Chapter 5

It was safe to say Dedede didn't hesitate in getting back in contact with the Nightmare salesman about the metroid he'd ordered, once he and Escargoon got back to his castle. As soon as the screen blinked on he proceeded to chew the man out for not being honest about the creature he'd purchased and accusing him of intentionally sending him an uncontrollable monster that could grow larger and suck people's bodies dry.

"I would have told you the whole description, Triple D, but you ran out of here so fast I couldn't," he informed him. "You were so eager to try out your new pet."

"Yeah on me," Escargoon grumbled, folding his arms and giving the king a death glare. Dedede ignored him.

"Ya shoulda been up front with tha' info," Dedede snapped at the salesman. "How was I supposed to constitude that it would turn into a giant fire breathin' monster!?"

"Fire breathing monster?" the salesman looked a bit confused. "Um... can you describe it?" Dedede did so, once he finished the man said, stroking is chin thoughtfully. "Hmmm looks like the little fellow has already reached it's fourth stage. What you ran into in the woods is called a zeta metroid."

"Zeta metroid?!"

"Oh yes," the Salesman responded. "Though I never knew them to reach that stage so quickly."

"That quickly..." Escargoon frowned. He didn't like the sound of that. "Where did you get that thing?! Spill your guts!"

"Well we obtained it from some beings known as space pirates," he chuckled, once the realization hit him. "Now that I think about it, those space pirates have some nasty habits, like experimentation. They must have come up with a way to speed up its life cycle."

"What does that mean?!" The king of Dreamland inquired.

The Salesman laughed. "Oh nothing," he said, putting up his hands. "That is if it doesn't go past this stage."

"And if it does?" Dedede wanted to know. "Then what's gonna happen?"

The man grinned. "Well you see you could either be having an omega to worry about and if worse comes to worse, a queen." he laughed again. "and believe me, you don't want to get on her bad side. But in case of the event of that happening, I would suggest running, would you like to buy a treadmill to practice, Triple D?"

The salesman's snide remark got his screen shut off.

"Sire, if that thing does reach a queen like he said it might shouldn't we be abandoning ship, so to speak?"

Dedede said nothing but for all intents and purposes he looked way more serious than he ever had in his life. The expression he had only made the snail's worry formulate into nothing short of terror. If the king was being uncharacteristically contemplative then it only meant they were in trouble.

Serious trouble.

While the King of Dreamland and his assistant were worrying about the Eldritch Abominations that made up the life cycle of the metroid species, Samus Aran was taking a tour of Dreamland with Tiff and the other children, completely oblivious to the danger that was intensifying with each passing hour.

The children had shown her quite a few places around the kingdom, like the area around the Booma Dooma volcano, though they avoided Dina Blade and her nest, and of course the beach. While they were there Kine came up to greet them and say hello to his crush, Tiff. The girl was polite to him, since he wasn't trying to flirt with her for once. He was more interested in the female bounty hunter as he's never seen a human Before, especially one so tall.

"Wow!" he said, staring up at the woman. "You're almost as pretty as Tiff!"

The girl blushed with embarrassment. 'Kine!" she exclaimed.

"What?" he asked. "It's true. Nobody will ever be as pretty as you!"

Her face turned crimson. "Stop it!"

"Why Tiff?" he asked, confused. "Don't you want me to compliment you?"

Tuff and the other children chuckled as Tiff became more flustered Samus didn't really say anything about it because for all she knew Tiff and the fish were dating. It wouldn't matter to her anyway, since inter species romance was basically a normal thing in the Galactic Federation and she'd dated outside of her own species before as well.

Her attention then moved from Tiff and the others and over to Kirby who had wandered off further down the beach and was looking at the sand, picking up shells then putting them back down after a few seconds. She wondered what he was looking for and why the baby star warrior's face held such an intense expression. She walked over toward him to get a closer look at what he was doing.

When she did he looked up and her and then moved further away, making her stop and frown slightly. Why in the world was he moving away from her? Didn't he want her to see what he was doing? Was it something he would get in trouble for?

In trouble with who? she asked herself. Kirby didn't even have any parents.

Kind of like herself, except she'd had some people to raise her. Yes, they hadn't been humans but they had cared for her like she had been born as one of them. Kirby did seem to have some people taking care of her but Tiff and the others were only children.

Why wasn't Meta Knight raising him? she asked herself. Surely he knew about him and they both seemed to be the same species, at least that was her conclusion after seeing both of their faces. Did he not feel at least some kind of responsibility to him? They were both star warriors after all.

"Poyo!"

Kirby's voice brought her out of her thoughts. Samus looked down at the pink puff ball and saw he was holding something up to her. "What is it?" she asked him.

