Chapter 6

Tuff and the others needed no second bidding. The children turned and ran, except for Kirby who stood there staring. Tiff had to quickly run back, grab his hand, and pull him away from the creatures. They rushed away from the field, not looking back as they made a beeline for the forest they had just come out of only a few minutes ago.

As they ran Tuff glanced over is shoulder and yelped. "They're following us!" he exclaimed.

"Faster!" Tiff shouted to them all. "We have to out run them!"

The children increased their pace as best they could as they rushed through the trees hoping to outrun the strange creatures before they were able to catch up with them and do to them what they had done to the mayor's sheep.

Suddenly Tiff who was still holding tightly to Kirby's hand, stumbled over a tree root and fell to the ground. She hit the ground with Kirby landing beside her. As she started to get up she heard Tuff shout. "Look out, Tiff!"

She looked over her shoulder and saw one of the creatures making a beeline for her. She screamed and threw herself over Kirby to protect him, closing her eyes as she expected the worst.

CRRRRRRSSSSHHTT!

A cold blast of freezing energy hit the creature instantly turning it into a ball of ice. The frozen alien hovered there for a brief moment before it crashed into the ground and shattered. Tiff started to lift her head but a woman's voice commanded. "Get down!" and she ducked once more as a figure leaped over her.

She threw herself back onto the ground and closed her eyes, gripping Kirby tightly as she listened to somebody dealing with the creatures that had been chasing them. After a moment everything went silent then a voice said. "You can get up now, it's safe."

"Huh?" lifting her head, Tiff looked over her shoulder and found herself staring up into Samus' face. The bounty hunter was kneeling beside her looking a bit worried.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I-I think so." the girl sat up and looked behind Samus, seeing the remains of the creatures that had been chasing them laying in pieces on the ground. "What were those things?"

Samus closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Those," the female bounty hunter began as she straightened herself up. "were metroids."

"Metroids? What's that?"

"Something that should not be on your planet," she looked back at the dead metroids on the ground, her face a mask of thoughtful calculation. "Something isn't right." She looked back at the children. Tuff and the others had come over to Tiff and were helping her and Kirby to their feet. "You wouldn't know anything about this, would you?"

"Why would we know?" Tiff demanded, looking shocked that the woman would even make such an assumption. "We've never even heard of such creatures before today!"

"Meta-Kn-" Samus stopped herself, frowning. The star warrior had never mentioned her before so there wasn't any way he would tell them about metroids either. "Hmmm..."

"Tiff," Tuff whispered to his sister. "what if King Dedede is the one who-"

"Even Dedede wouldn't do something like that," Tiff started to argue but then stopped before she completely finished the sentence. King Dedede had in the past done things similar, including turning completely innocent creatures into monsters. "Would he?"

Samus looked back at her. "Would he what?" she asked her. "Who is he?"

"Ummm King Dedede," Tiff said after hesitating for a moment.

The bounty hunter frowned. "What about him?"

The girl looked her in the eye. "We think he might have something to do with this."

Escargoon was feeling paranoid.

After he'd learned the entire story of why King Dedede had ordered the metroid and found out what might happen if it became a queen, he'd begun to worry. Even after the king tried to assure him they wouldn't have anything to worry about because he'd ordered the Waddle Dees to take care of it, the snail felt no better. He knew the Waddle Dees weren't exactly the most competent creatures on Popstar to deal with anything. They all usually wound up being knocked around and out of commission before too long.

In fact the only person who actually had any competency when dealing with monsters was Kirby. Or Meta Knight but he doubted the older Star Warrior would be willing to do anything about it, he'd probably think he was lying about it. If it came down to it Escargoon had no problem with having Kirby take care of them. At least then the problem would go away and he wouldn't be moving through the castle as if at any moment an energy leeching monster will pop out and suck him dry.

"All this just because he couldn't get over the fact that woman didn't show him respect," he muttered, sliding down the hall with his back up against the wall to make sure nothing would sneak up behind him. "He should have just let it go, it's not like sending a monster after her is going to make her change her mind-AHHHH!"

He hadnt been paying attention to where he was going and ran into Sword who had gone for a walk. His screaming scared the knight who also screamed with him until he exclaimed. "What are we screaming about?!"

"It's just you!" Escargoon exclaimed, staring wide eyed at the knight. "Why don't you warn people before sneaking up on them?!"

"I wasn't sneaking," the knight told him, frowning under his helmet. "you walked into me!"

