Chapter 3

"So he is here!" Samus exclaimed, when the children nodded in confirmation.

"How do you know Sir Meta Knight?" Tuff asked her, curious.

"It's kind of complicated," the bounty hunter replied, looking a unsure about giving that information to her young friends. "During his time as a star warrior he and a few others had aided me in one of my missions. That's how I met him." she got a bit of a far away look on her face as she continued. "Nightmare's forces weren't the only creatures causing a disturbance at the time. There were other beings with similar motives making themselves known in some not so pleasant ways as well. "

"There were?" Lololo asked.

Samus looked away, her gaze centering on nothing. "They were called space pirates."

"Space pirates?!" Tuff exclaimed. He was suddenly much more interested in her story now."You mean like finding buried treasure and walking the plank but in space?"

The hunter shook her head. "No, they're far worse than that," she told him. "They're the kind of pirates that will massacre an entire space colony and leave a three year old girl an orphan." She clenched her hand into a tight fist as she said this making it so tight her entire hand shook in suppressed anger. "The star warriors, along with Meta Knight offered to help me deal with a few of them."

"So what happened?" Tiff wanted to know.

Samus paused for a moment before she replied. "It didn't go down like it was supposed to."

It hadn't?

The children waited for her to elaborate but she changed the subject. "Can you take me to where he is?" she asked them, returning her focus to why she'd come to the planet in the first place. "Does he live somewhere in the castle? I would really like to see him, since that's the reason I came here."

"Okay," Tiff agreed, a little thrown off that Samus wasn't going to elaborate on her story, but choosing to believe it was probably painful and she didn't want to relive the memory again. "We can take you to him. " the girl started to head down the hall. "His quarters are this way, come on."

King Dedede stomped into the throne room of his castle, still in a foul mood over his encounter with the human bounty hunter earlier that afternoon. Escargoon hadn't joined him because he'd decided it wasn't worth arguing over and had gone off to his own chambers to read. The king on the other hand wasn't about to get over it any time soon and just got more and more angry the longer he thought about it.

How dare that alien come to his kingdom and threaten him like that!? Who did she think she was?! He was the king! She needed to learn some respect!

With that in mind the birdlike monarch rushed to his throne where he hopped into the seat and hit a button on the right armrest that brought down some kind of futuristic delivery system and a large television that blinked on instantly. On the screen appeared a human like face with dark hair and a light skinned wearing a pair of classy shades that completely hid his eyes. He grinned down at the king with a winning smile.

"Hey there, triple D, what can I do for you today?" he greeted him.

"Stuff the nonsense," Dedede cut him off before he could go through his usual schtick. "I need a monster that will teach somebody a lesson."

"A lesson?" the man on the screen asked, looking somewhat confused by his statement. The king was known for ordering monsters for some rather petty reasons but this was pushing it, "What did you have in mind?"

"Something that will firmly cement in that smart aleck woman's mind that I am the king around here."

"Smart aleck woman eh?" The salesman remarked. "What exactly did she look like?"

"Some tall, blond female in a suit of armor," Dedede did his best to describe her further. "She tried ta procrastinate me with this cannon attached to her right arm."

"A cannon on her arm?" The salesman let that sink in a moment, rubbing is chin thoughtfully, before he smiled in a very odd way. "I think I have just the thing to deal with this armored lady."

The delivery system device powered up and something was sent through in a shower of static and sparks. When everything had settled down the king saw a small clear glass canister sitting in the middle of the device with something inside. Getting out of his chair he crossed over to it for a closer look. The thing inside the canister looked like a transparent creature with a strange "brain" shaped like three red balls, below it at the bottom of the transparent thing's body were four fang like protrusions. The creature let out a funny sounding squeak.

"What is this thing here?" Dedede demanded, rather unsettled by the thing's appearance. What in Popstar had that man sent him?!

The salesman explained. "This creature is something we like to refer to as a metroid."

"A metroid?" the king leaned toward the canister for a closer look. "It don't look that iminitating ta me."

