Months passed since the death of grandpa Lumu. Memu grieved the hardest, having lost her father whom she was very close to. Fumu and Bun grieved in their own different ways; Fumu withdrew further, sequestering herself in a world of books to avoid the pain of the outside world. The usually boisterous and energetic Bun grew silent, mumbling and drawing circles in the sand with a stick instead of playing with his friends. Kirby noticed the change in his two friends and felt deeply distressed; though he was older than when Nightmare's demon beasts plagued the land, he was still too young to fully process the finality of death.
Months passed, and summer faded into autumn. Though the change was less obvious in the tropical climate of Dreamland, a faint chill could still be felt in the air. The graveyard where grandpa Lumu and other respected members of Pupu Village laid remained undisturbed, save for the diligent groundskeeper raking away stray leaves.
Night fell across Dreamland. Meta Knight curled up in his blanket, resting peacefully even with his armor on. His eyes were dimmed out entirely within the mask, gloved hands draped limply over his blanket. A tiny light appeared in the darkness of his window. A single, glowing eye popped open. Ever alert, Meta Knight was such a light sleeper that the slightest change to his environment would wake him up. The eerie light was bright enough to bother him. He rolled over in bed to silently glance at it further, yellow eyes fixed on the odd pinpoint of light that shone through his window.
"That's no moon..." Meta Knight thought to himself as he stared. "No star, either..."
Meta Knight suddenly sat up as he clutched his blanket, heart leaping to his throat. That was the light of a ship.
A large, triangular ship hovered over the Pupu Village graveyard. With a soft hiss it landed close by to the headstones, landing gear extending to allow the state-of-the-art vessel to make a remarkably quiet and precise landing. The silver ship's doors slid open; a round, red-skinned figure stood in its doorway.
"At last..." A deep, smooth baritone voice uttered. "After eons of searching, I have finally found it."
Green pinpoint eyes glowed from behind a skull-shaped mask that looked much like that of an Ax Knight. Decorative white triangular spaulders, shaped vaguely like folded wings, augmented the figure. On his back grew two long wings, broad and square in shape like that of a vulture's. In one hand he held a single staff, carved of bone.
"The Capiwa doll is here, somewhere in this little village. I may have to tear apart every single building to find it, but it's here. Damnable Cappies. How could such a weak and worthless species infest more planets than just Popstar? They're all over Floria...I should have checked this backwater planet sooner."
The armor-clad figure stepped down the ramp to exit his ship. Upon his leaving, the ship disappeared from view with a wavy, mirage-like ripple as it shut off its lights and activated its cloaking mechanism. The winged creature strode through the graveyard, running a fingerless gloved hand over the evenly-spaced, dusty tombstones as he walked.
"The Capiwa doll is the key to obtaining what I really need...the Necromantic Orb. Only the Capiwa's spirit-warding powers can protect me from..."
The warrior stopped, looking downwards at his own hand. He slipped one glove off, revealing a rounded, fingerless arm much like Kirby's. The arm, however, looked vastly different. It was withered, atrophied, necrotic, skin sagging lifelessly over the remnants of the flimsy cartilage arm "bone" his species had as a limb structure. It looked as if he had suffered a terrible disease; as if a part of his body had died. With a growl the skull-masked figure slipped his glove back on, flexing his damaged palm.
"It will protect me from the Orb itself."
The creature's glowing green eyes dimmed behind his mask as he closed them, remembering what happened. The moment he thought his magic powerful enough to defy the Orb's protection, the moment he ignored the warnings legends had of the Orb stealing the life-force of anyone fool enough to touch it. His withered, nearly useless hand was the result of touching it for a split second; if it wasn't for his quick reflexes, the Orb would have rapidly sucked away his entire life-force and killed him. He needed protection in the form of a powerful spirit ward. This particular Capiwa doll was fabled as the strongest ward in the galaxy, though despite the object changing hands many times over the years, no one had figured out how to unlock its power. The knowledge of how to create such powerful magic artifacts had been lost to the Cappies for centuries, and the Capiwa's past owners figured that the odd clay figurine was merely an object shrouded in myth, a curiosity.
He grinned at the thought of their ignorance, how freely the Cappies passed on such a powerful relic. Of course they could not unlock its true power. They were not necromancers.
