Chapter 11: As the Stars Have Told Me

Shortly after finishing his meal, Kirby stood up and began to stretch.

"What are you doing?" the ensign asked.

"Stretching to warm up. I'm gonna start by showing off this current ability! The ability I have right now is Fighter!"

"Oh, if that's the case, let me join in as well!" Knuckle Joe grinned as he began to stretch alongside him.

"I first hypothesized that you did not need any additional warmups before using a copy ability, Kirby. It appears that I was wrong about that." Chamber commented.

"You're not entirely wrong, but I still need to practice with my copy abilities to get better at using them. That's why I train with Meta Knight! By that logic, I should warm up before doing a ton of activity."

The ensign assumed that the actual reason was because he was afraid of spraining his arm again. What Kirby said about that incident did not sound like a fun experience.

Upon finishing their stretching, the two friends stood back-to-back, raising their fists in front of them. After a moment, the two began attacking the air simultaneously, shouting whatever moves they were doing as they performed them.

"VULCAN JAB! VULCAN JAB! SMASH PUNCH! LEG SWEEP! RISING BREAK! SKY KICK! MEGA FORCE BLAST!" It was mesmerizing how quickly and fluidly the attacks were performed in succession.

"That felt great! I knew we were still in sync!" the pink puff giggled, jumping up and down.

"There's always something satisfying about pulling that off!" Knuckle Joe agreed.

"So you were able to do all that because of that headband?" Ledo asked.

"This headband and several hours of practice, you want to try it?" the puff removed the headband, turning it into an ability item and holding it out towards his friend. The ensign then remembered the Megaton Punch tournament from earlier.

"Maybe later." He replied.

"Then hold on to this as a gift!" the child placed the band in his hand.

"Why are you giving it to me? I can't use it."

"Yeah, but you can wear it, can't you?"

"I guess that makes sense…" the ensign stashed it in his pocket.

"What ability do you want to see next?" Kirby continued.

"If Bio Spark was here, you could show him Ninja." Knuckle Joe commented.

The name sounded familiar. "Chamber, do you remember that name?" he suddenly asked.

"According to my data, Bio Spark was a person you met approximately eight days ago, Ensign. He identified himself as one of Kirby's friends." Ah, that's right.

"Huh, you met him already?! Why didn't he say anything about it?!" Knuckle Joe grumbled.

"Something about an exercise in keeping ninja clan secrets probably."

"I don't think that has anything to do with it. Bio's probably just weird."

"Query: Are you part of that friend group Bio Spark mentioned?"

"Uh…yeah." He seemed to be in thought.

"Hey! How about I paint something that can give you an ability!" Adeleine exclaimed.

"Great idea!" Ribbon exclaimed while Kirby nodded.

"Can you start with something for Ninja, since Bio Spark isn't here?"

The artist nodded and painted a shuriken, which Kirby inhaled and swallowed. He transformed, gaining a purple cloth skullcap with a protector on his forehead. He threw a knife and nailed a leaf that had fallen from the tree. Everybody clapped quietly. This was followed by a puff of smoke, which he seemed to vanish behind.

"…where did he go?"

"ACK! THAT WAS MY DESSERT!" the young man turned to see that Kirby was now next to Knuckle Joe munching on something.

"Sorry, I had to show the smokescreen off somehow!"

"YOU LIAR, YOU JUST WANTED TO EAT SOMETHING!" Just as Knuckle Joe was about to punch him, he vanished.

"He's gone!?" Ledo uttered.

"Sorry about this!" Kirby reappeared behind Joe and performed an air drop.

"Ooooowwww… you couldn't have warned me?" he groaned.

"I said sorry!"

The ensign could only shake his head.

Just then, a flurry of leaves fell from the tree. Kirby charged forward with his katana, cutting them apart the moment he sheathed it. The others applauded. To finish, the puff summoned a storm of cherry blossoms. The clapping continued until Kirby dropped the ability, turning it into a star, and breaking it on the ground.

"Which ability do you want to see next?"

