Meta Knight sat at a small table with 4 other warriors; Onyx (who offered to mentor him), Falspar, Dragato, and Vladimir. Vladimir/Vlad was basically a black-brown falcon with cargo pants and a bullet-proof vest.
"Um… Onyx?" Meta Knight asked meekly, staring at the female warrior
"What's up?"
"Did you know a warrior named Linus?"
"Yup, he was one of my best buds,"
"I thought I was one of your best buds!" Dragato said indignantly (out of character moment)
"Oh, be quiet, you know what I mean."
"Do you uh… know what happened to him?" Meta Knight twiddled his thumbs
Onyx's smile faded and sadness appeared in her eyes, "He took his chances up against one of Nightmare's more violent demon beasts. He paid with his life. Why do you ask?"
"He… he was my dad."
Everyone looked down and said nothing, as if taking a moment of silence for the death of their comrade.
"We're sorry," Vlad said in a gravely voice.
"I wanted to become a star warrior just like him," Meta Knight said, fighting back tears
"Well, it's not exactly like we're going to hand you a sword and put you on the front lines," Falspar contradicted, "but, Onyx will train you up a bit if you want."
"Yes! More than anything!" Meta Knight's eyes lit up with excitement
"Well, first, you need to learn the number 1 rule of being a star warrior…" Onyx started before Vlad mumbled under his breath, "Don't hit on the girl soldiers,"
This caused Dragato, Vlad, and Falspar to burst out in righteous laughter while Onyx's face reddened. Meta Knight let out a small snicker and Onyx turned to him. "It's not funny," she growled
"See? I was giving the kid important info for surviving!" Vlad chuckled as Meta Knight shied away from her.
She finally just decided to blow it off and enjoy a battle free day.
About an hour later, when everyone except Onyx and Meta Knight had things to attend to, Meta Knight asked, "Can we start training now? Please?"
"Sure, I'll take you. Come on." Onyx led Meta Knight down a metal plated hallway to a door that Onyx had to duck to step inside.
Inside the room were numerous objects. A punching bag with sand leaking onto the floor stood in a corner while a large pole with spikes jutting out of it stood in the middle of the room. One wall seemed to have adopted gashes that had split the metal to reveal blackened stones.
"Today I'll just teach you really basic swordplay." Onyx seemed to pull a wooden sword that was not unlike the ones he and Mezmer had been playing with yesterday.
"Ok, try to hit me." Onyx had also armed herself with a wooden sword and was standing completely open to him.
Meta Knight swung his sword and the warrior, who blocked and unarmed him in a second.
Meta Knight stared at her in amazement. "Whoa! How did you do that?"
Onyx snickered behind her hand. "Years of practice,"
She had Meta Knight attack her again and again, deflecting him each time. About the 5th time this happened, Meta Knight decided to try something. He ran at her, but instead of aiming at her stomach, he made a cheap shot at her legs. Onyx hopped out of the way and Meta knight's sword sliced through the air.
"Nice job," Onyx commented, "You almost had me."
"Thanks," Meta Knight huffed, he dropped the wooden sword, he was spent.
"Oh, don't tell me you're tired now!" Onyx exclaimed, "We only just started!"
Meta Knight looked up at her but said nothing.
"Here, you need to learn to pace yourself or else you'll wear yourself out before you get to do anything." Onyx walked over to him. "Ok, first thing is try to control your breathing don't breath too fast or else you'll become delirious."
Meta Knight instantly did as he was told. However, it was hard while he was still catching his breath.
"Also, don't attack head on, you'll just get blocked and you'll have to spend more of you're energy defeating that one opponent."
Just then, Sir Arthur appeared in the doorway. "Onyx, we need you to control the ship for a bit, Meta Knight's training will have to wait." Onyx nodded and followed Arthur, Meta Knight running to keep up with their pace.
When they entered the ships control room, it seemed if it was all one big window. No matter which direction you turned, you were staring out into space.
Onyx sat down in a swivel chair and spun behind a flashing panel. She typed rapidly on numerous buttons and turned to Arthur. "We are now heading for the planet Diad."
Sir Arthur nodded, "Good, do you know the approximate time we will be landing?"
More rapid typing, "Um… an educated guess would be tomorrow at the least. Let's hope they still have resources there. We can replenish."
Again Arthur nodded, "Very well. I can trust you to keep us on course?"
"You bet."
Sir Arthur left, Meta Knight trailing behind him. "Where's Diad?"
"It's a planet of thick jungle. I know of a few strongholds there but I am not sure if they have fallen at Nightmare's hands."
Meta Knight pondered what he had just heard. His home planet, Archaden, was mostly just grassy plains and a few circles of wooded area.
As Meta Knight left Arthur, he decided to explore a bit, see what the rest of the ship was like.
As the 6 year-old walked through the metallic hallways, he noticed they seemed to be devoid of life. They're probably all really busy. He thought, I wish I were old enough to do something. At that moment, he accidently walked into someone and was pushed to the floor.
He looked up to see a figure, clothed in black with a katana hanging by his side. A ninja.
"Excuse me sir," Meta Knight said meekly, inching out of the ninja's way. The ninja just stared with his cold black eyes. "Just stay out of my way boy," he snapped and continued walking.
Vlad came up from behind Meta Knight, "What's up with you?"
Meta Knight pointed to the ninja's back, "Who's that?"
"Him? Oh, that's just Yamikage. Don't pay him no mind, he's like that to everyone." Vlad clapped him hard on the back, causing the child to stumble forward.
"If you say so,"
Yay! I wanted to mention Yamikage in this story eventually so I did. Just for the reference, I'm going to say that in this story, Yamikage is probably like, mid 20/30's or something along those lines. I'm dedicating this chapter to all the people who R&R!