The man on the screen spoke up. "Don't let that thing's look fool you, triple D. It might look like a floating jellyfish but it has a rather nasty ability."

"Oh?"

"These beings were created by a race of bird-like creatures known as the Chozo," he began his explanation. "their primary functions were to absorb energy from any living thing it decides to latch its fangs on to."

"Oh really now?" Dedede picked up the canister and further scrutinized the metroid inside of it. "with these fangs here?"

"Yup,"the man replied. "it'll hang on tightly until it's victim is nothing but a lifeless husk."

"Hmm..." Dedede's face lit up with a wicked smile. "I think I know just the person to try this out on."

Before the salesman could do any further explaining about the metroid the king rushed out of the throne room, the canister gripped firmly in his arms.

"He should have let me finished telling him about it if he intends to set that thing loose," the salesman said to himself. He sighed and put up his hands in a helpless gesture. "Oh well, I guess he'll just have to find out for himself."

The screen blinked out.

Meta Knight had been watching the children and Samus when they'd entered the castle courtyard. When he'd caught sight of the female bounty hunter the reason for his unnerved feeling earlier finally got its answer.

I do not believe it, he thought as he watched her follow the children into the castle. she's here...

While he was trying to comprehend this Sword and Blade returned and entered his chambers. Sword's voice took his thoughts briefly away from the hunter as he turned to face the duo.

As they gave their report it turned out to be information that wasn't very useful now that he knew who had arrived in the ship. He didn't know her true purpose for being there yet but he was pretty certain the woman he'd seen with the children only moments prior was there because she wanted to see him.

"I know who was in the ship," he told the other two knights once they had finished .

"You do?" Sword asked, startled by this revelation. "Who?"

He turned away, wrapping himself up in his cape as he responded. "Somebody I believed I would never see again."

"Oh?" the two looked at each other then back at him. Meta Knight could tell they were waiting for him to explain further on what he had said, but he hesitated, unsure if he wanted to share that information with them. He'd known the female bounty hunter long before he'd ever met his two companions and they might not be able to understand his relationship with her or the outcome of it.

"It is not important," he finally said after a moment of silence.

"Well, are you going to say hello to them then?" Sword wanted to know.

"...No."

The two knights looked at each other, confused by his answer. No? But if that person was his friend wouldn't he be happy to go see them? Why wasn't he going to talk to them? Had something happened between the two? What if that person wasn't a friend at all? What if it really was an enemy and that was why he didn't want to go see them?

Considering what had happened the last two times a person came to the planet looking for Meta Knight Sword and Blade really couldn't blame him for wanting to stay as far away from them as possible.

"Is it an enemy?" Sword pressed.

"... Should we keep an eye on this person?" Blade questioned.

"There is no need for that," the retired Star Warrior told them. "This person is not a threat, just a..." he paused as he looked for the right words. "Just somebody I do not wish to talk to."

Before either of them could question him further he'd jumped onto the balcony and then over the side.

Now is just not a good time for this, he thought as he landed on the castle grounds. He rushed away from the castle without a look back. No time will ever be...

Tiff, Tuff, Kirby, and the Lola twins led Samus to the part of the castle where Meta Knight had his chambers. Once they arrived Tiff raised her hand to knock on the door, turning to look at the bounty hunter as they waited for the star warrior to answer his door. A few moments later Blade opened the door. He eyed the children and then the tall figure in the red and yellow colored power suit without a single word.

"Hi Blade," Tuff finally said feeling a little awkward at his silence. "Is Sir Meta Knight home?"

"..He just left," Blade responded after a moment's hesitation.

"He did?" Tiff asked, her face expression somewhat confused. "Do you know where he went?"

Blade shook his head. "... Didn't say a single word where he was going." he answered her. "...went off by himself."

"Oh..." Tiff looked up at Samus whose face fell in disappointed. "I see.. Do you know when he'll be back?"

Once more Blade shook his head.