The armor-clad figure lifted his bone staff upwards with his good arm and waved it in the air, performing an incantation. His eyes glowed brighter as the staff began to radiate a blue energy.
"Rise...rise, and find me the Capiwa!"
At once, the graveyard's headstones began to shift and rattle. The dirt began to move. A repeated dull banging was heard from the buried coffins before the doors were ripped apart by corpses, newly possessed by unnatural strength. One by one the bodies of the graveyard rose from their resting places, each in various states of decay. Body after body rose, one raining maggots as it pushed itself out of its grave by the forearms. The shambling corpses rattled to life, the stench of death filling the air.
The staff-wielding warrior watched with glee, eyes shining blue with joy. He knew that the Capiwa doll was here due to his ship's readings, but he was unsure of its exact location. The fragmented memories of the villagers, all of whom had some form of recollection, would serve him well as they carried out his unholy request. If any of the bodies had seen the Capiwa in their lives, they would be able to lead him to the same location in undeath.
A number of bodies shifted, contorting in unnatural angles as they began to head Northeast towards the Pupu Village Museum.
"They know...they know!" the masked creature crowed triumphantly. He spread his black, vulture-like wings and took off, soaring above them as he kept an eye on his risen tools to see where they were headed.
Meta Knight looked out the window of his room, eyes darting back and forth. He noticed that the light had begun to blink and set lower; he knew from many years in the Galaxy Soldier Army that the lighting had the unmistakable pattern of a landing ship. He quickly darted out of his room, rousing Sword and Blade and explaining the situation to them. After a moment's hesitation, he chose to awaken Fumu as well. Meta Knight knew that although she was no warrior, her intelligence would be equally valuable in finding out what was going on. Bun followed his sister as the four dashed out of the castle.
"If it really is a ship, who knows what will come out of it? We have to get Kirby!" Fumu exclaimed as they stepped outside of the castle's doors.
Meta Knight nodded in agreement. "Sword. Blade. Follow Fumu and Bun as they fetch Kirby, then meet me by where that strange light is coming from."
Without another word Meta Knight crouched low on the ground, jumping into the air as his cape rippled and spread apart into two draconic wings. His light body lifted off easily, dark form arcing in the air and quickly becoming invisible in the night sky.
"Yes, Sir!" Sword and Blade said in unison. They turned to the two siblings, who proceeded towards Kirby's house.
The four made it to Kirby's house as quickly as possible, panting from the effort. Sword charged forward and kicked the door open. A yellow blur shot out the window, squawking in protest. Tokkori wheeled around to glare at the others angrily.
"What in Dynablade's name are you doing?! Don't you know what time it is? That is so rude of-"
"No time" Blade interrupted briskly. "Need Kirby."
Tokkori landed on a branch in the tree that grew next to the home, cheeks red with rage beneath his yellow feathers. A moment later a sleepy pink creature stood in the doorway, rubbing his eye with one hand and holding a star-patterned blanket in the other.
"Sword? Blade?" Kirby murmured, words slurred with sleepiness as his blue eyes swept across the group.
"Kirby, wake up!" Fumu cried. "We need you right away! Some kind of ship has landed close to the village."
Kirby's gaze immediately hardened, snapping to attention.
"Warp Star!" Kirby called into the night sky.
Fumu couldn't help but smile to herself as she watched Kirby call for Warp Star himself. Although still very young and with a limited vocabulary, he was far more independent than when he first landed in their little village. He was able to call upon Warp Star himself, speak the names of his friends, and communicate simple ideas – roughly the equivalent vocabulary of Fumu's own species when they were age 3 or 4.
Within seconds Warp Star arrived, answering the call of its master. It blew through the tree Kirby sometimes nested in, causing Tokkori to take to the air again in fear, before the star hovered obediently by the feet of Kirby. Kirby hopped on and looked at the others, brows furrowed in determination, as he gave them a quick wave of his arm to indicate that they should join him. Sword, Blade, Fumu and Bun crawled onto the Star. After he was sure his passengers were secure Kirby took off, pushing his vehicle as quickly as it could go without knocking all of his friends off from the momentum.
Tokkori watched them go, Warp Star rocketing into the sky until it was nothing but a tiny dot. He cursed three different ways under his breath as he hopped to the ground, walking back into Kirby's house.
"Troublemakers! Good riddance." the bird huffed, slamming Kirby's door behind him.