He got up on his tiptoes, trying to hand her something. She reached down to take whatever it was from him. She opened her hand and looked down at it.

In her hand was a small pink shell that looked like one of those a crab would make their home out of. She was certain that there was no crab in it, otherwise Kirby wouldn't have given it to her. She looked down at the baby star warrior.

"Is this for me?" she asked him.

"Poyo!" he squealed happily.

She smiled, closing her fingers around the gift. "Thank you Kirby," she said. "I'll treasure it always."

He squealed again, dancing up and down with joy. He was so happy she liked her present.

She reached down and patted him on the head, making him closer his eyes and smile happily. she sighed, her heart softening as she patted the cute little star warrior's head. She couldn't help wishing she could stay on the planet indefinitely just so she could spent more time with the little guy but she knew she would have to leave eventually.

Kirby was the protector of Dreamland and she had her own star system to protect, though for now things were quiet in the galactic federation. It was quiet here too, now that she thought of it. She knew that wasn't always the case, from what Tiff had told her as she's led her on a tour through dreamland. Sometimes monsters appeared but Kirby took care of them, though it bothered her a little that Meta Knight wasn't more helpful.

Oh she knew why he did it, it just seemed a bit excessive for a baby. The Chozo didn't leave her to fight monsters when she was only three, they'd waited to start her training until she was a little older. But Meta Knight wasn't the Chozo and he did things differently.

"Samus," Tiff's voice brought her out of her thoughts. She looked over her shoulder at the girl and the other children. "Hmmm?"

"What do you got there?" she asked the woman. "Did Kirby give you a present?"

Samus turned to the girl, opening her hand to show her and the others the shell Kirby had given her as a present.

'If Kirby gave you a present that means he really likes you," Tuff told her.

Tiff nodded, smiling up at the woman. "Kirby only gives things to people he thinks highly of," she explained. "and it looks like you're one of those people."

"Really," Samus smiled and closed her fist around the shell. "Then I'll be sure to take real good care of it."

Kirby let out another happy squeal and rushed off to find her more shells. The others watched him go, looking from one shell to another, hoping to find another perfect one.

"So Kirby arrived her in a star ship, right?" Samus asked Tiff.

The girl nodded. "Mmhmm," she answered. "It crash landed here, though Meta Knight told us that he wasn't supposed to wake up for a very long time, when he was an adult and a full fledged star warrior."

"Hm..." Samus continued to watch Kirby as she allowed the girl's words to sink in. "Has Meta Knight helped train Kirby at all since he's arrived here?"

The bounty hunter looked over at her. "Not exactly?" she asked, frowning slightly. "What do you mean by "Not exactly'?"

"Well you see," Tuff responded for his sister. "He gives Kirby but advice but kind of... let's him figure things out on his own."

"I see..."

Tuff could tell by the look on her face she didn't like that answer. "Hey, it's not like he doesn't help him out at all," he defended the veteran star warrior. "It's just-"

"He believes that allowing Kirby to do things for himself will help him improve," she cut him off. "even if it might cost Kirby his life."

"Yes, how did you know?" Tiff questioned her.

She turned from the children, her hand clenching into a tight fist that threatened to destroy the shell Kirby had given her. she relaxed her grip when she realized this, not wanting to crush it. "Sometimes Meta Knight takes it too far," she said after a moment. "He may be right but it doesn't always end up the way he expected it to. He should really take his own advice sometime, maybe then things won't wind up going bad."

The children looked at one another, having no idea what the bounty hunter was talking about. They waited for her to answer but she refused either unwilling to answer or unable to explain herself. Finally she turned to them, her expression returning to the smile she'd had before.

"Why don't you show me around some more?" she asked. "I'm sure you still have plenty of things for me to look at."

"Ummm sure," Tiff said, walking toward her. "Come on, I'll show you where Whispy Woods lives. Come on, Kirby, let's go!"

Meta Knight was feeling like a bit of a coward. Ever since he'd gotten back from his talk with Kabu he'd basically locked himself in his room, avoiding everyone, especially sword who was still trying to get answers out of him about why he had no plans to talk to Samus Aran. Maybe he could have lied about it, but that wouldn't have made the situation any better.

He knew he really shouldn't be avoiding her anyway as it was only making things worse for her and himself. He didn't even know why she'd come there anyway, only guessing her motive and it wasn't right. Why was he acting like a child about it anyway? It was completely out of character for him.

He looked out the window, taking in the view. Samus hadn't left the planet, he knew, she was still there and she wouldn't leave until she managed to make contact with him. It really was rather pointless to avoid her like he was, pointless and immature.

