Chapter 17: Doppel
The next area was full of several pools of blackish mud.
"Ensign Ledo, Striker's signal has grown stronger. However…"
"There's a ton of enemies below us?"
"Affirmative."
He stared down at the bubbling matter on the ground.
"Alright, we had burning Whispy Woods and that changing Dark Matter, what's the gimmick here?" Dedede grumbled as he looked down. A dark, UFO-like robot flew by. "Dark Matter-infected clones, ok!"
Bandana looked down below. "And there's a ton of them!"
"…Chamber, destroy."
"Understood." Lasers were fired from several points on Chamber's body, incinerating the enemies below.
"Well, that was disappointing." Dedede grumbled.
"No, there's still more."
The black mud began to morph into more large forms.
"Of course, defeat one and another will replace it…" Bandana mumbled.
"The only option is to break them down until the mud can't resurrect them anymore."
"We don't have time for that, remember?! You said we have to defeat that Striker thing quickly!"
"I know what I said, Dedede. I'm just making observations."
The Warp Star travelers were nearly thrown off when a horseshoe shaped thing tried to attack them.
"ACK! KIRBY, WATCH IT!"
"I'm trying!" He spun again to dodge some projectiles. Suddenly, that boss was cut in half by a giant sword.
"Yo! It's Mags!" Dedede yelled.
"You're quite lucky that I made it in time! Because I'm such a nice guy, I thought I'd help you and Ledo, despite his utterly poor treatment of me!" he froze when he felt Meta Knight's judging stare at him. "THAT WASN'T MY FAULT!"
"What's he talking about?"
"I'll explain later…"
Creating a black hole to distract the enemies around him, he cleared his throat and continued. "Never mind that. Helping friends is what friends do, yes? So that's why I'm here!"
After Magolor said that, Chamber was forced to dodge a thrown cutter and a giant block.
"This is getting tedious…" the young man uttered. A dark construct of a wasp-like queen appeared above him, forcing him to dodge out of the way. The construct raised a staff and the enemies below him were electrocuted.
"AHHHHHH! NOVA, HELP ME! IT'S HER!"
"Calm down, your highness! It's just a construct!" Bandana cried.
"Sorry for using you as bait, Ledo."
"Taranza!"
The spider mage created a web to trap several of the minibosses. "I had to come help you as soon as I heard the news."
"Thank you for that…"
"Don't thank me! I lost someone important to me once before, I'd never be able to forgive myself if it happened again!" he destroyed several more enemies with a burst of energy from his body.
Chamber managed to dodge yet another boss that had charged at him. "Ah! Kirby! Look out!" Before they could collide with another one of the midbosses, a familiar mech drilled through it, landing next to Chamber.
"Susie?!" The ensign exclaimed.
"…"
"Did you come to help as well?"
"…"
"Can you please say something?"
"…I'm here to help." She murmured in a low voice.
"Regardless of what happened in the past with Lord Meta Knight, I'm extremely grateful for your help."
"…it means a lot to hear that, you know."
"I do know." He gave a smile.
To their surprise, three different lasers pierced through several enemies next to them. It was obvious who they belonged to.
"Zan Partizanne! Francisca! Flamberge!"
"We haven't forgotten our deal, Ledo!"
"Hopefully, we aren't too late to help!"
"Well, if Francisca is fine with helping you, then I'm fine with helping you. Someone's gotta keep her safe!"
Several pillars of fire attacked enemies appearing beside them.
"REJOICE, YOUNG MAN! For we have come to save you!"
"Hyness!"
Using a magic circle, he pierced several more enemies with various picks. More bosses began to emerge from the black mud.
"…there's too many of them." Just as the ensign made that observation, one of them was cut apart by a katana.
"Bio Spark!" Kirby exclaimed.
"DAMMIT BIO! I WANTED TO FINISH HIM!" Knuckle Joe cried.