Kirby squinted into the night sky; no sooner had Warp Star gained enough altitude to leave the meadow's treeline did he see the odd light the others were concerned about. As he sped towards the source of the light, however, it suddenly winked out. Kirby's pace on Warp Star slowed nearly to a stop as he looked around, puzzled.
"It's gone!" Blade cried.
"This is getting weirder and weirder" Bun commented.
"Kirby" Fumu said, "Keep heading towards where the light was. We need to make sure Sir Meta Knight's okay."
Kirby blinked. "Sir Meta Knight!" he cried, Warp Star responding to his will and resuming its quick pace towards where the light came from.
Meta Knight landed a short distance away from the light, choosing his landing place carefully so that he could sneak up to the light source without giving away his position. He watched the light suddenly wink out of view while he crept forward, wrapped up in his cape. He paused, looking up silently. His yellow eyes narrowed as he scanned the night sky; there was no ship to be found. Either it had departed for space, or it had utilized a cloaking mechanism to hide itself. Meta Knight continued to advance towards where the light once was last seen.
Meta Knight stopped suddenly, withdrawing his radiant sword Galaxia as a bright light hurtled towards him from the sky at a rapid speed; he relaxed and sheathed his weapon as he recognized the shape of the object as Warp Star. Kirby and his friends landed nearby to Meta Knight, Kirby tumbling off the vehicle before anyone else as he ran up to the older Star Warrior.
"Sir Meta Knight!" Kirby cried, jumping for joy in relief to see that he was okay.
"Kirby." Meta Knight addressed him, dipping his head in a terse nod. He then turned to face the others, who were still climbing off of Warp Star.
"The light's gone..."
Fumu nodded. "We noticed, Sir. We should still head to where it was, I think, and see if anything is different there."
Meta Knight nodded. He fell into step behind Kirby and Fumu, who walked towards where they believed the light source was. It was not long before they realized they were heading towards Pupu Village's sole graveyard. The hair on Bun's neck stood up as he grimaced.
"The graveyard? Oh no" Bun moaned.
Fumu said nothing, but nodded her head in grim agreement. As they approached the graveyard, a horrible smell hit them. One by one they paused in their tracks, shaking the heads and covering their noses.
"Ugh! What IS that?!" Fumu cried.
"Nooo" Kirby whimpered, a hand covering the space between his eyes and mouth.
Meta Knight's head lifted at the scent as his eyes began to take on a green tinge. "Death."
Bun held his breath as they trudged on, his pace slowing as he felt a growing fear claw at him. He let his breath go instinctively to yell, pointing at the ground with a single quivering finger.
"T-t-the graves! They're empty!"
Meta Knight stooped down, Sword and Blade doing so by nearby headstones, to examine what Bun was talking about. Every single grave in the yard had been disturbed somehow, many leaving upturned dirt and roots with shallow pits. Maggots and other insects wormed their way through the soil.
Meta Knight's eyes glowed an even brighter green as he examined the disturbed graves. He rose slowly, eyes again trained towards the sky. Seeing nothing, he looked back down and faced the others.
"Something is seriously wrong" Meta Knight remarked.
"This is unbelievable. No way." Bun rambled fearfully.
"I'm leaning towards an elaborate prank. Dead bodies don't just hop out of the soil and go for a walk" Fumu stated, hands on her hips as she tried to hide her failing confidence.
"Even the biggest prankster on the planet wouldn't be crazy enough to dig up a bunch of dead bodies...would they?" Sword asked. Blade put a hand behind his helmeted head, rubbing his neck as he looked around at the scene in confusion.
Meta Knight's eyes darted back and forth, surveying the group.
"We should conduct a canvass of the local area." Meta Knight stated, deep voice level despite the disturbing scene before them. "Let's split up into two groups. Sword. Blade. Follow me – we can check the perimeter of the graveyard. Kirby, you go with Fumu and Bun into the village."
Fumu put her hands on her elbows, shivering in fear. She didn't like the idea of splitting up, and it was plain from Bun's grimace that neither did he. However, she knew that with Kirby on their side the two would be as safe as possible.
Kirby nodded silently, still clearly put off by the awful sickly-sweet smell that hung over them. He, Fumu and Bun turned to walk the short distance down the hill to where Pupu Village began. After watching them leave, Meta Knight, Sword and Blade walked in the opposite direction and quickly disappeared into the moonless night.