"Well you should still warn people you're coming," the snail shot back. "It's rude to just walk around and walk into people without saying anything."

Sword started to once again point out that Escargoon had been the one who had run into him but chose better of it. He wasn't going to win in an argument with the snail. It was best just to apologize and try to find out what had him on edge.

"Sorry," he said, "now would it be too much to ask as to why you're acting so strangely?"

"Strangely?" Escargoon asked. "who's acting strangely? I'm not acting strangely, you're just seeing things." he backed up, his hands up in front out him. "Nothing is wrong here, nothing at all."

"...Right..."

"Why are you still standing around here?" the snail suddenly demanded. "Go guard something!"

"Uh..." now Sword was feeling more confused. He decided it would be best if he just walked away before things got even stranger.

"You heard me, get moving!"

Without another word he turned and walked away, leaving the snail once more alone in the hall with his increasing paranoia.

But before he could get too far the snail called out. "Wait!"

Sword paused and looked over his shoulder. Now what?

"You umm.. haven't seen anything..odd flying around have you?"

Meta Knights companion had no idea what the snail was asking about but now he was beginning to feel suspicious. "No," he answered him anyway. "I haven't seen anything flying around today, why?"

"Oh nothing," Escargoon said, once again evasive. "I was just asking. "

"...Right."

"Just mind your own business!" he snapped again before charging away, giving the knight no chance to give him a retort.

Samus started heading toward King Dedede's castle without asking Tiff or the others anymore questions like why would the king of Dreamland be behind the sudden metroid invasion of Cappytown or how he managed to obtain them. All that she cared about was reaching the castle and getting to the bottom of things. Something told her that the answers were all in that stone building on the top of the hill and it was up to her and only her to deal with them.

None of the people of dreamland knew how to deal with metroids, nobody but one and something told her he wouldn't be willing to get involved, even if it did mean he was risking the lives of everyone he might remotely care about. Why he wouldn't, she still didn't know but she wasn't going to waste her time trying to figure that out. Getting rid of the metroids before they multiplied was much more important.

"Samus, wait up!" Tiff's voice called out to her.

The bounty hunter looked over her shoulder, realizing the children had come after her and were trying to keep up with her. She slowed her pace, giving them time to catch up with her. It would be best if she explained the situation to them, maybe they could help somehow.

When they caught up with her she turned to face them looking at Tiff when she immediately started talking to her.

"Why did you run off like that?" the girl asked her.

"Why are you asking me that?" Samus wanted to know. "You told me your king is responsible for the metroids being on Popstar, if that is true I need to take care of it as quickly as possible." she checked the settings on her arm cannon. "Right after I teach him a lesson about bringing energy sucking aliens onto his planet without bothering to research them first."

"What exactly are you going to do to him?" Tuff asked, looking at her arm cannon somewhat worriedly. "Because I wouldn't want to have it happen to me."

The bounty hunter realized why the boy looked nervous and lowered her arm. "I'm not going to kill him," she assured the him, feeling bothered by the fact he was even thinking that about her. "I'm just going to give him a little talking to."

"But what if he's not responsible?" Tuff continued. "I mean, yeah he's done real bad things but I don't think he's that bad."

"Well," she said, turning back toward the castle. "I won't know until I actually get to talk to him. If you want to find out you can come with me and ask him yourself." she looked at Tiff now. "I mean, you're the one who was so sure it was him to begin with."

The girl nodded. "okay," she said, though she sounded a little uncertain now. "Just as long as you don't-"

"I won't," Samus told her. "I promise." she continued on now with the children following close behind her.

Before they could take more than a few steps a piercing scream split the air. Samus paused a moment then after mentally figuring out the location by the direction it had come from took off toward Cappy Town.

Tiff looked at her brother and the others and then rushed after the bounty hunter, being followed closely after by Tuff, Lololo, Lalalala, and Kirby.

Just as the bounty hunter entered the village she came to an abrupt stop, her eyes widening as she took in the sight before her. Cappys old and young were running through the streets arms raised and faces covered in fear as metroids chased them down. If any slowed their pace even for a second the energy sucking aliens would latch onto them and begin to drain their energy. Some fell dead, having been drained too late for Samus to do anything to prevent it from happening.

At that moment one of the cappy children she'd run into before rushed by before tripping and falling to the ground immediately set upon by one of the metroids. The child screamed, flailing their arms vainly.

