Chapter 2
Kirby dashed through the grass as fast as he could, the looming object in the sky growing closer and closer. At first, it was merely a ball of light; as he drew closer, he could make out features on the item. The object was oblong and had a strange, angular design - definitely made by a creature of sorts and not natural. Kirby frowned, pushing himself to run even faster.
Sword and Blade ran out from the front door of the castle, the two wordlessly following the command of their leader. Above them circled Meta Knight, bat-like wings spread like a vulture, flying ahead yet coasting in circles so as not to outpace them too much. Instead, Meta Knight chose to use the warm air currents provided by the sun to effortlessly lift him higher, trying to get as good a view of the object as possible. It did not take long for the veteran to realize that the ship was going to be landing fairly close to Dedede's castle. He swooped downwards until he was within earshot of Sword and Blade.
"I'm going ahead."
Meta Knight slowed his pace just enough to shout to Sword and Blade before flapping his wings fiercely to gain speed and altitude. He flew off fast enough to cause the red plume on Blade Knight's helmet to blow forward wildly, leaving his comrades behind as he tried to catch up to the object before it inevitably crashed on the ground.
Shortly behind the two knights were Fumu and Bun, panting as they tried to keep up with them. They were not alerted by the sight of the object itself, but instead by watching Meta Knight, Sword, and Blade suddenly dash through the halls of the castle. The two children knew that whenever the three knights moved out at once that something was going on, but they also knew that if they traveled alongside the knights that they would just be told to turn back for their safety. For that reason they hung behind, following the knights far back enough that they wouldn't get their attention. It was not until they exited the castle's front gates that they saw the curious, comet-like object hurtling through the sky.
"That must be it, sis!" Bun exclaimed, pointing at the object.
"I see it..." Fumu replied, breathless from her running. "Come on, we're falling too far behind!"
Kirby reached the object first. He watched it loom closer and closer in the sky, very visibly a ship that was on fire from entering the super-heated atmosphere without slowing down properly. The ship screamed towards the ground, the streak of 'clouds' from a closer view becoming more visible as a smoke trail. The ship coasted lower and lower, disappearing out of view behind a tree-line. After a moment, off in the distance, a fiery black and orange plume rose in the sky. Kirby winced. Whatever was in that ship might not make it out alive anyway.
In time, Kirby reached the clearing where the ship had crashed. It had landed and skidded a great distance, causing a crater in Popstar's crust. The area was dim from smoke, causing the small creature to squint and cough. Despite the dim visibility, he recognized what little he could see of the ship. The curves, the distinctive points, the bright yellow color – it was just like the one he arrived in! Taken aback, Kirby began to approach the ship slowly with his jaw dropped.
The small, yellow ship was visibly damaged, its round transparent window cracked from impact. Inside, a small lump was visible. Kirby, assuming that the star-shaped ship's controls were similar to his own, hopped up to the ship and tried to hit the switch of the broken ship's dome-shaped window which doubled as its entry and exit point. The window shuddered and halfway opened, paused in the middle of its retraction by its own damage and causing glass and debris to rain on the occupant inside.
"Poyo!" Kirby exclaimed in frustration.
He hopped up on the ship's front hood again, leaning into the wreckage. Who or whatever the occupant was, it was covered in armor, which would at least have protected it from the glass shower it just endured. However, it was unresponsive. Was it dead? Kirby leaned in further, reaching an arm out tentatively, before a shard of glass poked him and caused him to yank his arm back.
"Poy!" Kirby cried, yanking back his arm and rubbing it tenderly. He couldn't get in there without help. Just as he turned to run to the castle, his sharp eyes caught sight of a blue winged form in the distance. At first, it looked like a giant bat. However, Kirby knew that there was only one creature around Dreamland with bat-like wings that flew in the daytime.
Meta Knight's acrobatic wings cut through the air, his blue form hurtling towards the site as fast as he could. From his viewpoint in the air, he could clearly see that the object had already crashed. As he drew closer, he saw a tiny pink sphere moving around it.
"So Kirby has seen it, too" Meta Knight thought. "Good..."
Meta Knight slowed his rate of speed to prepare for descent, wings tucking inwards and his body angled upright to drop his altitude. He beat his wings in the opposite direction several times to slow his descent further and dropped the last few feet, his wings going limp and reforming into a cape just as the armored knight touched the ground. He put out his gloved arms to brace himself and straightened up, running the remaining distance to Kirby and the doomed ship.