"It seems like we barely made it in time. I really wish my cousin told me about this earlier…gathering the others can be such a pain…" alongside Bio Spark and Knuckle Joe were several other people that the young man did not recognize.
"Is this the friend group you mentioned, Kirby?" Ledo asked.
"Yup! They call themselves the "Helpers"!" He'd ask why that was the case, but it seemed obvious.
"Either way, why didn't you call us eariler!?"
"It would have taken too much time calling all of you!"
"We have a message…!" Chilly explained upon freezing an enemy.
"Inferno Woods and Miracle Matter have been defeated! Your friends are making their way here!" Burning Leo set an enemy on fire.
"That's a relief!" the puff smiled. Another flying enemy broke up the reunion by forcing the Warp Star and Chamber to dodge again.
"KIRBY STOP!"
"Do you want us to get hit!?"
Said enemy was then skewered by a trident and javelin.
"It's about time…" the knight uttered.
"Lord Meta Knight! We came to help!"
"The Meta-Knights? I thought that you guys wouldn't want anything to do with me after I left…"
"It's as our lord and Captain Vul said, regardless of what happens, you and Chamber are still a member of this crew!" Mace Knight yelled as he attacked an enemy.
"…and here my cousin was saying two of you were talking about making him regret being born and such." Bio Spark gazed over at them.
"SHUT UP!"
"I'll have to question them about that later…" Meta Knight murmured darkly. "Men, here are your orders! Assist the allies you see before you and clear out this area! Those who slack off will be punished with a thousand-kilometer run!"
"YES, SIR!"
The knight turned to Kirby with a nod and the Warp Star jetted off. Ledo looked back for a moment before following after them with Chamber.
"Don't fall behind. I'm sure the last thing you want is my cousin treating you." Bio Spark seemed to smirk towards Axe Knight.
"Do you forget who we are? Worry about yourself first!"
"Ensign Ledo, Striker's signal is gradually getting closer."
"So we're almost there."
"Affirmative."
"Did you guys hear that?"
"Yup! It's 'bout freaking time!"
As he continued to press forward, Ledo suddenly remembered the mirror he had first seen when he first met with the holographic Kugel. The malicious aura that emanated from it resembled that of this current area within the Hyper Zone. Could one of these four know anything about it?
"Lord Meta Knight, you seem knowledgeable about a lot of things on this planet." The young man commented.
"Well, I tend to read a lot in my spare time, so, yes…" there was a tinge of pride in his voice when he said that.
"Yup! Meta-sensei's the best when it comes to that!" Kirby smiled. The knight seemed to avert his eyes a bit sheepishly upon his student saying that. As much as he seemed to enjoy being praised, he seemed to become slightly embarrassed when his own student complimented him.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about a mirror, would you?" hearing those words made him freeze up.
"A…mirror…?" the grave voice he said that in, and his slight trembling tipped the young man off.
"Is that something bad?"
"But…Taranza, you idiot! I told you to destroy that thing!"
"Lord Meta Knight? What are you talking about?
" "In his defense, he tried to. Several times." Bandana sighed.
"Yeah, guess y'all could say his memory of Sectonia is too strong."
Meta Knight groaned in annoyance.
"What exactly are you guys talking about?"
"The Dimension Mirror." Kirby replied.
"What's that?"
"Right…I don't think I ever had the chance to talk to you in depth about that…" the blue puff shook his head.
"I believe it has been mentioned by Taranza in conversation at least once. He had confirmed it to be the source of Sectonia's gradual decent into madness."
The knight gave a nod. "The Dimension Mirror is a gateway to the Mirror World. The Mirror World is a parallel world located above Dreamland, named after the many mirrors that serve as doors to other areas."
"Yeah, it's like a giant maze!" Kirby exclaimed.
"That's true. Anyway, the mirrors in that land originally had the power to make whatever wishes it reflected come true. But one day, an entity called Dark Mind invaded it and caused the mirrors to only reflect things that were bad."