"That star you broke, is that what holds your ability?"

"Yup. If I inhale it I can get the ability back. It usually breaks after a short time, but it's quicker if I do that. Also, my ability can be dropped if I get hit enough."

"Fascinating."

"So, what ability?"

"I don't know all your abilities, Kirby."

"Well, what do you want to see? Fire? Ice? Cutter? Leaf? Water? What?"

"I don't know."

"Ensign, might I recommend having Adeleine decide?"

"Very well."

He turned to the artist, who nodded in understanding. She then painted a red beret and tossed it towards Kirby. When he transformed, he gained a red paint-covered beret with a star on it. In his stubs, he clutched a paintbrush.

"What ability is this?"

"Artist, of course!"

Kirby pulled out an easel and painted a picture of King Dedede on it.

"…what's that supposed to do?" the ensign asked.

The painting of Dedede walked off the canvas, to his surprise, hammering in front of itself absentmindedly.

"Heh. It's like the actual Dedede!" Knuckle Joe laughed.

"That's not all!" The puff quickly pulled out a giant slab of rock and carved it into a giant flowered vine.

"Ah! That's the Dreamstalk!" Taranza shouted.

"Dreamstalk?"

"I believe Taranza mentioned it last time we were at Dedede's castle."

"Ah. Now I remember. It's that giant vine with a flower on it, right?" The spider mage stared at the ensign in annoyance before summoning a Dreamstalk replica out of the ground. "Yes, that's it!"

Bandana Dee stared up at the sculpture. "What are you going to do with that, Kirby?"

Kirby shrugged.

"You wanna see how far I can kick it?" Knuckle Joe readied his stance.

"I do not comprehend what the point of such an unnecessary action would be." Chamber spoke as the pink puff tossed the statue in the air.

Knuckle Joe followed suit, delivering a roundhouse kick that sent it far over the horizon. "Who cares what the point of it was? Not everything has to have a logical reason to happen y'know!" the fighter proudly grinned. The statue was so far away at this point that it could no longer be seen.

Kirby readied his brush again. "PAINBRUSH!" he yelled, splattering paint while dropping the ability. "That was a lot of fun!" he exclaimed, stretching his body.

"What do you think he should show Ledo next?" Ribbon asked.

Adeleine paused for a moment to think, before snapping her fingers. She painted a Needlous, which looked like a spiny, striped worm to the ensign. Just as the Needlous jumped off the canvas, it was grabbed by a long, pink tongue and pulled up into the tree above them. It was a bit startling, to say the least.

"WH-WHAT WAS THAT!?" Taranza hid behind Bandana Dee.

"How could I have let my guard down so easily?!" Ledo grumbled as he quickly pulled out his pistol, pointing it into the treetop. "I know you're up there! Come down with your hands up!"

There was no response.

"Don't worry about it, Ledo." Kirby smiled.

However, the young man couldn't help but worry about it. He swore that he saw something up there. Even now, he had the vague feeling that he was being watched. He slowly lowered his pistol as Kirby walked back and inhaled another Needlous that Adeleine painted, gaining a pink helmet with spikes upon swallowing it.

"What copy ability is this?"

"This is needle!" he extended the spikes to show off the ability.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Ledo questioned.

"Should it hurt?"

"It shouldn't because he's wearing a hat." Bandana commented.

Suddenly a heavy object landed beside Bandana causing both him and Taranza to scream and run behind Ledo, already preparing to shoot at it. Staring back at them was a navy-blue googly-eyed blob with a long tongue.

"…Chamber, what is that thing?" the ensign uttered.

"Cannot identify. Reasonable course of action: use caution when interacting with it or dispose of it immediately."

The blob then grabbed the ensign's pistol and ate it.

"You… you son of a…!" the young man began to yell before Kirby stepped in.

"Hey, Gooey! Give Ledo back his pistol!" The blob then spit it back up. Ledo stared, unsure if he really wanted to touch it now.

"Can you appear without trying to scare us?!" Bandana shouted in anger.