"Kirby" Meta Knight greeted him in his usual cold, terse way, dipping his head to the pink creature politely. "Are you alright?"
"Poyoyii!" Kirby replied, waving both of his arms in the air enthusiastically. He then pointed towards the ship, gesticulating with one arm while the other waved wildly. Kirby frowned, visibly upset, and anxiously hopped from one foot to the other as he spoke. "Poyo, poyo poi, poyoyo..."
Meta Knight raised a hidden brow. "Uh..."
The stoic veteran was not sure how long it would take the young boy to learn how to talk, but he really wished that the time would come. His yellow eyes drifted in the direction of Kirby's pointing and he saw the half-opened, damaged door and the small, armored form inside, golden armor glinting from the sun.
"That's not good" Meta Knight commented.
Meta Knight proceeded to creep towards the ship, his manner slow and deliberate, one arm poised to unsheathe Galaxia at a moment's notice. He felt compelled to rescue the being inside, or if worse came to worst, give it a proper burial, because it arrived in a similar ship to the one Kirby had arrived in. That was at least a clue that the ship's sole occupant was probably friendly. However, he trusted nothing that crash landed in Dreamland.
The knight eventually reached the ship and crawled onto the front hood, where Kirby had been standing before. Because his arms were protected by white gloves and silver gauntlets, the Star Warrior was able to bypass the glass and reach inside. From his view into the wreckage, he could more easily identify the doomed ship's pilot. Lying in the cockpit was a small, round creature, undoubtedly a member of his and Kirby's species. It was covered in pale gold armor with a three-pointed design on the helm, and what little skin he could see of it appeared to be white. In one hand it held a spear; in the other, a large round buckler emblazoned with a star and wing design. Seeing the fallen warrior up close caused the veteran to breathe a sigh of relief. This was no enemy.
"Kirby...it's another Star Warrior." He tore his gaze away from the sight to glance at Kirby, who noted that Meta Knight's eyes began to glow green.
"Poyo poy?" Kirby asked.
"Is it dead? I don't know" Meta Knight replied absentmindedly, blinking in surprise as he realized he somehow understood through context what Kirby's poyo-babble was trying to communicate.
Meta Knight began to carefully clear the glass away from the damaged window's entrance, making sure that when they did extricate the Star Warrior that they would not do more harm than good by cutting it up in glass. As he did so, Sword and Blade arrived at the scene.
"Sir Meta Knight. Kirby" Blade greeted them, Sword nodding behind him.
"Is that...a ship like Kirby's?" Sword questioned.
"Indeed, it is" Meta Knight replied. "And it looks like there is a Star Warrior inside."
His glowing yellow eyes rested on the two men.
"We need your help getting this Star Warrior out. We don't even know if they are alive or not... but if not, they at least deserve a proper burial."
"Agreed, Sir" Blade replied with a nod, walking over to and hopping up on the ship's hood next to Meta Knight.
The three armored men began to slowly, gently extricate the downed Star Warrior from the wreckage, Sword prying one half of the damaged window as far back as possible while the other two reached into the ship and pulled the limp body out. Once removed, Blade and Meta Knight turned the body around and, together with Kirby, lifted it from the ship and onto the nearby grass.
Fumu and Bun ran into the group as they were in the middle of lifting the creature and said nothing, eyes wide and mouth open.
"Kirby's ship?!" Fumu asked, after a few stunned seconds.
"No, but one just like it" Sword replied.
As the limp body laid on the grass, everyone gathered around it.
"Careful, guys" Blade said, holding his gloved hand up. "Who knows what internal injuries this warrior has. One wrong move and we could make it worse!"
Meta Knight examined the creature, able to get a full view of it now. There was now no doubt that it was both a Star Warrior and a member of his species. It was fully covered in armor that was pale gold in color with darker gold trim, the front of the armor similarly shaped to Sir Arthur's but with no plume. A narrow V-shaped opening for the eyes, similar to Meta Knight's own mask, concealed the face of the armor's owner, and on the top center of the helm was a dark gold three-pointed design like that of a kite shield. Two small white metal wings were affixed to each side of the creature's helm, similar to the wings seen on Cutter Kirby's hat. On the creature's back grew two large, white feathered wings, not unlike the wings of Galacta Knight. Fumu rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she looked over Meta Knight's shoulder. The shield, the wings...it reminded her of Valkyries.
The masked knight moved forward, resting his gloved hand on the wrist of the body.