"Including the Dimension Mirror?"
"Correct. I'd argue that it's several times worse if the Dimension Mirror is corrupted. The reason for that is the Dimension Mirror is behind the creation of all the residents in the Mirror World. This is done by creating a parallel copy of whoever looks into it. If that mirror becomes corrupted…"
"It creates a copy that only reflects the bad traits of that person?"
"Exactly."
The ensign grew more concerned upon hearing that. "Can the Mirror World copies enter Dreamland?"
"Of course! We can enter the Mirror World, so why wouldn't they be able to come here?" Kirby asked.
"Correct, but they can only do it through the power of the Dimension Mirror. They can sometimes enter through mirrors that exist in Dreamland, but even then, they're only able to do that because the Dimension Mirror exists. If that mirror is ever broken, they lose that ability and the gate between the two worlds will be severed."
"I detect a negative connotation in your tone, Lord Meta Knight. Query: Is the Mirror World perhaps related to an incident of psychological damage for you?"
The knight's eyes flashed orange. "It's… complicated…"
"It doesn't seem that complicated."
"MK, just tell 'em." The king seemed to roll his eyes.
The blue puff sighed and began to speak again "When Dark Mind corrupted the Mirror World, I travelled through the Dimensional Mirror to try and defeat him. If you remember what I said about that mirror, it created a parallel copy that reflected my worst traits: Dark Meta Knight."
"Yeah, then he came to Dreamland and split me into three!" Kirby pouted.
"You thought it was me at first as well…"
"At first! Then I realized he never tossed me a sword when he ambushed me!"
"He ambushed you?"
"He ambushed me as well. I was able to hold myself well in a fight against him, but he was too strong. I was defeated and he sealed me in the Dimension Mirror, shattering it so I couldn't escape. After that, Kirby and his three colored variants had to travel around the labyrinth of the Mirror World to collect the fragments and fix the Dimensional Mirror. After that, they were able to defeat my counterpart and Dark Mind."
"You mentioned that Dark Meta Knight ambushed both of you."
"He did. The key difference between us is that Dark Meta Knight has no honor when it comes to battle. He'll use every underhanded tactic he knows to win."
"He's also a narcissist. And really mean…"
"A narcissist that gets drunk on his own pride…"
"Wait, does this mean Kirby has a Mirror World counterpart?"
"Of course I do!"
"Do I want to know what he's like?"
"He's super nice!"
"Simply put, Shadow Kirby is the same as normal Kirby. The only reason why he and Kirby fought while in the Mirror World was because Shadow Kirby thought that he was a threat and was only trying to protect his home. Honestly speaking, I'm not entirely sure why he doesn't have any negative traits…"
"Meta-sensei, are you saying I have bad traits?" his student pouted.
"Oh…I don't know…let's see…" as he continued to speak, he listed various things while counting on some fingers "Several moments of impulsiveness…beating up Dedede over a piece of cake…beating up the Squeaks because you found out that they stole that same piece of cake…fighting me because you thought the chest that Dark Nebula was sealed in had that same piece of cake…that time you ate all the food that was cooked for Dedede's birthday party…falling asleep during several of my lectures…can't forget the time you ate Sailor Dee's pudding while you were over…"
"All of those happened because nobody told me anything about what was going on! And you said that pudding was yours!"
"Broke my mask every time we dueled…took a photo of me without my permission…complained when I destroyed the camera…drew on one of the walls in one of Dedede's castles, thankfully you cleaned that up…spilled ketchup on one of the rugs there as well…gave Bandana Dee a heart attack because he thought you were severely bleeding…"
"META-SENSEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
King Dedede took control of the Warp Star in annoyance while the pink puff shook his mentor, who was continuing to rattle off all the bad things he did. Bringing his thoughts back to what he heard about Shadow Kirby, Ledo wasn't too sure why any of the negative traits Kirby had were not reflected either. Perhaps it's because Kirby is such an innocent and genuinely good person that the mirror can't find anything negative to reflect?
