Chapter 7:

Author's Note: Hi everyone, happy Pi Day (or belated Pi Day if you're reading this after 3/14)! Now, for any of you who didn't read the original, this is the equivalent of chapter 3 of that version. I've sure added a lot, huh? Anyway, enjoy!

Many light years away, there's a planet far different from the desolate one where the threadbare Nightmare Enterprises base was located. This planet was full of life, full of happiness, full of magical creatures and happenings. This odd, star-shaped planet is known simply as Planet Popstar. On this planet lie the peaceful southern kingdom of Dreamland, somewhat governed by its self-proclaimed ruler, King Dedede.

Dedede, a blue, robed, obese penguin-like creature, is a very self-centered soul; he often expected everyone to follow his orders, even though he never enforced them, just because he had the label of "king" (even though the inhabitants have since proven that he wasn't the rightful ruler of the kingdom). Whenever someone didn't follow his orders, he'd usually grow frustrated with them and often make them spend a brief period in his castle's dungeon, but if someone crossed him like this very often, he claimed to wish them dead, particularly the adorable hero of the planet, Kirby, although he never truly thought this, he just wanted things to go his way and way willing to extreme measures to get his way.

Including ordering demon beasts from Nightmare Enterprises.

For two years, the king ordered demon beasts to hunt down the young hero, and every single attempt to destroy him failed, much to the frustration of the king. His affairs eventually got so wrapped up in the business that Kirby fought Nightmare and greatly wounded him, which lead to the collapse of the "company" and his entire empire. Even after Nightmare's supposed death, King Dedede kept one last thing the company gave him: a seemingly insignificant flip-phone. However, to him it was a slight chance of defeating his archrival, and always kept in within reach in case it ever rang, and one day, it did indeed ring. That day was about a month after Nightmare's defeat, when he and the few who survived had just settled on the abandoned planet. As soon as he started to hear the device's irritatingly cheerful ringtone, he flipped it open to find the familiar face of Nightmare Enterprise's Customer Service employee (who had seemingly miraculously survived the explosion of Nihgtmare's previous base). The call way very brief, its sole purpose to inform Dedede that the company was expected to be running again in less than a year.

Six months later, the monarch sat on his throne, impatient, waiting for another call on the phone, a call that seemed to never come. It was all he did that day thus far, the country was experiencing quite pleasurable weather, as it usually did, and most people went outside to make the most of it.

Then, there was a ring.

He quickly flipped the phone open to see the familiar face of Customer Service, in an unfamiliar room. "Triple D! It's been a long while, hasn't it?" the man on the phone said.

"Sure has been," Dedede said. "Now where are my demon beasts?!"

…

Meanwhile, on Nightmare's desolate planet, the child lay fast asleep on her bed for the first time in weeks. Two days prior, Galacta deemed her training "suitable" for the mission that she was to be sent on and was allowed time to rest and for the last remaining wounds from the WolfWrath attack to heal. However, the scratches and bruises from her training had accumulated and caused her a lot of pain as well. One day, she had even lost consciousness from the combination of blood loss and lack of sleep. When she woke up, the vast majority of her cuts and wounds were properly treated and whatever wounds were already bandaged were replaced with clean ones.

There was still a great deal of mystery regarding her "mission". All she was told was that any day now, she'd be sent to some other planet to assassinate a certain Star Warrior that went by the name "Kirby" and kill whoever defended him, and that once he was dead she was to return to the base. This was all expected to occur in the time of a couple days at best, two weeks' time at worst. If she succeeded, she would be rewarded handsomely when the time was right, if she failed, there would be some form of punishment, depending on why she didn't kill the Star Warrior. If she didn't have the courage to kill him, the punishment would be more severe; if she encountered him in battle and she wasn't strong enough to defeat him, the punishment would be less severe. Nightmare also found out about the pain that the girl was feeling in her shoulders and gave her a very potent painkiller that wouldn't wear off for many weeks, long after her mission was expected to be over. She was told that if she experienced any more significant pain in the same area during her mission, she was to return immediately, despite whatever progress she made. Despite all of this on her mind, she was at least grateful that she was allowed to sleep and her exhaustion didn't allow her nerves to get in the way of that.

…

"What did he say?" Nightmare asked his company's customer service "employee".

"Well, he wasn't happy about the other option… even offered our service for free for a little bit, but he still said now or never." The other responded.

"Find some way to make him wait." Nightmare growled. Customer Service didn't dare protest, for he experienced firsthand what the consequences were for failing, and they were agonizing. However, he also knew that if he couldn't convince the customer into continuing to use their services, that the punishment that would be inflicted would be far more painful than what would be given if he couldn't get him to wait, and that it would result in a slow, undesirable death.

"And if he won't wait?" Customer Service asked with the straightest face he could muster despite his terror.

"Then we send her," his "employer" answered, "And you are punished."

Nothing was said in a few moments as Customer Service accepted the torture in his near future. "Alright then," he said, his voice noticeably quivering, "I guess I better back to talking with our customer then…"

"Yes, you should…"

…

In the king's throne room, the cell phone rang again, and Dedede immediately flipped it open. "What'd your boss say?!" he interrogated Customer Service.

"He said that… he could make some… exceptions…" Customer Service answered, with sweat on his forehead and his usual smirk noticeably quivering.

"All right!" Dedede cheered, rising from his throne and jumping around like a young child.

"But before we send it over," he interrupted, "are you sure there's no way you can change your mind, Triple D? I mean, the performance of our service would probably be better if you waited a fe-"

"Nope, no way; I've been waitin' long enough already!" the king cockily responded.

The salesman sighed in frustration, but still didn't dare wipe the smirk off his face. "Alright, let me try to explain this – have you ever had this really, really strict guy as your boss at a job (well, probably not considering you're a king) or, at least, in charge of something and something real bad would happen if you did things one w-"

"Sorry, man, can't relate," Dedede rudely and impatiently interrupted. "So when are you gonna send me a demon beast?"

"Er…" Customer Service's smirk almost came off his face completely for a few seconds. "In a few minutes! Just gotta get the teleporter revved up, we hadn't used it for months, you know…" The screen then turned dark.

"Oh boy!" the king mumbled in anticipation as he looked at the official Nightmare Enterprises teleporter before him, which he refused to let the citizens destroy again after he, Kirby, and company used it to escape the explosion.

…

A hard shove woke the sleeping girl up from her slumber. She opened her eyes to find Galacta standing beside her bed.

"Wake up, you," he commanded his pupil, placing her sword and a dagger she'd never seen before on her bed. "It's time to leave."

"Leave?" the child asked, trying her best to leave grogginess out of her voice. "To where?"

"Your mission"

Author's Note: All done! I know not much happened in this chapter, but things get real next time! See ya! :D