The girl sighed. "I'm sorry, Miss Aran," Tiff said, turning fully to Samus now. "It looks like you're going to have to wait a little longer to speak with Sir Meta Knight."

The woman's face fell further and she sighed. "I should have known," she muttered.

Before the kids could ask her what she meant by that, the woman had turned and retraced her steps down the hall.

"Who was that?" Blade asked the children after the hunter was out of earshot.

"Her name is Samus Aran," Tiff explained, turning her attention back to the knight at the door. "she came here to see Meta Knight. "

"Why?" he inquired, though his attention was still somewhat directed in the direction the bounty hunter had gone off in.

"Because she told us he's a friend of her's," the girl finished her explanation. "she was really looking forward to seeing him again."

"So what did Tiff want to speak to Sir Meta Knight about?" Sword asked Blade once the children had left.

His companion closed the door and faced him, relaying the entire conversion to the blue armored knight. As he did so Sword frowned under his helmet, trying to make sense of what he'd just learned. The woman, this Samus Aran, believed Meta Knight was a friend of her but from the way the star warrior had acted and described her to them it seemed to be just the opposite.

I wonder why Meta Knight said what he did? he thought. Especially since that bounty hunter believes they had some kind of relationship. Hmm...

Dedede, metroid capsule in hand, had headed to the chambers of Escargoon who'd left him earlier. He wanted to test out the truth of the Holy Nightmare salesman's claims and he'd chosen the snail scientist has the perfect test subject.

Being as quiet as possible he slowly pushed the door open to the snail's chambers and poked his head inside to see if he was inside. Once he'd looked inside he was relieved to see that Escargoon was indeed in his room. he was seated over at his desk, reading a book and minding his own business.

Satisfied the king slowly shut the door without making a sound and held up the canister housing the metroid in front of him. snickering he unscrewed the top and then reopened the door to Escargoon's room to let the creature out. It held still for a moment then slowly slipped out of the top of the canister and with a faint squeak it entered the snail's room.

Escargoon, his attention completely immersed in his research, didn't notice the flying alien creature until he heard it let out a loud squeak. He then looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of it. But since it didn't seem to bear him any ill will he got over it quickly, eyeing it curiously as it hovered harmlessly around him.

"Hello, what are you supposed to be?"

The snail raised his hand and reached out to poke the metroid with his finger. As he did so the thing suddenly turned hostile and screeched at him, opening the mouth on the lower part of its body and flying in for the kill.

Panicking at the creature's sudden mood shift Escargoon screamed and swung at the thing with his book, hitting the floating alien hard. It was knocked back but recovered quickly and flew at him again, hissing in anger.

"No!" he cried out, running from the thing as fast as his sluggish body could carry him. "Get away from me!"

He grabbed up his chair and flung it at the metroid, hitting it square across the front of it's soft jell-like body. It bobbed back and forth for a moment then seemed to lose all of it's courage. It turned from him and, screeching loudly, flew toward the window, breaking the glass as if made it's escape.

Having his rather cruel joke ruined, Dedede barged into the snail's bedroom and bellowed. "What did you do that for?!"

Escargoon's head swiveled around to stare wide eyed at his king. "What?!" he exclaimed.

"Why'd ya let it get away!?" the king cried out, looking ready to hit the poor snail with his mallet. "I spent a lot of moneh on that there metronome and ya let it escape!"

"You bought that thing?!" the snail's face held a blank expression for a few seconds before he exploded. "It tried to kill me! What possessed you to pull such a stunt like that? Have you completely lost your mind?!"

"Aww shuddup," Dedede grumbled, looking toward the window. "It didn't hurt ya."

"Why did you buy that thing in the first place?!"

"I was gonna use it to teach that smart aleck woman to not disrespect the king." he frowned, still looking out the window. "But now it's gotten away." he grabbed the snail by the eyestalk. "and you're gonna help me find it!"

Before Escargoon could protest, Dedede dragged the unfortunate snail out of the room, slamming the door behind them.