Chapter 8

Dedede stared into the intense face of Samus Aran with utter shock. She had killed that giant saw toothed monster without breaking a sweat and now she had all of her attention on him, the very fact she'd accomplished that feat in less than thirty seconds not only was impressive but terrifying. The penguin monarch's brain once again shut off and all he could do was gape at her with the most ridiculous expression on his face. Mouth hanging wide open and eyes bugging out of his head. She'd said something to him but he hadn't understood a word but the way she was glaring at him told him he'd better say something or he'd wind up like the monster who was now a pile of bloody gibs all over the throne room floor, ceiling, and walls.

The king opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to come up with a coherent sentence, some kind of response that didn't make him sound like a much mouthed moron. "I...I..." he shook his head to clear it and started over. "What did ya' want again?"

The bounty hunter leaned toward Dedede's face, her blue eyes like ice. "Where did you get the metroids? Who gave them to you and why did you even allow them to come to your planet?"

"Uh..." he was having a real hard time coming up with answers to her questions. With the condition his brain was in, due to the events of the past few hours he was having a real hard time mentally comprehending anything she inquired about.

Samus slammed her hand down hard on the back of his throne, making him jump. She grasped it in a fist and leaned closer to him as she repeated her question in a cold voice. "Where did you get the metroids, King Dedede?"

He panicked, stepping backward and waving his hands in front of him as he babbled out an answer. "It wasn't my fault!"" he exclaimed. "How was I supposed ta know it was gonna turn into such a hideous monster!?"

"Where did you get it?" she asked again, not in the mood for excuses.

Dedede could see he couldn't just try changing the subject and get her focus elsewhere. Why should he not tell her anyway? Things had just gotten majorly out of hand since he let the salesman send him that metroid larva in a jar, so he had no need to protect the man.

"I got it from Holy Nightmare!" he blurted out.

If it were possible her glare got even colder. "What is Holy Nightmare?" she snapped, leaning so close her arm canon was now resting under the penguin's chin. He had to be lying, she'd never even heard of such a place."and why would they have access to metroids?"

Dedede replied honestly. "I don't know know!" he proclaimed. "They sell monsters! The sales man said he got it from space pirates."

Space pirates! Now things were beginning to make some sense, though it didn't answer her biggest question. "Why did you buy it?"

When Samus had entered the castle she had taken off in the direction of the king's throne room after Tiff had given her direction. After she'd left the children they had gone in a different direction, all running toward the apartment chambers where Tiff and Tuff lived with their parents. They had to make sure the adults hadn't met the same fate as the sheep and cappys down in the village. Along the way they did their best to avoid being attacked by or even encountering metroids who seemed to have taken up residence in the large stone structure. Waddle Dee's ran past them, nearly all being chased by the floating creatures, all seeming to just want to escape the energy draining monsters.

"Mom! Dad!" Tiff shouted as she and her brother pushed open the door to their apartment. Just as they entered the children heard a scream. "That's mom!"Tiff exclaimed and they all rushed into the living room to find Lady Like, Tiff and Tuff's mother sitting pressed against the wall, with wide terrified eyes as her husband and the children's father Sir Ebrum stood protectively in front of her, valiantly smacking away at a a group of metroid with the handle of a broom.

"Back! Back, you vile beasts!" he was yelling as he fought them all off.

The metroids didn't really seem to be very aggressive as they were very easily swatted away and seemed to bounce harmlessly off each other like balloons. Either that or the kid's father had a really accurate swing and they were keeping their distance after being pummeled soundly enough to be intimated. It looked like the ground was hovering about and watching him swing away like a professional baseball player.

Tiff concluded that the metroids were merely waiting for er father to tired out before attacking so, thinking quickly, she rushed into the kitchen grabbed a bucket and then turned on the ice maker on the fridge. placing the bucket under the maker she filled the bucket then dashed back into the living room and chucked the ice onto the metroids who all squealed unhappily before making a mad dash out of the window. It wasn't until after her parents watched them fly out of the window with opened mouthed surprised did they even notice their children had even returned home.

"Children!" Lady Like exclaimed.

"Mom, dad!" Tiff exclaimed as her brother asked. "are you guys all right?"

"Well we are now, son," Sir Ebrum said, now looking from the open window that Kirby had jumped onto and was looking out the window to watch the metroids fly away, to the bucket of ice his daughter still held. "How did get those tings to leave?"

"Ice," Lalala spoke up, hovering near Tiff to get a better look.

"Metroids are weak to it," the girl explained to her parents.

"How did you-"

"Samus told us," Tuff responded before his father could finish asking te question.

"Samus?" Lady Like said, now standing up. "Who is Samus?"

But Tiff was in a hurry and didn't give the others time to explain. "have you seen King Dedede?" she asked before the others could answer. "we need to talk to him. It's really important."

"I haven't seen him," Sir Ebrum replied. "Why? Do you think he has something to do with those strange creatures?"

Tiff nodded. "Who else cold be responsible?"

"Oh my," her father didn't look thrilled about that. Lady Like muttered under her breath. "I knew it."