"There was also that time you rammed the Warp Star into the Halberd…"
"That was when you tried taking over Dreamland!"
"No, the other time. The time you went "Hey Meta-sensei check this out!" and you attempted to do a new trick with the Warp Star, only to hit the Halberd."
"...wait that only left a small scratch!"
"A scratch that took 3 hours for me and Sailor Dee to fix!"
"Ah! We're reaching the threshold!" Bandana pointed out.
The room the group touched down in was mostly dark and full of sparkling fragments. After fully entering the area, the gateway that they came through shut.
"Alrighty, so what's it gonna be this time?" Dedede grumbled.
"Based on how we're locked in this room, sire, I think it's one of those rooms where we have to defeat whatever we have to fight here before we can continue on." Bandana Dee commented.
"We should probably start to look for a way out of here…" Kirby said with Bandana nodding in agreement.
"Just keep your guard up while you do. This is more than likely a trap."
"Agreed."
While looking around, Ledo got a strange feeling from within the room. It was the same malicious one he felt from that room with the mirror. Suddenly, the cockpit inside Chamber gained an orange tint.
"Hello there." A dark voice sneered from behind him.
"CHAMBER!"
With a quick flip, the would-be attacker was shaken off, flipping over several times before managing to skid into landing on his feet, using tattered wings to slow down faster. When the ensign got a clearer look at the attacker, he was astonished to see that they looked almost exactly like Meta Knight, except he was colored mostly grey and the left side of his mask visor had a deep gash in it.
"Chamber, why didn't you tell me there was an enemy near me?!"
"No perceived threats had appeared in the room until 1.6 seconds before this opponent appeared."
"What? But how!?"
"Ensign, what happened?!" Meta Knight turned to face the attacker. The moment he saw them, his eyes glowed red. "YOU!" in a seamless transition, he went from standing with his sword unsheathed to darting towards the attacker with wings unfurled in only a few seconds. A loud clang rang out as the two knights clashed swords.
"Being a bit hot-headed now, aren't we, Mety?" the smug tone of his opponent only seemed to further anger the knight.
"Silence, faker!" After Meta Knight said that, the attacker looked silently furious.
"Faker, huh..." The opponent's condescending tone became colder. The copy slowly raised a free hand, forcing the knight to dodge several giant swords that had erupted from the ground.
"…who is that?"
"Based on what I have observed, I believe that it is Dark Meta Knight."
Based on what the young man was told, everything checked out, specifically his use of underhanded tactics and overconfident personality. The cockpit suddenly lit orange again and he instinctively attacked with the harpoon-spear, hitting something and sending it to the other side of the room.
"SHIT! I coulda gotten 'em!" the attacker, a grey and black colored version of King Dedede, slammed his pole axe into the ground in frustration, cracking part of the ground. He coughed up a bit of blood, likely inflicted from Chamber's impact and wiped it on his dark red sleeve.
"THE HELL!? I THOUGHT I BROKE YA INTO A MILLION PIECES!"
"Huh?! Dedede has a Mirror World version!? How?!" Kirby's shocked reaction alerted the ensign to this being something new.
"He just showed up outta nowhere when I was 'bout to chuck that there mirror outta Floralia's castle! I broke 'em down and tossed that Dimensional Mirror thing out like it was yesterday's garbage! I thought it woulda broken on the way down!"
"I TOLD YOU THAT WOULDN'T WORK, SIRE!" Bandana yelled, dodging an axe swing. Suddenly he blocked a spear that was thrown at him.
"Needing me for help, huh, Shadow Dedede? Geez, you sure are pathetic…"
"Ah! It's…me!?"
The attacker was a black and grey version of Bandana Dee.
"Bandana does, too!?"