"There's a pulse..." Meta Knight stated after a few tense seconds. He rose and turned to face the group, cape wrapped around him.
"We should try to get this Star Warrior back to the castle and give them medical aid. They're alive."
"Of course, Sir. But what about King Dedede?" Fumu asked, putting a knuckle to her mouth anxiously. Every person present knew what the King's reaction would be to most non-native visitors, and the fact that this was a member of Kirby's species could make that reaction even worse.
"Sword and Blade's room" Meta Knight responded. The two warriors nodded in agreement. "Their quarters are the farthest possible from the King's room. We can't keep it a secret for long, but for at least a little while...worst case scenario, we can at least tend to their wounds before the king kicks them out."
"Good thinking" Fumu replied. "Now for the next question...how are we going to get a heavily armored warrior all the way back to the castle from here?"
They all remained quiet for a few seconds. After a moment, Bun snapped his fingers.
"If this warrior is like you and Kirby, then their body should be really light, right? Just take off all of the armor!"
The other knights all paused. They looked at each other awkwardly.
"Bun's right", Fumu chimed in. "I, uhh...I get that you guys don't like the idea of running around unarmored, but this could be a life or death matter here. It's going to have to go if we administer medical care anyway."
"She does have a point" Blade mused.
"Fine", Meta Knight said. "Remove their armor, and we'll just carry it separately with us. But be very, very careful. We don't know what the warrior's injuries are, and removing the armor might make them worse. It would be better if we could transfer them as is, but it seems like we have no choice..."
The three began to gather around the body and gently remove its gear. Kirby hopped in to help, but Fumu grabbed him before he could get close. "We really appreciate your help, Kirby, but this requires a more delicate touch. Let's let these guys do it. They know their armor."
"Po-yo..." Kirby replied, entire body inflating slightly as he breathed deeply to let out an audible sigh.
The three knights began to gently remove the armor of their fellow Star Warrior, piece by piece. One gloved hand came off, then another, revealing white arm-tips similar to those of Kirby and Meta Knight. With no small effort they removed the parts comprised of its helmet and breastplate.
As the armor was lifted off, the three crowded in to see the face of the warrior. The eyes were shaped very slightly different from himself and Kirby's and bore prominent eyelashes. Sword gasped, and Meta Knight's eyes flashed briefly.
"Huh. Female" Meta Knight mused, eyes again tinting a light green.
They continued their work, the most time and care being needed when they removed the back of her armor from around her white wings. In time the young female, looking nearly identical to Kirby or Meta Knight without his armor, lied on the grass in nothing but her golden sabatons.
"I'm glad to see that she is okay...no wounds. All of that armor must have protected her in the crash" Blade noted. "Still...it doesn't seem right to just take it all off. Even if it's for a good cause."
"Yeah", Sword replied, "Especially since-"
"Focus, you two" Meta Knight interjected sternly. "That doesn't matter. None of that armor would do her any good if she died."
His own feelings, mostly consisting of growing embarrassment, were concealed both through his mask and his voice. It felt as wrong to him as it did the other two, particularly because they were all male, but they had a job to do and needed to focus on keeping her alive.
Meta Knight pointed to Blade. "You. Carry her armor. You" he said, pointing to Sword "carry her weapons."
Meta Knight squatted down over the downed Star Warrior, tentatively gripping her by the arms and slowly lifting her body. "I'll take her since she can be brought to the castle more quickly by flight."
"Yes, Sir" Sword and Blade replied in unison.
Fumu and Bun watched, fascinated, as the knights began to move out. Sword and Blade carried the warrior's armor and weaponry, picking them up and proceeding towards the castle. Meta Knight carefully lifted the limp body in his arms, grunting with effort. Though she was light, he was as well, and she still weighed as much as a fully-grown adult of his kind. He wondered briefly if he should just let Kirby carry her instead; but if Kirby were to, she could only be held above Kirby's body as he madly dashed through the countryside. Not only would that be an awfully bumpy ride for an injured body, but Kirby couldn't possibly fly her there because his method of flight required his own arms to flap and steer.
Meta Knight gripped the body as well as he could and took off, needing a generous running start before he shakily hoisted both his body and her own into the sky. He didn't know which made him more uncomfortable; that he was trying to fly while carrying a creature who neared his own size and body weight, or that he was carrying an unarmored, unclothed female stranger. He cast such thoughts aside, reasoning that it could be worse; the group could have been instead spent their afternoon burying a corpse.