"I thought I was going to have a heart attack!" Taranza added.

"Gooey apologizes." The blob replied.

"Is this a friend of yours, Kirby?" the young man sighed.

"Yup!" the child smiled.

"And his name is Gooey?"

"Gooey's name is Gooey! Maybe?" the blob commented.

The young man nodded; his expression unchanging. "He's…not that bright, is he?"

"What's bright? Can Gooey eat it? What's eating?" the blob continued to have a blank, smiling expression on his face.

"Query: What is Gooey exactly?" Chamber spoke.

"Gooey is Gooey!" Kirby said brightly.

"That does not answer my question."

"Gooey thinks, therefore Gooey am."

"That still does not answer the question."

"You don't happen to know what Dark Matter is, do you?" Bandana uttered in annoyance. The back and forth nature of the conversation seemed to be getting on his nerves.

"The mysterious substance that causes galaxy rotations and cluster motions in space?" Ledo replied.

"What are you talking about?" Taranza questioned.

"This is a different Dark Matter! This one works with this thing called Zero to invade and take over planets! Gooey similar to Dark Matter, but um…Meta Knight said a lot of complicated stuff...something about a fragment of Dark Matter being infused with a ton of Positive Energy… but that's how Gooey came to be, I think." Kirby seemed partially unsure of Gooey's origin himself.

"What is positive energy?"

"Positive energy is the energy that comes from positive emotions like happiness and gratitude. Dark Matter and Zero are drawn to negative emotions like anger, hate, and envy. People that give off a lot of those energies are more likely to be possessed by them, I think. At least that's what Meta Knight said, I fell asleep during one of his lectures on that." The pink puff explained.

"Is that why Dedede is their go-to?" the spider mage asked.

"Probably."

"How interesting." The ensign uttered.

"Speaking of Dedede, he's probably wondering where we are, so Bandana and I should probably head back now."

The Dee nodded in agreement and they exchanged goodbyes.

After Taranza and Bandana Dee left, the remaining group continued the copy ability study.

"Ribbon, do you want to decide on the next one?" Adeleine asked.

"How about Sword?"

Kirby and Ledo both looked at her with a thousand-yard stare.

"…pass."

"Huh? But I thought you liked using Sword?"

"Another time…"

"Okay…"

The pink puff likely still was shaken by his experience the previous week with his mentor. Based on how that experience was described, the young man could understand that.

"How about Fire then?"

"Isn't that dangerous to use in the middle of a grassy field!?" the ensign shouted.

"Gooey can show it off!" a flaming blob whizzed by the young man before stopping next to Kirby.

"Impressive."

"I got one!" Adeleine painted a yo-yo, which Kirby inhaled. He gained a backwards baseball cap and a bandage.

"What ability is this?"

"Yo-yo!" he threw the yo-yo in front of him.

"Is that all it can do?"

"No, I can do a bunch of other moves!" The puff took a running start and spun on his head across the round. "BREAK SPIN!" upon finishing the break spin, he spun the yo-yo on the ground in a circle around himself. Upon finishing that move, he winded up the yo-yo and spun it on the ground in front of him and walked a bit.

"That's called "walking the dog"! It's a move I was recently taught!"

"What's a dog?"

"That's not important, watch!" The puff spun up in the air, using his yo-yo to propel him up. "GAZER SPIRAL!"

The ability was strangely mesmerizing to the young man.

The puff then grabbed a rock and slammed it into the ground "HAMMER DROP!".

"Yeah, that's a bunch of fancy moves, but I don't think anything can beat a good ol' thrashing!" Knuckle Joe mumbled.

"I think all my abilities are fun!" Kirby exclaimed as he dropped his ability. "Hey! You know what I should show him!? Microphone!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Ledo was confused as to why Knuckle Joe was suddenly yelling.

"Yeah, how about we don't do Mic?" Adeleine stammered nervously.

"Aw, but I wanted to sing for him!"

"You can do that normally and somewhere else!"

"But I want to sing now!"

"Do it somewhere else! Are you trying to kill us?!"