She swore, taking a slight step back as her helmet materialized on her head, before she thrust her arm forward and blasted the parasitic creature with a charge blast of ice. It let out a shriek before it was frozen solid, falling to the pavement and smashing into a million pieces.

"Samus!" the bounty hunter heard Tiff and the other children coming up behind her.

"Don't move!" she exclaimed, putting out her arm to halt them. "It's not safe here for you. Just stay back!"

Behind her Tiff instantly mirrored Samus posture, Tuff and the others stopped as well, though Kirby climbed on top of Tuff's head and looked up to watch. Samus rushed forward, aiming her arm blaster and freezing every metroid she caught sight of. As she froze them she would order the cappys to get out of there before any other metroids showed up and attacked them. They were all too happy to follow her instructions, rushing into the safest building they could find and barricading themselves inside.

By the time Samus was done dead metroids littered the street and only the mayor of Cappy Town was left outside. He stood up off the ground and turned to her, his small hand grasping his chest as he caught his breath.

"Thank you, Miss Aran," he said looking up at the tall woman.

"Where did the metroids come from?" she asked him. Maybe it hadn't been Dedede after all?

"The metroids? he looked around at the dead creatures then back at her, figuring out what she meant. "I don't know," he responded, taking off his hat to rub the top of his head. "They just came out of nowhere and started attacking everyone. We tried to make them stop but noting we did even scratched them." he noticed some dead cappy husks now and his tone turned sad. "Oh dear..."

"I'm sorry," she said, her tone softening. "If I had known they were here sooner I could have done something right away."

"You called those things metroids," the cappy responded, looking back at her. "what are metroids?"

"They are parasitic creatures that drain energy from other living creatures," she explained, looking at the dried up husks once more. "Sadly there is no way to return the energy back to the victim once it's all been absorbed. I'm sorry."

The mayor's expression turned to one of horror. "But where did they come from?" he exclaimed. "what could have brought them here?"

Samus' helmet vanished, revealing her face which held a grave expression, though her tone gave away that she was holding in her anger. No, it couldn't be anyone but their king. "I think I know exactly what brought them here."

Then she turned and stormed out of the town before the cappy could ask her to elaborate.

Sword was still trying to figure out Escargoon's odd behavior when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and stood rigid in the middle of the hall. He had heard something that strange, like a faint sound.

A baby?

No, it couldn't be a baby. There weren't any babies in the castle, unless Lady Like had another child which was highly unlikely as he had not seen her with the belly. So if it wasn't a baby what-

A bad feeling suddenly washed over him and he spun, unsheathing is sword and swinging it in one movement. The blade hit something soft that made an unhappy shrieking sound. Sword's eyes widened under his helmet as he found himself staring at a strange looking blob, floating in the air before him.

What the-

Suddenly the creature let out an angry scream, backing away from the blade and then lunging at him. The young warrior let out a yell; and swung is sword again, making contact with the creature with the flat of the blade, he harmlessly struck the creature, the force of the blow tennis racketing the beast back against the wall.

It remained there a moment, stunned.

Sword didn't wait for it to recover. He turned and took off down the all, making a bee line for the chambers he shared with Meta Knight and Blade. The star warrior had to be told about this.

"Meta Knight!" he yelled, bursting into the room. "Where are you Meta Knight?! We have a serious problem on our hands!"

But the apartment was quiet. Nobody was there.

"Meta Knight?" Where had the older knight gone? Has he left? But where? What could he possibly have gone to at such an inconvenient time?!

"Meta Knight?" he looked in the old star warrior's room but it was empty.

"Not here..." Blade's voice spoke up behind him.

He turned to face his friend. "Where did he go?" he asked him.

Blade, not picking up on his companion's urgent tone, shrugged carelessly. "Dunno," he replied. "Why? You wanted him for something?"

Sword's eyes widened under his helmet. Didn't he realize what was going on in the castle? Hadn't he gone out of the apartment? He very nearly blew up at Blade but then reigned himself and instead began to explain to him why he was looking for Meta Knight and what was going on inside the castle and possibly outside in the kingdom at well. Blade listened to his friends story without comment though, by the time Sword was finished he seemed just as nervous as he was. It wasn't hard to figure out why.

"What should we do? he asked him.

"Find Meta Knight," Sword responded. It was the only thing he could think of. "Before things get out of hand."

/welp i am finally getting to working on this story more even though nobody was really even reading it to begin with. whatever. i want to finish it.