"If I know King Dedede," Sir Ebrum said. "I would think he's probably in his throne room watching everything that is happening on his TVs. Maybe he's there?"

That made sense. "Come on, Tiff," Tuff said to her. "If he in his throne room then Samus will be there too and she's probably making him confess at this very moment."

Meta Knight and his companions didn't come across much trouble on their way to the castle. By then Samus had taken down most of the metroids hovering around the area. The star warrior was at first surprised and relieved by then but then he realized who was responsible for it and he could,'t stop himself from having mixed feelings about it, even though he knew he shouldn't be bothered by it.

It only served as a reminder that he was going to have to address the elephant in the room were still metroids in the area, like the one in the forest and only one person had the skills and firepower to create a permanent solution to it all, and that one person wasn't going to leave Popstar even after she took care of the aliens, until she finally got to talk of him.

"Meta Knight," Sword's voice brought the older star warrior out of his thoughts. he looked over at the young knight and his companion. "How many of those things do you think are out there?" sword questioned him, pointing at a sole wondering metroid whom Samus had missed on her way to the castle.

"I do not know," he admitted to him. "There could be very few or many. There could even be ones bigger than the one we encountered in the forest. All that I know is we ave to find the source of them being here and remove it before more show up and infest the entire planet of Popstar." He now turned is attention back to Dedede's castle. "Come, we must get to the castle because I am almost one hundred percent certain that is where we will get all of our answers."

The two knights nodded and then the trio crossed the remaining ground to the castle were they ran across the lowered drawbridge and onto the grounds. At one point a metroid flew at them which Meta Knight batted away with his sword. Given the fact that conventional weapons did very little damage to the beings it was pointless to try to take any out at that time, smacking them away was the best course of action right now, finding the king was. So far he was seeing no more metroids like the one in the forest, only the small jellyfish like ones.

Hopefully there wasn't a queen nearby... Hopefully the one they'd run into in the woods wouldn't become a queen. They had to act fast before enough time passed for one of them to become a queen.

As they crossed the garden and stepped into the dark halls of the caste it became apparent that the metroid problem wasn't just limited to the outside. More metroids floated up and down the corridors, some chasing after the random waddle Dee who were running faster than anyone thought possible. The three knights, though knowing they could not take out the metroids rushed forward to at least give the waddle dees a chance to escape unharmed and find a safe hiding place.

As they did so they nearly ran past the kids who were heading in the same direction as them only at a slower pace, though the warriors slowed down to keep in step with them.

"what are you doing out here," Meta Knight asked them. "it is far too dangerous for you to be running around like this."

"We're going to talk to King Dedede," Tiff explained to him, looking over at the star warrior who ran beside her. "we're going to find out if he's responsible for the monsters."

Though is mask hid his expression the knight's tone made it clear he did not approve of the children running around exposed to metroids. "Even if he is," he responded. "You should not be out ere. There are still many of these creatures flying around and any one of them could very easily attach themselves to you and drain your life." he swatted away a metroid that flew too close for comfort. "If one of them does there is no way to reverse it."

Tiff did not have a comeback for that statement because he knew she was aware of this fact herself, seeing as she and the other children had all been hanging out with the female bounty hunter all day. Speaking of the hunter, where was she at at the moment? He could only guess that she was off dealing with the metroids herself, after all she was the only person who had the equipment to take them out.

Either way neither Tiff or the rest of the children seemed to have any plans to turn around and go somewhere safe until the treat was over, he should not have expected anything else from them, especially from someone as stubborn as Tiff. Knowing this he and his cohorts Sword and Blade stayed close to the children, protecting them all as the group made their way to King Dedede's throne room.

Dedede told Samus Aran everything about why he bought the metroid, to teacher a lesson, to how it got loose to begin with, she sternly lectured him about playing such horrible pranks on people he considered friends, and by the time he was done she knew everything except for one last thing.

"Where is the queen?"

"The what?"

She frowned at him. "You said you only ordered one metroid," she reminded him. "and that one metroid got away and then the rest of these metroids showed up afterward. Obviously the one you bought became a queen and that is why there are so many of them outside and in the castle." she folded her arms. "that is the only way so many metroids have shown up in such a short amount of time."

"I don't know where no queen is!" the king insisted, knowing right away what she was implying. "Like I told ya, I haven't seen that metroid since it flew out da winda'!"

Darn! She should have known he wouldn't be able to give her that piece of vital though he and his snail escort had chased it into the forest it had scared them off when they'd found it. Who knew where that metroid was now? It could still be in the forest or it had found somewhere else to complete it's life cycle. She was going to have to find it herself and it wasn't going to be easy going on what little information she'd received.

"Where in the forest did you spot this metroid?" she demanded. Much as she loathed to do so she was going to have to return to the location and see if she could pick up on the creature's trail and track it from there. Hopefully the king of dreamland could show her exactly where that was.

"How should I know?" he exclaimed. "It came right at us, I didn't stay around long enough to pick up no landmarks."

"Well you're going to have to remember," Samus told him, grabbing the top of his head and easily lifting him up off the floor. "Because you're going to come with me and help me find it!"