Based on the reactions of the others, the ensign assumed that Microphone was a dangerous ability because Kirby was not good at singing.

Just then, the tree began to shake and a yellow and black striped…thing dropped out of the tree, landing next to Kirby.

"AH! EW! EW! EW!" the puff ran behind Ledo in panic.

"…Chamber, what is that?"

"It appears to be some kind of larvae."

"It's gross, that's what!" Gooey stared at the bug on the ground and ate it. "Ah! Thanks, Gooey!" The navy-blue blob only continued to smile.

"Geez, you'd think that someone as powerful as you would've gotten over their hate of caterpillars..." Knuckle Joe sighed.

"But they're disgusting and icky!"

"I find your thought process to be highly illogical, Kirby."

"No one asked you!" The pink puff was pouting in his usual childish manner. Knuckle Joe and Chamber both had a point. The ensign couldn't understand how someone who would become friends with just about anyone and won against several all-powerful beings hated something as small and insignificant as caterpillars.

"Well, enough worrying about that, what ability do you want to show off next, Kirby?" Ribbon asked.

"Hm… how about UFO!" Adeleine nodded and began to paint.

"UFO?"

"It's an ability that's really rare, but it's also really fun!" he swallowed the silver disk-like object that had been painted and started floating around in a saucer.

"So…what does it do?" Kirby floated over to a piece of broken rock and beamed it up.

"Is that all it can do?"

"Nope, I can do several different laser attacks based on how long I charge it!"

"Interesting."

As Kirby began to show off the various types of beams, the young man began to think. It was starting to get late, but Ledo still didn't hear anything from Magolor. Now would probably be a good time to call him to ask about that.

"Chamber, call Magolor."

"Roger."

In a few minutes, the mage answered the call.

"Oh, hello Ledo! I see that things are going smoothly with your copy ability studies!" he exclaimed in his usual cheerful tone. It sounded as if he was oblivious to the actual reason he could be calling.

"Magolor, have you finished translating that data yet?" he questioned in an annoyed tone. The mage hesitated to answer. A sure sign that he was hiding something.

"No, it's still being worked on. Don't worry about it! I'll tell you when it's done! But I don't think it's that important, so it was a false alarm!" Upon hearing that last part, Ledo began to suspect that Magolor wasn't telling the whole truth about the data.

"Chamber, can you send what you two have completed so far to me?"

"I cannot, ensign."

"Of course you can't! You said "do not tell the ensign" when we were done…" there was a sound as if Magolor had covered his own mouth. The young man's instinct appeared to be spot-on.

"Kirby, I have to go." There was something noticeably cold about the way he said it. "CHAMBER!" In a few minutes, the mech landed close to the hill he was standing on.

"Ledo, is something wrong?"

"I just have to go talk to Magolor about something."

"Ok…well…um…bye!" the puff waved. It wasn't his normal happy wave, but one with an element of concern in it.

"See you." As the ensign entered Chamber's cockpit, he felt a storm brewing inside of him.

What reason could Magolor have to lie about the data translation progress?!

"O-oh, hello, Ledo, welcome…ACK!" the ensign grabbed his collar and glared directly into his eyes.

"You finished the translation and didn't tell me?!"

"…maybe?"

"ANSWER ME!"

"Y-yes! I did!"

"Why did you hide it from me!?"

"I-I don't think anything good will come of seeing it…"

"What do you mean?!"

"The information on that is considered classified to the Galactic Alliance of humankind."

"Then why did you allow Magolor to see it?!"

Magolor vanished from Ledo's hands, reappearing a short distance away from him. "Well, you told me to translate it, didn't you? I can't do that if I don't see it, silly!" the mage dusted himself off. He had a point.

"Then why can't I see it?"

"It is protocol." The ensign could feel the desire to punch something well up within him.

"What do you mean?! Do you remember where we are?! When contact with the main unit is interrupted, the highest-ranking officer on site has the right to command! Right?!"

"Affirmative."

"And who is the highest-ranking officer on site?"