"Piss off, Shadow Bandana! I can fight on my own!" The Dedede copy coughed again, wiping a trickle of blood off the side of his mouth.
"Oh? Is that how it is? How about you cough up your lungs and croak already, dirtbag!"
Despite the two of them arguing while they fought their normal counterparts, they were actually putting up a decent fight. Watching the scene from above, the young man noticed a particular object: the mirror he saw earlier. Something about it seemed…off. He brought Chamber closer to get a better look.
"Oi! Where're you goin'!?" Dedede shouted in his direction.
"Where're you lookin'!? I'm over here, dumbass!" Shadow Dedede pushed forward in his attack, forcing the other to guard against it.
"HOLD! STILL! YOU! STUPID! LITTLE!" Shadow Bandana's attack against his normal counterpart was cut off by three spears nearly stabbing him.
"Hold it right there!" the two Dees turned to see Kirby standing there, ready with the Spear copy ability.
"Ah! Kirby! Thank you! But… shouldn't you help Ledo?"
The pink puff smiled "I have complete faith in him! Besides if he needs me, I'll warp right over! Besides, I'm pretty sure you don't want to fight this murderous psycho alone!"
"You read my mind…"
"OH, COME ON, THIS ISN'T FAIR!" the copy yelled.
The ensign continued to stare at the mirror. It was then that he realized what was off. Ledo's eyes widened when he saw it. The moment Ledo looked into the mirror, he saw his reflection, staring straight at him.
"…Chamber I'm getting out."
"Ensign Ledo, I don't believe that's a reasonable course of action."
"Maybe not, but I need to see this for myself."
"Ensign Ledo, I suggest—"
"That's an order Chamber. Don't worry. If I need help, I'll call for you, alright? This is something I need to do."
"I fail to see the logic of this, Ensign."
"Not everything needs to be logical Chamber. I thought you would know that by now after all the time we've been on this planet."
"…I do not detect any major flaws in your logic. Very well."
Taking his pistol, he walked towards the mirror. The reflection dropped out of the mirror, landing on its feet and taking a shooting stance. The ensign didn't know what to think. It was like looking in a mirror if all the colors on his reflection were grey and muted. But there was something about those dull grey eyes that haunted him. They were cold and unfeeling.
"Identify yourself!" Ledo ordered.
"…" the copy silently stared back.
"Who are you?"
"…"
"Can you speak?"
"…I was not given orders to speak." The copy's voice was eerily similar to his own, but with an icier tone devoid of any emotion. It seemed to fit perfectly in with those of the other Mirror World copies, which sounded like malicious versions of their original counterparts'.
"I TOLD YOU THAT YOU'RE ALLOWED TO SPEAK, DUMBASS!" Dark Meta Knight shouted, surrounding himself with a wall of mirrors to protect himself from an attack.
A reflected sword beam caused Ledo to sidestep, but barely missed the unflinching copy.
"Is he…?"
"…my name is Shadow Ledo. I am a copy of your reflection born from the Dimension Mirror. Your…doppelganger, I believe he said the term was."
It seems that Meta Knight's guess about that mirror the ensign saw in that meeting room was correct. It was the Dimension Mirror. And this opponent right in front of him? A manifestation of his own indecisiveness, blind obedience, and near-suicidal lack of a fear of death. Before he could respond to what he just heard, his doppelganger suddenly open fired on him forcing Ledo to dodge the burning laser.
"Why are you fighting us? What reason do you have!?"
"Reason? Don't have one. I was told to fight for what Lord Dark Meta Knight told me was the greater good and that's what I'm going to do."
Shadow Ledo fired another shot with Ledo narrowly avoiding it. The ensign responded with a shot of his own which grazed the clone's cheek, causing a small bleeding scratch to appear. However, the doppelganger either didn't feel it or didn't care as he continued his attack.
"He didn't even react to that! Why is he acting like this?" His eyes widened in realization. "He's just like me. Just like how I was in the alliance, back when I was nothing but a puppet. In that case..."
