this kid's pretty gutsy for someone his age and an actual soldier. I was fine with it when he gave me permission to confiscate your belongings when I knocked you out. Speaking of which…" he pulled out a drawstring bag from his cape and tossed it at Ledo. Inside it was his pistol and a single claw. Wait, didn't he have two claws?

"I think there's a claw missing from here." Chamber translated for him.

"Oh, the one that looks like a flute? I'm keeping that. You took down my whole crew, so I see it as fair payment." The ensign glared at him.

"You rat!"

Daroach grinned smugly "I'm a thief. That's a compliment to me."

All Ledo could do was grit his teeth in response.

That's when he remembered that one of the thieves had attempted to speak his own language.

"Daroach, one of your men tried to speak my language. Can you explain?" he asked.

"Ensign Ledo, I believe I could answer this question." The young man was startled by this sudden statement from Chamber. "The reason why the other members of the Squeaks could speak your language was because they were each given an earpiece that connected to a common device in this room. If they needed to speak to you for any reason, I was told to translate for them. All they would have to do is repeat what I was telling them. I was informed of this plan while you were taking the tests where I was not allowed to assist you." The ensign didn't know how to respond to this. His own AI partner was aware of and participating in this situation the whole time?!

"Yeah, this seems awfully complex for just a test thing, but I guess that's just expected of Meta Knight at this point." Dedede sighed.

"Wait, but how did you let them know when the time was right?" Kirby asked.

"I let Daroach inside the base during that walk I went on. He, Doc, and the Squeakers just had to wait until the power went off to begin. I had Sword Knight watch for me to escape. When I did, he shot a flare that signaled Blade to turn off the circuit breaker." Meta Knight explained.

"As complex as ever…" Bandana exhaled in annoyance.

"So why are you guys in here having tea and stuff?" The king asked.

That was when Captain Vul spoke "That was a last-minute addition. While we expected Lord Meta Knight's pink marshmallow student to come here, we thought he'd be more cooperative. He wasn't."

Kirby pouted "Because it's boring sitting around doing nothing! Plus, I was worried since Meta Knight seemed to hurt Ledo during his duel!"

"HE WHAT!?" Bandana and Dedede shouted simultaneously.

"It's just a scratch." Chamber translated for the ensign.

"No! He said something about you dueling him!" Dedede yelled.

"That was also a test." Ledo's words were translated. The king and his assistant could only look at the knight in what seemed to be horrified disgust.

Captain Vul cleared his throat "Either way, eating dessert here was the only way we were gonna keep the kid in here."

"Meta-sensei! You liar! You said this had nothing to do with the tests!" the young puff shook his mentor back and forth. It didn't do much, since the knight was firmly in his seat.

"Admittedly, yes, I did a bit to keep you here, but I did remember telling you that you would get dessert if you acted like an adult during the combat trials..." Meta Knight uttered.

"That's no better! META-SENSEIIIIIIIII!" The knight only sighed.

"Yeeeahhhh, Meta Knight? Sorry 'bout hitting your door with a fire axe..." Dedede nervously laughed while he rubbed the back of his head.

"...oh, no. That doesn't bother me at all. No, really." the blue puff replied, as his student continued to shake him.

"...you're mad." the king sighed.

While all of this seemed fairly complex, the young man could understand why the test was performed this way. Being told about this final test would've ruined the nature of it being a test of how the young man would react in times of emergency. Actual emergencies could appear at any time, with the only thing a person could do about them is preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. Meta Knight was testing how Ledo himself was prepared. While the scenario could've been a bit sourer to give it that feeling of being the worst, this was at least decent if he wanted to get a sense of it. These were the thoughts the young man had as he ate his piece of cake. While there were a few other side conversations going on, Meta Knight and Captain Vul in particular seemed to be discussing something while looking at a notepad.

After several minutes, the blue puff suddenly spoke towards him.

"Ensign Ledo."

The young man looked up upon seeing his name on the translator.

"Captain Vul and I have finished determining the final results of your tests. While there is some room for improvement, I'm content to say that you've passed."

The ensign was stunned once he finished reading the translation, as if he needed a moment to process this information.

"Meta-sensei, are you saying what I think you're saying!?" Kirby's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"That's correct. Ensign Ledo, Chamber, welcome to the Halberd crew." The knight said, in a tone that seemed somewhat warmer than the young man was used to hearing him speak in. It took a moment for the young man to process what he just read on his screen. Everyone in the room erupted into cheers and congratulations.

"Congratulations, Ledo! I knew you could do it!" Kirby tackled the young man in a hug.

"Ha ha ha ha! You really are something, kid!" Dedede ruffled Ledo's hair, causing him to duck in response.

"Congratulations! You're amazing!" Bandana Dee squealed with excitement.

"Hmph. Meta Knight wasn't lying when he said you were gutsy. Anyone with enough guts or stupidity could take on my men, but it takes someone with actual skills to win against them." Daroach smirked.

The cheers in the room were overwhelming. Ledo felt there was only one thing he could say in response. When the noise in the room died down, he began to speak. "T…Ta…Than…"

Everyone in the room looked at Ledo in surprise.

"Thank you, Lord Meta Knight…"

I felt that I had a harder time writing this chapter than I should have. This is probably because of my idea that I should be somewhat realistic and air vent travel is realistically not that very good or impossible. If anything, I was able to compromise by having Ledo exit the vent covered in dust.

Once I got past that section, everything was fine from there.