"Ensign Ledo."

"Then Ensign Ledo orders Pilot Support Enlightenment Interface System Chamber to allow for the release of this data now!"

"Roger. The data is on the Lor Starcutter's computer."

The ensign nodded, but just as he stepped forward to the Lor's console, four spikes blocked him.

"…Magolor." He slowly glared at the mage.

"Does the phrase "ignorance is bliss" mean anything to you?" the mage seemed to smirk.

"You're saying I'm better off not knowing what's on this data?"

"Bra-vo! That is correct!" Magolor gave a mock applause towards the ensign. "I'm such a nice guy, so I thought I'd keep you from reading what's on that data! You can thank me later!" he hummed pleasantly.

"Magolor, I've given the ensign permission to see the data." Upon hearing Chamber speak, the mage sighed in annoyance.

"You heard. Show me the data or I'll force you to." The ensign ordered.

Annoyed, the mage lowered the spikes and floated towards the console. "I'm not in the mood to fight you right now…" he grumbled while typing in a few keystrokes. "Chamber, let me go on record saying that I warned him about this."

"Roger."

With one final key press, a video began to play on the screen.

The video was clear, but somewhat glitchy due to age. This was likely the best Magolor and Chamber could restore it to through their collaborative effort. It started with a woman talking. It reminded Ledo of the news broadcasts he watched with Sailor Dee on Channel PPP, as the woman was surrounded by text reading things like "The future is now" and "can we migrate into space?". "The time has come for the human race to start walking on its own two legs, and the person who has volunteered to take that first step is Ryan Matsumoto. Good evening, Mr. Matsumoto. People say that this mission is a dangerous one." She turned to a man sitting in a chair. "Well, that's because it's never been done before. Thankfully, we have a wonderful staff backing us up, so with their help this mission should go…"

The footage cut to three people standing in front of a building. A man and a woman were holding a ribbon that was cut by an older man. The older man began to talk into a microphone he was handed. "Now that the fifth ice age is almost upon us, the necessity of our research has reached a critical level." There was an overhead shot of a massive white building. As the man continued to talk, it also showed various facilities, likely showing what was inside the lab. "However, history has shown us that these scientific developments could destroy old traditions and ruin people's happiness. We fear that this is the case right now. However, tradition has actually changed along with scientific advances, and happiness may now become attainable for the very first time! I take this as the opportunity to now announce a free citadel of science!"

The footage then cut to a large mass of people standing around with white flakes pouring down. They were wearing coats and held signs with unknown writing on them. "The activities of the Self-Evolving Movement, AKA the Evolvers, are drawing attention from all over the world, are they not?" "It's a very unfortunate circumstance." It cut to the same old man in the previous footage talking with another man in what he thought was a newsroom. "What about doubts over the human genome manipulation? Doesn't that violate the treaties?" "Solving this problem requires a far more flexible response. The current protocols are no longer working. I believe that current international regulations are completely obsolete."

The footage then again cut to a city being buried in white particles. "As a response to Earth's extreme global cooling, there are rising calls for the immediate development of space travel. The development of a space station and an interstellar immigration ship is increasing at a rapid pace. This technology is essential to our species survival. It's not perfect by any means. We won't just be sending machines into space, but humans like you and me."

There was another footage cut. This time, to another man. "Since last week's shocking leak of insider information became public, the worldwide movement opposing the Evolvers has stepped up." The program then showed footage of older machines such as airplanes and ships. "The continental union did not wait for a response from the United Nations before deploying an aerial fleet. Meanwhile, there are a great number of countries that stand by the Evolvers. The situation is expected to escalate." The footage continued with various locations, including the lab he saw in earlier footage, exploding from the attacks.

It then changed to yet another news report, this time showing a lady talking over a presentation of space travel. "And so, the immigrants searched for a viable planet, which would've taken hundreds or even thousands of years. There was only one way to salvage the situation." Two models of DNA appeared. "They applied mechanical engineering to biology and by doing that, they made the human body able to adapt to the vacuum of space and travel long distances over a vast amount of time."