Both Ledos fire at each other, and both attacks connect with the other's gun being knocked out of their hand. Now the two ensigns stood there weaponless. Seemingly undisturbed by this, Shadow Ledo charges at the original, attempting to punch him in the gut. While the young man managed to block this punch, he was blindsided by another one that hit him directly in the face, causing him to nearly fall back in a daze.
"You should just give up already." A punch from the left side. "You are all alone, with nobody around to help you." While he managed to dodge the next punch, he couldn't avoid the kick. "Do us both a favor and die."
Before the next hit could connect, Ledo managed to put his full weight into a punch that knocked his clone away. "Alone, huh? If you said that while I was in the Human Galactic Alliance, there might have been a point to what you're saying. Ironically, even though it was called an alliance, there was no real connection between us soldiers. Hell, there was no real connection between any person. We woke up from hibernation, fought the Hideauze, returned to base if we didn't die in battle, prepared for the next battle, returned to hibernation, rinse and repeat. The only real human interaction we had was with our squad commander and even then, it was just receiving combat orders."
Ledo reached into his pocket. "But now things are different. I'm no longer an Alliance soldier. I'm a citizen of Dreamland and a proud member of the Meta-Knights. And, most importantly, I'm not alone anymore! Even if they aren't next to me, my friends are right here with me!" He tied the fighter headband Kirby gave him around his head. "Let's dance, you emotionless puppet!"
The shadow had no response to that other than to put his full weight into another punch, which was easily dodged. The ensign managed to land several more hits against him, until suddenly, the copy split in half.
"What is this...?" before he could react further, he was kicked from behind, stumbling over a bit.
That might have been a technique he learned from Dark Meta Knight. With a quick leg sweep, he brought Shadow Ledo down to the ground. This was his chance to finish this fight with one more punch. Just as Ledo was about to land this next hit on his shadowy counterpart, he was stopped by a mirror. He looked down to see that Dark Meta Knight had blocked the attack.
"Lord Dark…"
"You obtuse moron! I thought I told you to not do anything reckless! Have you forgotten where you are!? This is a battlefield! One wrong move and you will die! At this rate, you ought to apologize to whatever glass fragments formed you for wasting their time!"
A faint crackling could be heard from Shadow Ledo. "But, sir, you told me to fight."
The dark knight glared at him. "You can fight and not be an imbecile at the same time, dumbass! Now, quit messing up and knock him out already!"
A small crack began to develop on the doppelganger ensign's left cheek upon hearing that. "Yes…Lord Dark Meta Knight…"
For a brief moment, Ledo and Meta Knight looked at each other, as if wondering the same thing. What is the meaning of that fracture that suddenly appeared? Before they could say anything, the shadowy knight returned to engaging his brighter counterpart, grumbling aloud.
"That moron…he must have a brain the size of a snail…thinks about as fast as one, too…"
His brighter opponent seemed to smirk. "Oh, I don't know… some snails can grow to be big. Besides, you are fighting me, remember?!" Meta Knight landed a hit so heavy that it caused Dark Meta Knight to skid backwards. "Besides, why do YOU even care about what's happening between them? Last time I checked, you couldn't care less about anything that doesn't directly benefit you."
"Silence! I can insult whoever I want, especially when the dunce I'm insulting works for me!" He summoned more blades from mirrors in front of him, which were dodged with ease.
"Ack!" Shadow Ledo's roundhouse was particularly nasty that time.
Both of them seemed to be losing stamina fast. They had to finish this quickly. As a last-ditch effort, the copy gave a strong uppercut to the face, but was stunned by a hefty kick to the chest. Such an attack left the copy wide open. With one final yell, Ledo put his weight into one final punch. It hurt his hand a lot, but it felt strangely satisfying. There was a slight stumble from the mirror version of himself, as Shadow Ledo was barely able to stand after receiving that punch. There was a stunned expression on the copy's face, the first time he exhibited any kind of emotion. The crack that had begun to develop on his face began to grow larger and more of them began to appear on his body.