It would be better if he just got it over with and spoke to her. She couldn't, rather wouldn't hurt him, he was her friend and she didn't harm friends.

Just talk to her, a voice in his head spoke up. What in the world are you afraid she'll do to you? She doesn't even know why you're avoiding her anyway. Nobody told her and she has no way of finding out what you did. For all you know this is a friendly visit and has nothing to do with that at all. Go see her, stop putting it off. If it is about that it's best you just get it all out in the open. You can't hide it forever, you know...

I know that.

Not that it made any difference one way or the other.

Meta Knight headed for the door, reaching up and opening it. Sword saw him come out but he didn't approach him. It seemed he'd decided not to press the older warrior on the issue any further, which was a huge relief for the star warrior as he really didn't want to have to deal with the younger man's persistent pestering.

Satisfied with that he headed for the door, only to hear sword say. "Going out again?"

He paused and looked over at him. "Yes," he said with a nod. "Is there a problem?"

Sword merely shook his head and said. "No."

"Very well then." Meta Knight left the room before sword could say anything further.

"...Should have asked him again," Blade spoke up after the door had closed behind the veteran star warrior. "Why didn't you?"

"Because there was no point in doing so," Sword told his friend. "you know that. He would have just avoided the issue again and we wouldn't ave learned anything."

Blade let that sink in for a moment before he turned away from him. "...still should have asked him," he muttered.

Samus ha left Tiff and the other children after visiting Whispy Woods. She'd gone back to her ship to check on a few things and her companions had also headed out of the forest, making their way back to Cappytown. By then it had become early evening and it was time for them all to be heading home anyway.

On their way back the children discussed the day's events, from Samus' arrival to after she'd gone to her ship. Tiff was bothered by something and she felt the need to be open to the other's about it. Turned out they had all been feeling the exact same way, all but Kirby that was who was oblivious to the more serious matters going on around him.

"Do you think maybe something really bad happened between Samus and Meta Knight and that is why she came here?" she asked them. "I mean earlier the way she reacted to the news that meta knight isn't exactly really active in Kirby's development seemed to really get to her."

"Well you know, tiff, it is kind of weird how meta knight doesn't help Kirby all that much," Lalala pointed out.

'Yeah, he really could do more since he's a star warrior like Kirby." Lololo put in. "can you blame her?"

"Not really," she admitted. "but it's just... what do you think happened between them? Did you notice how she was talking to herself about Meta Knight repeating past behavior?"

"Do you think he might have trained her or something?" Tuff wanted to know.

The girl couldn't even begin to answer that question but her brother's question left her wondering.

Had he trained her in some way? But she had told them she had been trained to be a warrior by a species of aliens called the Chozo, there wouldn't be any reason for her to lie about that, given how her ship and her powersuit proved she was telling the truth about that.

"I guess we won't know until she talks to him," she said.

"But what if she wants to talk to him in private?" Lalala asked.

"It really isn't any of our business anyway," Lololo added.

Tiff knew they were right but it didn't make her feel any better and even if she didn't admit it to her friends she really wanted to know what went on between the two warriors. Had meta knight and her been romantically involved? Had they had a falling out? Maybe that wasn't it at all, maybe it was something else entirely.

But what?

"Oh my goodness! What happened here?!"

Lalala's voice brought the girl out of her thoughts. She looked in the direction the others were staring and her eyes widened.

Laying in the field before them were the dried up husks of the mayor's sheep.

The children stood at the edge of the forest, staring out at the vast field at what had once been a large flock of sheep. Except now the bodies in the field looked like all they ad been drained of water, laying brittle and emaciated on the ground.

"What kind of monster would do such a thing?!" Tiff exclaimed, putting her hands over her face as she turned away from the sight.

The others couldn't answer that question. Tuff, wanting to get a closer look, moved toward the dry husks.

"Be careful, Tuff!" his sister called after him.

He ignored her, stepping across the field to the sheep and reaching out his hand. The second his hand made contact with it it crumbled leaving behind nothing but dust. The boy gritted his teeth and let out a freak out sound now beginning to back away.

Just as he turned back to the others the Lola twins spotted something. "What's that!?" Lololo asked.

Tuff paused, looking over his shoulder. He caught sight of something coming out of the trees. From where he was neither he or the others could really make out what it was but a few seconds later it got closer and they were all about to get a good look at what it was.

What they saw seemed to be some kind of transparent jellyfish with three red eyes and fangs below the bulby orb instead of tentacles. It was also coming straight for them, emitting some rather disturbing sounds.

Tiff's eyes widened as sudden realization hit her and she shouted. "Run!"