There was yet another cut to more footage that took place inside one of the labs shown earlier. It focused on a man sitting in a lab chair, as if preparing for a treatment. "The symbiont is a marvelous invention." A video of white squids, recognized by Ledo as the Hideauze, played as the man spoke. "It can breathe oxygen underwater and withstand the water pressure of the deep sea. Eventually, I'm sure it'll adapt to the vacuum of space. It gets nutritional support from symbiotic nanomachines that are a more efficient version of photosynthesis." He turned to wave towards a woman and a young girl behind him. "We have to say bye-bye to papa..." the woman said as the girl had a shell-shocked expression. Shortly after, she turned to who seemed to be her mother. "Papa is going away?" "No, we'll be able to…"

The footage cut to the same newsrooms he saw earlier. "Last week, the controversial evolvers were under fire again when their internal information involving recruiting was leaked and it became clear that a number of atrocious human experiments violating international law had taken place." The mouth of the Hideauze being filmed began to show a human face.

All of this information horrified Ledo, but he just couldn't look away from the video.

It cut again. This video took place in space and showed two astronauts taking a third space suit out into space. The back of the suit opened, and a human-like form exited. It was the man from two videos ago, now turned into what appeared to be a human-squid hybrid.

This further sent the ensign into shock.

The human in the video began to glow from sunlight as the other humans seemingly rejoiced.

Another news report came on. "While earth's sustainable humanosphere is rapidly decreasing due to the cooling trend, the Continental Union and Evolver's war to escape is inversely increasing. The battlefield for this is in orbit and at floating launch facilities, but it's believed that it will expand."

Another cut to more footage. "We've discovered that the Continental Union is working on a large-scale wormhole drive. This facility also includes a self-destruct system, which will activate upon them leaving the solar system. This will strand everyone else on Earth. However, we are now aware of their plan." As this speech happened, a large Hideauze colony could be seen. "This is our chance! By attacking and seizing the wormhole drive for ourselves, we Evolvers will be able to spread the domain of the living to unknown galaxies! The Evolvers will dwell in infinite space and achieve eternal prosperity!"

That footage then cut to a human diver in a water tank interacting peacefully with a human-like Hideauze creature. The Hideauze creature appeared to show joy around the diver. The name tag in the video read "Elaine Matsumoto".

The young man then recalled that the man in the first video he was was named "Ryan Matsumoto". Could they be related?

The video then cut off.

"This was everything that was found and that we could salvage." Magolor said, returning the screen to its normal state.

"I noted several contradictions with official information from the Galactic Alliance. I believe the credibility is extremely low."

"Then what was that?! Who made it and for what purpose?!" Ledo directed this at his own AI.

"Hypothesis: the enemy created it to manipulate information."

The ensign gritted his teeth. "The enemy!? What enemy?! I thought the Hideauze were just a lower form of life!"

The young man stared at the floor, feeling as if he is becoming more and more lightheaded. What was that phrase Trident Knight had told him? Curiosity killed the Scarfy? He felt that he was experiencing its true meaning at full force.

"Hmmm?" The mage smugly murmured behind him. "What did I tell you? Ignorance is bliss, isn't it? But you decided that your stubborn…er …pride? Yes, let's go with pride… was more important, and now you have the shocking truth behind…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Ledo collapsed to the floor, unresponsive.

"HOLY NOVA, LEDO!"

Another short chapter it seems. This time, I went through with my "Gargantia spoilers in later chapters" warning, since this was one of the biggest twists in the anime. Of course, this will affect later chapters as well.

There was no particular reason for why I selected each ability that was showcased. I might have an omake chapter dedicated to showing off more abilities in the future.

Omake (Bonus):

C: What exactly is Gooey?

G: Gooey is Gooey! Maybe?

C: Affirmative, but what exactly are you?

G: Gooey does not know.

C: Searching database...no matches found. Analyzing...

(Chamber gets a blue screen)

L: Chamber? Chamber?! CHAMBERRRRRRRR!