"I…" a fragment of his cheek broke off, turning into a shard of glass. "I…truly am useless, aren't I...Lord Dark..." his emotionless expression slowly morphed to one of despair as another large fracture shot throughout his body. Wincing briefly in pain, more cracks appeared before his body shattered, transforming into several shards of mirror-like glass. Dark Meta Knight looked over from his own duel and saw what had happened. He could only stare in stunned silence. After a few seconds, a small, glass-like fracture formed on the right side of his head.
"You stupid, good for nothing…! I may have called you a lot of things, but I never called you useless!" He turned towards Ledo, eyes burning with rage. "NOW, AS FOR YOU! NO ONE KILLS MY PUPPET AND LIVES!" before he could spring after the young man, he was hit on the back of his head, passing out.
"That's enough of that, faker."
"Lord Meta Knight…"
The knight walked over to the young man and motioned for him to kneel. Slightly confused, he obliged, only to have his face prodded at by his superior.
"Does this hurt?"
"A…bit…"
"Do you have any more pain anywhere? That fight of yours seemed pretty intense."
"I'm a bit sore, but I don't think I broke anything…I can have Chamber do a medical checkup." He flinched when the blue puff put pressure on his shoulder.
"Can you still pilot him in your condition?"
The young man moved his shoulder a bit. There was a tiny bit of pain, but he could work through it. "I think I'll be fine, thanks for your concern."
"I see…don't overdo it…" there was a bit more concern in the knight's voice when he said that. He was about to turn to return to the rest of the group, but then Kirby floated over, now using his Doctor ability. "You three already defeated Dedede and Bandana's counterparts?" the knight looked towards them to see a few piles of glass on the ground.
"Yup! We got a bit battered from it, but we did it! Honestly they stood no chance against our combined power!" He gave Ledo a bottle with a green liquid inside it. "Drink this and it'll heal you! You need to be at your best when we fight Striker, right?"
"Right. Thank you."
Dedede stretched his arms. "Maaaan, guess we can check "mirror copy counterparts" off final area bingo..."
"We aren't doing bingo." The pink puff commented.
"Don't worry about it, Kirby..." The Waddle Dee sighed.
"Um...should we destroy the Dimension Mirror and Dark Meta Knight?"
"I recommend that..." Meta Knight cut himself off as he stumbled a bit, placing a hand on his head.
"Yo, MK, somethin' wrong? You don't look so hot."
"...can you feel it, too, Kirby?"
His student began to shudder. "A... surge in negative emotion?"
"An immense one..."
The blue puff's eyes turned grass green "Everyone! We have to go now! We don't have much time left! This Hyper Zone is going to become a Dark Star soon!"
With a surprised nod, Ledo stepped into Chamber's hand and was raised to the cockpit.
"We are approaching Striker's signal. Contact is expected to be made in approximately twenty minutes."
"...so once we defeat Striker, this will all be over, huh?"
"Ensign Ledo, I detect evidence of strain in your voice and abnormalities in your brainwaves. Is there something that is on your mind?"
"I have a lot on my mind right now, Chamber."
"I cannot assist much with that, but I can offer my support."
He looked out at the darkness of the Hyper Zone. "That...would be appreciated."
This was an enjoyable chapter to write.
Yes, Dededetour is kind of canon here.
Omake (Bonus):
MK: That time you crossed the street when it wasn't at a crosswalk, several times you overslept and missed a training session, a few days ago when you gave the head nurse a reason to try to "cure" Ledo, two weeks ago when you suggested painting Chamber pink, that time you played chess with Marx...
Kirby: THAT WAS A NORMAL CHESS MATCH WHERE HE DIDN'T CHEAT FOR ONCE! HOW IS THAT BAD!?
MK: It was with Marx.